Afghanistan: Harrowing crimes Taliban gangs committed on civilian in Kunduz is Shocking !

Afghanistan: Harrowing crimes Taliban gangs committed on civilian in Kunduz on three-days-stay is SHOCKING! HT: Amnesty.

Mass murder, gang rapes and house-to-house searches by Taliban death squads are just some of the harrowing civilian testimonies emerging from Kunduz as Afghan forces today claimed to have regained control of key areas of the northern city, Amnesty International said.

The organization has spoken to numerous people, the majority of them women, who have fled Kunduz since Monday, when the Taliban launched a sudden assault on the city. Women human rights defenders from Kunduz spoke of a “hit list” being used by the Taliban to track down activists and others, and described how fighters had raped and killed numerous civilians.

“The harrowing accounts we’ve received paint a picture of a reign of terror during the Taliban’s brutal capture of Kunduz this week. The multiple credible reports of killings, rapes and other horrors meted out against the city’s residents must prompt the Afghan authorities to do more now to protect civilians, in particular in areas where more fighting appears imminent,” said Horia Mosadiq, Afghanistan Researcher at Amnesty International.

One woman who provides assistance to victims of domestic violence in Kunduz and escaped to safety in a nearby province told Amnesty International that Taliban fighters were using a “hit list” to track down their targets. It allegedly includes the names and photos of activists, journalists and civil servants based in Kunduz.

The woman said the Taliban’s roadblocks on exit routes from the city forced her and numerous other women and men to flee on foot. They trekked for more than seven hours over rough terrain, leaving them exhausted and with bloodied feet.

When the Taliban took control of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and other government and NGO offices in Kunduz on Monday, they gained access to reams of information about NGO staff, government employees and members of the security forces – including addresses, phone numbers and photos.

Since then, Taliban fighters have allegedly been using young boys to help them to conduct house-to-house searches to locate and abduct their targets, including women.

Another woman human rights defender had her home and office burned and looted by Taliban on Tuesday night. Taliban fighters kept calling her to ask about the whereabouts of the women whom she had been helping.

She and several other women managed to receive assistance for themselves and their children to flee to safety. But she told Amnesty International she and her family escaped with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and were left terrified by the ordeal.

According to local activists, Taliban fighters also raped female relatives and killed family members, including children, of police commanders and soldiers, especially those working for Afghan Local Police (ALP). The Taliban also burnt down the families’ houses and looted their belongings.

The relative of a woman who worked as a midwife in Kunduz maternity hospital told Amnesty International how Taliban fighters gang-raped and then killed her and another midwife because they accused them of providing reproductive health services to women in the city.

The Taliban released all the male prisoners held in Kunduz and gave them arms to fight against government forces. Female prisoners were raped and beaten, then the Taliban abducted some and released others.

An eyewitness told Amnesty International that a civilian woman in his neighbourhood had been shot amid fighting between Taliban and the Afghan security forces. Taliban fighters responded to her screams of pain by entering her house and shooting her point blank in the head, forcing her husband to watch her die. Hmmmm........Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq! Read the full story here.

Our boys captured this Taliban trashbag from inside textile factory in western Kunduz city.Trapped there since morng pic.twitter.com/9U8Mqvppbw

— Asif Khan (@Afghan_Security) October 1, 2015

Obama 'Ally' Karzai sees ‘no good’ with US presence in Afghanistan.

Obama 'Ally' Karzai sees ‘no good’ with US presence in Afghanistan.(PressTv).

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says he has seen “no good” with the presence of American forces in his country, prompting further speculations of a breakdown of trust between Kabul and Washington.

“This whole 12 years was one of constant pleading with America to treat the lives of our civilians as lives of people,” Karzai said in an interview with The Sunday Times.

Karzai also said that he has not spoken to US President Barack Obama since June last year, which may show the increasing gulf between Afghanistan and the US.

“We met in South Africa but didn’t speak. Letters have been exchanged,” he said, referring to the funeral ceremony for South African anti-Apartheid leader Nelson Mandela.

The differences between the two sides have grown increasingly since Karzai refused to sign a security pact with Washington that would allow thousands of foreign troops to stay in Afghanistan after 2014.

“The money they should have paid to the police they paid to private security firms and creating militias who caused lawlessness, corruption and highway robbery,” Karzai said.

The Afghan president also went on to say that the US-led forces “then began systematically waging psychological warfare on our people, encouraging our money to go out of our country.”
“What they did was create pockets of wealth and a vast countryside of deprivation and anger,” he said.

“In general, the US-led NATO mission in terms of bringing security has not been successful, particularly in Helmand,” Karzai said.

He also dismissed concerns about the cutting of Western financial aid to Afghanistan over his refusal to sign the security deal.
“Money is not everything,” he said, adding, “If you ask me as an individual, I would rather live in poverty than uncertainty.”

On Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expressed deep frustration with Karzai over the prolongation of the review process for the signing of the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the US.

The Pentagon chief, however, stated that Karzai is the elected president of a sovereign country, and Washington’s ability to influence his decisions is limited.

Karzai says he will not sign the BSA until certain conditions are met, including a guarantee from Washington that there will be no more raids on Afghan houses. He says the demands come from the country’s highest decision-making body, the Loya Jirga.

In his speech at the Loya Jirga on November 24, 2013, Karzai said, “If US military forces conduct military operations on Afghan homes even one more time, then there will be no BSA and we won’t sign it.”


The US and its allies invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but after more than 12 years, the foreign troops have still not been able to establish security in the country.Hmmm....Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq!

NATO chief doesn't see Karzai signing security pact.

