FBI: New tape by American al-Qaida member is proof of life

Adam Gadahn, the American-born Al-Qaida member, made a new videotape message that offers proof of life, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security said. In a joint bulletin issued Saturday night to U.S. law-enforcement officials, the FBI and DHS said the videotape was likely made weeks ago, NBC News has learned. "The video probably was created in mid September," the FBI bulletin said.

Taliban, Afghan officials meet in Saudi Arabia

An Afghan election official registers Afghan men for their voter identity card at the voter registration office in Parwan province, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday, Oct. 6, 2008. Afghanistan began registering voters Monday for next year's presidential polls, an election likely to be the most dangerous and challenging since the Taliban were ousted from power in 2001. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A former Taliban ambassador said Monday that the hard-line militants sat with Afghan officials and Saudi King Abdullah over an important religious meal in Saudi Arabia late last month as the insurgency raged back home.

UN: Afghan war cannot be won militarily

Afghan National Army soldiers raise their rifles as they train in Kabul September 21, 2008. (Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

The war in Afghanistan cannot be won militarily and success is only possible through political means including dialogue between all relevant parties, the United Nations' top official in the country said Monday.

First, the British, now the United Nations admit what many of us knew all along - Afghanistan cannot be taken militarily. So, what does the US, the main culprit in this entire sorted affair intend to do? Why, send in more troops of course... Go figure...

War on Taliban cannot be won, says army chief

Britain's most senior military commander in Afghanistan has warned that the war against the Taliban cannot be won. Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said the British public should not expect a “decisive military victory” but should be prepared for a possible deal with the Taliban.

"NATO" is starting to sound like the man who wanted to let go of the tiger's tail - but, was afraid too. That's got to be a bad situation to be in - NATO can't hold on much longer but if it lets go, it'll be eaten...

French troops: We won't go to Afghanistan

24 French soldiers have so far been killed in Afghanistan.

Troops in a military base in France have opposed their deployment to Afghanistan amid dwindling support of French forces being there.

Afghanistan wins spot on IAEA board after Syria withdraws

Afghanistan won a place on the 35-member board of the UN atomic watchdog on Friday, after Syria pulled out of the race for the seat. Syria had been competing with Afghanistan for a spot in the body that oversees the work of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that had become vacant for the so-called Middle East and South Asia (MESA) group after Pakistan's one-year term expired.

Karzai seeks Saudi help in Taliban peace talks

"For the last two years, I've sent letters to the king of Saudi Arabia, and I've sent messages, and I requested from him as the leader of the Islamic world, for the security and prosperity of Afghanistan and for reconciliation in Afghanistan ... he should help us," Karzai said.

Why the West thinks it is time to talk to the Taliban

Negotiations have begun in secret with the enemy in Afghanistan. Jason Burke reveals the back channels of diplomacy that led to the controversial talks.

Revealed: secret Taliban peace bid

The destroyed entrance gate of the Kandahar prison that was attacked by Taliban militants in June this year. Photograph: Allauddiin Khan/AP

The Taliban have been engaged in secret talks about ending the conflict in Afghanistan in a wide-ranging 'peace process' sponsored by Saudi Arabia and supported by Britain, The Observer can reveal.

Pakistan soldiers "confront" US troops

As the US troops tried to cross the border from the Afghan province of Paktika, Pakistani paramilitary soldiers at a checkpoint opened fire into the air and the US troops decided not to continue forward.

Wise choice...

US death in Afghanistan makes 2008 deadliest year

An insurgent attack on a compound in eastern Afghanistan on Thursday killed a U.S. soldier, bringing the year's death toll to 112 and making 2008 the deadliest for American forces in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.

And, its only September...

Fearing being driven into another war by Israel, US refuses bunker bursting bombs

The security aid package the United States has refused to give Israel for the past few months out of concern that Israel would use it to attack nuclear facilities in Iran included a large number of "bunker-buster" bombs, permission to use an air corridor to Iran, an advanced technological system and refueling planes.

They say a good As* Wiping brings clarity of mind and heart. Could it be that Iraq and Afghanistan have finally brought some clarity to the Bush administration? One can only hope...

Let Them Eat Cake

As American occupations bring suffering – untold and denied, unmeasured so as to be deniable – Washington cannot understand why the occupied do not simply submit. Whether it is cake, or brioche, or the heavy American porridge of bristling state socialism and angry imperialism, the Bush-Obama-McCain answer to heartbroken Afghans and to the world, is "Eat it!"

