"High turnout, low violence buoy Afghans; Elections called success; results due April 24" by Matthew Rosenberg and Jawad Sukhanyar | New York Times April 07, 2014
KABUL — After enduring months of Taliban attacks and days of security clampdowns, Afghans reveled Sunday in the apparent success of this weekend’s presidential election, as officials offered the first solid indications that the vote had far exceeded expectations....
Letting you know who are the "Taliban" so often cited in my paper.
Who does this glowing propaganda benefit, folks?
At least some of the votes are expected to be disqualified for fraud, but if the numbers hold up, they would buttress anecdotal accounts of Afghans voting in large numbers Saturday....
Okay, when the AmeriKan media reaches for the anecdotal word it means they are peddling bullshit and the fraud is much more “significant” than is being reported.
High turnout would represent a sharp public repudiation of the Taliban, which had pledged to disrupt the election and had warned Afghans to stay away from the polls.
Though the insurgents did manage a number of high-profile attacks in the weeks before the election — striking a voter registration center, the election commission headquarters, and Kabul’s only luxury hotel, among other targets — preliminary tallies indicated that millions of Afghans ignored those threats and that the limited violence on the day of the election did not keep people from voting.
Kabul bore the brunt of the preelection violence, and the city’s downtown emptied out in the days leading up the vote as Afghan forces set up numerous checkpoints, making it difficult for residents to go a few blocks without being questioned.
The security forces remained out in force Sunday, but the city felt transformed. Shops reopened and bazaars again bustled with commerce. Traffic was back to crawling along thoroughfares, and drivers were once again laying on their horns — an obnoxious habit in ordinary times, perhaps, but a welcome sound of normalcy Sunday....
A roadside bomb in the northern province of Kunduz killed three, but you know. Everything normal.
Afghan observers backed up the turnout numbers offered by election officials, as did Western diplomats, though the latter struck a more cautious tone. Both said some votes would invariably be thrown out because of fraud.
I thought they all left, at least, that's what I was told.
The question was how many. The 2009 election in Afghanistan was marred by widespread ballot stuffing and other fraud. Turnout that year was about 38 percent, and the memory of what happened that year still hovers here, giving many reason to hesitate before declaring this weekend’s vote an unqualified success....
In others words, rigged AmeriKan election approved. Now let's see who is going to be the next puppet.
--more--"
The New York Times doesn't hesitate:
"Afghan turnout high as voters defy the Taliban" by Rod Nordland and Azam Ahmed | New York Times April 06, 2014
KABUL — Defying a campaign of Taliban violence that unleashed 39 suicide bombers in the two months before Election Day, Afghan voters on Saturday turned out in such numbers to choose a new president and provincial councils that polling hours were extended nationwide.
Militants failed to mount a single major attack anywhere in Afghanistan by the time polls closed, and voters lined up despite heavy rain and cold in the capital and elsewhere.
“Whenever there has been a new king or president, it has been accompanied by death and violence,” said Abdul Wakil Amiri, a government official who turned out early to vote at a Kabul mosque. “For the first time, we are experiencing democracy.”
After 12 years with President Hamid Karzai in power, and decades of upheaval, coup, and war, Afghans on Saturday were for the first time voting on a relatively open field of candidates.
Election officials said that by midday more than 3.5 million voters had turned out — already approaching the total for the 2009 vote.
The fraud-marred thing?
The election commission chairman, Mohammad Yusuf Nuristani, said the total could reach 7 million. “The enemies of Afghanistan have been defeated,” he declared.
But even as they celebrated the outpouring of votes, many acknowledged the long process looming ahead, with the potential for problems all along the way.
International observers, many of whom had fled Afghanistan after a wave of attacks on foreigners during the campaign, cautioned that how those votes were tallied and reported would bear close watching.
It is likely to take at least a week before even incomplete official results are announced, and weeks more to adjudicate Election Day complaints. Some of the candidates were already filing fraud complaints Saturday.
I will be getting an article soon.
With eight candidates in the race, the five minor candidates’ shares of the vote made it even more difficult for any one candidate to reach the 50 percent threshold that would allow an outright victory. A runoff vote is unlikely to take place until the end of May at the earliest.
