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December 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
By International Justice Tribune (IJT 118): Transitional Justice has not yet come to Afghanistan, notwithstanding the legacy of three eras of conflict: the communist/Soviet rule (1978–1992), rule of the mujaheddin (1992–1996), and the Taliban regime (1996–2001). This is due mainly to a lack of Constitutional authorisation and statutory tools, exacerbated by the 2010 Amnesty Law and an absence of political will. Full news...
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December 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IRIN: Uncertain harvests are a perennial risk for rural Afghans, but two events stand out as exacerbating poverty - ill health, and the high cost of getting married, according to a new report. “While health expenditures placed considerable financial strain on households across different wealth groups, they hit the poor particularly hard,” says research by the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU). Full news...
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December 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Rethink Afghanistan: Here’s something to think about when you hear politicians talk about the federal budget deficit: every single Hellfire missile fired in Afghanistan costs USD 58,000.00. U.S. and allied forces are dropping huge numbers of these bombs in Afghanistan this year: So far this year, coalition aircraft have used 4,615 bombs and Hellfire missiles, already exceeding the 4,184 dropped in all of last year. Full news...
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December 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Telegraph: Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president announced Thursday would join Friday as the official weekend and be declared holiday for the capital’s five million residents for the remainder of the winter. Kabul’s persistent fog of pale yellow pollution is estimated to hasten the deaths of 3,000 people each year due to respiratory illnesses according to Afghan health officials. Full news...
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December 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: Pakistan's army is covertly sponsoring four major militant groups, including the Afghan Taliban and Mumbai attackers Lashkar-e-Taiba, and “no amount of money” will change the policy, the US ambassador warned in a frank critique revealed by the state department cables. Full news...
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December 1, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Orlando Sentinel: Once sharply curtailed because of complaints over civilian casualties, U.S. and NATO forces have ramped up the air war in Afghanistan since this summer. Coalition aircraft dropped 1,000 bombs and missiles in October — one of the highest monthly totals of the 9-year-old war.... So far this year, coalition aircraft have used 4,615 bombs and Hellfire missiles, already exceeding the 4,184 dropped in all of last year. Full news...
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November 30, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Associated Press: Locals in this southern Afghan valley have accused U.S. Marines of regularly killing civilians since they launched an aggressive campaign against the Taliban here over a month ago — claims the Marines say are untrue and fueled by insurgent propaganda. But the Marines acknowledge that unless they can change people’s minds, they stand little chance of winning the local support necessary to tame a key area of Afghanistan... Full news...
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November 30, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered the release of numerous dangerous criminals and drug traffickers detained by US-led coalition forces, leaked American diplomatic cables revealed Tuesday. American officials said they had repeatedly rebuked the president and Afghan attorney general Muhammad Ishaq Alko for authorising the release of detainees over a three-year period. Full news...
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November 30, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Channel 4 News: Channel 4 News spoke to three of the biggest hospitals in southern Afghanistan, which have all seen major increases in the number of civilian casualties they have treated this year. They agreed that the increased intensity of the war is a factor. In January, President Barack Obama sent 34,000 more troops to Afghanistan, many of which have been deployed in major strikes such as Operation Moshtarak in Helmand in February. Full news...
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November 30, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Huffington Post: The revelation that Afghanistan's vice president was caught carrying 52 million USD in cash last year in a Persian Gulf tax haven (and was allowed to keep it) is only the latest bit of evidence that countless billions of U.S. taxpayer money have been wasted in Afghanistan due to mismanagement, fraud and endemic corruption. Full news...
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November 29, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Huffington Post: When will the Obama administration stop damaging its credibility by denying the failure of the Afghanistan War? It seems every day we get another report showing that the Taliban’s momentum continues despite President Obama’s massive troop increase. But, somehow, the administration's talking points seem to stay the same. Full news...
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November 29, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
CBS: While the Afghan army has made some strides in recent years, the national police force has developed a reputation for drug abuse, illiteracy and desertion. Earlier this month The New York Times reported that up to 19 Afghan police officers from southwest of Kabul defected to the Taliban en masse, taking their guns with them and burning down their own station house. Full news...
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November 29, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Telegraph: Breaking news: secret US diplomatic cables tell us there’s corruption in Afghanistan. Ahmed Zia Massoud, Afghanistan’s former vice-president, was found to be carrying $52 million in cash – which a message from the American Embassy in Kabul, made public by Wikileaks over the weekend, said he was “allowed to keep without revealing the money’s origin or destination”. Full news...
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November 29, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
IWPR: Like many businessmen in northern Afghanistan, Mohammad Daud wants to keep his success a closely-guarded secret. “The worst thing anyone can call you is rich,” he said, explaining that this would amount to an open invitation to kidnappers in the current climate. Full news...
