Pakistan and the Cultural Appropriation of Pashtun Rights Movement

Historically, from the massacres in Bangladesh in 1971 to the training and arming of Afghan jihadists during the Soviet-Afghan war throughout the 1980s and ‘90s, and then mounting ill-conceived military operations in Pakistan’s tribal areas under American pressure, leading to

The post Pakistan and the Cultural Appropriation of Pashtun Rights Movement appeared first on Global Research.

Afghan interior minister resigns to run for vice-presidency: sources

January 19, 2019

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan Interior Minister Amrullah Saleh resigned on Saturday to run for the vice-presidency in the July election, two political sources said.

“He resigned and he will file his nomination as part of President Ghani’s team,” said a source from the presidential palace in Kabul.

In December, President Ashraf Ghani appointed Saleh, a former security official and an uncompromising opponent of the Taliban, to his government in a bid to secure the support of former opponents for a second term.

(Reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi, writing by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

War is Good for Business and Organized Crime: Afghanistan’s Multibillion Dollar Opium Trade. Rising Heroin Addiction in the US

Despite president Trump’s announced US troop withdrawal, the Afghan opium trade continues to flourish. It is protected by US-NATO occupation forces on behalf of a nexus of powerful financial and criminal interests.

The post War is Good for Business and Organized Crime: Afghanistan’s Multibillion Dollar Opium Trade. Rising Heroin Addiction in the US appeared first on Global Research.

Afghan official says member of government-backed militia has shot and killed 5 colleagues

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Afghan official says member of government-backed militia has shot and killed 5 colleagues 22 Mar 2013 An Afghan official says a member of the country’s government-backed militia has shot and killed five of his colleagues. Badhis provincial government spokesman Mirwais Mirzakwal told The Associated Press on Friday that the shooting happened Thursday morning in a remote part of Qadis district. The attacker was a member of the Afghan Local Police, a program in which the government in Kabul and international allies train and fund villagers to mount defence forces against ‘insurgents.’

Citizens for Legitimate Government

Tab for alternate Afghan supply route hits $2.1 billion

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Tab for alternate Afghan supply route hits $ 2.1 billion 30 Jun 2012 Pakistan’s refusal to let NATO access its ports and roads into Afghanistan has cost the Pentagon more than $ 2.1 billion in extra transportation costs to move supplies and equipment in and out of the country. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the Senate Appropriations Committee in mid-June that the closure of the Pakistani routes was costing the U.S. military about an extra $ 100 million per month. These new costs were disclosed in a Pentagon budget document – called the omnibus reprogramming request – sent to Congress on Friday.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

3 U.S. troops, 26 Afghans killed in bomb attacks

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3 U.S. troops, 26 Afghans killed in bomb attacks 20 Jun 2012 A suicide bomber targeted an Afghan-NATO checkpoint in the eastern city of Khost on Wednesday, killing 18 Afghans and three American troops, officials said. Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a roadside bomb detonated, fatally injuring eight Afghan civilians, four of them children.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

2,000 dead Americans: the toll of the Afghan War (so far)

EDITORS NOTE:  This number does not count the suicides in it. And the “official” death toll is always lowered because “combat” deaths are only deaths “on” the battlefield, not if the Marine or Soldier dies in the field hospital or enroute to it. That is one example of how presidential administrations and people in command in the military have covered the real numbers up. To learn more click here.

(RT)   The United States’ war in Afghanistan reached a new milestone this week when the death toll of Americans killed in the decade-long Operation Enduring Freedom reached 2,000.

The US Department of Defense reports this week thatCpl. Taylor J. Baune, 21, of Andover, Minnesota lost his life in Helmand province, Afghanistan on Wednesday. The marine wed his high-school sweetheart earlier this year, only to be deployed overseas by the military and killed just three months later. The Pentagon has not released information about the cause of death.

The Star Tribune reports that Baune’s commitment with the US Marines was slated to expire this year, at which point he was expected to retire from the Armed Services because he did not intend on spending his life in the military. Now, however, he will live forever as a statistic in America’s longest on-going war by becoming the two-thousandths US soldier to die during the post-9/11 response to al-Qaeda and Taliban-affiliated insurgents.

The death of Cpl. Baune comes only weeks after the Defense Department revealed another shocking statistic: according to the Pentagon’s latest research, the rate of suicide among activity duty American soldiers is currently at around one-per-day.

“It’s a sign in general of the stress the Army has been under over the 10 years of war,” Dr. Stephen N. Xenakis, a retired Army brigadier general and a practicing psychiatrist, tells the Associated Press. “We’ve seen before that these signs show up even more dramatically when the fighting seems to go down and the Army is returning to garrison.”

