Afghanistan - The war against the Taliban

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[Forty Watt]

Karzai Demands U.S. Bailout Largest Afghan Bank

The United States is being asked to fund another bank bailout. This one however is in Kabul. This might not sit well with Americans who continue to watch billions spent in Iraq and Afghanistan as states shutdown critical programs. Moreover, Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently stated that he was considering joining the Taliban and fired the top prosecutor  to stop him from investigating grotesque levels of corruption among his advisers and family. He also accused the United States of massive fraud in his country. Now, however, he is calling on the United States to intervene to prevent Kabul Bank from failing.

I did hear on the news this morning there had been a run on the Kabul Bank. Get this, he wants us to guarantee the bank's clients for about $1 billion on deposits.  It's not clear to me if he is going to tie this to his threat to join the Taliban but it wouldn't surprise me.

[Sirenoftitan]

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has formed a committee to seek peace talks with the Taliban, his office has said.  It follows the endorsement by tribal leaders in June of a plan to engage militants in a reconciliation process.

The Taliban, who were ousted from power in 2001, have been fighting to overthrow the US-backed government and expel foreign troops from Afghanistan.

The formation of the High Peace Council was "a significant step towards peace talks", Mr Karzai's office said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11188294

[Forty Watt]

The legitimacy of Afghanistan's parliamentary elections is severely threatened by insurgent attacks on candidates and the lack of security provided by the government, an international rights group said Thursday.

Human Rights Watch said in a report that the candidates running in the Sept. 18 vote face assassinations, kidnappings and intimidation by insurgents and rival candidates. Women candidates are especially at risk, it said.

...many Afghans and international observers fear the vote could turn bloody after the Taliban vowed to attack polling places and warned Afghans not to participate in what it called a sham vote. [...]

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the killing of three parliamentary candidates during the campaign period, the rights group said. The insurgents have also killed and threatened campaign supporters and voters, it added.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94657615

[boodog]

Noman Benotman, a former Libyan jihadist leader, has written a letter to Osama bin Laden.
 

In the letter Noman Benotman, a former senior leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group who spent several years with bin Laden in Afghanistan and Sudan during the 1990s and who is now based at Quilliam, writes to bin Laden that:
 
‘Your actions have harmed millions of innocent Muslims and non-Muslims alike. How is this Islam or jihad? For how much longer will al-Qaeda continue to bring shame on Islam, disrupt ordinary Muslims’ lives, and be the cause of global unrest?

read the rest of the letter here


I saw Benotman interviewed on Fareed Zakaria today- extremely interesting to hear his opinion of bin Laden, and his praise of Americans that have spoken out against the Qu'ran burning.

Here is the link to the show- the interview is near the end. But, the entire show is worth a watch.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/podcasts/fareedzakaria/site/2010/09/19/gps.9.19.cnn

[Sirenoftitan]

Pakistan has blocked one of two vital supply routes for US and Nato troops in Afghanistan, officials say.  The move comes after three Pakistani soldiers were killed in a Nato helicopter attack near the border.

The BBC's M Ilyas Khan says it is not clear whether the closure is in retaliation for the attack.  But the blockade, if it becomes permanent, could lead to a major escalation in tensions between Pakistan and the United States.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11441279

[Sirenoftitan]

Both the Afghan and US governments have recently made contact with the most fearsome insurgent group in Afghanistan, the Haqqani network, the Guardian has learned.

Hamid Karzai's government held direct talks with senior members of the Haqqani clan over the summer, according to well-placed Pakistani and Arab sources. The US contacts have been indirect, through a western intermediary, but have continued for more than a year.

The Afghan and US talks were described as extremely tentative. The Haqqani network has a reputation for ruthlessness, even by the standards of the Afghan insurgency, and has the closest ties with al-Qaida. But Kabul and Washington have come to the conclusion that they cannot be excluded if an enduring peace settlement is to be reached.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/06/us-afghan-government-contact-haqqani

[Sirenoftitan]

The Taliban's leadership is prepared to drop its ban on girls' schools, one of Afghanistan's most influential cabinet ministers has claimed.

According to Farooq Wardak, the country's education minister, the movement has decided to scrap the ban on female education that helped earn the movement worldwide infamy in the 1990s.

Wardak said the Taliban's leadership had undergone a profound change since losing power after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/13/taliban-lift-ban-girls-schools

[Sirenoftitan]

<snip>
But while that popular elision is understandable – no sooner had the war in Afghanistan been launched than the war in Iraq was being touted – it is problematic. Afghanistan is not Iraq. Indeed, in many ways, the lessons from Afghanistan are more profound, ingrained and urgent. Globally speaking, opposing the war in Iraq was not even remotely contentious. Significant majorities in almost every country, with the exception of the US, were against it. Before it was inept it was already illegal, and before it was illegal it was already illogical. It was wrong on its own terms, and its own terms were rooted in a lie.

But there were relatively few lies told in the selling of the Afghanistan war. This, remember, was the "smart war." Both George Bush's war and Barack Obama's war. A war supported by Nelson Mandela, Muhammad Ali and Susan Sontag. A "war of necessity", which had the backing of almost the entire political class on both sides of the Atlantic.

