Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: US military

US military

Work on Afghanistan’s sole rail line falls to five soldiers

AAN •

Stars and Stripes, 24 May 2014 An intersting rendering on Afghanistan’s only railway line and the US soldiers who work on its terminus, at Hairaton. (The Afghans who must be working there are not mentioned, for some reasons.)

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‘Secret NATO Jails’ that Aren’t Secret: Ambush and drama over detainees

Kate Clark •

In the Afghan government’s latest attempt to wipe out any foreign role in detentions, the commander of the Detention Facility in Parwan (DFIP) on Bagram Air base, General Faruq Barakzai, has said detainees can no longer be sent there. Both US and UK forces have been transferring detainees to the DFIP, which the US finally handed […]

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Pakistani detainee speaks of ordeal in Bagram prison

AAN •

Press TV (Iran), 14 April 2014 The website of this Iranian TV channel reports the case of a Pakistani truck driver and former Bagram prison inmate who alleges that he has been tortured there while the facility was still under US control. For background, the report adds: "In July 2013, the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), […]

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A rising number of children are dying from U.S. explosives littering Afghan land

AAN •

Washington Post, 9 April 2014 "As the U.S. military withdraws from Afghanistan, it is leaving behind a deadly legacy: about 800 square miles of land littered with undetonated grenades, rockets and mortar shells. The military has vacated scores of firing ranges pocked with the explosives. Dozens of children have been killed or wounded as they have […]

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The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program

AAN •

Firstlook, 17 February 2014 The US National Security Agency "is using complex analysis of electronic surveillance, rather than human intelligence, as the primary method to locate targets for lethal drone strikes – an unreliable tactic that results in the deaths of innocent or unidentified people" (as AAN also has shown in one case from Takhar […]

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U.S. seeks new bases for drones [in Central Asia] targeting Al Qaeda in Pakistan

AAN •

Los Angeles Times, 16 February 2014 "The Obama administration is making contingency plans to use air bases in Central Asia to conduct drone missile attacks in northwest Pakistan in case the [US] is forced to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan at the end of this year, according to U.S. officials', the paper reports. … "Intelligence officials […]

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Detainee releases prisoner to US-Afghan relations

AAN •

France 24, 14 February 2014 In an explainer about the release of 65 detainees from Bagram prison, the website of the French international TV refers to an AAN dispatch by Kate Clark: Under the 2013 Afghan/US Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) – which has not been released, but has been seen by Kate Clark of the Kabul-based […]

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U.S. says freed Afghan prisoners are a threat to civilians, troops

AAN •

Los Angeles Times, 13 February 2014 Reporting on the disputed release of 68 prisoners from Bagram, the US daily quotes from a dispatch by Kate Clark, "an expert with the Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network": "The U.S. may be right — in part — in claiming the Afghan government has violated the agreement" governing the transfer of […]

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Highway 1 shows the difficulties ahead in Afghanistan

AAN •

USA Today, 5 December 2013 A telling piece about how transition to the ANSF and the US withdrawal looks in practice: "Highway 1 is more than just a dusty asphalt road. It … is supposed to be an example of the success of the 12-year effort by multinational forces to end Taliban control and showcase the […]

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When Most U.S. Forces Leave Afghanistan, Contractors May Stay

AAN •

NPR, 28 Novermber 2013 The number of US private military contractors has been higher than that of the US military in Afghanistan at least since 2007: "In December 2007, there were 25,000 American troops, compared to 36,000 contractors. In March of this year, the number of U.S. troops stood at about 66,000 — supported by a […]

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Karzai’s Demands On Security Pact Puzzle Afghans, Westerners

AAN Team •

NPR, 28 November 2013 In a feature, NPR brings together the opinions of different people about President Karzai’s motifs not to sign the BSA with the USA. This is AAN’s Kate Clark: “He is genuinely frightened that once the Americans get their deal, there will be no holds barred on what they do in Afghanistan.”

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Karsai pokert hoch

Thomas Ruttig •

SRF4 (Swiss radio), 26 November 2013 Listen to a 5:17 min audio interview with AAN’s Thomas Ruttig (in German) about President Karzai’s rejection to sign the US-Afghan BSA soon. “Kabul seems to believe that the US zero option is a bluff, but it might be wrong.”

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