In this bulletin:

• Al-Qaida Lashes Out At Taliban For Straying From Global Jihad
• Taliban can seize nukes, warns Turkish general
• States can't pick and choose Afghan tasks-NATO boss
• Afghanistan: UN Food Agency Races To Prevent Humanitarian Crisis
• Food shortages cause grass eating, displacement
• Smuggling of wheat, flour to Afghanistan foiled
• Afghans open bureau of complaints
• US 'not returning to Uzbek base'
• Pakistan to advocate joint Pak-US-NATO terror strategy
• Afghan peace efforts disconnected, lack international support: study
• Americans Still Committed to Afghanistan Mission
• 'Canadian car' a sign of prestige in Kabul
• Warlord under siege after 'kidnap and torture' of former ally
• Risky business: Afghan interpreters for U.S. put themselves in jeopardy
• Lost in Afghanistan
• Afghanistan comes full circle as NATO seeks Russian help
• Afghan girl painter aspires for self-reliance in post-Taliban society

Al-Qaida Lashes Out At Taliban For Straying From Global Jihad

Nasdaq - Global Markets, 11/03/2008 (RTTNews)

Supporters of al-Qaida have lashed out at Afghanistan's Taliban extremist group for straying away from their avowed goal of global jihad by trying to mend fences with the West and sympathizing with Shi'ite Iran.

In an unprecedented flood of criticism of Afghanistan's Taliban unleashed on the Web, al-Qaida supporters accused the Taliban of straying from the path of global jihad after its leader Mullah Omar issued a statement saying he seeks good relations with the world and even sympathizes with Shi'ite Iran.

In February, the Taliban, once seen by extremists as the model of an Islamic state, announced it wanted to maintain good and "legitimate" relations with neighboring countries.

The militants were again outraged when the Taliban movement expressed solidarity with Iran, condemning the latest round of sanctions imposed on Tehran by the U.N. Security Council over its controversial nuclear program.

The Sunni militants of the al-Qaida and other extremist movements view the Shi'ite Islamic state of Iran as anathema.

"This is the worst statement I have ever read the disaster of defending the Iranian regime is on par with the Crusaders in Afghanistan and Iraq," wrote poster Miskeen, one of the more influential writers on an al-Qaida linked Web site.

Taliban can seize nukes, warns Turkish general

Dawn, March 10 ANKARA - Turkey’s military chief on Monday warned that Pakistan’s political turmoil and violence by extremists could open the way for the Taliban to seize control of the country and its nuclear weapons.

Gen Yasar Buyukanit, speaking at an international terrorism conference organised by the military in Ankara, said Pakistan’s leaders should be given strong support to guard against such an outcome. I hope Pakistan reaches stability in a short time, Buyukanit told the conference.

In particular, Buyukanit spoke of concern that if President Pervez Musharraf lost his grip on the country, Pakistan could fall into the hands of a resurgent Taliban.

On Sunday, Musharraf’s political opponents, who dominated Feb 18 elections, agreed to form a government, heightening expectations that the unpopular Musharraf could be on the way out.

Buyukanit said an institution like the Taliban could control Pakistan if the current administration becomes ineffective and this could result in a terrorist organisation gaining control of nuclear arms for the first time. —AP

States can't pick and choose Afghan tasks-NATO boss

Reuters, Mon Mar 10, 2008 BERLIN- NATO countries cannot pick and choose what tasks they carry out in Afghanistan, the alliance's chief said in Germany on Monday, in a veiled criticism of Berlin's reluctance to send its troops to Afghan hotspots.

Germany has resisted pressure from its NATO allies to deploy forces in the more treacherous south of Afghanistan to help battle Taliban insurgents.

Germany has roughly 3,300 troops in Afghanistan, based in the more stable north.

"In an alliance in which everyone stands for each other there can not be a division of labour in which one side takes care of the fighting and the other specialises in the aftermath of the conflict," NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in a speech in Berlin.

But Chancellor Angela Merkel, speaking at the same conference, once again dismissed calls for deploying German forces in the south.

And German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said he did not feel Scheffer was referring to Germany.

Germany's main mandate from parliament, which is due to expire in October, allows Germany to send a maximum of 3,500 soldiers to Afghanistan, where NATO has a 43,000-strong mission.

The mandate must be renewed annually. A strong majority of Germans oppose any deployment of German troops to the south.

Scheffer also said NATO members were responsible for educating their respective domestic audiences on the need for public support for the Alliance operation in Afghanistan.

"It is and will remain the duty of national governments and parliaments to communicate security policy," he said. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Erik Kirschbaum; Editing by Jon Boyle)

Afghanistan: UN Food Agency Races To Prevent Humanitarian Crisis

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty March 10, 2008

A crippling food shortage in Afghanistan exacerbated by a harsh winter and an astronomical rise in the price of wheat has led the UN's World Food Program (WFP) to begin distributing emergency food aid.

The UN food agency has begun providing emergency wheat deliveries to millions of Afghans in an attempt to prevent a humanitarian crisis. It plans to distribute aid packages this week containing wheat, beans, and cooking oil to some 650,000 people in and around Kabul, with aid shipments to remote areas to follow.