The leading candidates going into the vote were Ashraf Ghani, 64, a technocrat and former official in Karzai’s government; Abdullah Abdullah, 53, a former foreign minister who was the second biggest vote-getter against Karzai in the 2009 election; and Zalmai Rassoul, 70, another former foreign minister.
The favorite is a former World Bank official!
Both Ghani and Abdullah praised the vote. “A proud day for a proud nation,” Ghani said.
Still, a shortage of ballots at polling places was widespread across the country by midday Saturday, and some voters were in line when polls closed.
I don't like this ruining of the narrative! It's democracy, it's good, and the Afghans love it!
More worrisome, the threat of violence in many rural areas had forced election authorities to close nearly 1,000 out of a planned-for 7,500 polling places, raising fears that a big chunk of the electorate would remain disenfranchised — although in at least some of those areas voters were able to seek more secure voting places.
What is with all these "it was great vote, but" qualifications and caveats! WTF?
(Blog editor near tears)
But when it came to attacks on Election Day, the Taliban’s threats seemed to be greatly overstated. Only one suicide bombing attempt could be confirmed — in Khost — and the bomber managed to kill only himself when the police stopped him outside a polling place.
In three scattered attacks on polling places, four voters were reported killed. Two rockets fired randomly into the city of Jalalabad wounded three civilians, none of them even voting age. One border police officer, in southern Kandahar province, and another officer in Farah province were confirmed killed in Taliban attacks.
Overall, it was a lower casualty toll than a normal day in Afghanistan.
Yeah, what a success, huh?!!?
--more--"
So how is that vote-counting coming?
"Afghan hopefuls tallying own vote; Impatient over length of count" by Joshua Partlow | Washington Post April 08, 2014
KABUL — No major attacks were reported Saturday as Afghans voted for a new president and provincial councils. But on Monday a roadside bomb killed at least 15 people traveling in vehicles that had been diverted from a main road after an earlier suicide bombing targeting a NATO convoy in Kandahar province, the Associated Press reported.
Four other people were severely wounded and in critical condition. All the passengers were from Uruzgan province to the north of Kandahar and were apparently traveling home when the blast occurred in the Maywand district. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the earlier attack but blamed international forces for the roadside bombing, which caused no reported casualties.
Electoral officials have yet to announce an official results from the voting. Preliminary results from all the districts are not due until April 24, and final results are not scheduled to be announced until May 14.
Then we have a bit of a wait on our hands.
With a crowded field of eight candidates, nobody was expected to get the majority needed to win outright.
Which means a run-off.
--more--"
Since then there has been nothing but silence in my printed Boston Globe.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Suicide bomber kills tribal elder in Afghan market" | Associated Press April 12, 2014
KABUL — A suicide bomber blew himself up in a market Friday in eastern Afghanistan, killing a pro-government tribal elder and wounding three civilians, authorities said.
The explosion killed tribal elder Gul Babri at about 2 p.m. in the market of the Jani Khil district of Paktiya province, provincial government spokesman Mokhlis Afghan said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes after last week’s presidential election. The Taliban and other insurgents frequently target government officials and their allies in a bid to undermine efforts to forge stability in the country as US-led combat forces prepare to withdraw by the end of the year.
Afghan security forces have been widely praised over the April 5 elections for a new president and provincial councils, which occurred without major violence despite a series of high-profile attacks in the weeks before.
The Taliban had vowed to target polling stations and election workers, but millions of Afghans cast their ballots largely without bloodshed.
--more--"
I finally realized elections are important to the paper of elite wealth because that cla$$ wants to know who they are dealing with in a specific country. That's why elections are covered to the exclusion of so many other things unless that nation is on the agenda in some way. Then it gets plenty of attention -- something I'm giving less and less to my Globe these days.
Time for the "Taliban" to vote:
Since then there has been nothing but silence in my printed Boston Globe.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Suicide bomber kills tribal elder in Afghan market" | Associated Press April 12, 2014
KABUL — A suicide bomber blew himself up in a market Friday in eastern Afghanistan, killing a pro-government tribal elder and wounding three civilians, authorities said.
The explosion killed tribal elder Gul Babri at about 2 p.m. in the market of the Jani Khil district of Paktiya province, provincial government spokesman Mokhlis Afghan said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which comes after last week’s presidential election. The Taliban and other insurgents frequently target government officials and their allies in a bid to undermine efforts to forge stability in the country as US-led combat forces prepare to withdraw by the end of the year.
