Afghanistan

"I heard that 15,000 US troops invaded Fallujah while planes dropped 500-pound bombs on ‘insurgent targets’. I heard they destroyed the Nazzal Emergency Hospital in the centre of the city, killing 20 doctors. I heard they occupied Fallujah General Hospital, which the military had called a ‘centre of propaganda’ for reporting civilian casualties. I heard that they confiscated all mobile phones and refused to allow doctors and ambulances to go out and help the wounded. I heard they bombed the power plant to black out the city, and that the water was shut off. I heard that every house and shop had a large red X spray-painted on the door to indicate that it had been searched." [more]

"In all parts of the world many scholars and those who want the world to be saved from the evil of America wished for Bush to be re-elected and for America to remain in the hands of his bullying friends in order to push America closer to ruination." [more]

"During the last three years, this holocaust has not only spread wider but also been given a general acceptability, to such an extent that now it seems to be a matter of routine even when several hundred Muslims are slaughtered in a single day." [more]

"The failure of the controlled electronic media--outlets reaching the largest audience in Pakistan--to publicize the commander's statement on the unsuccessful effort to locate Bin Ladin or other Al-Qa'ida leaders contrasts with the airing those remarks received by Pakistan's private electronic and print media." [more]

Nicholas Burns said NATO defense ministers meeting here were likely to instruct the alliance military leadership to report back in February on how to bring NATO and US military operations under a single NATO command. [more]

With counting due to begin on Wednesday, several rivals of frontrunner President Hamid Karzai have abandoned a boycott of Saturday's poll over what they had said were fraud and irregularities. [more]

"It is believed that the United States receives such defective information from Afghanistan's opportunist warlords, Indian secret agencies, or from Pakistani experts who never visited Kabul or Kandahar but who are earning dollars by writing imaginary stories about the Taliban and Al-Qa'ida. " [more]

A spokesperson "despaired that military campaigns were employing 'hearts and minds' strategies more and more often, making it difficult for aid workers to maintain their aura of all-important impartiality. If armies are handing out food assistance and medical equipment, it becomes harder for locals to tell the aid workers from the occupiers." [more]

"A new book by an author going by the name Anonymous (a senior US intelligence official), contains an outright and strong condemnation of America's counter-terrorism policy [...] The book, due out in the first week of July, titled Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror, dismisses two of the most frequent boasts of the Bush administration: that bin Laden and al-Qaeda are 'on the run' and that the Iraq invasion has made America safer." [more]

"Karzai, who arrived back in Kabul on Friday, has promised to disarm the warlords, but as many as 100,000 militia fighters still control most of the country more than two years after the Taliban was routed." [more]

"Michael Moore's documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," will open in about 1,000 U.S. theaters June 25, and a trailer promoting the expedited release could hit the Internet by the end of this week." [more]

If today the U.S. government were to put itself on trial, on the same basis it employed to try the Nazis at Nuremberg, for actions taken in Afghanistan and Iraq in recent years, it might have to convict itself—if only for the sake of consistency. [more]

"'Tillman gave up millions of dollars,' Rall added. 'To that extent I think he's admirable, but the cause is not. ... He would have been a better person and a better husband if he took the $3.6 million and played football and left the poor and beleaguered people of Afghanistan and Iraq alone.'" [more]

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai called on Sunday for more international money to help rebuild his war-ravaged country and admitted he was frustrated that Iraq was getting much more." [more]

"Forces of ethnic Uzbek strongman General Abd al-Rashid Dostum invaded Faryab province on Wednesday, prompting the central government to dispatch national army troops there on Thursday in an attempt to restore order." [more]

"Question and answer session with President Kharzai; from the 'Good Morning Afghanistan' program: 'You and the President'" [more]

"The correct moral to draw from al-Qaeda's involvement in Afghanistan is not the danger of rogue states but the danger of failed ones where the collapse of the central government allowed a lightly armed but highly motivated group of fanatics to seize control. Rather than resolve the problem of Afghanistan's lack of effective authority, however, Bush simply treated a symptom and left the disease in place. Now, not only are Osama bin Laden and other top al-Qaeda leaders still at large, the possibility that they and their allies will gain control over a substantial portion of Afghan territory remains quite real." [more]