Fox News & Oliver North Involved with U.S. Afghanistan Massacre Cover-up

Perhaps the most amazing political news surrounding the Nawabad massacre is that the Pentagon says it relied for its account, in part, on corroborative evidence by the embedded journalist on the scene: Fox News "reporter" Oliver North!

What is even more amazing is that to corroborate FIXED NEWS reporter Oliver North, I understand US Military Intelligence (if there can be such a thing) used satellite imagery of freshly dug graves. Unfortunately for the Americans, the dead, or more accurately, the remaining pieces of the dead were not yet buried but had been taken to a Mosque awaiting family identification.

This is a classic case of "are you gonna believe me or your lying eyes..."

Taliban learning how to win key propaganda battles

The Taliban, once dismissed as too stupid to know they would lose if they dared to fight well-trained Canadian and allied troops, have proved themselves resilient, if still ill-equipped, warriors, learning from their early defeats and adapting to stage sophisticated attacks, inflicting serious casualties and winning key propaganda battles. "They are showing greater political savvy, too," said a military analyst, who asked not to be further identified. "They understand they don't have to defeat us, they just have to defeat the will of the people back home."

Video shows dead Afghan children after US raid

Afghans prepare graves for people killed by a US airstrike on Azizabad village in Herat province. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) says it has has found "convincing evidence" that 90 civilians -- including 60 children -- were killed in US-led air strikes last week. (AFP/File/Reza Shirmohammadi)

"Two videos that appear to show the bodies of at least 10 children and many more adults covered in blankets and white shrouds lend weight to Afghan and U.N. allegations that a U.S.-led raid killed scores of civilians last month. One video, obtained by The Associated Press on Monday and apparently taken by a cell phone, is grainy and details such as a precise body count are difficult to make out. But it appears that several dozen bodies, all covered by blankets, are lined up one next to another in a mosque."

Interesting language - I wonder how a child with it's head blown off can APPEAR to be dead...

Harrowing video film backs Afghan villagers' claims of carnage caused by US troops

"Women are heard wailing in the background. “Oh God, this is just a child,” shouts one villager. Another cries: “My mother, my mother.”"

Winning hearts and minds as only America can - by murdering innocent women and children...

Killing fields

by Eric Walberg - June 18, 2008

The Taliban’s Tet has begun. Interpret Laura Bushs’s clarion call “to stand by Afghanistan” as you will, says Eric Walberg

Two landmarks in Afghanistan last week -- British troop deaths surpassed 100, and monthly official coalition deaths now outnumber official coalition deaths in Iraq. Pentagon officials said that in May, 16 coalition troops were killed in Iraq, 14 of them American, while 18 coalition troops were killed in Afghanistan, 13 of them American.

Two more events made the news last week, noteworthy only in their predictability. Afghan President Hamid Karzai attended a donors conference in Paris, where he sought $50 billion. The US and friends offered $17 billion, though more than half of the pledge total came from a previous US commitment of $10.2 billion, i.e., Karzai’s net is $6.8 billion, which given past practice, he shouldn’t hold his breath waiting for. US First Lady Laura Bush showed slides from her trip to Kabul to visit Karzai and support Afghan women. Leaders echoed her call “to stand by Afghanistan”. Sarkozy, as usual, confused everyone by saying, “We cannot give in to torturers.” Laura announced that Washington will spend $80 million to support the American University in Kabul and the National Literacy Centre, to capture the hearts and minds of the people.

A note of realism was heard when officials complained that Karzai seemed to be unable to crack down on corruption and drug trafficking, even in Kabul, where he is virtually imprisoned in his heavily barricaded presidential palace. Karzai assured them that his government would take strides to root out corruption. Perhaps he could start by replacing his brother Wali Karzai, the president of Kandahar’s provincial council, who along with Hamid is widely believed to be involved in the very drug trafficking he so passionately denounced to his donors. Afghan officials recreated an air of surrealism by complaining that donors have been too skittish about letting Afghanistan take control of its own destiny and controlling how the money is spent. Yes, give tens of billions to corrupt cronies of Karzai. That would be sure to turn things around.

The other meeting, even more tedious and fruitless, lacking Laura’s slides, was a two-day session of NATO defence ministers following a now-familiar script in the debate over Afghanistan: US Defense Secretary Robert Gates unsuccessfully harangued unwilling allies to pledge more troops for the slaughter. Britain volunteered 230, with Des Browne, the British defense secretary, hailing the Afghan campaign as “the noble cause of the 21st century”.