"We say that among these 6 million that we have estimated, 3.5 million are regularly in

need of our food, and almost 3 million people are seasonally in need of our food," WFP spokesman Ebadullah Ebad tells RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan. "We are concerned about those people who are living in remote areas. We are concerned about the shortage of food and getting food to them in that rugged terrain. If we don't get that food there on time to those people in remote areas, we think that there will be a [humanitarian] crisis."

Ebad says recent price increases for wheat on the global market has meant that ordinary Afghans have seen wheat prices rise by 70 percent during the past year -- making it difficult for impoverished Afghans to purchase the food staple.

"The price of wheat last year per kilogram was 15 afghanis," Ebad says. "This year, one kilogram of wheat is about 27 to 28 afghanis -- which is almost 50 cents. This shows that people who have a very low income are vulnerable."

Indeed, three months ago, the UN appealed for donor countries to send $77 million in additional funds to help Afghans affected by the global surge in the price of wheat.

Ebad says the food is needed in both urban and rural areas of Afghanistan during the next three months: "We had asked for pledges to help about 2.5 million people who are vulnerable because of the increase of food prices in Afghanistan. We have asked the donor countries to help us with $77 million so we can buy about 89,000 metric tons of wheat."

So far, Ebad says, donor countries have responded by sending an additional $40 million in aid. Ebad adds that the remaining $37 million has been promised by donor countries but has not yet been sent, and stresses that it takes at least four months before contributions can make their way into the country, through warehouses, and to the people.

Ebad adds that violence and lawlessness in some parts of Afghanistan continue to hamper efforts to deliver aid to needy Afghans, in addition to adverse weather and rising costs.

"It's a mixture of man-made disasters and also natural disasters," Ebadi says. "The most vulnerable people are living in remote areas -- for example Badakhshan, Dai Kundi, Bamiyan, or Faryab. Those are the provinces mostly affected by natural disasters. Sometimes there are man-made disasters -- like in Helmand, one of the provinces where the conflict [continues] between the Taliban and coalition forces. And also, there are armed people on the way to Herat -- especially in Farah Province in the desert. They are attacking our convoys."

Rick Corsino, the World Food Program's Afghanistan director, says food distribution should be completed before the main midyear wheat harvest. Corsino says it is important that the additional food aid shipments do not discourage Afghan farmers from growing wheat for the domestic market.

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Freshta Jalalzai contributed to this report from Prague

Food shortages cause grass eating, displacement

GHAZNI, 10 March 2008 (IRIN) - Food shortages in Ajristan District of Ghazni Province, central Afghanistan, have forced some families to eat dried grass in order to survive, local people and the district administrator told IRIN.

"Many families in Ajristan are eating different kinds of dried grass and vegetables like alfalfa, which are normally given to cattle, due to food shortages and extreme poverty," said Raz Mohammad Hemat, the district administrator.

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) is a flowering plant cultivated for forage. In the UK it is known as lucerne. The plant grows to a height of up to one metre, and has a deep root system sometimes spanning 4.5 metres. This makes it very resilient, especially to drought.

Ajristan District - with an estimated population of 100,000, predominately Pashtuns, and lying about 200km south of Ghazni city - saw heavy snowfall in the past three months, which blocked roads, affected staple food prices on local markets, and killed hundreds of animals.

"Our children will die if we do not receive urgent assistance," said a local elder, Atiqullah, on the phone.

A spokesman for the governor of Ghazni Province, Abdullah Nashir, confirmed widespread food shortages in Ajristan and Nawa districts but gave assurances that relief items would be delivered to the affected communities as soon as the roads re-open.

The consumption of dried alfalfa and grass has raised concern about diarrhoea and sight disorders among the local population.

Continued consumption of dried grass and alfalfa - as the only diet - can worsen a person's, particularly children's, susceptibility to diarrhoea and in the long-run can lead to malnourishment, according to Abdullah Fahim, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Health.

"Patients do not receive adequate treatment in the only health clinic in the district and there is also a lack of medication in local drug stores," said one resident.

However, officials in Ghazni's public health department said adequate medical supplies sufficient for six months were dispatched to Ajristan District before winter and more will be delivered quickly if needed.

"We have not received any reports about any [disease] outbreaks in Ajristan," said Ziagul Asfandi, the provincial director of public health. He acknowledged that acute food-insecurity could increase children's vulnerability to communicable diseases.

In the northeastern province of Badakhshan hundreds of families have reportedly been displaced due to food-insecurity in several areas, provincial officials reported.

Preliminary assessments conducted by the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) indicated that up to 1,000 families had left their homes in Argo and Kishm districts, some of whom had moved to neighbouring Takhaar and Kunduz provinces in search of food.

"There are risks that more families will abandon their houses," warned Saeed Nasir, the provincial head of ARCS.

Roads to several districts in Badakhshan Province - which has a rugged terrain and poor road infrastructure - have remained blocked due to heavy snow and avalanches.

According to the World Food Programme (WFP), increases of up to 70 percent in staple food prices, road blockages and other winter-related problems have pushed millions of Afghans into "high risk food-insecurity".