"Donor countries pledged a total of $8.2 billion in aid over the next three years to Afghanistan on the first day of the conference on Wednesday. The country is set to receive $4.4 billion of the sum by March 20, 2005. The World Bank estimated that Afghanistan would need $27.5 billion over the next seven years for reconstruction." [more]

"Although the complete Land Warrior System -- a modular, integrated fighting system that includes everything an infantry soldier wears or carries on the battlefield -- is not due to be fielded until 2007, troops in the field already benefit from several of its components." [more]

"Pakistani troops have faced fierce resistance from suspected al-Qaida fighters and tribesmen in the South Waziristan area since launching a sweep on Tuesday, leading to speculation they may be protecting Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Ladin's right-hand man." [more]

"Tens of thousands are on the move now as the Pentagon carries out the largest rotation of forces in its history, relieving battle-weary soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait with fresh forces. By late March, 130,000 troops will be leaving Iraq and 105,000, including some of the 319th, will arrive. As many as 50% of these will be reservists or National Guard." [more]

"There is also a growing belief that the release was a cynical move to divert attention from the US Supreme Court’s hearing later this year to test the legality of holding the Camp Delta detainees. Two of the released British detainees were named as plaintiffs in a legal challenge mounted by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), arguing that the US cannot order indefinite detention without due legal process in 'a prison that operates entirely outside the law.'" [more]

"Terror is both a real phenomenon and a fraud ... The United States has made a long series of blunders in the Middle East guaranteed to offend and intimidate Muslims, especially fundamentalists, the people from whom an organization like al Qaeda draws support. These blunders must be seen in the context of an almost irrational support for Israel's bloodiest behavior." [more]

"Since the end of 2002, most of the major US think tanks, human rights groups, and Western NGOs have persistently pointed out the flaws in US strategy and suggested the fairly obvious changes that need to be made. As in Iraq, however, the Bush administration is extremely reluctant to admit its mistakes or rectify them publicly or even make reliable information available." [more]

"A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the Pentagon has no constitutional obligation to provide the media access to U.S. troops during combat." [more]

"The situation today is starting to improve. There are now eight cinemas operating in Kabul, mostly showing Indian films. Afghan Film is slowly being re-equipped and some private companies are emerging from the dust of older firms such as Ariana Film and Kabul Film. New initiatives include a production company set up by Bollywood actor Hashmat Rahmini (known to audiences as Hashmat Khan), himself an Afghan." [more]

"The suicide attack on Tuesday was the first one in Afghanistan in which a human body was used as weapon to make a direct bomb attack." [more]

"Seeing that operations in Afghanistan haven't succeeded in shutting down terror networks, the Pentagon is planning a 'spring offensive' and ordered troops to start working on logistics and getting equipment in place, a Washington official said, speaking on condition of anonymity." [more]

"The attack was the most vicious in the area in the last two years. In retaliation, the foreign forces also attacked the Taliban, and when US aircraft arrived the Taliban retreated." [more]

"[Karzai's] opponents want Parliament to control the printing of money, the creation of a constitutional court, three vice presidents rather than one, a ban on top officials holding dual citizenship or having a foreign spouse, more power devolved to provincial councils, and for Uzbek and Turkmen language rights in their ethnic regions." [more]

"While the eyes of world are on Iraq, the Taliban are reborn across much of this country and their al-Qa'ida allies are once more in the ascendant. As attacks mount and the death toll rises, the US [is] losing control" [more]

"Two years after they fell from power, the Taleban are back, rearmed with guns and a determination to stop the march of democracy in an attempt to win back the hearts and minds they once controlled." [more]

"Six children and two adults were killed during a US attack on a weapons compound in south-eastern Afghanistan, the second bungled operation in the country to leave child victims in as many days." [more]

Despite the raid's failure, "the American military is pressing ahead with its objectives ... announcing Monday that it had 2,000 soldiers out on its biggest operation ever against elements of the Taliban and Al Qaeda across a wide swath of the country." [more]

