In this bulletin:

• Afghan Government Seeks Pakistan's Help In Finding Militant - AFP
• Afghan Official: Kabul Government Has Presence in 95 Percent of Country
• 2 NATO Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan: Mobile-Phone Towers Are Taliban's New Target
• Taliban's Shifting Tactics Define Afghanistan Conflict
• Thousands bid farewell to 79th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan
• Vote on Afghanistan motion set for March 13
• Afghan Parliamentary Delegation Visits Canada
• Canada learning hard lessons in aid to Afghanistan: senior aid official
• Top US Officer Meets Pakistan Army Chief
• US Uneasy About Political Developments in Pakistan
• U.S. Military Offers Pakistan Help in Fight Against Al-Qaeda
• 28 Al-Qaeda Militants Arrested in Kingdom
• Al-Qaida releases video showing corpse of its slain Afghan strategist
• A Surge To Help Afghanistan
• Iran to expel illegal Afghan refugees
• RECA for Afghanistan in Islamabad put off
• PLANS CALL AFGHANISTAN MANDATE INTO QUESTION
• Anti-Koran Dutch film could harm troops in Afghanistan, warns Nato secretary
• Women of Afghanistan Unite for Peace on March 8
• Afghan council wants soap operas off TV

  Afghan Government Seeks Pakistan's Help In Finding Militant - AFP

KABUL (AFP) 3 March 2008--Investigations into a January attack that killed eight people at Kabul's top luxury hotel are deadlocked with the mastermind traced to Pakistan, Afghanistan's intelligence chief said Monday.

The Afghan National Directorate of Security has appealed for help from Pakistan to find the militant, who is from the extremist Taliban movement, NDS chief Amrullah Saleh told reporters.

The attack - one of the most sophisticated of an insurgency by the Taliban movement, which was in government between 1996 and 2001 - left three foreign nationals and five Afghans dead, and several more people wounded.

Saleh said that all members of the "terrorist group" involved in the attack who were inside Afghanistan had been arrested.

"Our further investigations have come to a deadlock now since the man who planned the attack is in Pakistan," he said.

"We have given his (telephone) number and latest calls to Pakistani authorities and we hope they act on them. So far we have not heard from them," Saleh said.

The intelligence chief announced soon after the strike that four men were picked up for links to the blast, including one who was meant to carry out a suicide bombing inside the grounds of the five-star Kabul Serena but did not.

The attackers were disguised as policemen and stormed the compound, throwing out hand grenades and spraying bullets. There were also two suicide blasts.

Taliban militants claimed responsibility for the attack, one of the most brazen assaults on foreign civilians in the capital since a U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime in 2001.

The rebel group warned it would also strike restaurants popular with Westerners. Most have redoubled security and many are now no-go areas for foreign nationals.

Saleh said the man who funded the attack was in a third country, which he did not identify.

Afghanistan officials have repeatedly accused Islamabad of not cooperating in efforts to round up Taliban on Pakistan soil. Pakistan says it is doing what it can and has picked up some top militants.

Saleh said a man involved in a November suicide attack that killed nearly 80 people in the northern province of Baghlan was also believed to be in Pakistan.

The deadliest militant attack in post-Taliban Afghanistan killed more than 100 people at a dog-fighting match near the southern city of Kandahar mid-February.

Saleh said investigations showed some of the dead were shot by guards and not killed by the bomb. He could not give a breakdown.

Afghan Official: Kabul Government Has Presence in 95 Percent of Country

By Barry Newhouse , Islamabad 03 March 2008

Afghanistan's top intelligence officer is rejecting a U.S. estimate that only 30 percent of the country is under the control of the central government in Kabul. VOA's Barry Newhouse reports from Islamabad that Amrullah Saleh suggested U.S. officials misunderstand Afghanistan's traditional governing system using local tribes.

Last week, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said most of Afghanistan is controlled by local tribes, about 10 percent is controlled by Taliban fighters and less than one third of the territory is controlled by President Hamid Karzai's government.

On Monday in Kabul, Afghanistan's intelligence chief dismissed the claim. He said the percentage in that statement was totally baseless.

Amrulleh Saleh said that eight of the country's 364 districts, which account for about five percent of the land and two percent of Afghanistan's population, are outside central government control.

During a news conference in Kabul, he blamed the widely divergent estimates on U.S. officials misunderstanding how Afghanistan's traditional tribal governing system functions.

"While in America, an administration fully backed by tribal chiefs or dominated by tribal chiefs may be seen as a liability," said Saleh. "But here we see it as a very strong asset."

But there are questions about how loyal these local tribal leaders are to carrying out the agenda of the Karzai government.

London-based Paul Burton is a policy analyst with the Senlis Council, a research organization studying drug and security issues in Afghanistan. He says the loyalty of local tribal leaders to the central government depends in a large part on Kabul's ability to deliver benefits to them.

In southern Afghanistan, Burton says the central government struggles to provide even basic services.

"We document, on a regular basis, an appalling lack of aid going to core infrastructure such as hospitals - in Kandahar for example," he said. "So within that context I think it is impossible for local tribal leaders to feel a great degree of warmth toward the center when they are seeing their people ravished and impoverished."

Burton says the security situation in parts of the country has severely impeded efforts to develop government infrastructure.

Last year Afghanistan experienced the most intense fighting since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. News agencies have estimated that more than 6,000 people, most of whom were militants, were killed in the fighting in 2007.

Burton says there is evidence that some families are simultaneously backing Taliban and Afghan army (ANA) and police forces (ANP), merely because they are unsure who will prevail in the struggle for control.

"We have evidence to suggest that people are putting one fund into the Taliban and another fund into the ANA and another into the ANP," he said. "They are hedging their bets - they are seeing which side is going to win - purely driven from a sense of desperation."

One important indicator of the strength of the U.S.-backed Karzai government has been its ability, or inability, to curb opium-poppy cultivation. This week, the U.S. State Department reported that narcotics production in the country hit historic highs in 2007 for the second straight year.

U.S. analysts said the estimated $4 billion in illicit opium accounted for more than a third of Afghanistan's gross domestic product.

2 NATO Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan

By FISNIK ABRASHI – KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide attack on a government office guarded by Afghan and NATO troops in eastern Afghanistan left two alliance soldiers dead and four more wounded, a U.S. military spokesman said Tuesday.

The bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into the gates of the building in the Yaqoubi district of Khost province on Monday, causing a guard post to collapse and trapping soldiers inside, officials said.

Sgt. 1st Class Brian Lamar, a U.S. military spokesman, said two NATO soldiers were killed and four others wounded in the attack. Lamar would not disclose the soldiers' nationalities. The majority of international forces in Khost province are American.

The explosion also killed two Afghan civilians and wounded three Afghan policemen, said provincial police chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub.