NATO chief doesn't see Karzai signing security pact.(Taz).

President Hamid Karzai is unlikely to sign a pact for U.S. and NATO forces to stay in Afghanistan after 2014 and will probably leave the choice for his successor, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Saturday, Reuters reported.

Kabul and Washington spent months negotiating a legal framework for some U.S. troops to stay on after the end of 2014, when NATO-led forces are due to end combat operations, leaving behind a much smaller training and advisory mission.

But Karzai has said he will not sign the agreement unless certain conditions are met.

The delay has frustrated the United States and its allies, who want to plan the post-2014 training and advisory mission.
Both the United States and NATO have said they may be forced to pull their forces out of Afghanistan entirely at the end of this year unless the agreement is signed soon.
Rasmussen acknowledged for the first time on Saturday that he did not expect Karzai to sign the U.S. pact and a similar pact that must be negotiated with other NATO forces.
Instead, he believed Karzai would leave the issue for the president elected in April 5 election.
Karzai has served two terms and cannot run again.
"I think, realistically speaking, a new president will be the one to sign," Rasmussen told reporters during the annual Munich Security Conference.
He said however he was confident that Afghanistan would sign the agreement "at the end of the day" and NATO would still have time to plan its post-2014 mission, even if it was not signed until Karzai's successor was in office.
"Most probably, it will be for a new president to sign a security agreement and in that case we are prepared to stay after 2014," Rasmussen said.

"If we don't get a signature even from a new president, then we will also be prepared to withdraw everything by the end of 2014, because in that case we don't have a legal basis for a continued presence," he said.

The NATO-led force currently has around 57,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, two-thirds of them from the United States. Troop numbers are expected to fall to 8,000-12,000 after 2014.
Rasmussen has said a complete foreign military withdrawal from Afghanistan could also jeopardize foreign military aid needed to finance the 350,000-strong Afghan security forces as well as development aid.
The foreign aid totals about $8 billion a year.Hmmm.....Obama: "If we work hard....Afghanistan can be another success like Iraq, Yup.....Another 'Obamamination'

Attacks against Afghan women intensified in 2013 with a 25 per cent surge in cases ‘Cutting the nose, lips and ears’

Attacks against Afghan women intensified in 2013 with a 25 per cent surge in cases ‘Cutting the nose, lips and ears’.(RT).

Chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), Sima Samar, told Reuters that the pace and the hideousness of attacks on women intensified in 2013 with a 25 per cent surge in cases from March through September.

"The brutality of the cases is really bad. Cutting the nose, lips and ears. Committing public rape," Samar said. "Mass rape... It's against dignity, against humanity."
The spokeswoman noted that as the withdrawal deadline draws near for international troops, women in tribal areas are less protected, leaving them vulnerable to violent assaults.
"The presence of the international community and provincial reconstruction teams in most of the provinces was giving people confidence," Samar said. "There were people there trying to protect women. And that is not there anymore, unfortunately."
She also noted that poor economic conditions and the lack of security are also contributing factor to the rise of incidents.
Other human rights workers are blaming the attacks and even killing of women on the absence of law in a country based on patriarchal tribal societies.
"Killing women in Afghanistan is an easy thing. There's no punishment," Suraya Pakzad, who runs women's shelters in several provinces, told Reuters.
Citing the cases of public stoning, Pakzad said, that the future looks bleak for women’s rights in the country.
"Laws are improved, but implementation of those laws is in the hands of warlords... I think we are going backwards."
In November, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the Afghans to reject a proposal by the Justice Ministry that is assisting in drafting a new penal code that includes restoring stoning as punishment for adultery.
“It is absolutely shocking that 12 years after the fall of the Taliban government, the Karzai administration might bring back stoning as a punishment,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“President Karzai needs to demonstrate at least a basic commitment to human rights and reject this proposal out of hand,” Adams added.

The draft legislature is seeking to introduce stoning for sexual intercourse outside a legal marriage, and stipulates that both man and woman shall be sentenced to “[s]toning to death if the adulterer or adulteress is married.”It also states the “implementation of stoning shall take place in public in a predetermined location.” If the “adulterer or adulteress is unmarried,” the sentence shall be “whipping 100 lashes.”

Death through stoning was used during the Taliban government, in power from the mid-1990s to 2001. After the US lead invasion and the establishment of a new government, Afghanistan signed on to international human rights conventions pledging to protect rights, especially for women.
International law says that death by stoning violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Afghanistan has ratified.

In its 2013 report on Afghanistan, HRW blames the government for a “failure to respond effectively to violence against women” which “undermines the already-perilous state of women’s rights.”Furthermore, HRW argues that the rhetoric stemming from the leadership in the country further ignites violence against women.

“President Hamid Karzai’s endorsement in March of a statement by a national religious council calling women ‘secondary,’ prohibiting violence against women only for ‘un-Islamic’ reasons, and calling for segregating women and girls in education, employment, and in public, raises questions about the government’s commitment to protecting women. The minister of justice’s description of battered women shelters as sites of ‘immorality and prostitution’ deepens that skepticism,” the report stressed.

In October, UN Women’s right chief said that that “women's rights continue to be violated, female officials are being targeted and killed, and legal protection is under threat.”
“It is imperative that women's rights and empowerment are prioritized in the coming period of transition,” Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women, told DW.


Most foreign forces are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of the year and it is unclear whether any will remain beyond 2014 as the Karzai government is still reluctant to sign a bilateral security agreement with the United States and has made demands that Washington calls “unrealistic”.Hmmmm.....Obama: If We Work Hard, Afghanistan Could Be a Success...Like Iraq!