"The 11,500 U.S.-led troops hunting Taliban and al Qaeda remnants in south and east Afghanistan often are supported by air power, and there have been a string of military mishaps. The worst occurred in July 2002, when Afghan officials said 48 civilians at a wedding party were killed and 117 wounded by a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship." [more]

"A flurry of terrorist attacks over the past several days, as well as the deaths of nine children Saturday in a U.S. air assault on a village where a lone Taliban terrorist was said to be hiding, have cast a jittery pall over preparations for an historic constitutional assembly scheduled to begin Wednesday." [more]

"Four Army divisions now in Iraq are to return next year and will need about six months to rest, retrain and repair equipment. With three divisions set to rotate into Iraq and another into Afghanistan as replacements, about 80 percent of the Army's fighting strength will be either on the mend or on duty fighting terror and stabilizing the two countries." [more]

"Rumsfeld told Davis he could understand [Afghan warlord] Dostum's reluctance to surrender the foundation of his power. 'I don't think his position is unreasonable,' Rumsfeld said." [more]

"We heard a missile passing over our heads immediately before we had finished eating and it exploded 100 meters from the house. We immediately started to leave fearing that we were the target and the targeting would be corrected so as to hit us." [more]

"Fighters from the two factions have clashed repeatedly since the Taliban's overthrow by U.S.-led forces in late 2001. Past U.N.-brokered disarmament drives have failed. The violence has raised doubts about the ability of President Hamid Karzai's government to bring stability to the entire country." [more]

" 'Almost two years after the fall of the Taliban and nearly six months after the fall of Baghdad, the White House is finally organizing itself to deal with the realities of postwar Afghanistan and Iraq," said Senator John Edwards. '[R]earranging flow charts is no substitute for leadership.' " [more]

"Mansour and others associated with the Northern Alliance said the group has no intention of threatening violence against Karzai or of disrupting national elections, whenever they are held. But they said several recent moves by Karzai to weaken their power had made them 'rethink' their support for his government." [more]

"Though U.S.-led coalition forces are stationed in hot zones, their sights are trained on terrorists rather than the local thugs, drug traffickers and bandits who make life for Afghans miserable. For many Afghans, the country is less secure today than it was before the coalition bombers arrived." [more]

"Aid groups are fleeing in terror. They blame much of their exodus from the southern third of the country on its drug crop, worth an estimated $1.6 billion Cdn, which purportedly finances Islamic extremist violence, ethnic blood feuds, warlord war chests, provincial property disputes and competing political movements." [more]

"The civilians died in their beds when a bomb landed on their tent in Naw Bahar district of the southern province of Zabul on Wednesday night." [more]

"I certainly cannot make an offer of which Washington would take notice. The Americans listen to criticism and then act as they see fit. I think it is obvious that there must ultimately be a procedure through which an objective judicial entity decides whether a specific person constitutes a threat, and that such a person also needs legal counsel in that procedure. Otherwise fundamental principles are lost." [more]

"Lawmakers of both parties warned before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that stabilizing post-war Iraq could be far more expensive than waging war. For months, the Bush administration was reluctant to discuss the financial costs of the commitment, much as the Johnson administration seldom directly addressed the budget impact of Vietnam." [more]

"Despite a 22-month military campaign against the Taliban, the militant group has staged a series of increasingly audacious and brutal attacks on military and civilian targets that has alarmed the government of President Hamid Karzai and frustrated US officials. Afghan officials have been troubled by the resurgent group's ability to muster increasingly large forces in the remote hills that straddle the Afghan-Pakistani border, and Kabul's and Washington's patience with Islamabad has worn thin." [more]

"The description of active combat in Iraq was one of several statements Bush made in the interview that differed with earlier administration positions." [more]

"Pressure is growing to dispatch more soldiers from the international force to bring stability to the anarchic provinces outside Kabul." [more]

"Presidential contenders and congressional Democrats criticized the Pentagon on Thursday for opposing legislation that would extend an increase in combat pay for troops in Iraq and other war zones." [more]

