The American military does not need to create a second front in Afghanistan by heightening tensions along the Iran/Afghanistan frontier. Tony Capaccio, writing for Bloomberg.com on May 21, 2010, reported that the Pentagon is seeking $131 million in its Fiscal Year 2011, budget for massive upgrades to Shindand Air Base in western Afghanistan, about 20 miles from the Iranian border. ...

The U.S. government's public statements that it is "accelerating" the training of the Afghan National Army (ANA) are misleading. In 2004, ANA training was legitimately accelerated when the number of recruits undergoing training was doubled. Currently, the acceleration in training is being accomplished by shortening the training from fourteen (14) weeks (six weeks of basic training, six weeks of advanced ...

August 06, 2010 The news of the heartless murder of health workers in northeastern Afghanistan by former war lord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's armed men breaks everyone's heart, seeing that such gruesome crimes can still quite openly be committed in Afghanistan by extremists under the name of Islam.Sadly, these health workers are victims of the Afghanistan tragedy which has been plotted from ...

American diplomats in Muslim countries should be fasting for the month of Ramadan just as their hosts do. As fasting is a cultural centerpiece of those countries (as well as being a religious requirement), it would be good diplomacy for American embassies to honor this practice. While American officials make endless speeches extolling their desire for closer ties to the ...

Breaking news from Kabul today informs us that a demonstration by men, women and children to call attention to the violence being perpetrated against the Hazara people turned bloody, with several shot to death, allegedly through indiscriminate firing into the crowd by Afghan police. The large Hazara community in West Kabul has been closed off by police.This is the latest ...

Task Force 373 is a secret American special operations unit tasked with killing or capturing more than 2,000 senior Taliban and al-Qaeda figures who are listed in the JPEL (Joint Prioritized Effects List). The concept of the unit is sound and consistent with the strategy previously implemented by General Stanley McChrystal, which is to target the enemy's leadership through precise, ...

At a slum in the outskirts of Farah city, 42-year-old Jalil Khan stands motionless as police wraps his young brother's body in a white cloth.Evidence showed that his brother was brutally killed, handcuffed and his legs bound. Tears roll down his cheeks as he sighs and says "Why can't he have the right to marry who he wants to and ...

On December 5, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told CBS News reporter Bob Schieffer:"They (the Afghan people) don't want to see the return of the Taliban. There is absolutely no evidence that the Afghans are in any way supportive of that."This has been the mantra of the American government and NATO for the past 10 years and it ...

I remember it was 2006 when a former Kabul police chief, General Ali Shah Paktiawal, told local media that the police had detained a Hazara suicide bomber before he had a chance to detonate the bomb in front of Sarai Shahzada Exchange Market. The general appeared very pleased with himself as he posed in front of the international news cameras.This ...

"The Chinese contribution (to Afghanistan) is as important as that of Western troops."- A quote from Mohammad Yalaqi, the Afghan Minister of Commerce and Industry to Tini Tran of the Associated Press on July 4, 2010, for the story:"As US fights, China spends to gain Afghan foothold."It should stun the American public to discover that some Afghan officials place Chinese ...

"Afghan women have the most to gain from peace and the most to lose from any form of reconciliation compromising women's human rights. There cannot be national security without women's security, there can be no peace when women's lives are fraught with violence, when our children can't go to schools, when we cannot step on the streets for fear of ...

(Kabul) - Ongoing Taliban attacks on women in Afghanistan show why women's rights should be a priority in any political agreement with insurgent forces, Human Rights Watchsaid in a report released today. The Afghan government and its international supporters have ignored the need to protect women in programs to reintegrate insurgent fighters and have not guaranteed that women's rights will ...

America's last chance to prevail against the Taliban depends on a sound strategy and a unified, competent civilian/military command structure. The current State Department effort is fractured by having Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry, "Special" Representative/Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke and Deputy Secretary of State Jacob J. Lew sharing authority over Afghanistan.This author, in 2009, called for Karl Eikenberry to be replaced ...