In response, the Afghan government and the UN launched a joint appeal for about US$80 million on 24 January to provide an emergency "safety net" for 2.55 million vulnerable Afghans across the country.

WFP said donors had responded generously to the appeal and an emergency food assistance programme had begun in Kabul, which would soon be extended to other provinces, including Ghazni and Badakhshan.

"Food aid is ready for up to 85,000 people in Ghazni Province and delivery will begin as soon as we receive the lists of beneficiaries from the Ministry of Martyrs and Disabled," Ebadullah Ebadi, a spokesman for WFP, told IRIN in Kabul.

Relief items are also available in WFP stocks in Faizabad, the provincial capital of Badakhshan, which will be distributed to beneficiaries when roads re-open, Ebadi said.

WFP plans to distribute 89,000 tonnes of emergency food aid between now and mid-year, in addition to the 180,000 tonnes that it intends to distribute in 2008 for nearly 3.7 million Afghans affected by conflict, natural disasters and food-insecurity.

Smuggling of wheat, flour to Afghanistan foiled

Dawn (Pakistan) March 10, 2008 issue

TAXILA, March 9: Food department with the assistance of the Rangers foiled a bid to smuggle huge quantity of flour and wheat from Punjab to Afghanistan via NWFP and seized 2,520 bags of flour and 80 bags of wheat in an operation near the Burhan Interchange in the Hassanabdal police station area.

Sources in the food department told Dawn on Sunday that the flour and wheat were being taken in two trucks. They said the commodities were purchased from a flour mill situated at Kala Shah Kakoo near Lahore.

The police have registered a case against the truck drivers identified as Muneer Ahemd and Ajmeer Shah.

It is worth mentioning that in various operations undertaken so far, food department and the Rangers have seized twenty vehicles including 10 trucks and one trailer and recovered 3,020 bags of flour, each of 20kg, and 1,050 bags of wheat, which were being smuggled to Afghanistan.

Afghans open bureau of complaints

BBC News - By Elettra Neysmith Monday, 10 March 2008

Afghanistan has opened a new government office dedicated to complaints. The department will collect all manner of complaints from the Afghan public and pass them on to the office of President Hamid Karzai.

The new presidential complaints office has a staff of 23 and is headed by Asadullah Wafa.

He says that although it is currently based in the capital, Kabul, the intention is to also set up agencies in various Afghan provinces.

The government is clearly taking the matter of complaints seriously. Mr Wafa was previously governor of Afghanistan's southern volatile Helmand province - the heart of the Taleban insurgency.

But this new job will be no easy ride either. Afghanistan has many problems and on top of those, corruption is rife across all levels of Afghan society. Disillusionment with the government therefore is widespread.

Mr Wafa says the complaints office will take the necessary measures to address people's problems - but with no executive powers, critics say it is unclear how effective the complaints procedure can really be.

US 'not returning to Uzbek base'

BBC News, UK By Natalia Antelava Monday, 10 March 2008

A senior western diplomat in Uzbekistan has told the BBC that the United States is not trying to re-open a military base in the country.

The diplomat said that a return by the armed forces to the Central Asian state was not on the agenda.

The US withdrew from Uzbekistan following a dispute over human rights in 2005. But recent media reports had suggested that Washington was negotiating a possible return.

The diplomat categorically denied reports that the US was in negotiations to open a new airbase in Uzbekistan.

The reports were triggered by an agreement between Washington and Tashkent which will give the Americans limited access to the German airbase in Termez near the border with Afghanistan.

Under the arrangement, a handful of mainly civilian advisers to Nato generals will be granted permission, on a case by case basis, to fly to Afghanistan via the Termez airbase.

It is a very small gesture which will have little impact on the Nato campaign in Afghanistan. But it does show that the relationship between Uzbekistan and the West is beginning to change.

Tashkent cut nearly all ties with the West after the European Union imposed sanctions on Uzbekistan in response to the events in Andijan, where government troops killed hundreds of civilian protestors in 2005.

The US was forced to shut its airbase, and hundreds of Western organisations and companies left Uzbekistan.

Three years on, observers say that Uzbekistan's human rights record has deteriorated even further, but the West has clearly had a change of heart. There is now a strong lobby within the EU which wants to lift the sanctions.

While most people in the West resent the idea of a dialogue with President Karimov, increasingly many policy-makers say that alienating Uzbekistan has only pushed this strategic, energy-rich country closer to China and Russia.

They also argue that engagement is the only thing that could ease the dire human rights situation.

Pakistan to advocate joint Pak-US-NATO terror strategy

Daily Times, Pakistan By Iqbal Khattak Tuesday, March 11, 2008 PESHAWAR

Islamabad has kicked off a campaign advocating a joint Pakistan-US-NATO strategy for Afghanistan, with efforts aimed at rallying support for its views on the ‘war on terror’ policy, official sources said on Monday.

“The lobbying aims at devising a workable strategy for Pentagon-NATO-Pakistan ... to take the war on terror to [its] logical end,” officials privy to military operations in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas confided to Daily Times on condition of anonymity.

The Pakistan Embassy in Washington has been tasked with advocating Pakistan’s views on operations in the Tribal Areas and coalition-led operations in Afghanistan, the sources said.