The attack happened at an Afghan government building inside a compound that also houses a unit of U.S. soldiers. Militants regularly use suicide and roadside attacks in their fight against Afghan and foreign troops in the country.

Last year was the deadliest in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. More than 6,500 people — mostly militants — were killed in insurgency-related violence, according to an Associated Press count.

Afghanistan: Mobile-Phone Towers Are Taliban's New Target

RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty, Czech Republic, Monday, March 3, 2008

Local officials in Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province said gunmen destroyed a mobile-phone tower in the Sangin district on March 2.

It follows two attacks on telecommunication towers in neighboring Kandahar Province on February 29 and March 1 after a Taliban demand that all telephone signals be turned off during the evening and overnight.

Taliban militants ordered mobile-phone operators last week to switch off their networks from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. each day. The insurgents say U.S. and NATO forces track the Taliban through their phone signals and then launch attacks on their hiding places.

Many military operations against Taliban leaders have been conducted by the U.S.-led forces at night. But many Afghans, including politicians, dismiss the Taliban's justification for attacking the mobile phone sector as "meaningless."

Legislator Shurkiya Barekzai says that by attacking the towers the Taliban wants to damage Afghanistan's economy. She says the Taliban claims that coalition and Afghan forces tracking their forces via mobile signals "does not make any sense."

"I don't think [tracking the militants via signals] is the main reason, because if Afghan and international forces want to attack they could attack during the day, too," Barekzai says. "But we should remember that these mobile networks are crucially important for ordinary Afghans. People need and use them."

The mobile towers that came under attack belonged to the Roshan and Areeba companies.

As almost the only means of communications in Afghanistan, cell phones have become increasingly popular all over the country. They were widely introduced in Afghanistan after the Western-backed government took power following the defeating of the Taliban in 2001.

The telecommunications industry is considered one of the fastest-growing and most profitable sectors of the Afghan economy. Four main telecom operators provide coverage to even the most remote corners of Afghanistan.

Destruction of the telecommunication towers will affect thousands of phone users in southern Afghanistan, including the Taliban fighters themselves, who rely on mobile phones for communications.

But communications experts say the demolition of the towers will not have a significant impact on the U.S.-led military forces, since they can use satellites and other means to pick up phone signals without depending on the phone companies.

Mobile users in Kandahar's many districts have complained that they did not have phone signals over the past two days.

Barekzai tells RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that depriving people of their principal means of communication would only further alienate the militants from the general Afghan population.

Many regions in Afghanistan do not even have access to regular mail service, landline phones, or the Internet, and therefore almost entirely depend on cell phones to communicate.

Police sources in Kandahar Province said security was tightened near the mobile towers after the Taliban attacks. Some influential local tribal leaders have also offered to help protect such areas.

Abdul Ahad-Khan Masum, a tribal leader in Kandahar's Kajaki district, where a mobile tower was torched by militants, says that his people can protect the towers "if we are given the authority.

But he adds that "during the past 30 years, different powers have only been playing with the tribal leaders -- instead of benefiting from our influence. If the government and relevant authorities give us a chance, I think this issue [of protecting the mobile towers] would be solved, too."

It is not the first time the Taliban has challenged cell-phone companies in Afghanistan. In the past, the militants have accused mobile-phone operators of closely cooperating with U.S. and NATO troops. However, they did not carry out any of their threats until now.

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Norias Nori contributed to this report

Taliban's Shifting Tactics Define Afghanistan Conflict

NPR, by Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, Morning Edition, March 4, 2008

Audio for this story will be available at approx. 9:00 a.m. ET

Second of a five-part series. The war in Afghanistan is as much about perception as it is about conflict. Last year, more people died in terrorist-related violence than at any time since the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. Yet U.S., NATO and Afghan troops have made large swaths of the country safer than they've been in years.

Still, a growing number of Afghans fear that the insurgents — not their government or the NATO-led coalition — will ultimately win.

Barreling along in an armored SUV in the southern province of Kandahar, Gov. Asadullah Khalid describes how security here is better than it's ever been.

Never mind that he narrowly escaped death the week before when his heavily armed convoy hit a roadside bomb. There was a second attack just days later.

"[The] situation is getting better day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute," Khalid says. "Last year, we had daily suicide attacks or explosions in the city but, thank God, now three or four months we don't have one suicide attack."

The following morning, that record was broken. A suspected Taliban suicide bomber killed more than 100 people at a crowded dog fight in Kandahar city. It was the deadliest such bombing in Afghanistan's troubled history.

This is how the war looks in Afghanistan these days. There are fewer battles, yet it's far bloodier in the country than at any time since 2001.

"Today we are seeing an insurgency that is making about half the country largely off limits to foreign development and government outreach," says Joanna Nathan, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Nathan says that doesn't mean Taliban fighters or other militants are controlling those areas. Instead, insurgents are taking advantage of Afghanistan's weaknesses — like a government that, by U.S. intelligence estimates, controls no more than one third of the country.

And in areas it does control, the government provides little in the way of basic services, like electricity. There's staggering unemployment. And little law and order, given a fledgling national police force that is widely seen as inept and corrupt.

At the same time, there is public debate in Western capitals over how long their troops should stay here.

'Insurgents Have Time' - Nathan says that and the chaos are fertile ground for the Taliban, which has discovered that it's easier to paralyze the nation with bombs than to fight Western and Afghan troops.

"There's a saying here that foreigners have the watches and insurgents have the time," she says. "They're not some standing army sweeping up from the south. They are not going to overrun Kabul anytime soon, but they hope to just create a general air of instability and wear the other side out."

The Taliban's hit-and-run strategy has allowed the militants to take their fight to the north, east and west — areas that are not their traditional strongholds.

They've also paved the way for drug smugglers and criminals to step up their activities. All of which makes people feel unsafe.

That's frustrating to U.S. Gen. Dan McNeill, who commands the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan. He has watched victories on the battlefield during the past year overshadowed by suicide attacks like the one in mid-January at a luxury hotel a stone's throw from the presidential palace in Kabul.

"We have a certain amount of success here and it's ho-hum, that's what everybody expected," McNeill says. "He sets off a bomb, it is headline news around the world. OK, I got it. If that's what I have to work with, I acknowledge that and will continue to work it. But let's go back to late 2006, early 2007. Resurgent Taliban, he's coming, he's a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, and you'll have to admit, that just didn't happen in 2007."

A More Wary Public - Afghan lawmaker Helaluddin Helal says that doesn't matter. Helal, a former general, says the Taliban tactics have badly damaged NATO's reputation in Afghan eyes. So has the growing separation between the Afghan people and their government.

He says people are far less inclined now to report suspected bombers in their midst. Not because they support the Taliban, but because they fear that the police can't protect them if the Taliban comes after them.

