Make of them what you will, dear readers.
"Witnesses say Chinook was ablaze when it crashed; Coalition finishes recovering bodies, parts of wreckage" by Deb Riechmann, Associated Press, / August 12, 2011
KABUL - Also yesterday, five US troops were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, a NATO service member died in a roadside bomb blast and five Afghan policemen were killed when their checkpoint was attacked by Taliban insurgents, the coalition and Afghan police said.
The latest deaths, which raised to 374 the number of international forces killed this year, underscored the tenuous nature of the war.
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"Eight NATO service members have been killed in the past two days of fighting in Afghanistan....
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"Attacks kill 22 in Afghan province" August 15, 2011|By Amir Shah, Associated Press
CHARIKAR, Afghanistan - Six suicide bombers attacked a governor’s security meeting in one of Afghanistan’s most secure provinces, killing 22 people and driving home the point that the Taliban is able to strike at will virtually anywhere in the country....
The attacks in and close to the capital raise more questions about Afghanistan’s ability to defend itself as the US-led coalition hands more of the country over to its struggling forces....
In a separate development, NATO announced that three service members were killed yesterday in two separate improvised bomb attacks. The international coalition did not release any further details about the deaths....
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Related: Eight killed in separate attacks in Afghanistan
That's not what came up, was it?
Hey, what's one more obfuscating aberration anyway?
"Motorcycle bomb kills 8 in southern Afghan market" August 17, 2011|By Mirwais Khan, Associated Press
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A bomb planted on a motorcycle exploded in a vegetable market in southern Afghanistan yesterday, killing eight people at dusk as residents broke their daily fast for the holy month of Ramadan, authorities said....
The blast was the latest in a series of attacks in the turbulent south, where the Taliban are pushing back against a concerted campaign from US and NATO troops to quell the insurgency.
In neighboring Kandahar province, a gunman killed a woman who works for the Afghan government as she was on her way to work in Kandahar city....
Insurgents regularly target government workers or women who attend school or work in offices.
Also yesterday, NATO said that one of its cargo planes collided with a surveillance drone in eastern Afghanistan a day earlier....
We have so many f***ing planes in the air they are hitting each other!
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"Afghan insurgent declared a terrorist; Action freezes his assets, could mean travel ban" August 17, 2011|By Bradley Klapper, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration designated a key insurgent commander in southeastern Afghanistan as a terrorist yesterday, freezing any assets he has in the United States and barring Americans from doing business with him.
The State Department said Mullah Sangeen Zadran is the shadow governor of Paktika province in southeastern Afghanistan and a commander in the Haqqani network.
Oh, the Haqqanis!
"Haqqani.... credited with introducing suicide bombing to the region.... cultivated as a "unilateral" asset of the CIA and received tens of thousands of dollars in cash for his work.... He may have had a role in expediting the escape of Osama Bin Laden.... In July 2008, CIA officials confronted Pakistan officials with evidence of ties between Inter-Services Intelligence and Haqqani. Haqqani has been accused of involvement in the 2008 Indian embassy bombing in Kabul.... The Haqqani Network is based in Pakistan and is believed to have links to Al Qaeda."
CIA must have turned on 'em. Who knows who the Haqqanis are working for now. Maybe just themselves.
A prepared statement said Sangeen leads fighters in attacks and has helped hundreds of foreign fighters enter Afghanistan. It also linked him to bombings and kidnappings of Afghans and foreigners in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Sangeen was also designated a terrorist by the UN, meaning he should be subject to a global travel ban, asset freeze, and arms embargo. The Haqqani network has ties to both Al Qaeda and the Taliban and has emerged as one of the biggest threats to stability in Afghanistan....
Sangeen appears to be the same individual whom US-led forces claimed to have killed in an operation in 2007. The coalition said at the time that Sangeen was second-in-command to Siraj Haqqani and that he was responsible for roadside bombings and other attacks.
Isn't it ironic? U.S. claims to have killed all these guys that keep popping up while bin Laden was dead long ago and they kept trotting him out until May.
The Treasury Department designated four other individuals yesterday as terrorists subject to US sanctions. They include Mumtaz Dughmush, a Palestinian. Dughmush was targeted for leading the Gaza-based Army of Islam, a shadowy extremist Muslim group that draws inspiration from Al Qaeda though it is not believed to have operational links.
Which "Al-CIA-Duh" would that be again?
The United States declared the Army of Islam a terrorist organization in May.
Under Dughmush’s leadership, the organization has shot rockets at Israel, kidnapped an American and British journalist, and killed Egyptian civilians in 2009 attacks on Cairo and Heliopolis, the State Department said.
And he is NOT HAMAS!
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Yeah, where are those rockets coming from again?
