Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 7 January 2011 Afghan journalist Shahpoor Saber reports from Herat where young educated Afghans are leaving to make better lives for themselves abroad as they see no future for people like them in a deteriorating security climate.
Recommended Reads
Columbia Journalism Review, January/February 2011 Excellent article by Vanessa Gezari on arrested journalists in Kandahar; the confusing mix of counter-insurgency, journalism, intelligence, story-telling and the “shifting layers of half- and quarter-truth” (“I was used to it. Afghanistan had schooled me in the limits of certainty”).
Recommended Reads
Danger Room (blog), 3 January 2011 Good overview of the peace and reconciliation achievement so far: 800
Recommended Reads
Harper’s, 1 January 2011 The next one of Matt Aikins’ signature reportages, with an eye-witness report on the (non-) election in Nangrahar province and featuring – amonst others – Zalmay Khalilzad (who cannot remember a lot), Grant Kippen and Janan Mosazai – not fully on the web yet. The magazine’s print issue is already available.
Recommended Reads
Volkskrant, 30 December 2010 Article (in Dutch) discusses the change in approach after the departure of the Dutch forces – more focus on partnering with the powerful and less interest in tribal balance – and describes how former governor Jan Mohammad receives a hero’s welcome while accompanying the incoming new governor.
Recommended Reads
AfPak Channel, 21 December 2010 The Obama plan, Marja, COIN, ‘crazy’ Karzai, drone strikes, Taleban releases, contractors, truth and reconciliation, pakistani aspects – 14 stories, amongst them from 3 AAN Senior Analysts and other prominent writers like Peter Bergen, Anand Gopal, Samina Ahmed etc.
Recommended Reads
IPS News, 17 December 2010 The acclaimed successes in three districts in Kandahar come at a high price. Gareth Porter pulls together some of the recent reports of the large scale demolishment of houses and fields and how ISAF hopes that this will be ‘connecting government to the people’ when they come and ask for […]
Recommended Reads
New York Times blog, 15 December 2010 Life in troubled Kunduz Province can be summed up in a word: precarious, writes NYT correspondent Alyssa Rubin. One aspect of it: There is a kind of unofficial cease-fire between the Taleban and the local arbaki. ‘Both sides are getting ready to loot ordinary people’, says an American […]
Recommended Reads
New York Times, 15 December 2010 In a rare press conference, the ICRC raised its ‘extreme’ concerned that yet another year of fighting with dramatic consequences for an ever growing number of people in by now almost the entire country will follow in 2011. Kabul ICRC head Reto Stocker said that the situation has worsened […]
Recommended Reads
The AfPak Channel, 13 December 2010 Some good pictures
Recommended Reads
Long War Journal, 9 December 2010 ISAF briefs the Long War Journal on SF operations over the last 6 months: 7100 counterterrorism SF missions, more than 600 insurgent leaders killed or captured, more than 2000 fighters killed and more than 4100 captured, more than 2500 humanitarian operations and a shift from counterinsurgency to counterterrorism operations […]
Recommended Reads
Wall Street Journal, 8 December 2010 The U.S. military began the process of blacklisting a major Afghan company owned by relatives of President Hamid Karzai – the Watan Group -, a move U.S. officials describe as a significant step to stop American funds from fueling corruption and bankrolling the Taliban.
Recommended Reads