"What NATO needs to do is step up efforts to build the Afghan police and army, not simply by adding numbers, but by ensuring quality," Helal says. McNeill says that will take time. He says the Afghan Ministry of Defense estimates that its army won't be ready for at least four more years.

"I believe their capacity will have increased enough within the next year and a half to two years that maybe increasing the size of the international forces is not only not necessary, but might not be desirable," McNeill says.

"So the issue is, can we manage the risk in that period," he says. "Last year, we did. This year, I think we probably can again. But if anybody wants to make sure that we get this done, then sure, we need a faster rate of progress, and certainly in the security line, you need more force to induce that faster rate of progress."

The Taliban has given some hint of its own plans. In a recent interview on an Arabic-language Web site, a Taliban commander threatened to increase attacks on Kabul — not only through suicide bombings, but by targeting roads in the north and east in a bid to cut off the capital.

Thousands bid farewell to 79th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Standing silently in the rising sun, a chaplain wept Tuesday as the body of the 79th Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan left the Kandahar Air Field.

Like the chaplain himself, Trooper Michael Yuki Hayakaze was only days away from leaving this dusty country when he was killed by a roadside bomb Sunday.

He'd been on a resupply mission 45 kilometres west of Kandahar city. The 25-year-old was a member of the Lord Strathcona's Horse, an armoured regiment based in Alberta.

He had been in Afghanistan since October, deployed to replace another driver injured by a roadside bomb.

Clutching each others shoulders as they bore his coffin up the tarmac, the pallbearers - his comrades in the field - also wept, tears cutting paths down the dust on their cheeks.

To orders shouted in the various languages of coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, over 2,500 soldiers from several different countries lined the tarmac to salute Hayakaze on his final journey.

Some had just arrived in theatre, their uniforms still free of the dirt that clings to so much in Kandahar. It was a sombre welcome to the battefield.

But Padre Maj. Pierre Bergeron told them they should keep memories of Hayakaze with them as they prepared to take up the fight.

"Our prayer this morning is that we continue to serve with resolve, determination and courage as we remember those who have gone before us," he said.

"Courage is not the absence of fear but the determination to do what is right in spite of our fear Yes, we will remember him."

Hayakaze was the 79th Canadian soldier to be killed in Afghanistan. One diplomat has also died.

Vote on Afghanistan motion set for March 13

Updated Mon. Mar. 3 2008 - CTV.ca News Staff

The Conservative government wants to see a vote on extending the Afghanistan mission happen one week from Thursday.

CTV's Graham Richardson told Canada AM that a government source told him the debate will end by March 13, with a vote happening that day.

The motion calls for Canada's mission in Afghanistan to continue until July 2011, contingent on NATO supplying another 1,000 troops plus some equipment like helicopters to help Canada in Kandahar province.

Richardson said one unresolved issue for the Liberals is whether the 1,000 troops will replace the Canadian battle group, freeing those troops up to do other work.

There are a total of 2,500 Canadian troops in Kandahar province. A Canadian soldier died in a roadside bomb blast on Sunday, the 79th to die in Afghanistan since 2002.

Richardson noted the differences between the Conservatives and Liberals on extending the mission have largely been smoothed over. The motion, for example, provides for a firm end date.

The Liberals have suggested they will support the motion if the government answers a few questions.

However, the NDP and Bloc Quebecois are likely to oppose the motion.

The Liberals want Canadian soldiers to focus more on reconstruction and training the Afghan army rather than engage the Taliban in combat.

Last week, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said there will be times after February 2009 -- the current scheduled end date to the mission -- that Canadian troops will have to be involved in combat.

Finding the additional 1,000 troops -- a key recommendation of the Manley panel on the mission's future -- has been problematic. Very few NATO countries have expressing willingness to send troops to Kandahar, possibly the most violent province in Afghanistan.

U.S. President George Bush signalled last week that he might provide the extra troops.

The U.S. will be also sending 3,200 Marines to southern Afghanistan for a seven-month tour starting this April.

At a weekend news conference at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Bush said he would be pushing NATO countries to contribute more when a key meeting is held in Bucharest, Romania next month.

"As you know, my administration has made it abundantly clear, we expect people to ... carry a heavy burden if they're going to be in Afghanistan. In other words, (Defense) Secretary (Robert) Gates said, 'look, if we're going to fight as an alliance, let's fight as an alliance'," Bush said.

"Having said that, I understand there's certain political constraints on certain countries. ... I am going to go to Bucharest with the notion that we're thankful for the contributions being made, and encourage people to contribute more. ... We are trying to help Canada realize her goal of 1,000 additional fighters in the southern part of the country, as is Anders working toward that."

Bush was referring to Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Rasmussen, who was visiting the ranch. Denmark has 550 troops serving in Afghanistan.

Afghan Parliamentary Delegation Visits Canada

Ottawa - Six women members of the Lower House of the Afghan National Assembly arrived in Ottawa on Sunday, March 2 on a working visit that will include meeting with Canadian Parliamentarians, government officials and non-governmental organizations.

The delegation was welcomed by the Honourable Helena Guergis, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and Afghan Ambassador Omar Samad.

Members of the first Afghan parliamentary delegation to visit Canada are SAFIA SEDIQI (Nangarhar), FAWZIA KOOFI (Badakhshan), FARIBA AHMADI KAKAR (Kandahar), SAFURA ELKHANI (Bamyan), NASIMA NIAZI (Helmand) and SABRINA SAQIB (Kabul).

During their stay in Canada, the Afghan parliamentarians will participate in various functions and take part in a week-long program provided by the Parliamentary Center, funded by the the International Development Research Centre, with cooperation from the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development.

Embassy of the I.R. of Afghanistan

Canada learning hard lessons in aid to Afghanistan: senior aid official

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Reconstructing Afghanistan is not going exactly as everyone had hoped, a senior Canadian aid official admits.

It's not just the lack of security that poses a problem but the challenge of figuring out what actually works on the ground, said Stephen Wallace, vice-president of the Afghanistan Task Force of the Canadian International Development Agency.

In an exclusive interview Monday with The Canadian Press, Wallace said Canada is learning hard lessons about how to allocate aid funding to rebuild the war-torn country.

"When you do 50 different programs in the country as Canada does, some work really well and some don't work so well," Wallace said in a telephone interview from his Gatineau headquarters.

"What do you do about it? From our standpoint, we will stop and have stopped the stuff that hasn't worked very well and we take the money into the stuff that can scale up and do more."

Canada is spending more than $100 million a year through 2011 on development in Afghanistan.

About 65 per cent of the amount is funnelled through trust funds administered by international agencies that finance the work of the Afghan government in reconstruction.

The rest is spent through non-governmental organizations on projects like basic humanitarian relief or skills training.

Over the last few years, Wallace said, CIDA has learned that it's impossible to do any aid work in the country without the implicit support of the community.

"Unless you are prepared to use the Afghan system to respond to the needs of the Afghan people, you will often fail," he said.