As Keith Koffler said today: "I have finally figured out the Obama Doctrine: Screw up the hard fought gains handed him by George W. Bush."

Afghanistan agrees on regional security pact with Iran.

Afghanistan agrees on regional security pact with Iran.(RT).

“Afghanistan agreed on a long-term friendship and cooperation pact with Iran,” President’s Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi said, as quoted by Reuters. “The pact will be for long-term political, security, economic and cultural cooperation, regional peace.”

Afghan President Hamid Karzai reached the deal with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on Sunday. The joint communique issued after the talks stipulates that foreign ministers of both counties were assigned to draw up the topics of such a pact, IRNA reports

At the meeting Rouhani voiced Iran’s strong opposition to foreign presence and its destabilizing effect for the region.

“We are concerned about tension arising out of the presence of foreign forces in the region, believing that all foreign forces should get out of the region and the task of guaranteeing Afghan security should be entrusted to the country’s people,” Rouhani was cited by IRNA as saying.

The Iranian President reiterated the message on his twitter page after the meeting.

All foreign troops should be withdrawn from the region. Security of #Afghanistan should be entrusted to the Afghan people. [w/ Pres #Karzai]
— Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani) December 8, 2013

For his part Karzai said that the Afghan government is keen on signing the pact with the Islamic Republic. The Afghan president also congratulated his counterpart on securing a nuclear agreement in Geneva that defused decades-long tensions.
Meanwhile US defense secretary Chuck Hagel said that he supports a NATO force in Afghanistan after 2014, as Washington and Kabul continue negotiations on securing a Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that will allow foreign forces to stay in the country past the deadline.

“I believe there is a role for our coalition partners and the United States, but that depends on the Afghan people,” Hagel told US troops in Afghanistan on Sunday. “If the people of Afghanistan want to continue that relationship, then we will.”
Hagel did not meet Karzai during his trip to US bases in Afghanistan this weekend, but he is optimistic that the new pact between US and Afghanistan will be signed. “I have hope that the BSA will get signed,” he said on a stop in Kandahar as he acknowledged “uncertainty about what happens next.”

The defense secretary did discuss the security agreement with the Afghan defense minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, who reassured Hagel that the pact will be signed in “a timely manner.”

“I don’t think pressure coming from the United States, or more pressure, is going to be helpful in persuading President Karzai to sign a bilateral security agreement,” the defense secretary said Saturday.

Last week, Karzai said that he may not sign the US-Afghan security pact until April, despite approval from the Loya Jirga, an assembly of Afghan elders. On Saturday Hagel warned against the delay, saying there was “a cut-off point” at which time the pact would be scrapped, but adding he was “not prepared to give a date on that.”

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen also urged Karzai to sign a security agreement with Washington by the year’s end.

“Let me be very clear: It is a prerequisite for our presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014 that an appropriate legal framework is in place,” Rasmussen told reporters at a briefing at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Tuesday. Without the deal “it will not be possible to deploy, train, advise, assist the mission to Afghanistan after 2014,” Rasmussen said.

There are currently around 80,000 NATO multinational International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops in Afghanistan, the majority of which are US soldiers who now stand to be pulled out by the end of 2014. NATO is planning to leave a training mission of up to 12,000 soldiers in Afghanistan after 2014 to help Afghan Army fight insurgents.

The US previously warned that forces would have to leave by the end of next year, the so-called “zero option,” if Afghanistan fails to sign the pact. And if the Americans leave altogether, the other ISAF member states are unlikely to leave their troops in Afghanistan.

However, Karzai's spokesman Aimal Faizi said Saturday the warnings of a complete pullout “is more a tactical maneuver to put pressure on President Karzai to sign [the pact] as soon as possible.” “We believe there's no deadline,” Faizi said. Hmmmm.....It becomes pretty obvious there won't be any pact signing from Karzai, fools just want to be misled.

Afghan President to Visit Iran on Sunday

In Choir now 3, 2, 1  ...'Death To America'

Afghan President to Visit Iran on Sunday. HT: UskowiOnIran.


Afghan President Hamid Karzai is to visit Iran on Sunday. The Afghan-U.S. Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), which lays out the rules for U.S. troops to operate in the country after 2014, is expected to top the agenda during meetings between Karzai and senior Iranian officials.

Karzai is refusing to sign the BSA, even though a Loya Jirga appointed by him approved the pact last month. On Saturday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel arrived in Kabul amid disagreement over whether he would even meet the Afghan president in the face of the security pact row. A meeting is reportedly set for late Saturday.

Without the BSA, The United States and its NATO allies will have to exercise the so-called “Zero Option,” meaning no troops left behind at the end of 2014, pretty much like what happened in Iraq. Meanwhile, the Iranian government has been strongly pushing for the Zero Option.

“Iran does not see the signing and ratifying of this security pact to be beneficial for the long-term interests of the people and government of Afghanistan,” said Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham. (AFP, 7 December)

UPDATE: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters in Kabul that he has received assurances from Afghan Defense Minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi that “the BSA would be signed in a timely manner.” (Reuters, 7 December). Hmmm.......BSA? BullShit Agreement?Death to America still valid during 'Deal'.

US again driven to distraction by Karzai.

Afghanistan - Iran - Pakistan.......new axes 

US again driven to distraction by Karzai.(ET).

Eye rolls are the usual response when Karzai’s name comes up in official circles in Washington – where the Afghan leader was once feted as a silk robed savior but is now mocked as an erratic Machiavel.

