Afghanistan

All Afghan Detainees Likely Tortured: Diplomat

Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin waits to testify before the Commons Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan on Parliament Hill in Ottawa November 18, 2009. (REUTERS/Chris Wattie)

All detainees transferred by Canadians to Afghan prisons were likely tortured by Afghan officials and many of the prisoners were innocent, says a former senior diplomat with Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

Appearing before a House of Commons committee Wednesday, Richard Colvin blasted the detainees policies of Canada and compared them with the policies of the British and the Netherlands.

The detainees were captured by Canadian soldiers then handed over to the Afghan intelligence service, called the NDS.

Posted in torture, Afghanistan

'For Afghans, There Is No Refuge'

An Afghan girl who works at a carpet-weaving firm takes a break from helping other children in a small compound in Kabul. Poverty and corruption are driving the war in Afghanistan, says a new survey released by British charity Oxfam and local organisations on the eve of President Hamid Karzai's inauguration. (AFP/File/Romeo Gacad)

For most of her life, the young Afghan woman was fleeing war. But everywhere she went it stalked her.

"She was very quiet and shy, and you could barely hear her speak," said Ashley Jackson of Oxfam. "When the civil war began in the early 1990s, she left Kabul and went to the border. But her son was killed by a rocket attack.

"She went to Pakistan and lived in a refugee settlement, and her daughter was taken by a man who wanted her. When the Taliban fell and the family finally got back to Kabul, her husband was killed.

Nato Chief Promises Afghanistan Will Get 'Substantially More Forces'

Afghan children laugh as NATO French Foreign Legion soldiers deploy for operation Avallon in the Tagab Valley, some 50 kilometers east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday Nov. 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay) Nato and its allies will order "substantially more forces" into battle in Afghanistan over the next few weeks, the alliance's secretary general said today.

Speaking in Edinburgh at a Nato parliamentary assembly meeting, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said: "In a few weeks, I expect we will decide, in Nato, on the approach, and troop levels needed, to take our mission forward."

Rift in US War Cabinet as Obama Throws out All Options in Debate Over Troop Surge

A US soldier walks past the flags of NATO member countries at a \"Veterans Day\" ceremony at Camp Eggers in Kabul. (AFP/File/Massoud Hossaini)

Two leaked classified cables from the US Ambassador in Kabul voicing grave concern about sending more American troops to Afghanistan have exposed open conflict inside President Obama’s national security team over his war strategy.

The contents of the cables, passed to The Washington Post and The New York Times yesterday by three officials, also highlighted growing uncertainty inside the White House about how to prosecute the war, amid deep concerns over the corruption of Hamid Karzai’s Government.

Official: Obama Wants His War Options Changed

US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry during a press conference in Kabul in October 2009. The US envoy to Afghanistan has warned against sending thousands more troops to the country as President Barack Obama weights strategy options in the eight-year conflict, reports said Thursday.
(AFP/Massoud Hossaini)

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.

That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official.

Afghan Future Threatened by Ex-Warlords in Gov't

\"Chairman Karzai, I reaffirm to you today that the United States will continue to be a friend to the Afghan people in all the challenges that lie ahead,\" said then-President Bush in his remarks during a joint press conference. (White House photo by Paul Morse, 28 January 2002)

KABUL - Warlords helped drive the Russians from Afghanistan, then shelled Kabul into ruins in a bloody civil war after the Soviets left.

Now they are back in positions of power, in part because the U.S. relied on them in 2001 to help oust the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks. President Hamid Karzai later reached out to them to shore up his own power base as America turned its attention to Iraq after the Taliban's rout.

Posted in Politics, Afghanistan

US Fed Up With Troops Dying to Prop Up Karzai

\"Democracy?\" asked a Kabul cabbie during a local television phone-in. \"That's an American euphemism for occupation.\" (AFP/File/John D Mchugh)

It seems that Hamid Karzai just can't be trusted on his own.

When he breasted the microphone at the presidential palace on October 20, to make an oblique admission that he attempted to steal the election and would go along with the second poll which he had resisted for weeks, he was flanked by a high-powered international posse - lest he depart from the agreed script.

On one side was the US senator John Kerry; on the other, the United Nations special envoy Kai Eide; and riding shotgun were the British and French ambassadors.

Posted in Afghanistan

Afghans Protest Against US After Missile Strike

Afghan children watch a line of cars carrying dead bodies as they arrive to Lashkar Gah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009. Villagers in southern Afghanistan claimed an overnight air strike by international forces killed several civilians, including children. (AP Photo/Abdul Khaleq)

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan - Angry Afghan villagers protested Thursday against what they said was the killing of 11 civilians by foreign troops, but local authorities said only fighters were killed.

The NATO-led force said it had fired a rocket from the ground at a group it believed to be planting a roadside bomb in Babaji in Helmand province. It said it was not aware of any civilians in the area and was investigating the incident.

UN to Evacuate 600 Foreign Staff From Afghanistan

United Nations employees carry their colleague's coffin at a ceremony at Kabul Airport on November 3. The United Nations says it is evacuating more than half its international staff from Afghanistan after a deadly Taliban attack on a guest house for UN workers. (AFP/Shah Marai)

KABUL - The United Nations announced on Thursday it will evacuate more than half its international staff based in Afghanistan after a deadly Taliban attack on a guest house for UN workers.

But the UN said it had no intention of abandoning Afghanistan, where 100,000 US-led foreign troops are battling a bloody insurgency eight years after the extremist Taliban regime was driven from power.

About 600 expatriate staff, from a total of 1,100 foreigners, will be temporarily relocated either within Afghanistan or abroad, UN spokesman Dan McNorton told AFP.

Posted in Afghanistan

US Voices Alarm at Level of Afghan Corruption

A torn election poster of Afghan President Hamid Karzai is seen in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009. Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's challenger in the recent presidential election said Wednesday that the current government cannot bring legitimacy to the troubled nation and will not be able to rein in corruption. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

WASHINGTON - Top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen expressed serious concern Wednesday over corruption in the Afghan government, warning President Hamid Karzai to crack down on offenders.

"We are extremely concerned about the level of corruption and the legitimacy of this government," Mullen told reporters. "It's far too much endemic."

Newly re-elected Karzai "has got to take significant steps to eliminate corruption," the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff warned.

Posted in Afghanistan
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