This comes on the heels of escalating criticism of Musharraf and Pakistan “not coming up to US expectations” in producing results in the war on terror. Islamabad rejects these allegations, saying it is “doing much more than others”. Pakistan is “frustrated with the US and NATO having no strategy regarding either Afghanistan or Pakistan,” the officials said. The annoyance stems from the US and NATO looking at Pakistan through Afghanistan’s eyes. “The US has been throwing some of the blame on Pakistan unjustly” while looking at failures in Afghanistan, the officials said. “We feel Afghanistan and Pakistan have to be dealt with differently.”

The visit of Harlan K Ullman — a senior military analyst with close ties to policy-makers in Washington and to NATO commanders — is seen as part of the stepped up lobbying effort. . Ullman can “pull a lot of strings in policy formulation. He personally knows Admiral Fallon, the commander of CENTCOM, the NATO supreme commander, and the NATO forces commander in Afghanistan, and enjoys enough influence to affect a favourable outcome on a joint Pakistan-US-NATO policy for Afghanistan,” the officials said. The officials said Islamabad had warned the US and NATO that “independent ventures” in Tribal Areas or settled districts would be “extremely detrimental” to regional stability. Dr Ullman said that he shared Pakistan’s concerns in a lecture delivered at the Area Study Centre on Saturday.

Reversing anti-Musharraf: The Pakistan Embassy in Washington has also been tasked with winning back support for President Musharraf. The US media likened the opposition parties’ victory in the recent polls to a referendum on the president, which went against him. “Efforts must be made to change the anti-Musharraf attitude to pro-Musharraf behaviour among people who influence policy-makers, especially at the Pentagon,” the officials said.

Afghan peace efforts disconnected, lack international support: study

The Canadian Press, 10/03/2008 OTTAWA

A new study says peace efforts in Afghanistan exist but they are disconnected and lack support from the international community.

The report by the Canadian Council for International Co-operation is based on findings from 58 interviews carried out in Afghanistan in January and February. It calls on the Canadian government to encourage the international community and Afghan government to bolster the peace process and co-ordinate current efforts for peace.

It says Canada's approach to Afghanistan must be "re-balanced" to better support diplomatic efforts and development priorities.

The report says immediate support for some current peace initiatives can help to establish pre-requisites for a more systematic peace process.

In the longer term, it says peace requires a sustained commitment by the international community, including Canada, to work with the government of Afghanistan, civil society, women's groups and opposition and anti-government groups.

The council interviewed diplomats, non-governmental organizations, Afghan government officials and community leaders in preparing the report.

Americans Still Committed to Afghanistan Mission

Angus Reid Global Monitor, Canada, March 11, 2008

Many adults in the United States believe their country and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should remain engaged in Afghanistan, according to a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 61 per cent of respondents would keep military troops in Afghanistan until the situation has stabilized.

In addition, 65 per cent of respondents think the U.S. made the right decision in using military force in Afghanistan, and 48 per cent believe the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan is going very or fairly well.

Afghanistan has been the main battleground in the war on terrorism. The conflict began in October 2001, after the Taliban regime refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked and crashed four airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, killing nearly 3,000 people.

At least 765 soldiers—including 481 Americans—have died in the war on terrorism, either in support of the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom or as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) led by the NATO.

In March 2007, Illinois senator Barack Obama, who is seeking the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in the United States, discussed his views on the war on terrorism, saying, "Unfortunately, we’ve become so focused on the situation in Iraq, that I think we have ended up being distracted, particularly in Afghanistan. (...) We have not followed through on the good starts we made in Afghanistan, partly because we took so many resources out and put them in Iraq. I think it is very important for us to begin a planned redeployment from Iraq, including targeting Afghanistan."

Do you think the U.S. and NATO should keep military troops in Afghanistan until the situation has stabilized, or do you think the U.S. and NATO should remove their troops as soon as possible?

Keep troops there 61% - Remove as soon as possible 32% - Unsure 7%

Do you think the U.S. made the right decision or the wrong decision in using military force in Afghanistan?

Feb. 2008 Dec. 2006

Right decision 65% 61% - Wrong decision 24% 29% - Unsure 11% 10%

From what you have read or heard, how well is the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan going?

Very well 10% - fairly well 38% - Not too well 31% - Not at all well 10% - Unsure 11%

Source: Pew Research Center for the People and the Press Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,508 American adults, conducted from Feb. 20 to Feb. 24, 2008. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

'Canadian car' a sign of prestige in Kabul

The Canadian Press March 10, 2008 KABUL - Canada likes to say it is the engine that drives Afghanistan's reconstruction, but it's the Afghan people who are in the driver's seat.

In Kabul, folks take that literally. Driving a so-called "Canadian car'' has become a symbol of prestige among residents of the Afghan capital.

While Canadians may associate Toyota with the Japanese, Volkswagen with the Germans and Ford with the Americans, all three are considered Canadian cars in Kabul.

All three do contain either parts made in Canada or are assembled in Canada.

Auto dealers in Kabul do a brisk business importing cars from Canada that have been damaged in accidents or are used cars dealers were unable to sell.

Dealers say the cars weren't stolen but legitimately exported to Dubai. Dubai has long been considered a major destination for cars stolen in Canada and around the world.