"And you certainly will not be able to sustain what is succeeding."

What Wallace said has been working for development in Afghanistan is the National Solidarity Program, which creates community councils in districts across Afghanistan who then determine what their own development needs.

The CDCs, as they are called, apply for funding to finance the projects but must also contribute either money or labour.

More than 600 projects, mostly infrastructure items like bridges and wells, have been completed in Kandahar this year alone, few coming under any attack from insurgent forces.

Another major success for CIDA has been a micro-finance program which gives small loans to individuals to start businesses.

Many of the participants have been women and the loan repayment rate is 95 per cent.

But what CIDA has learned from that program is that giving micro-loans can only go so far.

"If you just thought you could do it and it would work always and everywhere you would be completely wrong and unrealistic about it," he said.

"You have to go from this notion of providing microfinance to providing small business services. What is a business plan, what is a market, how do you develop."

So CIDA is now funding the Canadian NGO Mennonite Economic Development Associates to help train loan recipients on business development skills.

Wallace said where CIDA is hitting walls in getting the Afghan government up to speed in being able to help sustain the projects being built with international aid money.

An example is the cost of salaries for teachers and doctors.

Most communities want health clinics or schools, Wallace said, but the government isn't yet able to handle the demands those place on the system.

"We would have liked to have seen faster progress on that," he said.

"In particular, security costs were much greater than we thought three or four years ago."

The international community's approach to aid in Afghanistan is centred around the Afghanistan Compact, a series of development benchmarks agreed upon in 2006 to be reached by 2011.

But Afghanistan remains trapped in a cycle created by the theory that security is required for development but development is what provides security.

Theoretically, the success of development programs at the local level like CDCs should foster greater security as citizens come to trust and depend on their governments and refuse to support or join the insurgency.

But a slew of statistics from private security firms, NATO and the UN all suggest that the security situation in Afghanistan, and in Kandahar, is the worst it has been in a long time.

In recent weeks, suicide attacks have killed more than 100 Afghans in Kandahar, a Canadian soldier was killed Sunday by a roadside bomb and the insurgents have blown up or attempted to destroy at least four cellphone towers in the province.

Confidence in government is waning - a high-profile gathering of community elders in Kandahar City recently resulted in a letter being drafted demanding the ouster of Kandahar Gov. Assadullah Khalid for being an ineffective leader.

Meanwhile, the Canadian military insists things in at least four of Kandahar's 17 districts are improving.

Members of the military often snicker at CIDA behind their backs, deriding them for remaining within the confines of the military base while soldiers are out building bridges and roads.

Wallace acknowledged there has been a disconnect between the two arms of Canada's approach to Afghanistan but insists they are nearing the ability to shake hands.

The appointment of a senior civilian officer, Elissa Golberg, to co-ordinate development efforts with military action is one sign that the two sides may be coming closer together.

"I actually think that we probably have a legacy of not having had the same kind of approach, not being able to work together as close as we might have but I also think we have an optimistic environment that we're working in right now," he said.

"In the end, we're both really operational, we're both really hands-on people; we just want to get stuff done."

Wallace's comments come at a time where the international community is taking a hard look at the progress in Afghanistan. Several high-profile think-tanks have suggested the counter-insurgency war is failing and mechanisms for aid delivery are faltering.

CIDA was criticized in the recent Manley report for not paying enough attention to the immediate needs of Afghans, specifically in Kandahar. Politicians and academics have also derided the agency for being too close-lipped about where it spends its money.

Top US Officer Meets Pakistan Army Chief

By SADAQAT JAN – ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff held talks Tuesday with Pakistan's army chief, whose troops have been battling a growing insurgency along the border with Afghanistan.

Adm. Mike Mullen arrived in Pakistan on Monday for his second visit to the country in a month. The back-to-back trips reflect U.S. concern that the insurgency by al-Qaida and Taliban militants in the country's northwestern tribal region represents an increasing threat.

Mullen met with Pakistani army chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani on Tuesday at the army headquarters in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital, Islamabad.

Mullen and Kayani "discussed matters of professional interest with particular reference to security situation in the region," a statement from Pakistan's military said. It provided no further details.

Last month, Mullen said the threat of Islamic extremism was growing in Pakistan and the country's leadership was aware of the challenge facing the nation.

Mullen is likely to use his current trip to discuss plans calling for 22 U.S. personnel to train elements of the Pakistani military in counter-insurgency and intelligence gathering techniques.

The training — to be passed on to Pakistan's border Frontier Corps force — would leave those troops better able to cooperate with U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, a U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Sunday.

The U.S. personnel are scheduled to arrive sometime between June and October, the official said. Current plans call for the U.S. training to last two years and to be passed on to some 8,500 Frontier Corps troops.

Mullen was also expected to meet with Gen. Tariq Majid, the chairman of Pakistan's joint chiefs of staff committee, and President Pervez Musharraf.

Violence has surged in recent months in the tribal regions of Pakistan's northwest near the border with Afghanistan.

The increase has raised doubts about the ability of Pakistan's U.S.-allied government to stem the militancy.

On Tuesday, two explosions in a navy college in the eastern city of Lahore left two people dead and nine others wounded, police said.

On Sunday, a suicide bomber attacked a meeting of tribal elders discussing how to resist militants in the tribal town of Darra Adam Khel, killing 40 people.

US Uneasy About Political Developments in Pakistan

Voice of America By Meredith Buel Washington 03 March 2008

Violence has continued to spiral in Pakistan as the United States and other Western countries watch closely to see if moderate political parties that made gains in recent parliamentary elections will work together to form a coalition government. Analysts specializing in South Asia are expressing concern the new government may pursue a different approach to fighting Taliban and al-Qaida-linked militants by seeking negotiations rather than taking military action. VOA correspondent Meredith Buel has more in this background report from Washington.

Top U.S. officials say the stakes are very high in Pakistan now that South Asia has become a region of vastly increased importance to the United States.

The area along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan is now the main battleground in the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban, and Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte says cooperation with the government in Islamabad remains a critical component of the U.S. strategy against terrorism.

"Successful American engagement with a stable and democratic Pakistan is vital to our national security interests. Pakistan has been indispensable to our worldwide struggle against radical terrorist groups. As Afghanistan's neighbor, Pakistan plays a pivotal role in the coalition's war effort there. Without peace and stability on the Pakistani side of the border, success in Afghanistan will prove illusive," he said.

U.S. policy has centered on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who has been a strong ally since seizing power in a coup in 1999.

However, the political party loyal to Mr. Musharraf suffered a major defeat in last month's parliamentary elections, while the parties of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif finished first and second.

Jonah Blank, the chief policy advisor for South Asia for the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, says the changes in the Pakistani political scene are causing anxiety among foreign policy planners.