In his latest mercurial move, Karzai is refusing to sign a painstakingly negotiated bilateral security agreement (BSA) with the United States, setting rules for American soldiers in a post-2014, post-combat force that would train Afghan troops and counter terrorism.

Washington warns that unless Karzai relents before the end of the year, there will be no option but to plan a full US exit that would put Afghanistan at risk of a Taliban resurgence and choke off billions of dollars of military aid.

Karzai, who openly mistrusts Washington, says it should be up to the next president to sign the BSA. But since the coming election is in April – US military planners say they would not have time to prepare a post-2014 force that could stretch to 15,000 troops.

Karzai has nursed a long grudge against Barack Obama’s White House, perhaps unhappy that his frequent contact with ex-president George W Bush was not replicated by his successor.

He has also railed against US military tactics, civilian deaths and drone strikes through the 12-year war.
But patience for Karzai in Washington, always endangered, is almost extinct.

Obama sent National Security Advisor Susan Rice to read the riot act to Karzai last week – but she returned only with new conditions – including a demand for no operations by foreign troops in residential areas.
Karzai is now accusing the United States of halting fuel and supplies to Afghan troops to force his hand – a charge NATO denies.

Many observers here believe that Karzai is motivated by a desire to exercise his own political leverage and to preserve his own power in the run-up to elections.

Washington is meanwhile loathe to let the BSA, already endorsed by a loya jirga of Afghan tribal elders, become an election issue.

But few observers are surprised that best laid plans are once more being disrupted by Karzai and former officials who have dealt with him are betraying frustration that the administration is struggling to keep private.
“President Karzai should go ahead and sign the agreement,” said Tom Donilon, who until August was Obama’s National Security Advisor told ABC News, branding the Afghan leader’s antics as “reckless.”

Former CIA Chief and National Security Agency boss Michael Hayden told Fox News Sunday that Karzai’s gambit was a “temper tantrum” while warning that tough US rhetoric would not work.

Officials in the White House and the Pentagon are clear about what further delays could mean.
“We’d like to see the BSA signed as soon as possible – certainly by the end of this year,” said Colonel Steven Warren, a Pentagon spokesman.

“If it’s not signed very quickly, we will be forced to begin planning for an Afghanistan that has no US presence after 2014,” said Warren.

Such an outcome would be unpalatable for Washington; it would risk a collapse of still fragile Afghan forces; it could open the door for a resurgence of the Taliban, and forces like al Qaeda which the war was launched in 2001 to quell.

A total withdrawal would also leave Obama with the question of whether he squandered the sacrifice of nearly 2,300 US troops in Afghanistan. It could also condemn the country to the same post-US torment as Iraq.

But Obama is also adamant that there will be no troops left in Afghanistan if they are not offered the legal protections that the BSA provides – and there remains a suspicion that some officials would welcome the chance to wash their hands of Afghanistan.

A delay in the US-Afghan BSA is also problematic for US NATO partners who must conclude their own status of forces agreements with Karzai.

Many analysts believe that Karzai will not ultimately allow his nation to be left alone to its fate and believe he will sign in the end.
One option may be just to wait Karzai out, said Michael O’Hanlon, a senior military analyst at the Brookings Institution.
“The better part of wisdom here is just to relax, time will make it a lot easier,” O’Hanlon said, arguing that the true answer to the conundrum was to stress the long-term interests of the Afghan people and not Karzai’s personal pique.

Caroline Wadhams, of the Center for American Progress, just back from Afghanistan, suggested Karzai had miscalculated his nation’s strategic importance to Washington – and convinced himself that Obama would make further concessions because Washington is desperate to stay.

“It is not clear what he wants. I don’t know how you negotiate with him,” she said, adding that Washington needed to convince Karzai, “this is it, we are not doing this anymore.”Hmmmm.....My guess the 'related' story has more to do with Karzai's behavior.

Related:

U.S.-Afghan security deal not useful for Afghanistan says Iran 

US troops to stay in Afghanistan until 2024 - security pact

US troops to stay in Afghanistan until 2024 - security pact. (RT).

The US President is to write a letter to the people of Afghanistan recognizing mistakes made during the “war on terror,” 

The US and Afghanistan have finalized the draft of a mutual security pact indicating that US troops could remain in the country until 2024. Afghan politicians will meet in two days to vote on the new agreement.
While the 25-page “Security and Defense Cooperation Agreement Between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” is still unsigned, the deal displays a willingness of the US to retain their military outposts for many years, potentially until 2024, while continuing to pay support to Afghan security forces.

“The Parties acknowledge that continued US military operations to defeat al-Qaeda and its affiliates may be appropriate and agree to continue their close cooperation and coordination toward that end,” stated the document, which was released for public viewing by NBC News. 

On Monday, Reuters reported that Afghan President Hamid Karzai rejected a provision granting the United States authority to unilaterally carry out military operations within the country, including the search of civilian homes.

The document appears to have adhered to his wishes, stating that: “No detention or arrest shall be carried out by the United States forces. The United States forces shall not search any homes or other real estate properties.”

The US President is to write a letter to the people of Afghanistan recognizing mistakes made during the “war on terror,” according to President Karzai’s spokesperson cited by Reuters on Tuesday.
Later this week, thousands of Afghan political and tribal leaders will congregate to decide whether to allow US troops to remain in the country following the 2014 withdrawal of foreign forges. The five-day long negotiations are to begin on Thursday.  Hmmm......How about ... In addition to this search-and-enter issue, the United States wants American military personnel to be granted immunity from Afghan law during their stay in the country. This request was also opposed by Karzai ?

