Recently in Afghanistan Category

Obama is on the run. He has spent the past year in many separate, long trips all over the place. In Great Britain, he gave Gordon Brown some DVDs and Michele Obama in chummy fashion -- nobody here but us queens -- put her arm on the Queen's shoulder. In Russia, Obama decided to hold a Town Meeting to which both dissidents and members of the government, that is, of the K.G.B., were invited. He thus effectively shut up the dissidents and appalled all Russian liberals, who were distinctly unimpressed with his understanding of their situation.

In China, he received nothing for all his attempts at "dialogue" with others far more worldly and ruthless than he -- not once did he suggest, for example, that the American government, or American consumers, could stop buying Chinese goods in an organized fashion, if China did not cooperate on Iran and North Korea, though that conceivable threat should have been an obvious one to slyly make.

Then of course he went to Cairo, where he delivered a speech on Islam. Though that speech contained more grotesque misinformation about Islam -- its texts, its tenets, its attitudes, its atmospherics -- than any speech by any non-Muslim leader in history, it did not even have the intended effect. The intended effect was to win over Muslims. Yet they are -- our "allies" that is, never mind our declared enemies -- just as intransigent, just as corrupt, just as determined to use us and inveigle as much aid as they can, just as unwavering in their desire to create the conditions that will inexorably lead to the disappearance of the tiny non-Muslim nation-state of Israel.

Big surprise here. "Afghan National Police penetrated by Taliban at 'every level,'" by Thomas Harding and James Kirkup from the Telegraph, November 4 (thanks to Axel):

The Afghan National Police have been penetrated by the Taliban "at every level" with officers poorly trained, corrupt and some addicted to drugs, a former Army officer has said. Capt Doug Beattie, who served two tours in Afghanistan working with the ANP, said many police officers are in the paid [sic] of insurgents and were more loyal to their tribes than the Afghan government.

British officers say that among low-ranking Afghan police, and particularly in more rural areas away from central control, there is widespread corruption and disloyalty....

Capt Beattie, who has retired from the Army, said: "It is absolutely right to say that the Afghan police are infiltrated by the Taliban at every level, from the very lowest to the very highest."

The police officer who killed five British soldiers on Tuesday is understood to have been in the police for at least two years. That raises the possibility that he was paid to switch sides....

They rejected the offer; they'd prefer to have the whole thing, thank you.

"US Offers Taliban 6 Provinces for 8 Bases," by Aamir Latif for Islam Online, November 2 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ISLAMABAD - The emboldened Taliban movement in Afghanistan turned down an American offer of power-sharing in exchange for accepting the presence of foreign troops, Afghan government sources confirmed.

"US negotiators had offered the Taliban leadership through Mullah Wakil Ahmed Mutawakkil (former Taliban foreign minister) that if they accept the presence of NATO troops in Afghanistan, they would be given the governorship of six provinces in the south and northeast," a senior Afghan Foreign Ministry official told IslamOnline.net requesting anonymity for not being authorized to talk about the sensitive issue with the media.

He said the talks, brokered by Saudi Arabia and Turkey, continued for weeks at different locations including the Afghan capital Kabul.

Saudi Arabia, along with Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates, were the only states to recognize the Taliban regime which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

Turkish Prime Minister Reccap Erodgan has reportedly been active in brokering talks between the two sides.

His emissaries are in contact with Hizb-e-Islami (of former prime minister Gulbadin Hikmatyar) too because he is an important factor in northeastern Afghanistan."

A Taliban spokesman admitted indirect talks with the US.

"Yes, there were some indirect talks, but they did not work," Yousaf Ahmedi, the Taliban spokesman in southern Afghanistan, told IOL from an unknown location via satellite phone.

"There are some people who are conveying each others' (Taliban and US) messages. But there were no direct talks between us and America," he explained....

The problem here is a fact that we have pointed out many, many times at Jihad Watch: there is no reliable way to distinguish jihadists from peaceful Muslims. There is no Islamic authority (with the arguable exception of the Spanish ulama) that has declared that Muslims who hold to the theology and ideology of Osama bin Laden are not true Muslims and are not welcome in their mosques. Making this even more difficult is the doctrine of religious deception founded on Koran 3:28. Thus the Afghan police authorities couldn't have kept Taliban loyalists out, even if it tried -- and it is unlikely that it is trying. This is something for the learned analysts to ponder not only as it concerns our policies in Afghanistan, but numerous other policies as well, including immigration, the language used in defending ourselves from this threat, and more.

"Five British soldiers killed by rogue Afghan policeman," from The Times, November 4 (thanks to Kris):

Five British soldiers have been shot dead after a rogue Afghan policeman opened fire inside a check point, [sic]

The soldiers, three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police, died in the Nad-e'Ali district of Helmand Province yesterday afternoon.

