Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: US

US

Talk about Talks Again (updated)

Thomas Ruttig •

‘Bazaar du-bara garm shud’ – the market has become hot again. That’s how many Afghans reacted to the breaking news of ‘high-level talks’ between Taleban leaders and the Kabul government (and possibly some US actors) as well as about the not-so-secret-anymore talks in the Kabul Serena. But look at the small print: The talks were […]

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Marines in Marjah face full-blown insurgency

admin •

AP, 7 October 2010 A few interesting sentences in this one on the much ballyhooed Marja operation: ‘Eight months on, the Taliban are still here in force, waging a full-blown guerrilla insurgency that rages daily’ […] Since then, Marjah has become a microcosm of the war itself — and a metaphor for an insurgency that […]

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Afghan colonel [Abdul Razeq] vital to U.S. despite graft allegations

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Washington Post, 3 October 2010 Razeq ‘represents the Obama administration’s best hope for maintaining stability in this important part of Afghanistan’, writes the daily, despite his involvement in graft and drug trading. ‘Is it a long-term solution? That’s for others to decide,’ said the top NATO commander in the south, British Maj. Gen. Nick Carter. […]

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AAN In The Media – October 2010

AAN Team •

Ett fuskval ‘bra nog åt afghaner’ (Bogus elections good enough for Afghans) Fredskoalitionen, 31 October 2010 Valövervakare Martine van Bijlert från ‘Afghanistan Analysts Network’ beskrev den Oberoende Valkommissionens attityd på detta sätt: ”Om man vill veta var de övriga rösterna kommer ifrån, har de olagligt lagts till de ogiltiga, så nu har de avlägsnats, och […]

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Posner: The witch hunt of Mahmood Karzai

admin •

Washington Times, 1 October 2010 Mahmud Karzai’s lawyer speaks: The older brother of the President ‘is one of the few Afghan public figures brave enough to consistently call for a crackdown on corruption in his country’ and ‘has at times crossed American officials in the American Embassy in Kabul. Is it possible that a criminal […]

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General Petraeus about Taleban contacts (updated)

Thomas Ruttig •

Reconciliation – a.k.a. talking to the Taleban – is a hot issue. Anything new is picked up quickly by the media world-wide, in particular when it comes from someone with a political weight like Gen. Petraeus. But please also read the small print. So, here is what Gen. Petraeus said: ‘There are very high-level Taliban […]

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Empire Going Mad

Thomas Ruttig •

The current US clue- and helplessness in Afghanistan, with its strategy that no one knows whether it will work and with no Plan B, is definitely crying out for some ‘out of the box’ thinking. But the ideas which have started to appear on various websites reminds one of the mad Dr. Strangelove, who learned […]

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U.S. contractor accused of fraud still winning big Afghan projects

admin •

McClatchy Newspapers, 19 September 2010 The US newspaper reports, that although the Louis Berger Group has been under investigation for ‘intentionally and systematically overbilling American taxpayers’, it was till able to pull in new contracts over 1.4 bn US dollar – so much about Afghan corruption. The article also provides background info about the company.

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Afghan Election: Taliban Not the Only Culprits of Campaign Violence

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Christian Science Monitor, 17 Sept. 2010 Anand Gopal reports about a series of inter-candidate violence during the election campaign across the country. He also writes about the US airstrike in Tokhar province that hit a campaign convoi.

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Whistleblower Claims Many U.S. Interpreters Can’t Speak Afghan Languages

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ABC, 8 September 2010 A journalist who was embedded with US troops and took a film recalls here: ‘At one stage you can see in the film where the elder talks about the Taliban coming into the village and the fact that the villagers are helpless to do anything about it. And the translator essentially […]

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AAN In The Media – September 2010

AAN Team •

Afghanistan opium crop blight sends drug prices soaring Christian Science Monitor, 30 Sept. 2010 In article on Afghanistan’s expected decline of the poppy harvest, AAN’s Thomas Ruttig is quoted on the expected impact it might have on the Taleban: ‘The poppy income is not the single, major income or revenue source for the Taliban. It’s […]

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