"Corruption toll on Afghan contracts put at $360m; Task force says US funds lost to Taliban, crime" August 18, 2011|By Deb Riechmann and Richard Lardner, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - After examining hundreds of combat support and reconstruction contracts in Afghanistan, the US military estimates that $360 million in US tax dollars has ended up in the hands of people the American-led coalition has spent nearly a decade battling: the Taliban, criminals, and power brokers with ties to both.
Sure is a GOOD WAY to keep a WAR GOING, huh?
The losses underscore the challenges the United States and its international partners face in overcoming corruption in Afghanistan.
Related:
“I think that in the next days, the government of Afghanistan’s response to anticorruption efforts are a key test of its ability to regain the confidence of the.... American people [who] are prepared to support with hard-earned tax dollars and with most importantly, with the treasure of our country — the lives of young American men and women.... and say, ‘Hey, that’s something worth dying for.’ ’’
Is it?
A central part of the Obama administration’s strategy has been to award US-financed contracts to Afghan businesses to help improve quality of life and stoke the country’s economy....
When is he going to stoke ours?
In a murky process known as “reverse money laundering,’’ payments from the United States pass through companies hired by the military for transportation, construction, power projects, fuel, and other services to businesses and individuals with ties to the insurgency or criminal networks, according to interviews and task force documents....
Related:
"many of the details of how the accident unfolded remain murky"
"the truth lies buried in the murky world of spies."
See: They Don't Want Your Blood Money
Why Am I No Longer Reading the Newspaper?
Seeing through the murk yet?
The conclusions by Task Force 2010 represent the most definitive assessment of how US military spending and aid to Afghanistan has been diverted to the enemy or stolen. Only a small percentage of the $360 million has been garnered by the Taliban and insurgent groups, said a senior US military official in Kabul. The bulk of the money was lost to profiteering, bribery, and extortion by criminals and power brokers, said the official....
Your tax money, America.
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Also see: US acts to curb Afghan contract corruption
Yeah, sure: U.S. Paying Taliban For Protection
And they are JUST FINE WITH IT!
I'll tell you how to stop the corruption: quit wasting money on wars.
"24 civilians die in Afghan attacks; 70-year-old man said to carry out another bombing" August 19, 2011|By Rod Nordland, New York Times
KABUL - A series of attacks by insurgents in recent days killed numerous civilians but for the most part failed against military targets.
"Now stop and think here for a moment. All revolutions depend on public support. Revolutionaries try to first win the people before they take on the government. So, no revolutionary goes out and murders civilians in cold blood. Did Washington and his men just mow down a marketplace of their fellow colonials for the heck of it? No, they did not. Washington and the Founding Fathers knew that their revolution to build a new country needed the support of those who would live in that country. This is true for every revolution in history. Therefore, these acts of terror being blamed on the insurgency must all be fakes, committed by intelligence agencies working for the governments to be blamed on the insurgents in order to destroy public support for the revolution." -- Wake the Flock Up
As many as 24 civilians were killed and eight wounded yesterday morning when two mines planted on a road in western Herat Province exploded, Afghan officials said.
Also yesterday, a suicide bomber in a car filled with explosives tried to break through the gates of Forward Operating Base Gardez in eastern Paktia Province, but it exploded before entering, killing two Afghan security guards and wounding nine civilian laborers, apparently as they arrived for work.
The Taliban said the suicide bomber was a 70-year-old man and claimed that the blast killed 27 foreign soldiers on the largely US base, but a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said there were no reports of coalition casualties there.
The attacks reflect a growing trend over the past two years in which the great majority of civilian casualties have been caused by the Taliban and their allied insurgent groups....
And yet they are branching out and have more support than ever.
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"Taliban suicide bombers kill 8 in attack at British compound" August 20, 2011|By Amir Shah and Deb Riechmann, Associated Press
KABUL - Taliban suicide bombers stormed the compound of a British cultural organization in an upscale Kabul neighborhood shortly after dawn yesterday, killing eight people as two English-language teachers and their bodyguard hid in a locked room during the eight-hour firefight.
Even if you take all this at face value it explodes the we are winning lies.
The assault came on the 92d anniversary of Afghanistan’s independence from Britain, and the Taliban described it as a warning to outsiders in the nearly decade-long war. The insurgents also hope to show that they remain a potent force despite taking heavy casualties from last year’s buildup of US and NATO troops.
Still, the attack ended up killing mostly Afghans....
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"Bus runs off road, killing 35 riders
KABUL - A passenger bus drove off a road in southern Afghanistan yesterday, killing 35 people, officials said. The packed bus was traveling through Kandahar Province on its way to Kabul before losing control and crashing, said provincial spokesman Zalmai Ayubi. He said 27 people were injured in the crash. Also yesterday, insurgent attacks across the country killed five people (AP)."