It is thought a further three Afghan police officers were also killed and up to six men injured.

The soldiers had been stationed at the post for two weeks, alongside a detachment of Afghan police whom they had been mentoring.

The troops were inside a police checkpoint in Nad-e Ali when the policeman, named locally as Gulbaddin, launched his attack.

"Without warning one of the ANP (Afghan National Policemen), potentially in concert with another, picked up his weapon and started firing," a military official told The Times.

Officials said the gunmen fled the scene, possibly with his accomplice. It has been suggested the killer may have had links to the Taleban....

No kidding, really?

Then they're going home and...waiting. "Report: Western jihadists being trained in Afghanistan, Pakistan," from DPA, November 3 (thanks to James):

Paris - More and more Europeans and Americans are travelling to Afghanistan and Pakistan to be trained to carry out jihad, or Islamic armed struggle, against the West, the online edition of the French daily Le Figaro reported Tuesday on a blog dedicated to the region.

Citing 'several Western intelligence services,' the report noted that at least 30 potential jihadists from Germany have traveled to Afghanistan and Pakistan since the beginning of the year.

Last year, about 12 others returned to Germany from the area, provoking fears about the existence of dormant terrorist cells that could act eventually....

But the UN spokesman says that the UN will continue its good works in Afghanistan, building things for the Taliban to destroy. "Kabul Guesthouse Attack Leaves 6 Dead, Including 5 UN Employees," by James Rupert and Gregory Viscusi for Bloomberg, October 28:

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Six international workers were killed and nine wounded when insurgents attacked a guesthouse in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where officials are preparing for next month's presidential runoff election.

At least five of the dead worked for the United Nations, UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said by telephone from Kabul, with the identity of the sixth victim still to be established. Gunmen opened fire outside the main gate to the Bakhtar Guesthouse at about 6:30 a.m. local time today and forced their way inside, killing UN workers as they "were running to escape," Siddique said. Afghan security forces killed the three gunmen, he said.

One of the UN employees who died was an American, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul said in a statement. The UN isn't announcing the nationalities of the others until their families have been notified....

Special UN representative Kai Eide said the world body will continue its work in Afghanistan.

"The UN has been in Afghanistan for more than half a century," Eide, a Norwegian diplomat, said in a statement posted on the Web site of the UN Afghan mission. "This attack will not deter the UN from continuing all its work to reconstruct a war-torn country and to build a better future for all Afghans."...

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a telephone call that three militants with suicide vests, grenades and automatic weapons carried out the assault to disrupt preparations for the vote, AP reported.

Militants also fired a rocket, which failed to explode, into the grounds of the luxury Serena Hotel, forcing guests and employees to flee to the basement, AP said....

Once again we see rage and fury over a rumor. "Afghans protest rumored desecration of Koran by U.S. troops," by Laura King in the Los Angeles Times, October 25 (thanks to Pamela):

Hundreds of angry protesters in Afghanistan's capital today burned an effigy of President Obama, acting on rumors that American troops had desecrated the Koran.

U.S. military officials emphatically denied that any copies of the Muslim holy book had been mishandled, and accused the Taliban of spreading falsehoods to incite hatred against Western forces....

And while it is perfectly reasonable and understandable that the military would issue such denials, it also serves to validate the ridiculous and dangerous assumption that it is perfectly legitimate to go beserk if a Koran were desecrated.

The incident also pointed to a strong undercurrent of anti-American sentiment at a politically fraught time in Afghanistan, less than two weeks before a runoff to settle a divisive, fraud-tainted presidential election. The Nov. 7 face-off between President Hamid Karzai and former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah was agreed to only after heavy U.S. pressure on Karzai to accept the results of an international audit. The investigators found as many as one-third of the ballots cast for Karzai in the Aug. 20 election had been fraudulent. That put the Afghan leader below the threshold of victory, 50%.

On Sunday morning U.S. news shows, both candidates ruled out a power-sharing agreement to avoid the runoff. Against this political backdrop, the Koran protest reflected a rising religious conservatism even among some members of Afghanistan's educated elite, such as the university students who made up most of the crowd of about 1,000 demonstrators.

Police fired warning shots into the air when the demonstrators marched from Kabul University toward the parliament, but no injuries were reported.

Several marchers insisted they were certain that a Koran had been desecrated by U.S. troops in Wardak province, just outside the capital, even if they could not provide particulars of the incident, such as when it was believed to have taken place.

"Muslims were disrespected!" said Zabiullah Khalil, an engineering student. "The foreigners shot the Koran, and then they burned it. They should be tried for this."

The demonstration, like many in the capital, had a heartfelt yet orchestrated feel to it. Khalil, like a number of other participants, expressed broad anger at the United States in connection with the election and its disputed aftermath.

"We don't want a slave government," he said. "We want a real Islamic country."...

And that you shall almost certainly have.