Afghan security forces have been widely praised over the April 5 elections for a new president and provincial councils, which occurred without major violence despite a series of high-profile attacks in the weeks before.
The Taliban had vowed to target polling stations and election workers, but millions of Afghans cast their ballots largely without bloodshed.
--more--"
I finally realized elections are important to the paper of elite wealth because that cla$$ wants to know who they are dealing with in a specific country. That's why elections are covered to the exclusion of so many other things unless that nation is on the agenda in some way. Then it gets plenty of attention -- something I'm giving less and less to my Globe these days.
Time for the "Taliban" to vote:
"AP photographer killed, reporter wounded; Police commander fired into vehicle, then surrendered" by Kim Gamel | Associated Press April 05, 2014
KABUL — An Afghan police commander opened fire Friday on two Associated Press journalists, killing Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Anja Niedringhaus and wounding veteran correspondent Kathy Gannon — the first known case of a security insider attacking journalists in Afghanistan.
The shooting was part of a surge in violence targeting foreigners in the run-up to Saturday’s presidential elections, a pivotal moment in Afghanistan’s troubled recent history that promises to be the nation’s first democratic transfer of power.
The two journalists were traveling in a convoy of election workers delivering ballots in the eastern city of Khost, under the protection of Afghan security forces. They were in their own car with a translator and an AP Television News freelancer waiting for the convoy to move after arriving at the heavily guarded security forces base in eastern Afghanistan.
A unit commander identified by authorities as Naqibullah walked up to the car, yelled ‘‘Allahu Akbar’’ — God is great — and fired on them in the back seat with his AK-47, said the freelance videographer, who witnessed the attack, which left the rear door of the car riddled with bullet holes.
The officer then surrendered to the other police and was arrested.
Niedringhaus, 48, who had covered conflict zones from the Balkans in the 1990s to Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, died instantly of her wounds.
Gannon, 60, who for many years was the news organization’s Afghanistan bureau chief and currently is a special correspondent for the region, was shot three times in the wrists and shoulder. After surgery, she was in stable condition and spoke to medical personnel before being flown to Kabul.
Niedringhaus and Gannon had worked together repeatedly in Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led invasion, covering the conflict from some of the most dangerous hotspots of the Taliban insurgency.
They often focused on the war’s impact on Afghan civilians, and they embedded several times with the Afghan police and military, reporting on the Afghan government’s determination to build up its often ill-equipped forces to face the fight against militants.
Gannon, who had sources inside the Taliban leadership, was one of the few Western reporters allowed into Afghanistan during the militant group’s rule in the 1990s.
While there have been repeated cases in recent years of Afghan police or military personnel opening fire on and killing international troops working with the country’s security forces, Friday’s attack was the first known insider shooting of journalists.
Past insider attacks have been carried out by suspected Taliban infiltrators or Afghans who have come to oppose the foreign presence in the country. At their worst, in 2012, there was an average of nearly one a week, killing more than 60 coalition troops and prompting NATO to reduce joint operations with Afghan forces.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied responsibility for Friday’s attack. Khost Provincial Police Chief Faizullah Ghyrat said the 25-year-old attacker confessed to the shooting and told authorities he was from Parwan province, northwest of Kabul, and was acting to avenge the deaths of family members in a NATO bombing there.
The claim could not be corroborated and officials said they were still investigating the shooter’s background.
Ghyrat said the police commander told authorities he had seen the journalists, decided to act, and then demanded the assault rifle from one of his subordinates.
Karzai said in a statement that he ‘‘grieved’’ Niedringhaus’ death and wished a quick recovery for Gannon. He also ordered an investigation into the shooting.
In a memo to staff, AP President Gary Pruitt remembered Niedringhaus as ‘‘spirited, intrepid and fearless, with a raucous laugh that we will always remember.’’
‘‘Anja is the 32nd AP staffer to give their life in pursuit of the news since AP was founded in 1846,’’ he wrote. ‘‘This is a profession of the brave and the passionate, those committed to the mission of bringing to the world information that is fair, accurate and important. Anja Niedringhaus met that definition in every way.’’
