Afghanistan Analysts Network – English

Posts tagged: US

US

AAN In The Media – June 2012

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The Taliban and Fear  The Diplomat, 26 June 2012 The Indian blog, in an article by Sanjay Kumar, quotes from Thomas Ruttig’s AAN blog about the Taleban attack in Kargha. Her er slakteren som overtar «norsk» provins Dagbladet (Norway), 25 June 2012 In an article reporting Dostum tightening his grip over the northern province of […]

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Next to U.S. firing range in Afghanistan, a village of victims

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Washington Post, 26 May 2012 A report about the problem of NATO troops’ ‘unfenced and poorly marked’ firing ranges and training grounds in Afghanistan, here near Bagram where hundreds of unexploded explosives litter the area and ‘farmers, scrap-metal collectors and sheep herders have been crippled, blinded and burned by U.S. military ammunition’. It is not […]

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Secret U.S. program releases high-level insurgents in exchange for pledges of peace

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Washington Post, 7 May 2012 The US have ‘for several years been secretly releasing high-level detainees’ from Bagram military prison ‘as part of negotiations with insurgent groups. This so-called ‘strategic release’ program ‘has quietly served as a live diplomatic channel, allowing American officials to use prisoners as bargaining chips in restive provinces’. ‘Unlike at Guantanamo’, […]

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What if Romney is elected president?

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Gulf News, 1 May 2012 The Financial Times’ Edward Luce takes a look at Mitt Romney’s stand on foreign policy and on some of his advisors who will also be responsible for policy on Afghanistan, in case… Some interesting names are found here: the former CIA’s chief of counter-terrorism and Blackwater executive Cofer Black and […]

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AAN In The Media – May 2012

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The Afghan conflict’s ‘terrible mistakes’  New Straits Times, 30 May 2012 The intervention veered from ‘too little too late’ in its crucial early years, to one of ‘too much too late’,” according to Barbara Stapleton of the Afghanistan Analysts Network. In a May 16 report, the former senior political adviser to the special representative of […]

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U.S. soldier’s gift to Afghan workers at her base underscores divide

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Washington Post, 24 April 2012 Another heart-breaking story about a good intentioned (female) US soldier who failed with her private form of aid.

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Meet the Pentagon Contractor That Ran a Disinformation Campaign Against Two USA Today Reporters

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Gawker (blog), 20 April 2012 Although it is not clear whether all the details in the article are accurate, the case provides a fascinating taste of the murky world of ‘information operations’ and their unaccountable contractors.

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New approach needed to end Afghanistan’s insurgency

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Global Post, 19 April 2012 Louise Arbour, president of the International Crisis Group and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urges the UN to replace the US as the lead peace negotiator in Afghanistan: ‘The Security Council should adopt a resolution to appoint a team of negotiators and an individual to lead it as […]

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Afghanistan War: Special Operations War Plan Proposed

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AP, 12 April 2012 Now the McRaven Plan: The AP has learned details of a plan developed by the head of US special operations ‘that would replace thousands of US troops with small special operations teams paired with Afghans to help an inexperienced Afghan force withstand a Taliban onslaught as U.S. troops withdraw’. According to […]

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Handing over Night Raids

Kate Clark

Afghanistan and the United States have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on ‘Special Operations’, ensuring that night raids will continue – with Afghans ordering and conducting them and US forces acting only in support. The agreement is a victory for President Karzai who has long insisted – up till now in vain – that […]

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The Logistical Nightmare of Leaving Afghanistan

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Der Spiegel (online), 3 April 2012 How NATO and the US will need Russia and the Central Asian Republics to be able to pull out of Afghanistan.

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Withdrawal in 2014? Myths and realities

Thomas Ruttig

A series of contradictory statements about a possible earlier start to the (mainly US) foreign troop drawdown and a quicker handover of security responsibility to Afghan forces, as well as debate over the likely form of NATO’s post-ISAF mission in Afghanistan has caused confusion in the media(1) and wider public sphere recently. Thomas Ruttig, Senior […]

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