Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Sudhansu Verma

What came out of the Peace Talks in Islamabad? An Afghan and a Pakistani take

Reza Rumi •

Did the Afghan-Pakistani peace talks in Islamabad over the past two days yield results to speak of? There were surprisingly positive moments – moments that justified the hope pinned on this trip. Then again, listening in closer to the concluding statements of the Pakistani Prime Minister and the Afghan President, both leaders seemed to be […]

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Jirga to be Held Within Two Months

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TOLOnews, 22 August 2013 Emal Faizi, spokesman of President Karzai, has said that the proposed Loya Jirga to collect input from the public on the Afghan-U.S. Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) would be convened within the next two months.

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Obama’s secret kill list – the disposition matrix

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The Guardian Weekly, 9 August 2013 Learn more about Orwellian language and scary, secret tactics that make one wonder about where democracy is going: the ‘disposition matrix’, deprivation of citizenship in the UK for dual passport holders, ‘Terror Tuesday’ and a drone programme that is said to (by some) to be ‘curtailed’ but to be […]

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U.S. looks to smartphones and satellites to monitor Afghan projects

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Los Angeles Times, 4 August 2013 Remote control again: “As the U.S. military presence dwindles in Afghanistan, officials are finalizing a $200-million plan to use smartphones, GPS-enabled cameras and satellite imagery to monitor relief projects that will continue in areas deemed too remote or unsafe for Americans to visit” – “a plan some call risky”.

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Who’s Stealing Afghanistan’s Cultural Treasures?

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National Geographic, 1 August 2013 “Afghanistan is rapidly losing its heritage on a vast scale”, Philippe Marquis, the director of DAFA, the French archaeological delegation in Afghanistan, is quoted in this report about the increased, organised looting of the country’s archaeological artefacts. “I would say that 99 percent of the archaeological sites in Afghanistan have […]

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Why a dam in Afghanistan might set back peace

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Christian Science Monitor, 30 July 2013 Article about the regional political economy of Herat province’s Salma Dam on Harirud River, ‘a $200 million project paid for and built by India, yet delayed by Afghanistan’s turbulent history of occupations, civil war, and insurgency’. The dam will more than double cultivatable land in the area, while it […]

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Soldierless Jihad: How the Withdrawal Undermines the Taliban’s Case for War

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Foreign Affairs, 26 July 2013 The Afghan Taleban movement might become the victim of its own propaganda, writes Michael Semple in his latest piece for Foreign Affairs magazine. Reporting meetings at the funeral of a killed Taleb from a prominent Paktia family that took place in a Pakistani city and summarising discussions held there, he […]

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Sharif faces up to saving Pakistan from collapse

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Financial Times blog, 18 July 2013 A very interesting piece by Ahmed Rashid who says that Prime MInister Nawaz Sharif seems to seriously work in ‘turning Pakistan around’. He also reports that there are ‘intense daily discussions led by Mr Sharif with the powerful military, intelligence agencies, experts and others on how to create a […]

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Guantanamo: The More Things Change the More they Stay the Same

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Human Rights Watch, 17 July 2013 HRW commentary on the dire conditions of prisoners in Guantanamo , among intrusive searches, force-feeding and the lack of commitment by President Obama to his repeated pledges for the closing of the prison.

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The “aid bubble” bursts

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BAAG blog, 11 July 2013 BAAG director Jawed Nader describes how a friend was recruiting staff for a call centre in Kabul – and found 300 people waiting, many of whom had lost better-paid jobs as a a result of the ongoing withdrawal of western troops. He quotes OCHA’s humanitarian coordinator saying humanitarian funding for […]

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A brand-new U.S. military headquarters in Afghanistan. And nobody to use it

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Washington Post, 10 July 2013 The US military has erected a 64,000-square-foot headquarters building in Helmand that comes with all the tools to wage a modern war – but is unused. The WP’s Rajiv Chandrasekaran calls it the ‘whitest elephant’ in Afghanistan. So, there are more white US elephants, and Rajiv names some more of […]

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