"People nowadays are not willing to bow down before an emperor, even a benevolent one, in order to be democratised. They will protest, and the ensuing pain will be felt by the imperial power as well as by its subjects. For Americans, the pain will not be just a matter of budget deficits and body bags; it will also be a blow to the very heart of what makes them American—their constitutional belief in freedom." [more]

"Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, remain unaccounted for, and the south of the country is getting more dangerous, not less. Major operations ... often result in coralling a few men, who may be terrorists or, just as easily, shepherds. Detainees are spirited off to the Bagram base, north of Kabul, and interrogated. Several have died there. But as major combat dies down, questions are sure to be asked about the cost-effectiveness of what the coalition is up to, given that the Americans are spending $10 billion or so a year on it." [more]

"Originally set up after World War II to fight communism, NATO has decided that now it is time to target international terrorism. In this way the alliance hopes to ease the sense of its own inaction, and even pointlessness, which has been haunting it since the break-up of the USSR." [more]

"The Army is telling troops to take precautions as it tries to figure out the cause of pneumonia cases, including two deaths, among forces in the Afghan and Iraqi campaigns." [more]

The United States is in discussions with Afghanistan to send hundreds of advisers to government ministries in order to accelerate reconstruction there. Critics contend the system would be the beginning of a colonialization similar to Iraq. [more]

"Kandahar police also say they feel demoralized and targeted. In July alone, one district police chief was shot to death on his way home from work and another was killed along with five of his officers when a band of about 20 armed men stormed their compound, police officials said. This past week, five or six government officials were ambushed and killed along the same isolated road where a Red Cross water engineer was executed in late March." [more]

"When the Taliban fell, the US would not agree to the deployment of the International Security Assistance Force outside Kabul. Why? Because the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was already planning the invasion of Iraq and did not want men tied down in peacekeeping." [more]

"Mr. Stueve could not specify how many soldiers are in hotels, but said Walter Reed is referring about 20 patients or their relatives to hotels each day. Hotels in Silver Spring, just across the D.C. line, offer discounted rates for outpatients and their families, and the military pays the bill." [more]

"The Bush administration has come to realize that it is impossible to keep Pakistan as a friend and simultaneously keep the Northern Alliance–backed government in power in Kabul ... either one has Pakistan as a friend with an Islamabad-backed Pashtun group in power in Kabul, or one gets Pakistan as an enemy. There should be no doubt in anyone's mind how the Bush administration would act when confronted with such a choice." [more]

Funds "would go toward highway and school construction, other infrastructure initiatives, police training, beefed-up development of the Afghan national army, education projects and programs to help women enter the workforce." [more]

"The best chance at killing or capture may have been deep in the past. Below the white peaks of the Spin Ghar near the Pakistani line, Osama bin Laden was spotted. The American high command believed this was it but didn't want to put its soldiers in severe danger; didn't want British special forces to claim the war's greatest prize; and couldn't compel Pakistan to close off the frontier." [more]

"In Zebak province, in the country's northeast, regional commanders are forcing women into marriage, threatening their families' lives if they decline. And although the central government insists that women are no longer being arrested for "moral" crimes, police continue to jail women for adultery and eloping, often without trial or even so much as a witness against them." [more]

"By all appearances, insurgents have consciously turned against foreign aid workers despite work done during the days of the mujahideen resistance and Taliban rule. Attacks on their local helpers as well suggest that more than xenophobia is at work. Rather, the attacks seem part of a concerted effort to undermine the reconstruction work itself." [more]

"The Afghan foreign ministry says Musharraf, during a recent trip to Europe, questioned Karzai's influence across Afghanistan, spoke of a power vacuum and said the government was not representative of all ethnic groups." [more]

"The one demand almost all Afghans make — that international troops should be deployed in other cities, not just in Kabul, and hoover up the millions of rifles and rocket-propelled grenades — is denied them by the United States. Why? The Americans are keen to confiscate weapons in Iraq. Why not in Afghanistan as well?" [more]

