Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Kate Clark

U.S Senate report reveals extent to CIA torture.

The ‘Other Guantanamo’ 12: Bagram closes, CIA torture revealed, US to be held to account?

Kate Clark •

As grotesque revelations in a Senate report on the CIA’s torture of ‘war on terror’ detainees are being mulled over, it has been announced that the last three remaining detainees in United States custody in Afghanistan have been transferred out of American hands. The Bagram detention facility is finally, after 13 years, closed. As AAN’s […]

International Engagement Read more
The unfortunate, and unexploded, houbara, mistaken for a 'Taleban operative'. Photo: Khaama Press

Bird Bomber: Police kill ‘dangerous’ houbara bustard (amended)

Kate Clark •

Police in Faryab have shot a wild bird which had an antenna attached to it, fearing it had been sent by the Taleban to target them. They said it exploded, scattering suspicious bits of metal. However, the bits of metal included an ID tag with a telephone number and email address and claims of it […]

Context and Culture Read more

The ‘Other Guantanamo’ (11): More transfers, a court’s scrutiny and possible redress

Kate Clark •

The United States military spokesman has confirmed to AAN that another detainee has left the detention facility on Bagram Airbase, a ‘German-Moroccan’, Muhammad Abdullawi. A Russian detainee, named by the US military as Irek Hamidullan, has also been flown out – to the US to appear in a federal court on terrorism charges; the first […]

War and Peace Read more

The ‘Other Guantanamo’ (10): Bagram closing: Lawyers worried about ‘ghost detainees’ (an update)

Kate Clark •

Pakistani lawyers have told AAN they fear that when the United States closes its detention facility at Bagram at the end of the year, there may still be ‘ghost detainees’, men whose names, identities – and fate – remains unknown to the outside world. Since the earliest days of the war, the United States has […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more
"Resolute Support" follows "Help and Cooperation"; the new mission will need a new logo. Photo: AAN

Three Birds with One Stone: Signing the BSA and NATO SOFA to project reliability

Kate Clark • Thomas Ruttig •

By signing long-delayed security agreements with the US and NATO on the second day of its existence (30 September 2014), the new Afghan leadership has hit at least three birds with one stone. It has projected an image of itself as reliable to Afghans and to its international partners, and it has secured an important […]

International Engagement Read more
The US handed over the Afghan side of Bagram eighteen months ago. The newly signed BSA suggests it will be ending foreign detentions too, by the end of the year. (photo: Tolo)

The ‘Other Guantanamo’ (9): Bagram prison to close with BSA, 13 foreign detainees left

Kate Clark •

The US-Afghan Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA), now officially called the Security and Defence Cooperation Agreement, a copy of which AAN has obtained, says the US shall not “maintain or operate detention facilities in Afghanistan.” It appears then, that the US foreign detention facility at Bagram, often referred to as the ‘other Guantanamo’, will close by […]

International Engagement Read more
President Ghani sworn in ny chief judge. Photo c/o ToloNews.

Elections 2014 (53): Ghani sworn in as Afghanistan’s new president

Kate Clark •

Afghanistan finally has a new president – and a chief executive officer (CEO). Ashraf Ghani’s first act after being sworn in was to sign a decree establishing the new position of CEO and then appointing to it his bitter election rival and now partner in government, Abdullah Abdullah, who was thereby enabled to also take […]

Political Landscape Read more

Karzai struggles against foreign detentions – state releases Taleban?

Kate Clark •

In the last weeks of his presidency, President Hamed Karzai has again been trying to eradicate the last traces of foreign involvement in detentions, sending a commission to investigate the so-called Tor Jail, an American interrogation facility on Bagram airbase, and reactivating the Afghan Review Board, which had been sifting detainees transferred by the US […]

Rights and Freedoms Read more

Elections 2014 (51): Finally, a deal, but not yet democracy

Kate Clark •

After more than three months of audits and behind-the-scenes negotiation, Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah signed a deal today to set up a government of national unity. The election ‘result’ was announced a couple of hours later, but the Independent Election Commission (IEC) declined to give any figures. It had been clear, all along, that […]

Political Landscape Read more

Elections 2014 (49): Still deadlock, make or break

Kate Clark •

It has become difficult to write about the Afghan elections, not because nothing happens, but because it rarely amounts to anything significant enough to move things on. There are talks between the candidates, press conferences with little news, an audit nearing completion, phone calls from the American president, rumours and unease. The optimism of the […]

Political Landscape Read more

The ‘Other Guantanamo’ (8): A full list of foreign detainees at Bagram?

Kate Clark •

 The United States military has always been highly secretive about the men it holds at the detention centre on Bagram airbase, only ever releasing one list of names – in February 2009, following a Freedom of Information request. AAN’s Kate Clark has been going through various sources of information and has put together what may […]

War and Peace Read more
The audit in Kabul - photo by Kate Clark

2014 Elections (42): Audit stopped, re-started, UN intervenes

Kate Clark • Qayoom Suroush •

There have been days of futile negotiations between the technical teams of the two presidential election candidates over the nature of the ‘invalidation’ criteria – the rules for deciding what to do with votes deemed suspicious in the audit of the 14 June second round of the presidential vote. Now, the United Nations has stepped in […]

Political Landscape Read more

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