Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Sudhansu Verma

Cost Of Wars In Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan To Reach $3.7 Trillion: Report

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Huffington Post, 29 June 2011 Read the summary of a Brown UNiversity report – and find the link to the full report there.

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Governor Ahmed Wali Karzai

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Harpers Magazin, 29 June 2011 Excellent description by Matthew Aikins of the politicking surrounding governor’s appointments, the weakening stance of the internationals and the chances that this time Ahmad Wali might actually get what he wants.

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28 June 2011: AAN’s Kate Clark at Chatham House

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AAN’s Kate Clark, author of the report ‘The Takhar attack: Targeted killings and the parallel worlds of US intelligence and Afghanistan’, will take part in another discussion on the issue of the US Kill/Capture strategy at the Chatham House in London. In July 2010 when General David Petraeus took command of NATO’s campaign against the […]

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Governor of Afghan central bank flees

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Financial Times, 27 June 2011 ‘The governor of Afghanistan’s central bank has fled the country in fear of his life after naming powerful individuals who benefited from a scandal at Kabulbank, the biggest lender’, writes Matthew Green. He quotes Fitrat saying that ‘[t]here are concerns that these powerful people will go unpunished. Ten months after […]

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Welfare for Dictators (how Pentagon billions are flowing to strongmen in the Middle East)

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Newsweek, 26 June 2011 Aram Rostam looks at single-source Pentagon contracts awarded to companies that are owned by the ruling families of Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Bahrein (based on ‘laws’ made by those same families): ‘We may be essentially buying our presence.’

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New Opposition Alliance Underway

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Outlook Afghanistan (Kabul), 24 June 2011 The newspaper that is close to Hezb-e Wahdat of Ustad Mohaqqeq reports that during a meeting on 23 June in Kabul ‘three strong political parties decided to form a new opposition alliance: Jamiate-e Islami, People’s Unity Party of Afghanisatn (Wahdat) led by Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq and National Islamic Party […]

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Rivals to Afghanistan’s president in disarray

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Washington Post, 13 June 2011 Pam Constable’s analysis of the Afghan ‘opposition’, i.e. former Jamiat/Northern Alliance: ‘Their effort has foundered despite high-profile leaders, a strong presence in parliament, a flurry of meetings and a large rally in the capital last month.’ And she quotes Afghan analysts Haroun Mir as saying about them: ‘There is a […]

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Secret US and Afghanistan talks could see troops stay for decades

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Guardian, 13 June 2011 Jason Burke weighs the implications of the Afghan-US strategic agreement ans says that Washington wants it finished in summer, before Obama’s declaration on a frist troop ‘drawdown’. This clashes with the Afghan idea to have such an agreement (or its priciples) agreed by a Loya Jirga. Apart, there are a few […]

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Taleban ba rawand-e solh paiwastand ya arbakiha? (Did the Taleban join the peace process or the arbaki?)

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Hasht-e Sobh (Kabul), 22 Jauza 1390 (12 June 2011) A very good question by the Kabul daily, about some former Talebs in Badakhshan province.

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U.S. Sending Training Agents to Afghanistan to Stem Infiltration of Local Forces

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New York Times, 11 June 2011 The US has started sending 80 counterintelligence experts (why call them training agents?) to Afghanistan to review profiles and tighten recruitment procedures for the Afghan security forces. According to the article at least 57 people have been killed since March 2009, in at least 19 attacks carried out by […]

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Obama’s Secret Afghan Exit Formula

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The Daily Beast (blog), 11 June 2011 Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, knows what he calls Obama’s and Petraeus’ hush-hush plan about the announced US tropp ‘drawdown’ in Afghanistan which will not be publicly revealed. And he knows where Gates, Clinton, Panetta et al stand on this.

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Taliban killed Bamiyan’s head of Provincial Council

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The Lost Flaneur (blog), 7 June 2011 An obituary, pointing to a new problem area, the Ghorband valley north of Kabul, and also differentiates the headline a bit – when it says at the end that local HIG people might be responsible for the murder.

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