Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: August 2011

Guest blog: Being a journalist in Uruzgan

Martin Gerner •

Martin Gerner, a freelance correspondent in Afghanistan for German radio and national print media, has been training and mentoring Afghan journalists since 2004. One such training course took place only few weeks ago with a group of journalists from Tirinkot. The then BBC/Pajhwok stringer, Ahmad Omaid Khpalwak, had actively helped to bring the training group […]

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Killings keep leaders at home

Kate Clark •

The goal of the attack on Tirinkot on 31 July, said the Taleban spokesman, Qari Yusuf Ahmadi, was ‘to make the government collapse.’ Those actually killed by the Taleban were not ‘the government’ but mainly civilians, including three women and the BBC/Pajhwok journalist, Ahmed Omaid Khpalwak. But the attack could easily have resulted in the […]

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Washington Dropped the Ball on a Secret Afghan Wireless Communications Company that Might Have Prevented 9/11

admin •

Vanity Fair, 4 August 2011 Article describes the early days of what is now AWCC telecom – then called Afghan Wireless – and its dealings with both the Taleban government and the various US and British intelligence agencies. Interesting, but likely to feed the already growing paranoia inside Afghanistan.

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ALP programme might create a rude Afghan awakening

Thomas Ruttig •

Is the new Afghan Local Police one of the new silver bullets for successful transition or just a new militia? General Petraeus who designed the programme (after a similar one in Iraq) claims the first while some media already see abuses, as signs for the latter. But until recently, reports about such ‘ALP abuses’ were […]

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A picture of peace in Afghanistan – but have the Taliban gone for good?

admin •

Independent, 2 August 2011 A reportage from Nadali in Helmand about the question that really counts: How sustainable is the West’s miltary progress against the Taleban?

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Afghanistan: Bergbau sorgt für Energie und Infrastruktur

Thomas Ruttig •

Märkte weltweit, 2 August 2011 The article on this German economy website, exploring mining, energie and infrastructure in Afghanistan, quotes AAN’s Thomas Ruttig on the political content of the Afghan resources hype: as “clutch at a [financial] straw”, with the ISAF withdrawal at the horizon.

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In one tense district, Afghan crisis comes into focus

admin •

McClatchy newspapers, 1 August 2011 Jonathan Landay reports why Sarobi, as Kabul province’s only district, has not been included in transition phase 1.

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AAN In The Media – August 2011

AAN Team •

Mullah Omar: Fine, I Didn’t Want to Run Afghanistan Anyway Registan.com, 30 August 2011 AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted in a Registan blog (not accessible from Afghanistan) on Mullah Omar’s Eid message, observing as of particular note the softer line toward the Kabul government and suggestion that the Taliban doesn’t seek to monopolize power. Report: […]

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Talibanrörelsens uppkomst och drivkrafter: en bakgrund inför Bonn II-konferensen om Afghanistan i december 2011

Ann Wilkens •

Ann Wilkens, FOI (Stockholm), background paper FOI-R–3243–SE, August 2011 (in Swedish) From the summary: The aim to this study is to give an in depth description of those destructive forces, inside and outside of Afghanistan, that oppose the international intervention and contend its goals. Over the last few years, the Afghan Taliban have expanded their […]

External publications Read more

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