"Afghan women doubt gains despite role on peace council" August 14, 2011|By Kevin Sieff, Washington Post
KABUL - The nine women appointed last year to negotiate with the Taliban were ready to confront the architects of Afghanistan’s most repressive regime. But they were not prepared for a slew of unlikely critics: the very women they claim to represent.
The Afghan government, along with the United States and other foreign powers, has shifted its focus toward an endgame for the war that could involve a deal with insurgents. That strategy has created a rift between President Hamid Karzai’s High Peace Council - whose nine women and 60 men are charged with directing Taliban negotiations - and the leaders of Afghanistan’s nascent women’s rights movement.
Yes, notice HOW LITTLE we see TALK of PEACE in the WAR PAPER?
At the heart of the debate: how to preserve the gains of the past 10 years during talks with the notoriously ruthless group.
Men. Can't live with 'em, can't live with 'em. Good thing AmeriKa is kicking down doors and dragging them into prisons or dropping missiles and bombs on villages and liberating the women into the afterlife.
Since the fall of the Taliban government in late 2001, girls’ schools have reopened, women have won public office, and the burqa is no longer part of a state-enforced dress code. But with the Taliban expected to join a negotiating table where women are vastly outnumbered and outranked, many fear for the future. Female Peace Council members, like Najia Zewari, find themselves on the defensive.
So we must never leave, America.
“The women on the council - we want to know that the Taliban will respect our rights, that progress will continue,’’ Zewari said. “We also want the women of Afghanistan to know that we can be their voice.’’
The women of Afghanistan are not convinced.
The men Karzai appointed to the council in October include former warlords and onetime Taliban members. The women are former teachers, activists, and politicians, each with horror stories about life under Taliban rule from 1996 until 2001, and injustices they hope to relegate to the past.
Related:
"The U.S. government was well aware of the Taliban's reactionary program, yet it chose to back their rise to power in the mid-1990s. The creation of the Taliban was "actively encouraged by the ISI and the CIA," according to Selig Harrison, an expert on U.S. relations with Asia. "The United States encouraged Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to support the Taliban, certainly right up to their advance on Kabul," adds respected journalist Ahmed Rashid. When the Taliban took power, State Department spokesperson Glyn Davies said that he saw "nothing objectionable" in the Taliban's plans to impose strict Islamic law, and Senator Hank Brown, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on the Near East and South Asia, welcomed the new regime: "The good part of what has happened is that one of the factions at last seems capable of developing a new government in Afghanistan." "The Taliban will probably develop like the Saudis. There will be Aramco [the consortium of oil companies that controlled Saudi oil], pipelines, an emir, no parliament and lots of Sharia law. We can live with that," said another U.S. diplomat in 1997."
Say what?
Together, Karzai said, they could help integrate “our Taliban brothers’’ into a coalition government.
The presence of women on the panel is further proof, Western officials have said, that the panel is concerned with the rights of all Afghans.
But when the council first met, the nine female members were quickly marginalized.
“The men said, ‘Hi, how are you?’ And then they ignored us. We had no voice,’’ Zewari said.
Sounds like your typical American marriage.
Members of the High Peace Council have had several conversations with Taliban officials, but negotiations have not formally begun, according to several members of the panel. The Taliban, for its part, publicly denies that such talks have occurred.
“We’re trying to get to a point where both sides can agree on the framework of reconciliation,’’ a senior member said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The council’s female members have not been allowed to take part in the initial talks, leaving them exposed to allegations by their fellow women that their presence on the council is merely for show.
“These people do not represent the women of Afghanistan. They’re negotiating for our rights - for my rights, for the rights of my daughters - from a position of weakness,’’ said Fauzia Kofi, a member of Parliament.
Karzai has said that women’s rights would not be sacrificed in the peace process. But the lopsided composition of the High Peace Council and the early experience of its female members have cast doubt on that assurance.
“With the current negotiations, the Karzai government is compromising our rights,’’ said Suraya Parlika, head of the All Afghan Women’s Union, an advocacy group. “The talks are too soon. They’re too rushed. The women on the council are his pawns.’’
Leading men on the council say their female counterparts have unrealistic expectations.
“They want to go as a group of women to meet with Mullah (Mohammad) Omar. But that’s just not possible. If they go, they will be killed,’’ said Ataullah Luddin, the council’s deputy director, referring to the Taliban leader.
Under the Taliban, Zewari worked discreetly with impoverished Afghan women. She was harassed, robbed, and beaten.
“I told myself I would not give up. I would work for a peaceful Afghanistan where there’s room for women,’’ Zewari said. “That means sitting down with the Taliban.’’
Many see danger in such reasoning. Once in power, the Taliban could resume its horrific treatment of women, regardless of the terms of any peace deal.
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Sorry, folks, I got a date.
Good night.