Warlord under siege after 'kidnap and torture' of former ally

Independent, UK, By Kim Sengupta in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan
Tuesday, 11 March 2008

There is no one as colourful and controversial among the warlords of Afghanistan as General Abdul Rashid Dostum, a man of immense power and huge wealth whose name became synonymous with bloodshed and betrayal during the long years of conflict.

General Dostum, who once ruled a northern swath of the country with an iron fist is now under siege, with an arrest warrant against him and stripped of his post as chief of staff to the army commander.

A police attempt to arrest the warlord at his home in Kabul's diplomatic enclave of Wazir Akbar Khan ended in a stand-off with his bodyguards, armed with rocket-propelled grenades. But police freed four men being held hostage, among them Akbar Bai, a close ally of General Dostum before they fell out, and his son. They are in hospital with "serious injuries" including "internal damage".

Mr Bai, a leader of the country's Turkmen community, had accused General Dostum of a range of crimes, including plotting to lead an insurrection and the murder of opponents in the Turkmen community. The general and 70 of his men had seized him from his house in the same part of Kabul and, it is alleged, subjected him and his son to hours of torture.

After widespread public consternation over the incident, General Dostum said he would be willing to settle the matter through community elders, and he would ask President Hamid Karzai to intervene if legal proceedings are started against him. "What they are saying against me is wrong and designed to create instability in Afghanistan," he said. "The people who are saying this have hidden motives and they should be warned that this will have bad consequences."

But Mr Bai has made a formal complaint, saying the general "has committed a crime and must be punished if there is law and democracy in this country. This is on top of many other crimes he has committed".

The Attorney General, Abdul Jabar Sabat, who is said to have presidential ambitions and likes to portray himself standing up to strongmen, declared: "The case is that someone enters someone else's house in the middle of Kabul city 500 metres from the presidential palace, beats the people in that house, kidnaps them and abuses them. If the law is not implemented against such a person, it means there is no law at all. If General Dostum knew there was the certainty of the law being implemented, he would not dare to have done it."

President Karzai said: "This culture of impunity has to stop. I can live with undue influence, because it is part of this arrangement we have. But we cannot tolerate and protect criminals, or the whole arrangement will lose its moral existence. We are running out of options."

General Dostum is now in his base at Shibirghan in the north, where his private army is being rearmed, and supporters hold daily demonstrations threatening an uprising unless the arrest warrant against him is revoked and his official powers are restored. The Uzbek, physically a big, bear-like man, is said to be feeling isolated. Increasingly, to the worry of his staff, he is drinking vodka heavily.

But his remarkable ability to survive and bounce back from reverses cannot be underestimated. The man who started as a farm labourer and styled himself the "new Tamerlane", had in his time managed to switch sides repeatedly between the Russians, Afghan- istan's communist government, the Mujahedin, the Taliban, the Northern Alliance of Ahmed Shah Masud and the Americans, successfully playing off one against the other.

Abdul Rashid Dostum, Afghan strongman

* General Dostum is accused of responsibility for the worst atrocity in the 2001 war on the Taliban, when an estimated 400 Taliban prisoners suffocated in containers on their way to Shibirgan prison run by the warlord in northern Afghanistan.

* The journalist Ahmed Rashid noticed pieces of flesh on the ground during a visit to General Dostum's headquarters near Mazar-i-Sharif. Rashid asked a guard whether a goat had just been slaughtered for a meal, and was told that the remains were, in fact, those of a soldier who had been caught stealing. General Dostum had ordered him to be tied to the tracks of a tank which then drove around the courtyard shredding the body.

* General Dostum also reportedly said: "I am dying of these accusations from the international community. 'What is happening in Mazar with these mass killing? Why are you so cruel?'  If any one of my commanders commits these kinds of acts, I will kill him tomorrow."

Risky business: Afghan interpreters for U.S. put themselves in jeopardy

al.com, Alabama, By Michael Tomberlin 03/10/2008 GHAZNI, Afghanistan

Najib should have been killed by the Taliban. He still may be. "I'm not afraid," he said. "Let them do what they want."

That bravado probably comes from the fact that Najib has spent the past several months hiding out in his home in Kabul but has mustered up enough courage today to travel to Ghazni and visit his family and meet with me to tell his story.

Najib's only crime that makes him a target of the Taliban is that he once worked as an interpreter, a profession he is scared to return to, despite that it is one of the most lucrative jobs in this impoverished country.

He continues to get threatening letters and phone calls, never knowing if someone is waiting for him the next time he steps out his front door.

It happened before. Nearly three years ago, Najib was returning home from the gym when two guys with weapons stepped out of the shadows, tied his hands and forced him into a car.

"They told me, 'Hey, terp! This is your last night alive. Where you can flee from us?' That was a very bad time for me," Najib said.

He had every reason to expect they would follow through on their threats and kill him.

A friend of his from the Ghazni district of Andar was a terp for four years with the military. He told his family he was going to Iran (many terps don't tell their family about their chosen profession). Such secrecy didn't seem to matter when he came back home.

"After four years, on the first night he arrived back at his house he was killed by someone with a knife," Najib said.