The US is moving on from Afghanistan, but its troops are still dying there Comment by Gary Younge, The Guardian

[Sirenoftitan]

After decades of conflict in Afghanistan, there are almost two million widows leading secluded, poverty-stricken lives. But now all-female army units are going into remote villages in an effort to integrate these women into wider society.

In a small village on the edge of the Bolan desert, near Laskhar Gah, a group of women sit huddled together on a sunny terrace. Some are girls, barely out of their teens.

All are shrouded in dark veils.

These women are widows. This one village is home to at least 80 of them.

They are the tragic victims of three decades of conflict which has created a generation of widows and orphans.

In rural Afghanistan women are invisible, locked behind doors in the safety of their compounds.

Reaching such women is a huge challenge for the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), but one that is considered vital.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-12558998

[zyxomma]

Could saffron replace opium poppies as Afghanistan's premier export crop? It's possible:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/saffron-could-displace-opium-poppies-as-afghans-cash-crop-of-choice/article2179615/

As with other agricultural products, women do much of the field work, including harvesting it. Women have embraced the flower over other crops because of its unique, lucrative potential. In just three years, membership in the Ghoryan Women Saffron Association, an all-female co-op near Herat, has ballooned from 72 to 480 women, according to founder Sima Ghoryani.

The product they grow is high quality. The problems start when they try to take their saffron beyond local markets without selling to middlemen who command higher commission than the producers themselves.

Decades ago, before the Soviet invasion, when Kabul was a hip place to visit, friends brought me pistachios, pomegranates, and apricots from Afghanistan. They were superb.

[Sirenoftitan]

In 1988, the Soviet army left Afghanistan after a concerted campaign by the western-backed mujahideen. But since then, many enduring myths have grown up about the war-torn country. In his new book, Jonathan Steele sorts the fact from the fiction.

10 myths about Afghanistan

<snip>
7. The Taliban invited Osama bin Laden to use Afghanistan as a safe haven

Osama bin Laden got to know the mujahideen leaders during the anti-Soviet jihad after traveling to Peshawar in 1980. Two years later, his construction company built tunnels in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan that the CIA helped him to finance and which he was later to use to escape US bombing after 9/11.

<snip>

His return in May 1996 was prompted less by a revival of interest in Afghan politics than by his need for a safe haven. His return was sponsored by the mujahideen leaders with whom he had become friendly during the anti-Soviet struggle. He flew to Jalalabad on a plane chartered by Rabbani's government that also carried scores of Arab fighters.

It was only after the Taliban captured Jalalabad from the mujahideen that he was obliged to switch his allegiance or leave Afghanistan again. He chose the first option.

[zyxomma]

That was quite a read. Thanks for posting.

[zyxomma]

This is how debts are settled in Afghanistan. A 6-year-old girl and her sisters were given to the men of a family, and distributed among them, to pay for what her father did:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9639000/9639892.stm

Listen to the interview. Be warned, it's horrifying.

[futurexpat?]

I've seen and read much on this before, so I think I'll pass on the viewing. But I'd have to say Afghanistan is far from the only place this happens. It's incredible that this is still going on in this century. 

[zyxomma]

Now the Taliban have an office and address in Qatar:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2012/0103/Peace-progress-Qatar-gives-Taliban-an-office-address

“We are now ready to have an office abroad for the talks with the internationals,” wrote the Taliban in an official statement released on Tuesday. “The stance of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [the Taliban] from the beginning has been that there should be an end to this occupation and Afghans should be left to make an Islamic government in the country which should not be harmful for anyone.”

The Taliban also requested the release of several of its members currently detained at Guantanamo Bay and denied media reports indicating an imminent breakthrough on negotiations.

[zyxomma]

Remind me again WTF we're doing in this place!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia-pacific/some-find-hope-in-afghan-outcry-over-severe-abuse-of-15-year-old-bride/2012/01/04/gIQA68ZwaP_story.html

KABUL, Afghanistan — Just 15 years old, Sahar Gul has become the bruised and bloodied face of women’s rights in Afghanistan. The teenage bride’s eyes were swollen nearly shut as she was wheeled into the hospital seven months after her arranged marriage. Black scabs crusted her fingertips where her nails used to be.

According to officials in northeastern Baghlan province, Gul’s in-laws kept her in a basement for six months, ripped her fingernails out, tortured her with hot irons and broke her fingers — all in an attempt to force her into prostitution. Police freed her after her uncle called authorities.

[zyxomma]

Afghan women are afraid a peace deal with the Taliban will mean a halt to the progress they've made:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2012/0126/Afghanistan-women-Give-us-a-seat-at-the-peace-table

Women have taken on an increasingly active role in Afghan society in recent years – holding elected offices, working outside the house, and sometimes running their own organizations. But many Afghan women see a potential peace deal with the Taliban as representing anything but a ray of hope. Current negotiation efforts have mostly excluded women, and without a voice at the table many women worry how well the Afghan government can protect women’s rights if the Taliban is reincorporated into the political system.

As the US and NATO continue to work toward talks, a number of activists argue that if the West was serious about promoting women’s rights here, they’d help ensure women a seat at the peace negotiation table.