New York Times, 15 March 2011 Author Michael Kamber describes the system of indentured labour usually known from the Indian subcontinent used in Afghan brick kilns, how workers are bought and sold and their children bound by their parents’ contracts. An ISAF spokesman says the force conducted frequent inspections at construction sites and had no […]
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Small Wars Journal, 13 March 2011 Former USAID official and marine Scott Dempsey gives a realistic description of the celebrated (and often visited) COIN model district on Nawa, of what had been achieved there really and what not.
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Pajhwok News Agency, 12 March 2011 The mausoleum of the reformer-king needs ‘urgent attention of the authorities’, Jalalabad-based writer Lal Pacha Azmoon said and informed about the ‘cracks in the building’. Menawhile, governor Gul Agha Sherzai said the building will be repaired – hopefully.
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Science, 11 March 2011 A detailed discussion of trends in civilian casualties, using data from Unama, the Afghan NGO ARM (called here ‘the highest-resolution data of all, describing individual incidents’), WikiLeaks and – for a first time – the full CIVCAS (civilian casualty) data collected by ISAF. Discrepancies between the data are explained: ISAF only […]
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National Review, 10 March 2011 Ahmad K. Majidyar, a senior research associate at the American Enterprise Institute, reviews (some) Afghan opinion on this issue.
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Christian Science Monitor, 10 March 2011 ‘After stressing for years that removing insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan is vital to winning the war in Afghanistan, US military officials are subtly deemphasizing the importance of that goal as realities on the ground shift’, reports Anna Mulrine. She quotes Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez, commander of US troops in […]
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Afghanistan Study Group blog, 10 March 2011 In the farmland west of Kandahar City the US Army is building what it calls a “Security and Commerce Wall” as part of its strategy to protect the Afghan people…. err…. the military convoys.
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Washington Post, 8 March 2011 ‘Many of the U.S. experts deployed as part of a
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Newsweek, 27 February 2011 Interesting article quoting Taleban who are dusgisted with Taleban abuses and worried about the breakdown of discipline: “We were playing with the lives of people. We killed and harmed innocents, just as the infidel Americans do.” and “In the 16 years of the Taliban’s military and political life, this is our […]
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AP, 27 February 2011 A peek inside the world of fuel trucking. AP’s Kathy Gannon and Anja Niedringhaus ride with a fuel truck from Quetta to Kandahar.
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Global Post, 24 February 2011 Jean MacKenzie’s account of the ‘gender bias, ethnic tensions, and political divisions [that] all came to a head in an ugly incident’ involving a female Pashtun parliamentarian and Haji Mohaqeq, leader of a Hazara faction in parliament – with some additional facts to AAN’s blog ‘Willing, able and Uzbek’.
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Washington Post, 17 February 2011 The authors look at what is preached in Kabul’s mosques during the Friday sermons – a find a lot of hatred and xenophobia against ‘these Christians and Jews’: . ‘Let these brothers of monkeys, gorillas and pigs leave this country. The people of Afghanistan should determine their own fate.
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