US-Afghan security pact collapsing after Karzai refusal.

US-Afghan security pact collapsing after Karzai refusal.(RT).

According to a report by Reuters, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has rejected a provision in the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) that would grant the United States authority to unilaterally carry out military operations within the country, including the search of civilian homes.

Since these raids have sometimes resulted in the death of civilians, Karzai has opposed allowing them to continue under a new BSA. One Afghan official with knowledge of the negotiations told Reuters that on this issue, “there is no flexibility.”
For its part, the United States says it wants the ability to raid Afghan homes in order to continue operations targeting Al Qaeda and other anti-government forces.
On Thursday, Afghanistan’s loya jirga – a national gathering of thousands of political and tribal leaders from around the country – is scheduled to convene and debate the terms of the BSA. If the two sides fail to reach an agreement, the United States says it could pull all of its remaining troops out of the country by the end of 2014.

"They want a window left open to go into Afghan homes, but the president does not accept that - not unilaterally and not joint," an Afghan official told Reuters, indicating that even raids operated by both U.S. and Afghan forces in tandem are out of the question.

In addition to this search-and-enter issue, the United States wants American military personnel to be granted immunity from Afghan law during their stay in the country. This request is also opposed by Karzai.
Two years ago in Iraq, the United States similarly required immunity from local law in exchange for its troops to remain and continue assisting local security forces. The Iraqis refused to grant this protection, and the U.S. subsequently removed its troops from the country.
Neither the U.S. embassy nor NATO headquarters in Kabul would comment on the state of negotiations, but one unnamed Western diplomat told Reuters, "It's a very tense time.”
If there’s no agreement between Karzai and the West by Thursday, the Afghan president is expected to address the loya jirga and say he does not support the provision that allows the U.S. to raid Afghan homes. Such a move could endanger the entire agreement.
"If the jirga becomes about that one article then it risks seeing the entire document rejected," the Afghan official said.

U.S. and NATO officials are expected to continue meeting with Karzai, though a resolution to the issue isn’t expected. With the Afghan presidential elections gearing up for next year, the U.S. thinks now is the best time for a new pact to be authorized.

Kerry fails to secure deal - Troop immunity threatens to sink US-Afghan deal.

Kerry fails to secure deal - Troop immunity threatens to sink US-Afghan deal.(ET).

President Hamid Karzai and US Secretary of State John Kerry said Saturday that talks on the future of US forces in Afghanistan were stuck on the key issue of US troop immunity.

Kerry extended his stay in Kabul to try to thrash out a long-delayed security pact that would allow between 5,000 and 10,000 US troops to remain in Afghanistan after 2014 to fight al Qaeda remnants and train the national army.
But he said that a major sticking point in efforts to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) was the issue of which country would try any US soldiers deployed in Afghanistan.

“One issue that is outstanding (is) the issue of jurisdiction,” he said, rejecting the widely-used term “immunity” because accused US troops would still stand trial in America.

“We need to say that if the issue cannot be resolved, unfortunately there cannot be a bilateral security agreement.”

Karzai said that a national assembly of tribal elders would be called to discuss whether foreign soldiers could be given immunity from prosecution in Afghanistan, as the issue was “above government authority”.
“After several months of negotiation, and intense talks yesterday and today, we have reached a series of agreements,” Karzai told reporters at a joint press conference in Kabul.

“The BSA has a lot of items, one is about immunity for foreign and US soldiers — we didn’t have a united opinion on this issue.”

A similar US security agreement with Iraq in 2011 collapsed over the issue of troop immunity.
The US pulled its troops out of the country, which is currently suffering its worst sectarian violence since 2008.
But Afghan officials dismiss the possibility that the US may enact the “zero option” of a complete pull-out after its soldiers have fought the Taliban militants since 2001.

Kerry had been due to fly to Paris on Saturday morning, but negotiations ran late into the evening.
A US official said Kerry wanted “to leave Kabul with as many issues resolved as possible”.

The US wants the security deal signed within weeks to enable the NATO military coalition to plan its withdrawal of 87,000 combat troops from Afghanistan by December 2014, but Karzai recently threatened to walk away from talks.

Karzai said on Saturday that progress was made on other major points of dispute, including the US agreeing not to conduct unilateral military operations against militants after 2014.
“There will be no arbitrary actions and operations by the US, and a written document has been given to guarantee the protection of lives and properties of our people,” the president said.

Karzai has had a tempestuous relationship with the US and other foreign allies since he came to power in 2001, often sparking outrage with his criticism of international military efforts to thwart Taliban insurgents.
He is due to stand down for elections in April 2014, and many analysts say he is keen to secure a reputation as a strong nationalist leader.
A credible election to choose Karzai’s successor is seen as the key test of Afghan stability as NATO troops withdraw, and Kerry stressed the US would support a free and fair vote.
Karzai officially suspended BSA talks in June in a furious reaction to the Taliban opening a liaison office in Qatar that was presented as an embassy for a government in waiting.Read the full story here.

Afghan air force 'Flying high' - ‘$37 Million Aviation Facility May Have Been Used to Store Opium.’

Afghan air force 'Flying high' - ‘$37 Million Aviation Facility May Have Been Used to Store Opium.’(Reuters).

"This is a hard deal. We're far from 100-percent guaranteed on delivery," said Air Force Brigadier General John Michel, who leads NATO Air Training Command Afghanistan, which is due to complete its training of the Afghan air force by December 31, 2017 - three years after most U.S. forces leave Afghanistan.

