Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: May 2011

How One Op-ed Explains American Ignorance About Afghanistan

admin •

UN Disptach, 22 May 2011 The author, Ahmad Shuja, takes issue with an op-ed written by a former US NSC member – but it can be addressed to many more people working in and on Afghanistan but who have failed to look beyond ‘the wire’ sufficiently to understand that the conflict between modernism and conservatism […]

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Chechens, Cubans and other Mythical Beasts of Afghanistan

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Ghosts of Alexander (blog), 19 May 2011 A very good blog by Christian Bleuer (from ANU) about an issue we wanted to write since a long time: The famous Chechens that are so often reported in AfPak but never seen. ‘Up to that point there had not been a verified Chechen in the country post […]

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Direct US-Taleban talks and the Bonn 2 conference (amended)

Thomas Ruttig •

On Tuesday, the Washington Post reported that the US have ‘speeded up’ direct talks with the Taleban. According to this report, such talks have been ‘initiated several months ago’ and that ‘at least three meetings in Qatar and Germany, one as recently as “eight or nine days ago,” with a Taliban official considered close to […]

War and Peace Read more

The Green Trend mobilisation and a possible new rift in Jamiat

Gran Hewad •

As of late, the Green Trend movement has been reactivating its public and web-based activities. The movement has been established by former NDS director Amrullah Salih, together with former Minister of Interior Hanif Atmar, one of the two most prominent high-ranking government officials marginalised by President Karzai as – what many people believe – concessions […]

Political Landscape Read more

Afghanistan: Local Reconstruction Effort Goes Awry

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IWPR, 17 May 2011 An Afghan reporter tells the story how CDCs in Kapisa province – one of the often unquestioned ‘success stories’ of Afghanistan – are being controleld by ex-commanders and how these embezzle money by allocating projects to themselves. Not an argument against CDCs in general, but one for looking at them carefully, […]

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U.S. speeds up direct talks with Taliban

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Washington Post, 17 May 2011 According to this report, the US government is holding ‘direct talks with the Taliban, initiated several months ago, that U.S. officials say they hope will enable President Obama to report progress toward a settlement of the Afghanistan war when he announces troop withdrawals in July’. The article refers to an […]

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Kill or Capture 1: Owning up to civilian casualties

Kate Clark •

US Special Forces carry out the vast majority of night raids and targeted killings in Afghanistan, but it is ISAF – through its media office – which deals with any news or fall-out arising from them. In responses to questions by journalists about AAN’s latest report about a case of intelligence failures and targeted killing […]

War and Peace Read more

18 May 2011: Cul-de-sac Afghanistan? Panel discussion in Frankfurt

AAN • admin •

While the European public is mainly concerned about the growing number of killed ISAF soldiers in Afghanistan and the debate is dominated by the troop withdrawal question – what about the people who ISAF was supposed to protect and defend? What would it mean if security responsibility is transferred to a government that is notorious […]

Events Read more

Where exactly is Abbottabad, or A Vindication of Geography

AAN Team •

Abbottabad (or, in the local pronunciation: Abtabad) has already risen to a status shared only by some of Calvino’s ‘Invisibles Cities’: that of a mysterious fairy land of which everybody talks but few know something for certain. In particular, when the news of Osama bin Laden’s killing broke, its exact distance from the Pakistani capital […]

Regional Relations Read more

Kandahar Prison Escape: the Taliban’s Tale

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Alex’ Blog, 15 May 2011 Alex Strcik van Linschoten publishes the translation of two articles from the Taleban magazine al-Somood describing their version of the Big Kandahar prison break.

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Guest Blog: A hard time for Afghanistan’s independent media

Martin Gerner •

The world and Afghanistan ‘celebrated’ World Press Freedom Day a short while ago. The annual international press freedom index, published by Reporters sans frontières (RSF), (*) ranks Afghanistan number 147 of 178 states, better than a number of its neighbouring countries, including Pakistan (151), Uzbekistan (163), China (171), Turkmenistan (176) and Iran (175). Our guest […]

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Afghanistan’s ongoing election drama

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AfPakChannel, 12 May 2011 Scott Worden who served as a Commissioner on the 2009 Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission and was an observer of the 2010 Parliamentary Elections describes how President Karzai is still actively investigating the conduct of last September’s parliamentary vote, and how ‘ongoing investigations by the Karzai-appointed Special Elections Tribunal threaten to unseat […]

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