"From a U.S. perspective, there is a certain amount of trepidation. Some people within U.S. government circles still cling to the belief that Musharraf was the last best hope, or is the last best hope, for American goals in Pakistan. Others feel that there is no choice but to work with the political parties and are not quite sure whether that will actually be an effective way of realizing our goals," he said.

Daniel Markey, a former State Department official who is now a senior fellow for South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, says it is time for the United States to change its focus from President Musharraf. "Musharraf is a diminished asset. He is exceedingly unpopular. No one disagrees with that. The time has come to really get on sort of the right side of history, essentially for the United States to jump into the future and work with more popular forces in Pakistan," he said.

While Pakistan's political parties negotiate, Islamist militants continue to launch suicide attacks that have sown fear throughout the nation.

Hundreds of people have been killed in attacks so far this year, despite the presence of more than 100,000 Pakistani troops near the border with Afghanistan.

This has led some Pakistani politicians to call for more dialog with the militants and a reduction in the reliance on military force, especially in the mostly lawless tribal areas.

Robert Grenier, the former head of the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center and a former agency's Station Chief in Islamabad, says while negotiations with the militants may be tempting, they will not work. "Having gone through what we recently had with the murder of Benazir Bhutto, in the long run there really is no separate peace to be had with the extremists. On the other hand, I think that there is going to be a real temptation, certainly at given points in time, to try to make that sort of a separate peace," he said.

Nicholas Schmidle, a researcher who spent the past two years in Pakistan and traveled frequently to the country's tribal areas, says since al-Qaida and Taliban militants were driven from much of Afghanistan by the U.S.-led invasion, they have taken over remote areas of Pakistan by killing some 250 tribal elders.

He says peace treaties negotiated by the Pakistani government are no longer being signed by elders who derive their legitimacy and authority from their place in the tribal system.

"They are being signed by Taliban commanders who have slaughtered the tribal elders and who have stepped up into their place and saying we are now the new warlord in charge of this area. So in that sense we have seen a dramatic transformation of what constitutes authority in the tribal areas," he said.

U.S. officials are concerned that a strategy of negotiation could give Islamist extremists a permanent sanctuary in Pakistan.

They believe an earlier cease-fire in the tribal areas enabled al-Qaida and Taliban fighters to regroup and plot attacks against the United States and other targets.

Grenier says any similar agreement in the future would backfire. "It is unsustainable in terms of what the al-Qaida safe haven is likely to mean in terms of threats to the West. The West is not going to stand still for it. It is unsustainable in terms of what it could mean for the insurgency in Afghanistan. Sooner or later there is going to be some additional outrage in Pakistan itself," he said.

U.S. officials are concerned that the growing insurgency in Pakistan is becoming stronger and is spreading into the more populated areas of the country.

Analysts say the recent election has significantly weakened President Musharraf, and it is not yet clear whether the parties who have gained power in parliament will be able to agree on a strategy to curb the violence, which threatens the stability of Pakistan.

U.S. Military Offers Pakistan Help in Fight Against Al-Qaeda

(Bloomberg), By Ed Johnson March 4 

Admiral Michael Mullen, the top U.S. military official, offered Pakistan help in its fight against al-Qaeda as he visited the South Asian nation for the second time in a month.

``We are anxious to assist,'' Mullen, who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday following talks with Pakistani General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. ``You tell us where you need assistance.''

Mullen's message echoes that of Defense Secretary Robert Gates who told reporters in January the U.S. is ready to deploy troops to train Pakistani forces or take part in joint operations against Islamic extremists.

U.S. intelligence agencies are critical of President Pervez Musharraf's counter-terrorism efforts and say Osama bin Laden's network has a haven in the tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Musharraf, who has deployed 100,000 soldiers to the tribal zone since 2003 to fight extremists, rejects allowing U.S. troops onto Pakistani territory.

Mullen said he didn't present Kayani, who is Pakistan's army chief, with a specific plan, the American Forces Press Service reported on the Pentagon's Web site. ``He knows the offer is there.''

Mullen met with Musharraf and other officials when he visited Pakistan in February.

The U.S. has pumped $10 billion into Pakistan since Sept. 11, 2001, with the aim of securing the country against al-Qaeda. It says the network is expanding its support to Taliban militants waging a guerrilla war against the Afghan government and is funding and directing the insurgency.

More than 80 percent of suicide bombers who have carried out attacks in Afghanistan received training or shelter in neighboring Pakistan, the United Nations said last year.

A Taliban militant who planned the Jan. 14 attack on a luxury hotel in the Afghan capital, Kabul, is in Pakistan, Afghanistan's intelligence chief told reporters yesterday, Agence France-Presse reported.

``We have given his number and latest calls to Pakistani authorities and we hope they act on them,'' AFP cited Amrullah Saleh, chief of the National Directorate of Security, as saying, without identifying the militant. ``So far we have not heard from them.''

Afghan authorities have arrested four men in connection with the attack on the Serena Hotel, which killed five Afghans and three overseas nationals, AFP said.

Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai agreed in December to share intelligence to help fight terrorism in their countries. They have criticized each other for not doing enough to secure their 2,430-kilometer (1,510 mile) border.

28 Al-Qaeda Militants Arrested in Kingdom

Arab News, Saudi Arabia P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News 4 March 2008 JEDDAH

Saudi Security forces have arrested 28 militants, who were involved in rebuilding the Al-Qaeda network in Saudi Arabia to launch another campaign of terror across the Kingdom, an Interior Ministry spokesman said in a statement.

The militants had been collecting funds on the pretext of supporting the needy in Pakistan and Afghanistan — money that was, in fact, being used “to finance their criminal activities,” said the spokesman.

One of those arrested was carrying a recorded message of Al-Qaeda’s second-in-command Ayman Al-Zawahri on the memory card of a cell phone. “The bearer of this message is one of our trusted brothers, therefore, please give him your donations to help hundreds of families of captives and martyrs in Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Al-Zawahri said in the audio recording aired by the Kingdom’s state television.

The Interior Ministry spokesman added that a person visiting Makkah had brought the recording to the Kingdom.

The latest arrests bring the total number of militants detained by Saudi authorities since December 2007 — when 28 people were arrested over alleged plans to attack sites outside the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah during the Haj season — to 56.

The Interior Ministry statement added that the 56 men were of different nationalities and included the head of the group. The men had reportedly been close to establishing hide-outs for their cells, forging travel documents and launching a media campaign through the Internet to spread their deviant ideology.

The spokesman said investigations proved that the newly detained militants belonged to Al-Qaeda and had been in contact with its leadership abroad. Those arrested were also recruiting young men and sending them to different regions of the Kingdom to participate in activities that undermine the security of Saudi Arabia.