In the 10 months I have been in Ghazni, at least five terps have been killed in this and surrounding provinces. If rumors are to be believed, the bounty the Taliban pays for killing a terp is second in value only to that for U.S. soldiers.

Najib was fortunate not to join the ranks of murdered terps. A U.S. operation near the house where kidnappers were holding him caused his captors to flee. The owner of the house told him to make a run for it, which he did by scampering through the desert for two days and two nights with no food and water.

Since then, the Taliban hasn't given up. They continue to threaten him and his family, even though only his older brother knows that he has worked as an interpreter. His father was brutally beaten when the Taliban came to his home in search of Najib.

In the short time he worked as a terp, Najib only spent three months working with the military. The rest of the time was spent working with non-government organizations here to try to help the Afghan people.

When he spent several months helping once such group train school teachers, the Taliban accused him of working with the U.S. Special Forces instead. He felt forced to give up his work there, a job he loved.

"I was very happy because I was helping our people," Najib said. "Every human that has a feeling wants to help other people, either his people or other people. It can improve the society."

He doubts he will ever be a terp again, unless the security situation improves in this country. For now, he wants to work as an electrician while he attends college, but even that is difficult to do as long as the threats continue.

Two months ago, Najib received another phone call. "You flee from us? This will be the last time for you! I will get you back," came an angry voice on the other end of the phone.

Those making the threats said they will stop for 500,000 afghani (more than $11,600), money Najib said would be impossible to get even if he tried.

"Most days I'm staying at home," Najib said. "If I stay at home, how will be my future?"

Afghanistan's future and its present depend on the work of interpreters. Those of us whose mission is to improve the Afghanistan National Army and Afghanistan National Police simply could not function without our terps. The same is true of many others in the military as well as the charities and organizations whose members work tirelessly to try to make improvements to this troubled country.

Being a terp is a risky job. It is also lucrative. There are nearly 2,000 interpreters working in Afghanistan for the nation's primary employer of terps. A translator can make from $400 to $925 per month, depending on their skills and the part of the country they work in.

That's nearly double to five-times the average monthly income in Afghanistan, where 35 percent of the population makes less than $100 per month. The high end of the terp pay scale is close to what members of the Afghan Parliament make, not counting bribery and corruption.

The terps who work with us at Camp Vulcan admit the high pay causes them to look past the dangers. But they also believe the job is helping to make their country better.

Like many terps, most of ours first learned English while attending school in Pakistan where their families fled during the Soviet invasion. Some don't tell their families about their jobs.

Most wear disguises when they are out with us on missions - usually consisting of hats and sunglasses. I have even made fake business cards for the terps in case they are stopped by a Taliban checkpoint traveling between home and Camp Vulcan.

Most of our terps have been working long before we got here and have more than earned our trust. Letting terps carry weapons is a judgment call among U.S. forces, though we allow it. Many terps wear Army uniforms, bullet-proof vests and helmets.

Last summer, one of our terps killed two Taliban fighters while working with the ANA. Another of our terps has survived three IED strikes while traveling with us in our Humvees.

Those risks are on top of those they and their families face simply for the profession they have chosen. The Taliban have declared any terps assisting Americans as no longer being a true Muslim or a true Afghan. For the terps, such words ring hollow coming from terrorists who claim to practice a religion of peace and fill their ranks with fighters from Iran, Pakistan and other countries.

Terps not only work and live alongside us, they also become our friends. Most soldiers go out of their way to help their terps and their families with gifts and support.

I have written letters of recommendation for some of our terps seeking one of the 500 U.S. visas awarded to terps from Afghanistan and Iraq each year. I do so wanting to help my friends, but concerned I am also aiding in draining this nation of some of its best and brightest citizens at a time when Afghanistan could really use them.

But in the end, I know the interpreters have already done so much for their country in the face of great dangers. They should feel no shame for chasing a dream across the ocean - a new life where they are not constantly looking over their shoulder or worried that today will be the day the Taliban attacks their family just because they were doing their job.

Michael Tomberlin is a major in the Alabama Army National Guard deployed in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and a reporter with The Birmingham News. This is another in a series of dispatches from his yearlong tour there. E-mail: mafmtomberlin@msn.com ; Blog: http://blog.al.com/afghanistan The names of the interpreters in this story have been changed for their protection.

Lost in Afghanistan

The Guardian, uk 03/10/2008 By Alan Johnson

The international community is unwilling to make the necessary effort, but there may still be a glimmer of hope

Nato is "not winning" in Afghanistan, failure would be a catastrophe, and time is running out. That was the message of three reports published in January by the Afghan Study Group, Oxfam and the Atlantic Council.

Little wonder. "Winning" in Afghanistan, according to Anja Havedal, a member of the aid community in Kabul, means defeating a fascistic Taliban, corrupt warlords and narco-barons in a country that ranks 174th out of 178 in the world development index and which has known war for almost 30 years. "Winning", then, demands we "rebuild houses and roads, bring 20m people out of starvation and unemployment, establish the rule of law, revive a largely dead economy, wipe out corruption and crime, build hydropower plants and an electricity grid, educate generations of illiterates, and institute a capable and legitimate government able to mend and transcend ethnic rifts. All of this while fighting off a resurgent Taliban."