"Opium use among all age groups is on the rise in Afghanistan, which produces more of the drug than any other nation, according to the United Nations. But in a poor country where anti-narcotics efforts are focused on combating supply, not demand, there are few places to treat addicts who need help." [more]

"The hard truth is that US intelligence simply does not really know what is going on in the Taliban and al-Qaeda camps. This is evidenced by the countless raids that have been launched in recent times, none of which have resulted in the capture of anyone in Afghanistan." [more]

"A surreal society has emerged at the tip of Cuba in which rules are the only common language and prisoners and guards alike feel marooned." [more]

"Mullah Omar called on the Taliban to make sacrifices to drive out U.S. and other foreign troops and the "puppet" government of U.S.-backed President Hamid Karzai." [more]

"Since the United States broadened its anti-terrorism campaign to include Iraq, there has been a surge in violence against Westerners in the Islamic world. A May 12 attack on housing complexes in Saudi Arabia killed at least 23 people, bombings in Morocco killed 31 victims, and there have been continued guerrilla assaults on U.S. troops in Iraq." [more]

"The United States is urging Afghan President Hamid Karzai to rein in provincial warlords who are hijacking hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue needed by his government, and has not ruled out U.S. military aid in the event of a showdown." [more]

"Children younger than 16 are being held as 'enemy combatants' in the American detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, the US military admitted yesterday, a practice human rights groups condemned as repugnant and illegal." [more]

"Not only might these tribes bring back an ancient vigilante style of justice — burning the homes of accused criminals, for instance — but tribal militias could become an obstacle for US forces as they search the countryside for Al Qaeda." [more]

"Attacks against US troops in southern Afghanistan, the former stronghold of the deposed Taliban regime, have spiked in recent weeks, culminating Saturday with the ambush of a US Special Forces unit that left two US soldiers dead and a third injured." [more]

"Rumors about the death of the fanatics in Afghanistan were premature. Local bosses and drug traffickers are entering the vacuum created by the Karzai regime. The U.S., eager to bring the message of the West to Iraq, seems to be turning a blind eye." [more]

"Another commentator, Rahimullah Yusufzai, a leading Pakistani journalist and expert on Afghan affairs, said many members of the clan had left the tribal area to seek work in the Gulf states and the Middle East making them relatively well off." [more]

"Some combat troops privately admitted feeling sidelined in a country where only weak pockets of enemy forces remain after 17 months of US and allied operations to root out Al Qaeda." [more]

"Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the assault was not timed to coincide with the war with Iraq or meant to counter critics who say the Iraqi campaign will divert military attention from the war on terrorism." [more]

"An incident last week shows how close US forces and their allies in Afghanistan come to fighting one another, instead of their enemies. It also points to a lack of coordination between two forces with very different mandates — one keeping the peace, the other catching terrorists." [more]

"According to UN figures, Afghanistan now produces three-quarters of the world's opium, much of which finds its way on to the streets of Europe and the United States as lethally addictive heroin." [more]

"Afghan officials said yesterday that at least 17 civilians were killed in a US-led bombing raid in southern Afghanistan." [more]

"The United States Congress has [had to step] in to find nearly $300 million in humanitarian and reconstruction funds for Afghanistan after the Bush administration failed to request any money in the latest budget." [more]

"At least 16 people, including women and children, were killed when their bus exploded on a bridge just outside the southern city of Kandahar, in an attack that the local police attributed to the Taliban or other rebel forces." [more]

"Hundreds of Qaeda fighters and Taliban supporters are planning to intensify their attacks on Afghan territory if war breaks out in Iraq, interviews with three visitors from Pakistani tribal area indicate." [more]

"More than 14 months ago, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan produced swift and stunning results." [more]

"Guns and the warlords who wield them are distorting the Afghan economy, obstructing the role of government and impeding the delivery of relief and reconstruction aid." [more]

"President Hamid Karzai urged donors at the opening of the talks Tuesday to shift away from immediate humanitarian aid and to focus more on the longer-term investments needed to aid the shattered nation. Diplomats say that any U.S.-led war against Baghdad is likely to divert aid budgets toward future reconstruction of Iraq, thinning cash available for nations like Afghanistan." [more]