The latest arrests indicate that Al-Qaeda and other terrorist and extremist organizations are still trying to destabilize the Kingdom, the world’s largest oil supplier. A major sweep last April netted 172 militants, including pilots trained to carry out attacks on oil refineries using civilian planes.

The Kingdom has orchestrated a heavy crackdown on Al-Qaeda since 2003. It has also been building a 35,000-strong rapid reaction force to protect oil installations after a failed Al-Qaeda attack in 2006 on the world’s largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq in the Eastern Province.

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has stressed that Saudi Arabia will root out terrorists from the country and has praised security forces for their work against militants.

Interior Minister Prince Naif said his forces had foiled 95 percent of attacks and that 58 police officers have so far died in anti-terror operations.

Al-Qaida releases video showing corpse of its slain Afghan strategist

PakTribune.Com - Afghanistan News Tuesday March 04, 2008 CAIRO

Al-Qaida released Sunday on militant Websites a new video eulogy of its top Afghanistan strategist Abu Laithal-Libi, showing his corpse for the first time. The video, entitled ``The Road`s Companion,`` marks the second video eulogy of Abu Laith in less than a week, showing his important to the movement.

``Nation of Islam, we pay tribute today to a courageous hero of Islam, an unmatched commander, one of Islam`s greatest ... losing him was a real loss and his absence is a real lack,`` eulogized fellow Al-Qaida militant Abu Yahya al-Libi, appearing in front of an image of him leaning over Abu Laith`s battered corpse.

Abu Laith was seen as a top al-Qaida strategist in Afghanistan and was killed in late January by a missile from a U.S. Predator drone that struck his safe house in Pakistan.

Pakistani intelligence considered him the operational commander of al-Qaida in the border region and one of the militant group`s most high-profile figures after its leader, Osama bin Laden, and Ayman al-Zawahri, who issued his own video eulogy Wednesday.

The 20-minute video begins with old footage of Abu Laith talking superimposed over the face of his dead body showing extensive bruising.

Abu Yahya, who gained fame for escaping from Afghanistan`s notorious Bagram prison and has appeared in several videos of his own, then appeared to deliver his own words of praise for the fallen al-Qaida leader.

``One of the hardest aspects of what we have witnessed in the field of jihad is saying goodbye to loved ones and the absence of companions,`` he said. ``We say in our calamity that the eye is bursting with tears and the heart is soaring with grief.``

A Surge To Help Afghanistan

By Joe Lieberman Tuesday, March 4, 2008; Washington Post

In the run-up to the NATO summit in Bucharest next month, the Bush administration has launched an intensive diplomatic campaign to persuade our European allies to send additional combat troops to southern Afghanistan, where the Atlantic alliance has been struggling against a resurgent Taliban.

Persuading our reluctant partners to increase their commitments in Afghanistan is important -- both for the sake of the war effort and for the viability of NATO itself.

Yet the April summit also provides an opportunity for the administration to bolster another critical ally that can provide the troops needed to prevail against the Taliban: the armed forces of Afghanistan.

The Afghan National Army is one of the great success stories of the war on terrorism: a genuinely multiethnic, increasingly capable professional military force, built from scratch under American tutelage since 2002. According to nationwide surveys, it is the most trusted of Afghanistan's fledgling national institutions, commanding the confidence of upwards of 90 percent of Afghans.

The biggest problem with the Afghan army is that it is too small, with a targeted end strength of only 80,000 troops. By contrast, the projected end strength of the Iraqi army is over 200,000 -- even though Afghanistan is nearly 50 percent bigger in territory than Iraq and has a larger population.

Privately, many U.S. officials concede that the Afghan army has nowhere near the necessary numbers to secure its country against an increasingly sophisticated insurgency. The NATO summit is an opportune moment for the United States to commit to expanding its ranks, and in a big way.

I hope that President Bush will pledge to support an expansion in the end strength of the Afghan army, ideally as high as 200,000 soldiers -- a bold, new American commitment to Afghanistan to reverse its slide toward insecurity and to reinforce our allies there.

The leading argument against a bigger army is cost. Some insist that Afghanistan, one of the world's poorest countries, cannot afford such a large army on its own and that the army must be kept small for "sustainability." This argument is badly flawed.

The fact is, the United States spends billions of dollars subsidizing the militaries of allies around the world, including many far less strategically important than Afghanistan. Afghan troops are fighting on the front lines against America's mortal enemies. Whatever the cost of ensuring that our Afghan allies have the numbers and means to prevail, the cost of their defeat by the Taliban would be infinitely greater.

The costs of a bigger Afghan army should not be borne by American taxpayers alone. Rather, our government should take the lead in establishing an international trust fund to provide long-term financing for the Afghan army. It should also offer our allies -- some of whose domestic politics constrain their ability to match America soldier-for-soldier in Afghanistan -- the option to make up the gap by funding an equivalent share of the army instead.

Securing Afghanistan with indigenous forces is ultimately less expensive than doing so with foreign troops. For the cost of a single coalition soldier in Afghanistan, we can support 60 to 70 Afghans in uniform.

The other, more challenging obstacle to expansion is the shortage of coalition forces to train and mentor Afghan troops.

But this is not an insuperable problem. The coalition could begin to experiment with thinning its presence inside more battle-hardened Afghan units, which in turn could be partnered with American combat units, as is already done in Iraq. NATO members could also aid this effort by dropping the national caveats that limit the effectiveness of their own embedded trainers inside the Afghan force.

Defeating the Taliban -- much less building a successful Afghanistan -- will of course require more than a bigger Afghan army. First and foremost, we need to apply the same basic counterinsurgency principles in southern Afghanistan that have brought so much success in Iraq over the past year -- beginning with an integrated, civil-military campaign plan that prioritizes the basic security of the Afghan people.

As Iraq has also demonstrated, however, this is an inherently manpower-intensive mission. In the short term, increasing the number of coalition troops in Afghanistan can help, but long-term success depends on the emergence of a large number of well-equipped, effective Afghan troops.

The United States has already laid the foundation of the indigenous force that can shoulder this fight. What the Afghan army needs now is a surge in support from Washington -- a cause that both Democrats and Republicans, united in their desire for victory in Afghanistan, should back.

The Bush administration has an opportunity in Bucharest to provide our allies in Kabul with the military means to prevail in our shared struggle against the forces of extremism and terrorism. It should seize it -- and members of both parties in Congress should support it.

The writer is an independent Democratic senator from Connecticut.

Iran to expel illegal Afghan refugees

KABUL, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The government of Iran is firm to deport all Afghans living illegally in the Islamic Republic, advisor to Iran's Interior Ministry and Director General of the Bureau for Aliens and Foreign Migrants said here Monday.

    "We continue to support those Afghans living legally in Iran but action would be taken against those living illegally," Seyyed Taghi Ghaemi said at a joint press conference attended by Afghan and UNHCR officials in Kabul.