Niedringhaus joined the AP in 2002, and while based in Geneva worked throughout the Middle East as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In 2005, she was part of the AP team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography for coverage of Iraq, and was awarded the Courage in Journalism Award from the International Women’s Media Foundation, among many journalistic honors.
In 2006-07, she studied at Harvard University under a Nieman Fellowship.
‘‘What the world knows about Iraq, they largely know because of her pictures and the pictures by the photographers she raised and beat into shape,’’ said AP photographer David Guttenfelder. ‘‘I know they always ask themselves, ‘What would Anja do?’ when they go out with their cameras. I think we all do.’’
Gannon, a Canadian journalist based in Islamabad, has covered Afghanistan and Pakistan for the AP since the mid-1980s.
--more--"
UPDATE:
"Hundreds of people packed a church Saturday to remember Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus, who was killed on assignment in Afghanistan last week. Friends, family, and colleagues packed Corvey Abbey in Hoexter. She was remembered for her ability to find humanity amid terrible events (AP)."
"Afghans see hope in chance to choose new leader" by Kim Gamel | Associated Press April 05, 2014
KABUL — Two Afghan women shrouded in black emerged from a campaign rally carrying bundles of sticks with pieces of torn posters still attached. The women weren’t intending to tape back together what pictures remained of the presidential hopeful. They simply needed firewood to heat their home.
Afghanistan’s enduring poverty — and corruption — is making it easier for the Taliban to make inroads nearly 13 years after a US-led invasion ousted them from power.
The militants have vowed to disrupt Saturday’s nationwide elections with violence, and recent high-profile attacks in the heart of Kabul are clearly designed to show they are perfectly capable of doing just that.
If voters turn out in large numbers and the Afghans are able to hold a successful election, that could undermine the Taliban’s appeal by showing that democracy can indeed work.
With President Hamid Karzai constitutionally barred from a third term, Afghans will choose a new president in what promises to be the nation’s first democratic transfer of power. As international combat forces prepare to withdraw by the end of this year, the country is so unstable that the very fact the crucial elections are being held is being called one of the few successes in Karzai’s tenure.
Then the U.S. effort is a failure.
Nearly 200,000 Afghan security forces planned to fan out on Saturday to protect polling stations and voters. On Friday evening, mobile phone messaging services stopped working in the capital, Kabul, in what appeared to be a security measure by authorities to prevent militants from using messages for attacks.
Three men are considered top contenders in the race — a major shift from past elections dominated by Karzai, who has ruled the country since the Taliban were ousted in 2001. That has presented Afghans with their first presidential vote in which the outcome is uncertain.
There do not appear to be major policy differences toward the West between the front-runners — Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai’s top rival in the last election; Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, an academic and former World Bank official; and Zalmai Rassoul, a former foreign minister. All have promised to sign a security agreement with the United States that will allow thousands of foreign troops to remain in the country after 2014 — which Karzai has refused to do. The candidates differ on some issues such as the country’s border dispute with Pakistan. But all preach against fraud and corruption and vow to improve security.
All vetted by the U.S., although Karzai's choice finished third.
The candidates have stumped for votes with near-daily debates and rallies across the Texas-sized country, a far greater level of campaigning than in the past, when certain blocs of voters were largely taken for granted in a patronage system.
It's AmeriKan politics, all right!
They also have named running mates including warlords, leaders from rival ethnic groups, and in some cases, women. None is expected to get a majority needed to secure a win outright, so a runoff between the top two vote-getters is widely expected.
‘‘The election excitement is being felt all over the place,’’ said Aimal Jan Ghafoori, who worked at a voter registration center in the southern city of Kandahar. ‘‘It’s really good to see this change. I hope this change helps in changing the fate of our country soon enough.’’
He said barely three dozen people showed up to register each day in 2009, when massive vote-rigging marred Karzai’s reelection, while as many as 300 lined up daily to beat Tuesday’s deadline to register for this year’s elections for president and provincial councils.
The three front-runners all have expressed concern about fraud in the balloting, particularly government interference.
--more--"
"Bomber kills 6 Afghan policemen" by Amir Shah and Kim Gamel | Associated Press April 03, 2014
KABUL — A suicide bombing killed six policemen at the Afghan Interior Ministry compound in one of the capital’s most heavily fortified areas Wednesday, part of a recent escalation in violence in the heart of Kabul.