"The main theme of his report is the need for countries to share information more effectively in order to combat what is still described as a substantial threat to global peace and security." [more]

"Asked how the Monitoring Group felt about the appearance of new Al Qaeda training camps in eastern Afghanistan, he replied that they were of great concern, since their emergence signified that people were still disillusioned enough to side with Al Qaeda. Indeed, sympathy for the organization was widespread in some countries, he added." [more]

"Gulbuddin, the Afghan defense official known as 'Doctor' from his former job as a surgeon, is worried about developments in the Middle East. An American invasion of Iraq, he says, could hurt his country’s efforts to build a lasting peace." [more]

"Violent confrontations between police and student protesters over the last two days have left at least two college students dead of gunshot wounds, dozens more seriously injured and several policemen wounded." [more]

"In March, Afghanistan's new education ministry rehired thousands of teachers who had been sacked by the Taliban, including many women who were banned from teaching. But attitudes towards girls' education remain mixed. In the south, much of the conservative Pashtun community remains hostile towards the idea of girls going to school, especially after the age of 10." [more]

"The Afghan government won a resounding endorsement from international donors today for its budget and development plan to lift Afghanistan out of destitution and work toward self-sufficiency, positioning it well to win badly needed long-term assistance." [more]

"When the role that Afghanistan's deep descent into chaos played in the 9/11 attacks became clear, the White House promised things would be different this time around. The world would not abandon Afghanistan again. Yet a year after the start of the air war that ousted the Taliban, Afghanistan could be forgiven for feeling neglected." [more]

"Almost a year after the defeat of the Taliban, President Hamid Karzai's government is weaker than it was a few months ago, ethnic and political rivalries plague the country, the military power of the warlords has increased and there is a new wave of anti-Americanism from the Pashtun tribes in the east and south, who feel alienated and victimized both by the Kabul government and US forces." [more]

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai has been criticized at home for mismanaging the government and warned that his reliance on U.S. bodyguards could have 'dangerous consequences.' " [more]

"Nobody knows exactly how many Taliban prisoners were secretly interred in this mass grave, a short distance from the main road. But there is now substantial evidence that the worst atrocity of last year's war in Afghanistan took place here; most controversially, during an operation masterminded by US special forces." [more]

"Hamid Karzai's government may require the support of the U.S. and its allies for some time to come." [more]

"Mr Muttawakil, now in American custody, believed the Taliban's protection of Mr bin Laden and the other al-Qa'ida militants would lead to nothing less than the destruction of Afghanistan by the US military. He told his aide: 'The guests are going to destroy the guesthouse.' " [more]

"President Hamid Karzai narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar this evening, just three hours after a powerful car bomb exploded on a crowded street in this capital city, killing at least a dozen people and injuring scores more." [more]

"In a country where freedom of the press and freedom of speech have always been fiercely guarded rights, post 9/11, Americans — including many journalists — seemed to defer to the perceived wisdom of government as we barreled into a war with Afghanistan, a country with none of its own citizens in the driver's seat on any of the hijacked planes." [more]

"A group that purports to be a new 'Secret Army of Mujahedeen' is claiming responsibility for attacks on U.S. troops in Arabic-language leaflets that have surfaced in eastern Afghanistan in recent days." [more]

"The supreme court of Afghanistan on Saturday backed a decision by state-run media to ban women from singing on the radio and prevent Indian films from being aired in the capital. " [more]

"With the poppy-planting season only weeks away, the Afghan authorities face a hard task persuading farmers to grow wheat instead." [more]

"The problem: Pakistan was in the way. While Pakistan is a U.S. ally in the war against the Taliban and al-Qaida, the Pakistanis did not want a huge U.S. military presence visible on - or over - Pakistani soil." [more]

"As in the Soviet case, it took a year for the opposition to coalesce, spreading slowly across the country's various factions. The gradual strengthening of the rebel forces was then followed by attacks on the Soviets' Afghan allies, who presented soft targets. This forced the Soviet troops to take charge of security operations themselves, destroying the illusion of partnership with a local regime. The pattern is repeating itself." [more]