In Afghanistan, the light at the end of the tunnel is an exploding Taliban IED. The Pentagon has been given nine years to win its war and it has failed to do so. Last week the American public was given a status report by Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who told Time Magazine that he is "pretty confident" that in ...

Since 2001, the Pentagon has sought to downplay overall U.S. military losses by artfully redefining what is a combat-related "casualty." It has published and then changed the rules several times regarding the reporting of casualties. Currently the Pentagon uses DoD Instruction 1300.18 to arbitrarily separate out "wounded in action" from non-battle injuries. Wounded in action is narrowly defined to essentially ...

Treating drinking water with toxic chlorine is recognized in the West as unhealthy yet NATO and the U.S. Embassy continue to foster such technology onto the Afghan people. Chlorinated drinking water is sub-lethal. Drinking it will not cause immediate death, but it will increase the rate of illness within the consuming population, ultimately decreasing their life-spans. The World Health Organization ...

NATO and USAID are promoting toxic chlorine water treatment systems and donating them to the people of Afghanistan without disclosing the health risks that result from ingesting chlorine. All that seems to matter to both organizations is that chlorine is cheap and easy to distribute. Chlorine, in addition to being a health hazard, is also less effective as a disinfectant ...

Like a demon rising from the bog swamp, Nadir Khan rose and cast a hellish pall over Afghanistan. It is well-known today that Nadir Khan invited Kalakani, the then ruler, to join him in Kabul so that they could discuss the political upheavals and had signed an oath on the Qur'an so that Kalakani would believe he was safe. Unbeknownst ...

Kabulpress.org has started an on-line demonstration against the bloody Kuchi-Taliban attacks on Hazaras in Hazarajat. We ask people to write on the walls of US Embassies, NATO, international media, and human rights organizations, asking them to take immediate action to stop these attacks.The US and NATO, with over 100,000 troops in Afghanistan are responsible for stopping the bloody attack. The ...

Afghan President, Hamid Karzai recently returned from a red-carpet visit to the U.S., but the Hazaras apparently were never mentioned. No wonder, since Afghan National Army units have been seen assisting the Taliban-backed Kuchi in their violent looting, and forced removals from the Hazara's rightful lands in Behsood and Daimirdad.Several weeks ago, an organized and well-armed Kochie nomads, probably assisted ...

We can close our eyes and refuse to see what is happening in Behsoud, refuse to see and to hear. But the only people who cannot see this tragedy are deaf, blind, and consciously disturbed. But for us, not only our eyes are on Behsoud but Behsoud is in our eyes.Kuchis, unparliamentarily with their historic identity and ancestral traits have ...

The AIHRC expresses its grave concern about the negligence of the government in resolving the problem of Kochies, and reoccurrence of the armed conflict between Kochies and native inhabitants of Behsood district of Maidan Wardak province that has resulted in the killing, injury and displacement of a number of inhabitants of the said district.Considering the need for maintaining of security, ...

Kabulpress.org was notified today of this video on YouTube. Taped by Mr. Mohammad Ahmadi in the Hazara area of Behshood, Afghanistan, the video shows a pick-up truck piled high with goods looted from the Hazara homes in the background.Note that the goods include rugs, appliances, and large sacks of grain- all valuable items that can be re-sold. On the ground, ...

Latest news from Afghanistan is that Kuchi nomads, supported by elements of the Afghan government, have attacked Hazara villages in the region of Behsood in recent weeks. This area has experienced annual violence as the nomads bring their grazing herds through Hazara farmland, ruining the spring crops, and forcing Hazaras to flee to Bamiyan and Kabul.These photos were taken by ...

Every year there are new reports of abuses being heaped on American troops in the field. They were provided with cheap and unnecessarily heavy body armor instead of lightweight titanium layered Kevlar. They were issued canvas-covered Humvees. There were unconscionable delays in deploying armored Humvees and in ordering 1970's vintage MRAPs. They have to fight with jam-prone M-4s and live ...