The meaning of the crisis in Afghanistan is this: almost no part of the international community - international institutions, national governments, intellectuals or electorates - is prepared for that kind of effort. Left, right and centre have each failed Afghanistan in their own way.

The political left sits on its hands and sneers. Afghanistan is viewed through a "blame America first" prism. The political centre vacillates. Yearning for a 911 response to 9/11, seeking human security in covenants and aid, it has turned Nato into a two-tier alliance. Germany, Spain and Italy insist their troops play only non-combat roles.

These failings of the political left and centre reflect a wider cultural problem in western electorates. After Kuwait and the Balkans, western publics thought of force as high-tech, casualty-free (for us), locally-welcomed (mostly) and over-by-Christmas. It was the "end of history" - Kant's perpetual peace beckoned. But 9/11 marked the return of history, and what military historian Victor Davis Hanson calls "the filth, confusion, and barbarity of the battlefield". Many have struggled to cope with this reversal. There has been a rush to pacifism, anti-Americanism and occidentalism.

The failure of the right is very different. The US knocked over the Taliban with daisy-cutters and the grisly Northern Alliance - and then left, saying "we don't do nation-building". It's not just that the US has launched no Marshall Plan. It does not even have a special envoy to Afghanistan. The deployment of an extra 3,200 US marines is a sign the administration has finally grasped how bad things have got.

Left, right and centre have failed to understand that we are fighting fourth-generation wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fourth-generation wars, first defined by Mao, consist of low-tech insurgencies that deploy superior political will and dense local networks, to defeat superior military and economic firepower. It aims to raise the price of winning until the enemy loses the political will to fight. And this begins on the home front. However, while the only kind of wars the US loses are 4GW (Vietnam, Lebanon, and Somalia), one theorist, Colonel Thomas X Hammes, points out that "it has been largely absent from the debate within the US Department of Defense".

But a progressive alternative may be emerging. You can glimpse it where David Petraeus's successful counterinsurgency in Iraq meets David Miliband's celebration of "the global civilian surge" (a phrase that seems to have emerged from conversations between Petreaus and Miliband).

An odd couple? Perhaps not. Petraeus's PhD was supervised by the leftist Richard Falk. After reading the Human Security Doctrine that Mary Kaldor and others prepared for Javier Solana, Petreaus responded with a hand-written note, saying "Spot on!" Miliband has inherited not only the "doctrine of the international community" of the late 1990s but a long anti-totalitarian Labour tradition going back to Ernest Bevin in the 1940s.

Afghanistan comes full circle as NATO seeks Russian help

ChronicleHerald.ca, Canada, By SCOTT TAYLOR On Target Mon. Mar 10

ONE OF THE most ironic twists to the ongoing mission in Afghanistan emerged from the NATO meetings held in Brussels last week. With member countries either reluctant or unable to add military resources, NATO is now seeking assistance from Russia, its erstwhile Cold War enemy and one-time "evil occupier" of Afghanistan. In fact, the irony is so thick that we should first roll back decades’ worth of propaganda and start at the very beginning.

NATO was formed in 1949 as a collective self-defence alliance to prevent any encroachment of the Soviet Union into Western Europe. The Soviets responded to this by creating their own defensive coalition of Communist countries (the Warsaw Pact) to protect them from any eastward expansion of NATO’s influence. The nuclear arms race was at its zenith and even Europeans, still recovering from the massive destruction and carnage of the Second World War, understood the importance of maintaining large conventional armies. Troops and tanks were regarded as a preferable deterrent to an apocalyptic mushroom cloud.

The impasse that resulted in Europe did not prevent the U.S. and Soviets from waging war by proxy in non-aligned Third World countries around the world. Afghanistan, in fact, became a key battleground for the CIA and the KGB. Since it bordered the Soviet Union’s central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, the U.S. knew that Moscow could not afford to ignore events in impoverished and underdeveloped Afghanistan.

Throughout the ’50s and ’60s, Soviet engineers undertook several major infrastructure projects in Afghanistan, including the construction of the Salang tunnel through the Hindu Kush Mountains, which provided the first viable access between the country’s northern and southern provinces. A full-scale program was introduced to train Afghan army officers and a large number of economic aid packages were extended to Kabul’s Communist government.

The Americans decided things were going a little too smoothly for the Kremlin, so they decided to stir things up a little. By arming and funding Afghan Muslim extremists who were already resisting the social changes, the Americans sought to draw the Soviets into a full-scale military intervention. By 1979 events had escalated to the point where the instability, lawlessness and flourishing drug trade along their shared border could no longer be ignored by the Kremlin. Following a coup staged by the KGB in Kabul, the newly appointed Afghan Communist president invited Soviet troops to deploy a security assistance force to help him stabilize Afghanistan.

It would have been high-fives all around for the CIA planners watching the Soviet tank columns rolling south through the Salang tunnel. The Russian bear had taken the bait and put his paw squarely on the American trap. On the surface, the U.S. vehemently denounced the invasion of Afghanistan and in protest they pulled their athletes out of the 1980 Moscow Olympics. Behind the scenes, the U.S. ramped up military aid to the Afghan guerrillas and assisted in bringing in foreign mujahedeen fighters — such as a young Saudi Arabian zealot named Osama bin Laden — to bleed the Soviets white.