The big complaint these days is the dastardly Pakistanis, providing “safe haven” for the even more dastardly Taliban. The answer from NATO came this week with a deadly air strike on a Pakistani Frontier Corps border checkpoint, which, according to Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, killed 11 Pakistani soldiers — Pakistan Muslim League MP Amir Muqam said as many as 70. This act of “self defence” is yet another in NATO’s long history of “friendly fire” deaths, surely the oxymoron of all times. NATO forces have launched several air strikes inside Pakistan over the past year but this is the first time it has killed Pakistani soldiers. Without so much as batting an eye, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, proceeded to demand of the helpless Pakistani government not only the expulsion of all Al-Qaeda but also an immediate halt to the flow of insurgents across the border. Lapdog Karzai even threatened to send Afghan troops in: “They come and kill Afghanis and coalition troops; it precisely gives us the right to do the same.”

But I’ve left out the really spectacular news, the attack by Taliban militants on the main prison in southern Afghanistan late Friday, exploding a car bomb at the main gate in a multi-pronged assault that freed over 1000 prisoners, including 400 suspected Taliban. The complex attack included a car bomb, suicide bombers who entered the prison, and rockets fired from outside it. “All the prisoners escaped. There is no one left,” said Kandahar President Wali Karzai. Many of the prisoners were on a hunger strike only a few weeks ago during which 47 stitched their mouths shut. Some had been held without trial for more than two years and others were given lengthy prison sentences after short trials. The Taliban went on to liberate 18 nearby villages in an area that Canadian troops supposedly hold and plan to showcase with development aid over the next four years. Good luck, Canucks.

This blow to the occupation can only be compared to the Vietcong’s Tet offensive against the US occupation of South Vietnam in 1968. When will the occupation wake up and realise these brave and fearless men are dying defending their homeland? “I ask the Canadian people to ask their government to stop their destructive and inhumane mission and withdraw your troops. Our war will continue as long as your occupation forces are in our land,” Taleban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi appealed.

Perhaps the freed jail space in Kandahar will obviate the need for a $60 million upgrade of the jail at the infamous Bagram base, dubbed Afghanistan’s very own Guantanamo. “There will be a great deal of improvement in the quality of life,” US Army spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Rumi Nielson-Green said. “There will be a lot more floor space and much more room for communal activities, which is part of their culture.” Plans for the new prison apparently came as a complete surprise to Afghan officials in the Afghan Ministry of Justice.

In the current jail, two detainees were killed after being repeatedly struck by their American guards. There have been numerous allegations of abuse at the facility, with prisoners claiming to have been sexually humiliated, beaten, stripped naked and thrown down stairs during their interrogations. Nielson-Green, however, denies that detainees at Bagram have been ill-treated. I shudder to think what Nielson-Green considers to be “ill treatment”.

Until September 2004, Bagram served largely as a way station for prisoners on the way to the real Guantanamo. US officials deny allegations that children as young as nine have been imprisoned at the facility. Speaking of sexual abuse, Canadian troops have recently been under fire for their “don’t look, don’t tell” policy with regards widespread sexual abuse of civilians by Afghan government troops the Canadians are training.

But enough of this. The pre- and post-9/11 smoke and mirrors about Afghanistan are finally dispersing and shattering. NATO is in Afghanistan, as US President George Bush said in Bucharest in April, as “an expeditionary alliance that is sending its forces across the world to help secure a future of freedom and peace for millions.” In other words to invade countries the US disapproves of and murder anyone who resists. A total withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, a negotiated settlement between Afghan forces, and massive reparations by NATO countries is what the world must urgently demand.

Putting the blame on Pakistan is the same story we hear about Iran in Iraq and heard during the US war against Vietnam, when Nixon began bombing Cambodia. It did not help the US defeat the Vietnamese but did result in the Khmer Rouge taking over Cambodia. Only by killing virtually the entire population will the US plan for Afghanistan succeed. Is this the objective?

Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly. You can reach him at www.geocities.com/walberg2002/

This will appear in the next issue of Al-Ahram Weekly http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/index.htm

Taliban Seizes Seven Afghan Villages

"Hundreds of Taliban fighters took control of seven villages in southern Afghanistan on Monday in what appeared to be a major offensive near the country's second-largest city, according to Afghan officials."

Ah, President Karzai sir - you might want to put attacking Pakistan on hold for a while...

Karzai: I'll send troops to Pakistan

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened Sunday to send Afghan troops across the border to fight militants in Pakistan, a forceful warning to insurgents and the Pakistani government that his country is fed up with cross-border attacks."

Ah, excuse me Mr. President. You don't have enough troops to police Kabul. I don't think you're quite ready to start a war with Pakistan.