"A rocket fired by unidentified attackers landed close to a U.S. special forces base in eastern Afghanistan( news - web sites) early on Monday but caused no casualties, the U.S. military said." [more]

"In the past three days there have been three separate small explosions in the capital." [more]

"How many human rights did the mass killers of 11 September allow their victims? You are either with us or against us. Whose side are you on? But the man in the garden was worried. He was not an American. He was one of the 'coalition allies', as the Americans like to call the patsies who have trotted after them into the Afghan midden." [more]

"The attack on the Kabul army garrison began about 7 a.m. when the guerrillas, armed with AK-47 semiautomatic rifles, rushed the post in the Bagram-i District, about six miles south of the center of the capital, said the local police commander, Col. Haji Rashid." [more]

The Wall Street Journal said a moderate group within the Taleban wanted to get rid of Osama bin Laden and establish relations with the United States. Under their pressure, Mullah Omar made a secret agreement to send the al-Qaida leader to Saudi Arabia to stand trial for treason. Prince Turki bin Faisal, then head of Saudi intelligence, said it was a done deal, soon to be undone by Clinton's 1998 bombings of Afghanistan. [more]

"A former member of a Special Forces unit from one of America's coalition partners supplied his own explanation for the American behaviour when I met him a few days later. 'When we go into a village and see a farmer with a beard, we see an Afghan farmer with a beard,' he said. 'When the Americans go into a village and see a farmer with a beard, they see Osama bin Laden.'" [more]

"A deep rift emerged early on between al-Qaeda and their nominal hosts, the Taleban, who seemed locked in mutual scorn. One top al-Qaeda lieutenant, Morgan al-Gohari, complained that the Afghans 'change their ideas and positions all the time' and 'would do anything for money'." [more]

"The use of the drugs is outlined in a 58-page document seen by The Independent entitled Performance Maintenance During Continuous Flight Operations, produced by the Naval medical research laboratory in Pensacola, Florida. It says: "Combat naps, proper nutrition and caffeine are currently approved and accepted ways ... to prevent and manage fatigue. However, in sustained and continuous operations these methods may be insufficient ..."" [more]

"Hundreds of protesters have staged a fourth day of demonstrations in one of the most restive regions of Afghanistan ó the Khost area of neighbouring Paktia and Nangarhar provinces near the border with Pakistan." [more]

"Officials say they also need clean drinking water, clinics built and stocked with basic medicine, schools and books, plus loans for the small businesses that once filled the bazaar, which was famous for its ceramic goods." [more]

"A UN source said that the report was produced by a team of 'experienced and reputable UN people, who have been in the region a while and know it well'. It states that there was clear evidence that human rights violations had taken place and that coalition forces had arrived on the scene very quickly after the airstrikes and 'cleaned the area', removing evidence of 'shrapnel, bullets and traces of blood'. Women on the scene had their hands tied behind their backs." [more]

"The Special Forces aren't social workers. They are an imperial detachment, advancing American power and interests in Central Asia. Call it peacekeeping or nation-building, call it what you like — imperial policing is what is going on in Mazar. In fact, America's entire war on terror is an exercise in imperialism. This may come as a shock to Americans, who don't like to think of their country as an empire. But what else can you call America's legions of soldiers, spooks and Special Forces straddling the globe?" [more]

"It was the fifth time U.S. forces have been attacked since hostility against them rose sharply after a U.S. air strike July 1 that Afghan officials say killed 25 people at a village wedding party. The wounded soldiers were flown to Bagram. Four of them, wounded early in the attack, had injuries that were not life-threatening. The condition of the fifth, wounded late in the gunfight, was not immediately known." [more]

"Karzai and his allies describe the secret service — once again controlled by Fahim — as a vast, corrupt and highly politicized apparatus that operates outside the president's authority. According to a source close to Karzai, the agency has 30,000 employees and its departments are run by ethnic Tajiks from the Northern Alliance who answer only to Fahim." [more]