Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Month: June 2014

Death in Aleppo: A group of Afghan fighters located in Syria

Christopher Reuter •

Are Afghans fighting in the war in Syria? There have been a few reports to that effect in the international news media over the past months, detailing recruitment efforts mainly by the Iranian government among Hazaras in order to bolster the Assad regime’s manpower. However, there has never been evidence of Afghan fighters actually present in […]

War and Peace Read more

The Gitmo Five: a hypothetical threat?

AAN •

Himal (Kathmandu), 6 June 2014 A very clearly written piece by former the UN human rights chief in Kabul, Norah Niland, away from the overwhelming focus on the US perspective(s) elsewhere in many media, pointing out the shortcomings of the Guantanamo system, with its “common characteristic of the Bush and Obama administrations of equating suspicion of ‘terrorist’ activity […]

AAN in the Media Read more

BV Angst en Beven: Afghanistan (Dutch audio)

AAN •

De Nieuws BV (VARA Radio 1), 5 June 2014 As part of a series of interviews with Dutch people living abroad on how dangerous their country is (loosely based on the Foreign Policy magazine’s index) AAN’s Martine van Bijlert is interviewed about the situation in Afghanistan. She talks about how difficult and precarious life is for large […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Analysts Unclear on Impact of Taliban Prisoner Release

AAN •

Voice of America, 5 June 2014 Kate Clark, a long-time observer of Afghan affairs and a senior member of the Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network, is skeptical about the effectiveness of the Taliban men freed from Guantanamo. “If they were extremely important people in 2001, we do not know what they are now, what sort of men […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Importance of Taliban prisoner swap

Thomas Ruttig •

ORF FM4 (Austrian radio), 5 June 2014 English-language audio of an interview with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig an the significance of the Afghan prisoner swap and the Taleban video reased of it.

AAN in the Media Read more

Ein filmreifer Deal und viele Fragen

Thomas Ruttig •

Tages-Anzeiger (Switzerland), 5 June 2014 Article (in German) about the Afghan prisoner swap between the US and the Taleban, with quotes of AAN’s Thomas Ruttig, saying, among other things that  fears the Taleban could learn from their success with Bergdahl that it pays to abduct US soldiers are unrealistic, that the choice of Qatar as a […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Bergdahl and the ‘Guantanamo Five’: The long-awaited US-Taleban prisoner swap

Kate Clark •

The prisoner swap negotiated between the Taleban and United States has seen the release of the captured US soldier, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, in return for five Taleban held at Guantanamo Bay, including one of the movement’s founders, Khairullah Khairkhwa, and the former chief of the army staff, Mullah Fazl. Much of the reporting on the […]

International Engagement Read more

A Matter of Honor: Why So Many Soldiers Are Angry at the Bergdahl Deal

AAN •

The National Interest, 3 June 2014 On this right-wing website, AAN gets flak (via a quote on the ThinkProgress blog) for its suggestion that all Taleban prisoners must be released with the end of the US military involvement in Afghanistan, “demonstrating willful ignorance of the law of armed conflict”: “Let’s state this as plainly as possible: […]

AAN in the Media Read more

Anti-Graft Legislation Stalled by Afghanistan’s ‘Economic Mafia’

AAN •

RFE/RL, 3 June 2014 This article quotes several Afghan MPs, experts and academia about why it took the Afghan parliament almost ten years to finally discuss a law against money laundering – because there are personal and high-ranking economic interests at stake.

Recommended Reads Read more

Orchards Go to Ruin in Afghanistan’s Khost Province

AAN •

IWPR, 3 June 2014 A story of war and neglect: Khost’s government-run almond gardens and fruit orchards are drying up. “I am the only gardener for the orchard,” the report quotes one Hakim Khan, 50. “If I walked all day, I couldn’t get from one side to the other. We have no equipment to work with, […]

Recommended Reads Read more

Why The Five Taliban Detainees Had To Be Released Soon, No Matter What

AAN •

Think Progress (blog), 2 June 2014 This article uses the biographies of the five exchanged Taleban prisoners compiled by AAN as a background.    

AAN in the Media Read more

Afghan government angered by Bergdahl, Taliban prisoners swap

AAN •

Stars and Stripes, 2 June 2014 “I think (Karzai’s government is) very upset at the way that it has happened, in that they haven’t been consulted,” said Borhan Osman, an analyst with the Afghanistan Analysts Network. … He also elaborates about past attempts of an US-Taleban prisoner swap: The U.S. had been hoping to make such […]

AAN in the Media Read more

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