The one-star general cited progress in training and planning for Afghanistan to assume control over the air force but said many factors were outside his control.
Michel spoke to Reuters this week during the annual Air Force Association conference here.

He said the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force was re-examining all infrastructure projects after a report that one $37 million aviation facility may have been used to store opium and other concerns raised by Congress.Read the full story here.

Former warlord Ismail Khan: "The Taliban are in all the villages once again. They want all the power. Our army won't be able to stop them."

Former warlord Ismail Khan: "The Taliban are in all the villages once again. They want all the power. Our army won't be able to stop them."(Spiegel).

In truth, the 65-year-old minister is still what he was 30 years ago: a mujahed, or warlord, although he doesn't like the latter term. "The Americans and English tried to discredit us with that word, until they realized that they couldn't do without us in their fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban," Khan, now an older, more peaceful man, says with a smile.

But he is also a man who had entire armies march across the Hindu Kush Mountains in the 1980s to fight the Soviets. He was one of the commanders in the ensuing civil war, in which Afghanistan's ethnic groups -- the Tajiks, Hazara, Uzbeks and Pashtuns -- massacred one another and laid waste to the capital Kabul.

Khan, governor of the most important province in western Afghanistan until 2004, was known as the "Lion of Herat." He still prefers to be addressed by his former title of Emir. But then he became too powerful for the Americans and President Hamid Karzai, so they removed Khan from office and brought him to Kabul to keep a closer eye on him.

He was finally given the somewhat laughable position of water and energy minister, despite his feeling that he should have been offered the job of defense or interior minister instead. "I'm not in this position voluntarily," says Khan.
His office is now in a dilapidated building on the street leading to the Darul Aman Palace on the outskirts of Kabul, a stately building that once housed the parliament and was reduced to a ruin in the country's civil war. Khan, who has been water and energy minister for eight years, dedicates power plants, solicits bids for the construction of power lines and attends cabinet meetings. His ministry is not important in Kabul, and yet both the Americans and Karzai are afraid of him -- especially Karzai.

The year 2014 is approaching, and with it the withdrawal of NATO troops. When Khan appears in public today, it is with the demeanor of the mujahed. "We cannot allow Afghanistan to be destroyed once again," he said publicly late last year. He has also said that government forces are powerless in large parts of the country, that Afghans should arm themselves once again, new recruits should enlist and the command structures of the former militias ought to be reestablished.

The international coalition "has taken away our artillery and tanks and turned them into scrap metal. Instead, they have brought Dutch, German, American and French girls to our country, along with white soldiers from Europe and black soldiers from Africa, who were supposed to bring security to Afghanistan. They have failed," Khan said in a speech at a rally in Herat.

After the speech, President Karzai announced that the minister's words had "nothing to do with the government's policies." An Afghan senator said that people like Khan smell blood, and that they see the withdrawal of Western troops as "the opportunity to launch another civil war and eliminate local rivals."

American four-star General John Allen, commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops in Afghanistan until February, expressed his concerns in a letter to Karzai.
Khan laughs. "One letter? There were two. Karzai showed them to me. And I said to him: It's a good thing that someone like Allen realizes what kinds of people we have here."

"So you believe that the Taliban will return as soon as NATO is gone?"

"The arrogant Americans drove the most important Taliban out of Kabul, bombed the rest from the air and then ended the war," says the minister. 

"So far, 2013 has been the bloodiest year yet in Afghanistan. The Taliban are in all the villages once again. They want all the power. Our army won't be able to stop them."

"And you could stop them?"

"We have 20 years of combat experience, and we defeated a superpower. We can deal with the Taliban too," says Khan, leaning back in his chair. "But not this army," he adds, waving his hand in the direction of the defense ministry. The Afghan army, trained by the West, has lost 63,000 men, or one in three soldiers, to desertion in the last three years.

Rarely have officials in Afghan government ministries spoken as frankly as they do today, now that the Western troop withdrawals have begun. And Ismail Khan is by no means an eccentric maverick.

Marshal Mohammed Fahim, a former warlord and Afghanistan's first vice president, speaks of a comeback by the mujahedeen. And Ahmad Zia Massoud, brother of legendary mujahedeen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, has even said publicly that his followers are arming themselves once again.
"Before the West leaves this place, it should give us back our planes and artillery, or the equivalent," Khan says before going to pray.Read the full story here.

"Yankee just Go Home" - No rush to sign security deal with US, says Afghan president.

Follow the Islamist brick road

"Yankee just Go Home" - No rush to sign security deal with US, says Afghan president.(IIT)

Afghan President Hamid Karzai says his government is in no rush to sign with the United States a security deal that allows Washington to set up permanent military bases in the war-ravaged country beyond the 2014 withdrawal deadline.

President Karzai told a conference in Kabul on Tuesday that the deal could be signed by his successor after next April’s election for a new head of state.
The remarks by the Afghan president have once again dashed American hopes that a pact can be quickly finalized.
In May, President Karzai said his government was ready to let the US set up nine bases across Afghanistan after most foreign troops withdraw in 2014.
However, the Afghan government has recently sought explanation from Washington about the ongoing US-led controversial peace talks with the Taliban militants in Qatar. The Kabul government has also suspended strategic talks with Washington to discuss the nature of US presence after beyond 2014.
President Karzai has announced that his government will not join any US negotiations with the Taliban unless the talks are led by the Afghans.
The Islamic Movement of Afghanistan Party and several other political factions have recently released a statement warning that things will get worse should the US sets up its bases in Afghanistan.
The parties also heaped scorn on the US-led forces for committing unforgivable crimes against Afghan women and children since invading the country in 2001.
Thousands of Afghan civilians, including a large number of women and children, have been killed during night raids by foreign forces and CIA-run assassination drone strikes.
The increasing number of casualties in Afghanistan has caused widespread anger against the US and other NATO member states, undermining public support for the Afghan war.