    He said that out of 2.5 million Afghans living in Iran 1.5 million are illegal refuges and have been living there illegally.

    "Entering a country illegally and staying there illegally is a crime in any country in the Untied States, in Afghanistan and everywhere," he stressed.

    He made these remarks after two days tripartite meeting among Afghanistan, Iran and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) concluded in Kabul Monday.

    However, the Iranian official did not say when Tehran would begin deporting illegal refugees, adding whenever Afghan government is ready to receive the refugees expulsion would commence.

    Commenting on the subject, Abdul Qadir Ahadi, the deputy to Afghan Refugees Affairs Ministry, admitted that expulsion of 1.5 million refugees at this juncture would add to the problems of the war-torn nation. The next round of talks among the three sides would be held in Tehran.

RECA for Afghanistan in Islamabad put off

ISLAMABAD: Regional Economic Conference for Afghanistan (RECA) slated this month in Islamabad has been put off for reasons unavoidable. Senior Journalist, Hanif Khalid said that three hundred delegations from all across the world including those from the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany and Japan were invited to attend this conference, which would now be held in the 4th week of April, as rescheduled. Earlier, the maiden RECA was held in Afghanistan and the second in New Delhi. Sources told that the Islamabad conference was deferred due to the new government in formation after elections, Pakistan under spate of suicide bombings and for some other reasons. The conference would deliberate on crucial matters relating to Afghanistan’s economic progress and stability, security, law and order etc.

PLANS CALL AFGHANISTAN MANDATE INTO QUESTION

Will Germany Be Forced to Raise Troop Limit?

Spiegel online 3 March 2008- Germany has promised to send combat troops for the Quick Reaction Force in northern Afghanistan. But an internal memo obtained by SPIEGEL shows that more soldiers are needed than previously thought -- meaning that Germany will need to raise its maximum troop limit.

Germany may have to raise its maximum level of troops in Afghanistan.

Germany's plans to send a Quick Reaction Force to northern Afghanistan are set to cause problems for the mission's parliamentary mandate, SPIEGEL has learned.

According to an internal military memorandum obtained by SPIEGEL, around 450 soldiers, including logistics and reconnaissance personnel, will be required for the QRF instead of the approximately 200 troops which were previously planned.

Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung announced in early February that Germany would send a unit of combat troops to northern Afghanistan to replace Norway's 250-strong force, which is pulling out in July. Each of the five regional commands of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has a QRF which carries out security and reconnaissance duties and can be deployed at short notice.

Under its parliamentary mandate, Germany can send up to 3,500 soldiers to the less violent north of Afghanistan as part of the roughly 40,000-strong ISAF. But given that Jung also wants to increase Germany's troop presence in the northern city of Kunduz and to send more trainers for the Afghan army, Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, would probably have to raise the mandated limit in June. Germany currently has over 3,310 troops stationed in Afghanistan.

However the conservative Bavarian party the Christian Social Union, which is in Germany's governing grand coalition as the sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, opposes moves to increase troop levels. The CSU does not want troop levels to be raised before Bavarian state elections on Sept. 28, as it is concerned about losing its absolute majority in the state parliament.

In the internal memorandum, the reason for the greater than expected troop numbers for the QRF is justified by the fact that support staff in the Mazar-i-Sharif base, who were supposed to also provide support to the QRF, are already over-burdened.

In addition, the memo expresses reservations about plans to deploy German Marder 1A5 tanks in Afghanistan. The armored vehicles have various defects in terms of engines, cooling systems and hydraulics, according to the memo.

In an interview with SPIEGEL published Monday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the current Bundestag mandate would not be changed before October, when it will next be renewed. "In this mandate, 3,500 soldiers are the upper limit. ... I have no intention of changing that," she said.

Merkel also reiterated Germany's opposition to missions in the south. "I don't think it makes sense to reduce the operations in the north and permanently move troops to the south," she said. "I believe that it is important for the Afghans that we continue working in the north."

Meanwhile Germany's NATO allies have renewed calls for Berlin to do more. "My administration has made it abundantly clear we expect people to carry a heavy burden if they're going to be in Afghanistan," US President George W. Bush said Saturday after a summit with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas. "If we're going to fight as an alliance, let's fight as an alliance."

Although Bush said that he understood there are "certain political constraints on certain countries," he said he was going to "encourage people to contribute more" at the upcoming NATO summit in Bucharest.

NATO members fighting in the dangerous south of Afghanistan, mainly Canada, the UK, the US and the Netherlands, are irritated by other allies' restrictions on where their troops can be deployed. Canada and the US have been especially vocal in their criticism of Berlin.

At a German-Canadian security conference in Toronto at the weekend, high-ranking Canadian politicians and academics again accused Germany of not standing by its allies in Afghanistan. "Canada has given up hope that the Germans will come to its help," said the political scientist David Haglund, in remarks quoted by the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel. "The Germans have to ask themselves what they actually want from NATO," he added. "What is a country which hates military operations doing in a military alliance?"

Haglund said that Germany's reluctance to take part in combat operations highlighted a fundamental problem with the structure of NATO: the lack of a sanctions mechanism for reluctant allies. If allies like Germany "do not deliver enough, they don't need to fear any kind of punishment, apart from public exposure, and they can not be thrown out of the club," he said.

Bob Rae, foreign policy spokesman for Canada's Liberal Party, was particularly scathing in his criticism. He described Germany's deployment in northern Afghanistan as "not very successful" and said Germany's biggest failure was its efforts to train and re-organize Afghanistan's police force, which have been described as "disappointing" by US Defense Secretary Robert Gates. "We have to be franker in saying what has failed and why it has failed," Rae said, in reference to the German mission

Anti-Koran Dutch film could harm troops in Afghanistan, warns Nato secretary

The Mail 3 March 2008- The airing of a Dutch film criticising Islam will have repercussions for troops in Afghanistan, according to Nato's secretary general.

Jaap de Hoop raised his fears after Afghans protested yesterday against the film being made by far-right Dutch MP Geert Wilders.

Mr Wilders has already been warned by the Dutch government that his film will have effects on the country's political and economic interests.

Mr Wilders, who has in the past called for the Koran to be banned, likening to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf, says the film is about the Koran but did not reveal any details about it.

In a TV interview, Mr de Hoop said: "If the [troops] find themselves in the line of fire because of the film, then I am worried about it and I am expressing that concern." The project has already been condemned by several Muslim countries, including Iran and Pakistan.

During protests against the film yesterday, hundreds of Afghans took to the streets in the norther city of Mazar-i-Sharif, burning Dutch flags and calling for the withdrawal of Dutch troops from the Nato force.

The protesters also criticised the recent republication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in several Danish newspapers.

Mr Wilders' film, which describes the Koran as "an inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror" will be shown in March and released on the internet. He has been told by the Dutch government that he may have to leave the country for his own safety.