The bloodshed is threatening to scare voters away from the polls as Afghans worry security forces unable to guard areas previously considered safe won’t be able to protect them on Election Day. The Taliban have launched a campaign of violence to disrupt Saturday’s vote for a new president and provincial councils.
Many voters have said they would go to the polls despite the violence, but the attack was a last straw for some.
Mohammad Ramin, 18, has a photo store near the blast site. He registered to vote for the first time last week but is too scared to go to the polls now.
But he was a minority!
‘‘I am so disappointed, but I am not going to vote on Election Day because of the bad security,’’ he said. ‘‘I don’t want anybody in my family to go.”
The bomber, wearing a military uniform, passed through several checkpoints to reach the ministry gate before detonating his explosives in the midst of other uniformed men entering the compound, according to the Interior Ministry, which oversees the Afghan police.
Within minutes of the blast, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack. It came soon after he e-mailed a statement to the media warning of more violence ahead of the elections.
Then the NSA knows where he is. I wonder if he was Gannon's contact.
The Interior Ministry has the lead in protecting the polling stations on Saturday, when voters will choose a new president in the first democratic transfer of power since Hamid Karzai was selected after the 2001 US-led ouster of the Taliban. Karzai is constitutionally barred from a third term.
Militants have increasingly targeted Westerners in recent weeks. The Taliban claimed responsibility for attacks on a luxury hotel, a foreign guest house, a Swedish journalist, and a Lebanese restaurant....
Police officer Baryalai, who like many Afghans uses only one name, said the bombing took place near a bank close to the entrance gate. Officers collect paychecks at the bank.
Farida Hashimi, a police commander, said the Interior Ministry explosion did not bode well for Saturday’s elections.
‘‘It will have a very bad effect,’’ she said. ‘‘People will wonder how they can keep polling places safe if a bomber can enter this very important government compound.’’
Yeah, no kidding, but they did!
--more--"
U.S. soldiers are leaving; the equipment is not, and that should make the war contractors happy. It will all need to be replaced.
"US seeking buyers for old military equipment" by Associated Press April 01, 2014
KABUL — The United States is trying to sell or dispose of billions of dollars in military hardware, including sophisticated and highly specialized mine-resistant vehicles as it packs up to leave Afghanistan after 13 years of war, officials said Monday.
Of course, we aren't really leaving, but why let that spoil the lie?
But the efforts are complicated in a region where relations between neighboring countries are mired in suspicion and outright hostility.
A statement by the US Embassy in Pakistan said Islamabad is interested in buying used American equipment.
The statement said Pakistan’s request is being reviewed but any equipment it receives, including the coveted mine-resistant vehicles, will not likely come from Afghanistan.
An earlier US Forces statement was definite: Pakistan would not get any US equipment being sold out of Afghanistan.
Defense Department spokesman Mark Wright said the United States would like to sell to ‘‘nearby countries’’ the equipment that is too costly to ship back home.
Among the items for sale are 800 highly sophisticated mine resistant ambush protected armored vehicles.
Selling them off could mean a savings of as much as $500 million and hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues, he said.
The vehicles have been used by US service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan as protection against the deadly roadside bombs used relentlessly by insurgents.
According to an Associated Press count, at least 2,176 members of the US military have died in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in late 2001. Many were killed by roadside bombs.
Still it seems certain that Pakistan will not be getting any of the excess armored vehicles up for sale, although roadside bombs have been one of the deadliest weapons used by Pakistani insurgents against an estimated 170,000 Pakistani soldiers deployed in the tribal regions that border Afghanistan and Pakistan.
This month the head of coalition forces in Afghanistan, General Joseph F. Dunford, told a Pentagon briefing that Pakistan would be interested in getting the armored vehicles.
A statement issued Monday by the US Embassy said the United States is ‘‘currently reviewing’’ Pakistan’s request for a variety of items.
Reports that Pakistan might be interested in the vehicles raised hackles in Kabul, with the authorities saying all the equipment should stay in Afghanistan.
‘‘We are strongly opposed to any deal in this regard without consultation with Afghanistan and we have clearly conveyed this” to the United States, presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said Monday.
--more--"
Time to leave this post behind.
UPDATE: The soldiers are heading to Afghanistan as part of a tear-down mission, dismantling American military bases