Civilian casualties have long been a source of friction between the Afghan government and US-led foreign forces, and have dramatically increased anti-US sentiments in Afghanistan. Hmmm.....Thanks for the money, now get the hell out of my country.

Obama 'admin' to Meet with Taliban for Talks to End Afghanistan War.

Obama 'admin' to Meet with Taliban for Talks to End Afghanistan War.(RN).

WASHINGTON, – Representatives from the United States and the Taliban will meet in the coming days for their first formal talks to try to find a peaceful settlement to the war in Afghanistan, senior US government officials said Tuesday.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity during a background briefing, the senior officials from US President Barack Obama’s administration said the meeting will take place at the Taliban’s new office in Doha, Qatar. The office is being opened to negotiate directly with the Afghan government, the officials said.

“The core of this process is not going to be the US-Taliban talks – those can help advance the process, but the core of it is going to be negotiations among Afghans, and the level of trust on both sides is extremely low, as one would expect. So it's going to be a long, hard process if indeed it advances significantly at all,” one of the US officials said.

The negotiations come with conditions for the Taliban, including severing ties with al-Qaida, ending the violence, and accepting Afghanistan’s constitution, including its protections of women and minorities, according to the officials.
The US officials also said the Taliban political commission, which is based in Doha, received authorization from Taliban leader Mullah Omar to start the talks with US and Afghan officials.
The news of the talks between the United States and the Taliban comes on the same day that US-led international forces handed over control of Afghanistan’s national security to Afghan forces, setting the stage for most foreign troops to leave the country by the end of 2014.Read the full story here.

Related: Report: Radical Sheikh a Key Mediator in U.S.-Taliban Talks

Obama Admin still following Muslim Brotherhood Sheik Yusuf al-Qaradawi plan to release Taliban prisoners from Gitmo.

Jan 11 -2012: Report: U.S. to Release Three Taliban Leaders from Guantanamo Bay, as in Muslim Brotherhood Sheikh Youssef Qaradawi plan.


March 11 -2012: "Commander in chief' Obama agrees to transfer the Taliban Guantanamo detainees to Qatar.

June 30 - 2012: Obama administration still considering turning Taliban detainees over to Afghanistan and Qatar

U.S. Set to Release Key Taliban Figure in 9/11 Attacks

Taliban 'set to open office in Qatar'.

Taliban 'set to open office in Qatar'.(AJ).

Taliban will open a political office in the Gulf state of Qatar on Tuesday, Al Jazeera has learned.

The office of the Afghan armed group in Doha will aim at facilitating peace talks.

In March, Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, met the emir of Qatar to discuss plans for the Taliban to open an office in the Gulf state.

He discussed "issues of mutual interest" with Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the state news agency QNA said, without elaborating on the substance of their talks.

Karzai also met Afghan and Arab officials and business people.

The delegation travelling with the Afghan president included Zalmai Rassoul, the foreign minister; Salahuddin Rabbani, the head of the High Peace Council.

Until earlier this year, Karzai was strongly opposed to the Taliban having a meeting venue outside Afghanistan, but the US has pushed for the Taliban to be present at the negotiatiing table as Washington prepares to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in the next two years.Read the full story here.

Related: Taliban talks in Doha drag on endlessly 

Taliban representatives have been in Qatari capital for almost a year, but negotiations seem to be going nowhere.
"Karzai sent a message to the Norwegians offering the Taliban the Ministry of Justice and the position of Chief Justice," the source told Al Jazeera. A second source also close to the Afghan Taliban in Doha confirmed the offer. 

Afghanistan Lawmakers cite Koran to block laws protecting women.

Afghanistan Lawmakers cite Koran to block laws protecting women.(DW).

Lawmakers in Afghanistan have blocked legislation proposing a minimum marriage age for girls, and women not being prosecuted for rapes committed against them. Some said such laws might encourage sex outside of marriage.

Failure to pass the law highlights how tenuous women’s rights remain a dozen years after the US-led war led to the overthrow of the Taliban, which kept women virtual prisoners in their homes. Khalil Ahmad Shaheedzada, a conservative lawmaker for the Herat province, said parliament withdrew the legislation because of opposition from religious parties that considered the law un-Islamic.

“Whatever is against Islamic law, we don’t even need to speak about it,” Shaheedzada said. Using executive authority, President Hamid Karzai had created the Law on Elimination of Violence Against Women in 2009. Parliament would eventually have to endorse it, however - or not.

The law would have criminalized domestic violence and protected victims from themselves facing criminal charges after men had raped them and banned "baad," which allows for the commercial exchange of women to settle disputes. Religious representatives objected to more than half a dozen parts of the legislation, including a minimum marriage age of 16 for girls and supporting shelters for women whose husbands had abused them.

Shaheedzada claimed that the law might encourage promiscuity and reflected values not applicable in Afghanistan.

"Even now in Afghanistan, women are running from their husbands. Girls are running from home," Shaheedzada said. "Such laws give them these ideas."Hmmmm........Women are not equal....even in death.Read the full story here.

Obama 'admin' led U.S. Kicks Drug-War Habit, Makes Peace With Afghan Poppies.

Obama 'admin' led U.S. Kicks Drug-War Habit, Makes Peace With Afghan Poppies.HT:Wired.By David Axe.