US President Barack Obama flew to Afghanistan last month to finalize plans with that country’s president, Hamid Karzai, that would expedite America’s exit from the war. Operation Enduring Freedom has so far killed 2,000 US troop in roughly 3,900 days, but is expected to continue through 2014.

The results of a Reuters/Ipsos survey published last month reveal that 88 percent of the Americans polled are in favor of taking all US combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2012.

http://rt.com/usa/news/afghanistan-war-killed-us-849/

Federal Jack

Afghan president orders investigation into deadly US-led airstrike

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Afghan president orders investigation into deadly US-led airstrike 27 May 2012 Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered an investigation into the recent US-led airstrike which claimed the lives of eight civilians. A statement released by Karzai’s office on Sunday said that he has dispatched a delegation to investigate the incident. On Saturday, a man, his wife and six of their children were killed in a US-led airstrike in the village of Suri Khail in the Gurda Saria district of Paktia Province.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

Afghan peace negotiator shot dead

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Afghan peace negotiator shot dead 13 May 2012 An assassin armed with a silenced pistol shot dead a top member of the Afghan peace council Sunday at a traffic intersection in the nation’s capital, police said. Arsala Rahmani was a former Taliban official who reconciled with the government and was active in trying to set up formal talks with the insurgents. He was shot at an intersection in western Kabul by a gunman in a white Toyota Corolla while being driven to his office, said Mohammad Zahir, head of the city police’s criminal investigation division.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

British troops shot dead by Afghanistan police officers

(London Guardian)   Two British servicemen have been shot dead by members of the Afghan police force, prompting renewed fears over the possible infiltration of the country’s security forces by insurgents.

The Ministry of Defense said that a Royal Air Force airman and a soldier from 1st Battalion Welsh Guards were killed on Saturday in the Lashkar Gah district of Helmand province.

They were providing security for a meeting with local officials at a patrol base. Next of kin have been informed.

An International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesman said the attack was conducted by two people wearing Afghan police uniforms. One is on the run and the other was killed when forces returned fire, he said.

Full article here

Federal Jack

Roadside bomb kills 5 Afghan border police on patrol near border with Pakistan

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Roadside bomb kills 5 Afghan border police on patrol near border with Pakistan 05 May 2012 An Afghan official says a roadside bomb has killed five border police in an eastern province near the border with Pakistan. Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, who is a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar province, says the five were killed Friday evening when the vehicle in which they were patrolling was hit by the remote-controlled bomb. He said Saturday that the incident took place in the province’s Dur Baba district.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

AP: US not reporting all Afghan attacks

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AP: US not reporting all Afghan attacks 30 Apr 2012 The military is under-reporting the number of times that Afghan soldiers and police open fire on American and other foreign troops. The U.S.-led coalition routinely reports each time an American or other foreign soldier is killed by an Afghan in uniform. But The Associated Press has learned it does not report insider attacks in which the Afghan wounds – or misses – his U.S. or allied target.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

Senior officer’s damning emails reveal plummeting morale at heart of Afghan campaign

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Army major’s despair at our ‘pointless war’: Senior officer’s damning emails reveal plummeting morale at heart of Afghan campaign that has cost 409 British lives 21 Apr 2012 They are stark words that reveal the despair of our forces fighting in Afghanistan. Emails sent to a former military chaplain paint a damning picture of sinking morale among Servicemen who feel the human cost of the conflict can no longer be justified. Dr Peter Lee, a university lecturer who spent seven years as an RAF padre, has released the emails to highlight the extent of disillusionment within the ranks. The correspondence includes two emails sent by a major on the brink of a fresh deployment to the region. He likens the prospect to ‘being put on for the last two minutes of a lost game’ of rugby.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

Afghan military recruits found dealing drugs to US soldiers, Army documents show

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Afghan military recruits found dealing drugs to US soldiers, Army documents show 20 Apr 2012 Afghan forces are being trained by the U.S. military to take over the mission [of protecting gas and opium routes] by 2014, but new documents obtained by Judicial Watch through a request under the Freedom of Information Act show that some of the Afghan recruits stand accused of dealing drugs to U.S. soldiers. Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton and his investigators found that between January 2010 and December 2011, the Army investigated 56 soldiers in Afghanistan for the possession, use or distribution of opiates. Heroin was cited 26 times. A December 2011 report from Army Criminal Investigation Command shows that at one forward operation base the drugs hash, pot and heroin were purchased “from various Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police personnel.”