The stated objectives of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan were to provide a secure environment, equality for women, a centralized education and medical system, and the training of a self-sufficient Afghan army. While this may sound eerily similar to the current wish list for the NATO coalition in Afghanistan, a friend of mine at the American embassy was quick to point out one fundamental difference: "The (Soviets) were Communists," he emphatically stated, as if that in itself made any further explanation unnecessary.

The U.S. plan worked like a charm and by the time the last of the Russian troops retreated out of Afghanistan in 1989, they had left behind 50,000 dead comrades, the Moscow treasury was bankrupt and the Soviet Union was in a state of dissolution. The U.S.-equipped Afghan warlords finally triumphed over the Communist regime in Kabul and then turned on each other in an orgy of destruction and bloodletting. Whatever Soviet-built infrastructure was still intact in Kabul in 1996 was destroyed when the Taliban movement forced the mujahedeen warlords north of the Hindu Kush.

In the wake of 9-11, the planners in the White House must have suffered from short-term memory loss as they rushed to throw their troops into the very same trap they had built to destroy the Soviets. After using military force to topple the Taliban, the Americans appointed Hamid Karzai as president. His first act as leader was to invite the U.S.-led coalition to deploy a security assistance force to prop up his regime.

Unlike the Soviets, the Americans didn’t need to deploy in support of this request — they were already on the ground.

Now into the seventh year of their occupation and with the American economy on the point of collapse, NATO is looking to Russia for help in transporting troops and equipment into Afghanistan. With the skyrocketing oil prices boosting the Russian ruble to dizzy new heights and no one asking for their troops to fight and die in Afghanistan, it would seem that the wheel of fate has turned a full circle.

If you want to drive this point home, go out and rent an old copy of Rambo III. That’s the sequel wherein Sylvester Stallone fights alongside the guerrillas, and the final credits dedicate the movie to "the brave mujahedeen in Afghanistan."

I kid you not.

Afghan girl painter aspires for self-reliance in post-Taliban society

Xinhua, China, www.chinaview.cn By Zhang Yunlong 2008-03-10 KABUL

"Now I am economically independent and can support myself and my parents with income from selling my paintings and offering training courses," said Houlia Hussaini, a girl painter of 18, at Kabul, capital of post-Taliban Afghanistan.

The hard-line Taliban during its reign from 1996 to 2001 had forbidden women from leaving home without a male escort and girls from attending schools.

Six years on since the Taliban regime collapse, today's Afghanistan has seen an increasing number of women becoming independent in terms of economy through their own wisdom and hands, like making decoration kits, dresses, and painting.

Houlia was excited about the latest women artist works exhibition at a Kabul high school where her painting works were displayed.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has visited the exhibition marking the March 8 Women's Day to pass on good wishes for his female citizens, who during the era of Taliban rule mostly were confined to their homes and not allowed to work outside.

Among Houlia's around two dozens of works being displayed are catchy ones featuring a damaged huge Buddha of Bamiyan, French Emperor Napoleon sitting on a jumping horse, an oil copy of a famous press photo on an Afghan girl, and even a water color copy of Karzai's portrait.

She has been working as a painter in Kabul since her parents moved the family back four years ago from years-long overseas refugee life.

"My painting is sold for 60 to 100 U.S. dollars, even several hundred dollars each," said Houlia. Pointing to the oil paint featuring an Afghan girl staring forward, she said, "This is among my favorite and will be sold for as many as 2,000 dollars."

Houlia, a high school student herself, now also teaches 15 students aged 15 to 20 plus to paint and each student pays her five dollars each month as tuition fee.

Around 11 years ago, Houlia's parents with all their children, residents in northern Afghan province Balkh on the Uzbek border, fled their war-torn motherland to seek a life as refugees in Iran when Houlia was only seven.

Under permission from her father, Houlia initiated learning painting out of natural interest as young as eight in Iran.

"My Iranian painting teacher told me that a painter needs financial support to make himself able to continue painting," Houlia recalled. Two years ahead of her return to Afghanistan, Houlia in Iran had already started selling pictures for 10 dollars each to support her jobless parents.

"For a woman, or a female painter like me, to be able to support herself economically is important," she said, hinting that a change in economic status will bring confidence and improved social status for women.

"Obviously, she is a talented painter," said Ghulam Nabi, 40, a male painter whose works were also displayed at the Kabul exhibition.

"Though professionally, she needs improving in painting out of her own mind, rather than mainly through copying," Ghulam added, referring to the fact that a majority of Houlia's displayed items are repainting of existing works of others.

About Afghan women's social role, Ghulam, also author of a piece of water color featuring a light blue burqa-covered woman holding a caged bird, stressed, "Women need bravery to break the cage, or the fetters imposed on them by others."

Houlia said currently she faced no disagreement or criticism from the neighborhood on her job.

Optimistic about future, Houlia said she wanted to be offered a scholarship for overseas further education.

"I prefer going to Iran to learn again if I have that luck," she said.

[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.]