ZARI, Afghanistan — Because of the poppies, the raw material for most of the world’s heroin, the list of things 1st Lt. Christopher Gackstatter and his 2nd Platoon can’t do in Sartok is far longer than the list of things they can.

Marching into the mud-walled village in t­­his sun-baked district of southern Afghanistan on an April 24 intelligence-gathering mission, the boyish 25-year-old lieutenant and his roughly dozen riflemen and machine gunners are mindful of the many poppy-related prohibitions, developed over 12 painful years of war, that have been passed down to their Bravo Company by the higher unit, 3-41 Infantry, part of the Texas-based 1st Brigade of the 1st Armored Division.

They’re not allowed to actually step foot in Sartok’s many acres of poppy fields or damage the fields in any way.They can’t even threaten to destroy the fields or send in Afghan troops to burn, plow under or poison the delicate, pastel-colored flowers.

Nor can they discourage poppy farmers, however gently, from growing their illicit crop, which is hardier and commands a higher price than alternatives such as wheat. Poppy cultivation has been illegal in Afghanistan since 2001 but still represents a full quarter of the country’s gross domestic product and a major source of revenue for the Taliban, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Many of the middlemen who buy up raw poppy paste for onward sale to heroin-producers hail from the insurgent group.

The rules are fairly new and reflect a subtle but profound shift in the way the U.S. Army thinks about Afghanistan, its people and culture and conflict. Having furtively experimented with every possible approach to Afghan poppies since 2001 — from blissfully ignoring them to actively destroying them and everything in between — today the ground-combat branch has made peace with poppies, viewing them as a potential good thing for Afghanistan and the Army.

There is also a significant overlap between the corrupt political establishment and the illegal drug trade, up to and including the president's late brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai. So, another unintentional consequence may be that some of this unaccountable ghost money is propping up the drug trade.

Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of heroin, and the UN reports that poppy growth has increased dramatically. Indeed, the UN estimates that acreage under poppy growth in Afghanistan has tripled over the last 7 years.  The value of the drug trade to the Afghan warlords is now estimated to be in the region of $700 million per year.  You can buy a lot of Kalashnikovs with that.Read the full story here.

'1mn died' from Afghan heroin, drug production '40 times higher' since NATO operation.

'1mn died' from Afghan heroin, drug production '40 times higher' since NATO operation.(RT).Heroin production in Afghanistan increased 40 times since NATO began its ‘War on Terror’ in 2001, the head of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service stated, adding that more than 1million people have died from Afghan heroin since then.

“Afghan heroin has killed more than 1 million people worldwide since the ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ began and over a trillion dollars has been invested into transnational organized crime from drug sales,” Viktor Ivanov said at the conference on the drug situation in Afghanistan.

Ivanov stressed that the main factor of instability in the war-torn country remains the prosperous heroin industry.

"Any impartial observer must admit the sad fact that the international community has failed to curb heroin production in Afghanistan since the start of NATO’s operation.”

According to his presentation at UN’s 56th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna on March 11, opium growth has increased by 18 per cent from 131,000 hectares to 154,000.

As the situation in Afghanistan changed with NATO withdrawing its troops, Russia along with Afghanistan and the international community must face the new reality and develop an efficient strategy to deal with the heroin problem, explained Ivanov.

Opium production has been central to Afghanistan’s economy ever since US and NATO forces invaded in October 2001. Just before the invasion Taliban had implemented a ban on poppy growing, declaring it to be anti-Islam, which lowered the overall production. But after the West’s involvement, production resumed and now the country produces some 90 per cent of the world’s opium, the great bulk of which ends up on the streets of Europe and Russia.

US and NATO officials have been stuck in a Catch-22 fight against Afghan opium. At the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna in March, Ivanov stated that on the one hand, they are attempting to win the hearts and minds of the local population, which increasingly depends on the cultivation of opium poppy for their livelihood. On the other, they need to cut off finances to the Taliban insurgency, which is fueled by the sale of opium poppy to foreign markets.Hmmmmm......Hamid Karzai’s Brother linked to Afghanistan Heroin Trade.Read the full story here.

Video - Everything u ever wanted to know about the Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict.

HT: Tarek Fatah.

"Forward" - Karzai 'ordered' U.S. special forces To Leave Key Afghan Province.

"Forward" - Karzai 'ordered' U.S. special forces To Leave Key Afghan Province.(NPR).HT: AstuteBlogger.We're getting word that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered U.S. special forces to leave Wardak Province within two weeks amid allegation of torture and disappearances centering on Afghans who are part of the U.S. forces.

NPR's Sean Carberry is reporting on the move for our Newscast unit. Here's what he says:

"The order came after the governor of Wardak presented a report to the Afghan National Security Council today. The report alleges that special forces and armed groups created by them have committed a range of abuses in the volatile province that neighbors Kabul. President Karzai has long criticized U.S. raids on Afghan homes, but the claims in the report appear to go far beyond his previous allegations. The president's order says all special forces must cease operations immediately and leave the province within two weeks. A U.S .forces official says they have not seen the report and cannot comment until they can discuss the issue directly with the Afghan government."

The BBC says that the central province has been the focus of recent counterinsurgency operations.

Al Jazeera reported that the order to remove U.S. special forces extended to Logar Province.

Hmmm.....My thoughts go out to the women of Afghanistan that after been given hope will be thrown back to the Medieval times in which the Taliban dwell.It's nothing but 'Betrayal' Mr. President, no matter how many times you state: "The Koran teaches that, Be it man or woman, each of you is equal to the other."Read the full story here.