Citizens for Legitimate Government

U.S. May Be Winding Down 2 Wars Yet It is Expanding Overseas Military Bases

BlacklistedNews April 13, 2012 If the Iraq war is over and the Afghan war is winding down, what is prompting the remorseless expansion of the Pentagon’s vast network of overseas military bases? Veteran foreign affairs journalist Eric Walberg says the bases are the modern version of colonies. The U.S. has a whopping 1,100 of them […]

Hamid Karzai may step down early from Afghan presidency

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Hamid Karzai may step down early from Afghan presidency –Fears that clash of 2014 elections with planned western troop withdrawal could lead to security and constitutional crisis 12 Apr 2012 The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has said he is considering stepping down a year early, potentially clearing the way for his successor to manage the departure of foreign troops from Afghanistan. Presidential elections are due in 2014, the same year western combat soldiers will complete their withdrawal. Karzai said he was weighing concerns that managing big changes in leadership and security at the same time could be too heavy a strain on his country, after a decade with him in charge and foreign troops on the ground.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

Eight Afghan local police forces killed in Farah province

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Eight Afghan local police forces killed in Farah province 05 Apr 2012 At least eight Afghan policemen have been killed in an attack carried out by Taliban militants in Afghanistan’s western Farah province, Press TV reports. Local officials say the militants attacked a police outpost in Khaki Safed district late on Wednesday. Mohammad Younes Rasouli, the deputy governor of Farah, told Press TV that “about 50 Taliban militants opened fire on a security checkpoint, killed the soldiers and took their car and weapons.”

Citizens for Legitimate Government

Lawyer for Soldier Accused of Afghan Slaughter: ‘Almost Complete Information Blackout

The Intel Hub By Madison Ruppert April 1, 2012 John Henry Browne, the attorney for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, the man accused of single-handedly massacring 17 Afghan villagers, is now accusing the United States government of “an almost complete information blackout” which is blocking him from preparing a proper defense for Bales. Browne alleges that he and […]

Afghan Policeman Kills 9 Sleeping Fellow Officers

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Afghan Policeman Kills 9 Sleeping Fellow Officers 30 Mar 2012 An Afghan policeman killed nine of his fellow officers as they lay sleeping in a village in the eastern Paktika province on Friday, police said, blaming the attack on the Taliban. Provincial police chief Dawlat Khan Zadran said the incident took place in Yayakhil town of Yayakhil district. Bowal Khan, chief of Yayakhil district, identified the gunman as Asadullah, who goes by one name.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

Western countries scramble for Afghan exits

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Western countries scramble for Afghan exits 23 Mar 2012 As international forces prepare for withdrawal from Afghanistan, Western countries are already in talks with Afghanistan’s Central Asian neighbors to bring their troops and military equipment back home. The Pakistani route and the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) running through Central Asian countries are the two viable routes for international forces to withdraw from Afghanistan. The United States and Afghanistan are in the process of negotiating an accord for a long-term US presence in Afghanistan after 2014, when most foreign combat forces are due to withdraw. The US wants some advisers mercenaries and special forces to stay.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

Afghan villagers told they would pay for bomb days ahead of massacre of 16

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Afghan villagers told they would pay for bomb days ahead of massacre of 16 21 Mar 2012 Residents of an Afghan village near where an American soldier is alleged to have killed 16 civilians are convinced that the slayings were in retaliation for a roadside bomb attack on US forces in the same area a few days earlier. In accounts to The Associated Press and to Afghan government officials, the residents allege that US troops lined up men from the village of Mokhoyan against a wall after the bombing on either March 7 or 8, and told them they would pay a price for the attack.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

Afghan government questions one-soldier role in massacre

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Afghan government questions one-soldier role in massacre 17 Mar 2012 The US soldier who allegedly shot dead 16 Afghan civilians in Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar, have been repatriated to a US military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas. Sergeant Robert Bales has been accused of opening fire on Afghan civilians on March 11th in Kandahar’s Panjwaii district. It has been alleged he entered homes to shoot dead at least 17 people, mostly women and children. Several others were injured in the incident which has recently been under scrutiny by the Afghan parliament. A fact-finding mission in that country has been trying to determine whether other US soldiers were involved.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

US soldier kills up to 16 Afghan civilians in shooting spree

Nine children and three women dead in incident that president Hamid Karzai condemns as ’intentional murders’. General John Allen, the top US commander in Afghanistan, issued a statement pledging a “rapid and thorough investigation” into the shooting spree, and said the soldier will remain in US custody.
Red Ice Creations News Feed

Panetta Is Safe After Car Ignites Near His Plane at Afghan Base

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Panetta Is Safe After Car Ignites Near His Plane at Afghan Base 15 Mar 2012 A tense visit to Afghanistan by Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta got off to an unscripted start when a stolen truck sped onto a runway ramp at the British military airfield as his plane was landing. Mr. Panetta was unhurt, but Pentagon officials said the Afghan driver emerged from the vehicle in flames. No explosives were found on the Afghan national or in the truck, the officials said, and the Pentagon was so far not considering the episode an attack on Mr. Panetta.

Citizens for Legitimate Government

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