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November 29, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Oregon Live: The recent NATO summit in Lisbon officially declared that NATO troops will be withdrawn from Afghanistan and replaced by Afghan security forces by 2015. But participants were quick to point out that the date was “aspirational,” “transitional” and conditions-based rather than absolute. Also, the Obama administration plans to conduct a strategic review of the Afghan imbroglio in early December... Full news...
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November 29, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Reuters Canada: Opposition legislators blasted the Canadian government on Monday after it emerged that Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan captured children suspected of working with the Taliban and then handed them over to an Afghan security unit alleged to have abused prisoners. Full news...
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November 28, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Green Left Weekly: Tough talk by the warmongers at the November 20-21 NATO conference in Lisbon, Portugal, obscured the growing opposition in the US and Europe to the nine-year occupation of Afghanistan. Ten thousand people took to the streets of London on November 20 to protest the war. Angry at the British government’s recent cuts to services and pensions, many carried “Cut war not welfare” placards. Full news...
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November 28, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Reuters: The hills around dusty Nor Aaba are laced with gold but villagers have blocked work on a new mine in a dispute over jobs, a warning that Afghan plans to ramp up mining may bring trouble as well as treasure. Security and corruption problems that have made fighting the insurgency and setting up a credible central government so difficult... Full news...
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November 27, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Washington Post: The number of Afghans who are fleeing their country and seeking political asylum abroad has spiked dramatically during the past two years, a sign that people here are giving up the dream of a peaceful homeland to seek security and employment elsewhere. The increase has coincided with a sharp escalation in U.S. troop levels and has made Afghanistan the world’s top country of origin for asylum seekers worldwide... Full news...
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November 27, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
Wall Street Journal: A fresh controversy is threatening to further mar the already messy aftermath of Afghanistan’s fraud-ridden parliamentary elections with the emergence of a videotape that appears to show an elderly Western woman soliciting an alleged bribe to fix the results. Afghan prosecutors and electoral officials identified the woman as a Hungarian... Full news...
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November 27, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: Mark Sedwill's claim that children in Kabul are better off than those in many western cities (Children safer in Kabul than in Glasgow, says Nato spokesman, 22 November) deserves attention, not because it is accurate (which it is not) but because it illustrates a shocking disregard by senior Nato officials for the dire situation of children in Afghanistan. Full news...
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November 26, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
AFP: Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government came under withering attack Friday, accused of trying to manipulate parliamentary election results by the political opposition and a senior vote official. The accusations threaten to ignite nationwide anger over the second Afghan parliamentary election since the 2001 US-led invasion... Full news...
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November 26, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
International Business Times: The U.S. Department of State is working overtime sending messages to ally capitals warning the impending release of classified documents by WikiLeaks could harm relations in what is seen as a pre-emptive move of unprecedented scale to neutralize the impact of the unveiling of embarrassing and compromising details about the inner workings of the government apparatus. Full news...
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November 24, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Washington Post: For those who have escaped Afghanistan's worst violence, some things are hard to forget: the sight of a woman's hair entangled in the mulberry branches, her legs strewn far away in the dirt. Or the sounds they heard as they hid in an underground hole, counting the bombs to pass the time, praying the American troops would leave. Full news...
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November 24, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
CAF: Save the Children has criticised a top NATO representative for stating that children are safer in Kabul than they are in London, Glasgow or New York. The comments came from a civilian NATO spokesperson in Afghanistan, who spoke to the BBC's Newsround programme yesterday (22 November). Full news...
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November 24, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Economic Times: The secret talks between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban to end the conflict in the country—that were “showing promise”—seem to have hit a dead end, with a revelation that the militant leader at the other end of the table was an imposter. Full news...
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November 23, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Tribune Democrat: Our present wars are not against terrorists. Iraq was clearly not a terrorist threat (or any threat to the United States), although the Bush administration tried to confuse us on this. Initiating a war against the then-ruling Taliban in 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks was not the right way to oppose al-Qaida, the group responsible for the terrorist bombing. Full news...
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November 23, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Guardian: Acute care for the troops most seriously injured in Afghanistan is costing the government more than 500,000 Pound every week, figures suggest. The military wards at the Birmingham NHS foundation trust receive over 2m Pound every month from the Ministry of Defence to care for the dozens of troops who need the most specialised trauma care. Full news...
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November 22, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
ABC News: Compass Integrated Security Solutions is owned by Peter McCosker, the son of former Australian cricket player Rick McCosker. Compass provided convoy guards for a food and fuel supplier in Afghanistan. The Armed Services Committee report last month alleged the company hired untrained guards and paid an Afghan major-general to recruit guards from the army. Full news...
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November 22, 2010 :: RSS :: Print :: Email
The Huffington Post: The United States is now spending nearly half a billion dollars a year in an attempt to establish the “rule of law” in Afghanistan. The central problem, according to the report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS), is that corruption in Afghanistan is so widespread and entrenched that it severely undermines any effort to establish confidence in government institutions. Full news...