Women of Afghanistan Unite for Peace on March 8

Earthtimes, UK Posted : Mon, 03 Mar 2008 Author : Bpeace

On March 8th International Women's Day, at 10 AM, thousands of women across all of Afghanistan's provinces will raise their voices for peace.

Bpeace (The Business Council for Peace) is mobilizing international support for the Afghan women by circulating an online petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/afghanpeace. The petition, along with signatures collected in Afghanistan, will be presented to the Afghan women organizing this unprecedented event as well as to President Hamid Karzai and the United Nations.

Women in Kandahar, the most violent Afghan province that has experienced hundreds of violent deaths in the first two months of 2008, are gathering on International Women's Day on March 8th. These women believe only Afghans can stop the violence against other Afghans. Women in Kabul and from every Afghan province will be celebrating International Women's Day. At these gatherings they will read a message of peace in support of the brave women of Kandahar. Afghan women are standing side by side, their voices ringing out in solidarity.

The Afghan women have taken their cue from Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan who were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976. In the face of long- standing Irish conflict and violence, they worked to establish a grass-roots movement which gave the people of Northern Ireland a vehicle to say that they had had enough of the violence that wrecked their daily lives.

"It takes courage to organize this extraordinary gathering of women in Kandahar. These women are demonstrating their frustration with the ongoing violence in a visible way that has worked well for other countries and cultures," said Toni Maloney, chairperson of Bpeace, the organization sponsoring the petition. "Signing this online petition takes but a moment, but that moment has power. Thousands of signatures will send these Afghan women the additional emotional support they need to know that they do not stand alone."

About Bpeace - Bpeace (Business Council for Peace) is an international network of business volunteers who help women in Afghanistan and Rwanda build sustainable businesses as a bridge to peace. More jobs mean less violence(sm). (http://www.bpeace.org/) Bpeace volunteers and staff are in daily contact with the Afghan businesswomen in its program who together employ 1,491 Afghans, who support more than 10,592 family members.

Link to online petition to support the Afghan Women's March for Peace on March 8th, International Women's Day. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/afghanpeace 

Afghan council wants soap operas off TV

San Francisco Chronicle - 03/03/2008 By Nick Meo Kabul

With suicide bombers increasing their activities, spiraling opium production, and nearly half the country prey to Taliban guerrillas, Afghanistan's spiritual guardians are focusing on a new peril: Indian soap operas.

In an echo of Taliban-era fundamentalism, the Islamic Council of Scholars won the backing in January of a powerful government minister in its campaign to get dozens of wildly popular Indian dramas off the nation's TV screens.

Abdul Khuram, the minister of information and culture, threatened television executives with prosecution if they continue to broadcast programs that the ministry deems offensive to public morality. The council singled out scenes that depict romance and Hindu gods in the homes of soap opera characters as "spreading immorality and un-Islamic culture."

Khuram's announcement came after dozens of clerics met with President Hamid Karzai in January to demand that the government ban such programs. The corny dramas have won thousands of Afghan devotees who enjoy the escapist world of the fictional rich residents of Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay.

"The people like these shows. They take their minds off their troubles," said Farhad Hazatulla, a 22-year-old university student. "They do no harm. These old men (on the Islamic Council) live in the past."

The Islamic Council is a group of prominent clerics and scholars (known as the Ulema) who advise the Kabul government on religious matters and reflect a deep conservatism that prevails in Afghan society six years after the fall of the Taliban, most analysts agree. The battle to censor television is a throwback to Taliban rule, when entertainment was banned and Kabul residents risked imprisonment by secretly watching smuggled videos in their homes.

"The Taliban's most unpopular policies had to do with bans on music, kite flying, photography, chess - anything that could be classified as fun," said Jean MacKenzie, country director for the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, a British nongovernmental organization. "Now with the Taliban gone, the Ulema are stepping in to take up the slack."

In recent months, the council has been increasingly vocal against perceived corruption of society by foreign television and movie channels. They have urged Karzai's government to remove Afghan rappers and pop stars from the airwaves and have chastised Afghans who watch television when they should be going to the mosque. Before turning their sights on Kabul's buoyant new media world, the clerics campaigned to bring back public executions, last seen in the main soccer stadium under the Taliban.

New TV stations have proliferated in the last three years, offering a mix of hard-hitting news that is often critical of the government and light entertainment that draws the wrath of religious hard-liners. Indian soaps are said to be popular even in the conservative province of Helmand and in remote areas where residents are willing to exhaust precious fuel to crank up their generators to watch evening soaps.

Tolo TV, Afghanistan's first commercial channel, shows three Indian dramas: "The Story of Every House," "The Trials of Life" and "Because a Mother-in-Law Was Once a Daughter-in-Law Too." Some channels air as many as six Indian soap operas daily.

"In most countries, such family-obsessed dramas with wooden acting and creaking sets would be thought to be tame," said Saad Mohseni, director of Tolo TV.

Council clerics accuse the dramas of encouraging idol worship, even though Hindu images are pixelated and scenes of Hindu worship are cut. The hardliners have also targeted Tolo TV's flagship pop programs - "Hop," a local MTV-style show, and "Afghan Star," the nation's version of "American Idol" in which demure female participants sing while wrapped in traditional head scarves.

"The unrestrained programs on TV have angered and prompted the Ulemas to react. 'Hop' ... is spreading immoralities and hurts the sacred religion of Islam," said a council statement after its meeting with Karzai. " 'Afghan Star' ... encourages immorality among the people and is against Shariah (Islamic) law."

Some viewers agree. Qadeer, a restaurant guard, who like many Afghans goes by only one name, says dramas that "show boys and girls together who are not married is against Islamic culture. The Taliban can make propaganda out of this - that it shows the moral degradation of Kabul under President Karzai."

Humayun Hamidzada, a spokesman for Karzai, says the government is concerned about some television shows, especially Indian soap operas and music programs.

"The president has instructed the minister of information and culture to look into these concerns and to discuss the matter with the TV channels," said Hamidzada.

Mohseni, the director of Tolo TV and one of three Australian-Afghan brothers who set up the media company that includes Tolo and an FM radio station, accused the Ulema and the minister of using the issue to win support among religious conservatives.

"We have so many problems in this country - kidnapping, terrorism, inflation - so why is the government making a big deal about something that is pleasing to the eyes and ears of most Afghans?" asked Mohseni. "Our soap operas and pop shows are a bit of enjoyable escapism for viewers and take their minds off some of the misery that people have to face in this country. And 'Afghan Star' is a talent show - it is so tame. It is worrying that we are once again witnessing radicalization of Afghanistan."

MacKenzie of the Institute of War and Peace Reporting worries that the council's pressure is further weakening the Karzai government.

"By trying to force their own interpretation of Islam on an unwilling society," she said, "they risk undermining what little authority the central government has left."    

[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.]