World-News

"The president began the meetings on the assessment with saying we were not leaving Afghanistan.

http://snipurl.com/swrkg



What's the payoff for staying in Afghanistan?

It's a little frustrating to hear these various voices making their arguments for or against Afghanistan. Each one sounds persuasive, each makes a good case for his or her point of view. But here's the question I have: What is there in Afghanistan for the United States?

http://snipurl.com/swrks



Security Council to hold closed meeting on Afghanistan

The United Nations Security Council is set to hold a crisis meeting on Afghanistan following a Taliban attack on a Kabul guesthouse that killed UN staffers.

http://presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=109953&sectionid=351020403


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=AfPak
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban

Taliban Take Over Afghan Province

By Syed Saleem Shahzad

The United States has withdrawn its troops from its four key bases in Nuristan, on the border with Pakistan, leaving the northeastern province as a safe haven for the Taliban-led insurgency to orchestrate its regional battles.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23837.htm



U.S. To Protect 10 Afghan Population Centers

By Thom Shanker, Peter Baker and Helene Cooper

Under the strategy officials described yesterday, the administration now is looking at protecting Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz, Herat, Jalalabad and a few other village clusters. The first of any new troops sent to Afghanistan would be assigned to secure Kandahar, the spiritual capital of the Taliban, seen as a center of gravity in pushing back insurgent advances.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23836.htm



U.S. Dependence On Afghan Warlords

By Gareth Porter

U.S. and NATO counterinsurgency forces depend on Afghan warlords for security, according to a recently published report and investigations by Australian and Canadian journalists.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23840.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=warlord
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=insurgency
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=counterinsurgency
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Syed+Saleem+Shahzad
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Thom+Shanker
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Helene+Cooper
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gareth+Porter

There are already more than 100,000 international troops in Afghanistan working with 200,000 Afghan security forces and police. It adds up to a 12-1 numerical advantage over Taliban rebels, but it hasn't led to anything close to victory.

http://snipurl.com/svmv9



Schumer: True cost of Afghan stability could be too high for America

"It cost us $6 trillion and 4,500 lives, approximately, to bring stability to Iraq," Schumer told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "Just in terms of the loss of life and treasure, do we want to do the same exercise in Afghanistan?"

http://snipurl.com/svmvk



Afghan president's brother on CIA payroll for 8 years: report

The CIA pays Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the CIA's direction in and around Kandahar.

http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=417811&type=World


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Schumer
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Karzai
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban

"..aber warum und wozu?"

"Kein Peacenik und kein Hasch rauchender Hippie", einer, der nichts gegen das Töten hat - der erste höherrangige US-Vertreter, der seinen Posten in Afghanistan aus Protest gegen den Krieg aufgibt.

http://www.heise.de/tp/blogs/8/146434



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan

Video
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=8924044



14 Americans Killed in Helicopter "Crashes"in Afghanistan

"We have a shadow government of the Taliban," he said. "And I am afraid some people in Afghanistan are even talking about the return of the Taliban because they see the power of the Taliban.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-10-26-voa11.cfm?rss=topstories



Military: 8 U.S. troops killed in Afghan blasts

The U.S. military said on Tuesday that eight American troops have been killed in bomb attacks in southern Afghanistan, making October the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the eight-year Afghan war.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33491981/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/



U.S. official resigns over Afghan war

Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows why his nation is fighting.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/26/AR2009102603394_pf.html


From Information Clearing House

--------

An American Diplomat and a British Soldier Tell Their Leaders They Have No Clothes: No to the Afghanistan War Strategy
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/10/28-2



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Taliban
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ann+Wright

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/10/26

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US Official Resigns Over Afghan War

Karen DeYoung, The Washington Post: "When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in Afghanistan. A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed. But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency."

http://www.truthout.org/1027093



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=insurgency
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jerome+Starkey
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jenny+Booth
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Karen+DeYoung

http://www.lewrockwell.com/kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski238.html

Two Puppets Are Not Better Than One
http://www.lewrockwell.com/margolis/margolis166.html

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Afghan army MIA

AntiWar.Com
by Kelley B. Vlahos

10/27/09

Forget what seems to be quite an open secret in Afghanistan. Every impulse on the part of the military establishment, its think-tank surrogates, Capitol Hill, and even the White House is to convince the American people that not only is building a formidable Afghan army doable, it is the only way out of there, however long it takes. This mighty goal seems less grounded in reality every day, but that fact appears perversely lost in the surge-or-not-to-surge debate going on in Washington right now. That’s probably because both sides desperately need to believe in the future success of the Afghan security forces in order to maintain their respective briefs for or against escalation...

http://original.antiwar.com/vlahos/2009/10/26/afghan-army-mia/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Karzai
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghan+security+forces
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/kwiatkowski
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/margolis
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kelley+B.+Vlahos

http://www.lewrockwell.com/reed/reed167.html



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=com/reed

By Eric Margolis

Henry Kissinger once observed that being America's ally can be more dangerous than being its enemy.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23808.htm



Karzai questions US reliability as partner

Karzai said a partnership to him was "where the Afghan lives are respected, where Afghan property is respected, where the Afghan traditions are respected.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/1013706/1/.html



12 Million Afghans live under poverty line: ministry

Afghan Minister for Public Health Syed Mohammad Amin Fatimi has revealed that 12 million out of the total 30 million Afghans, including 3 million children, live under poverty line in the war-torn country, a local newspaper reported Saturday.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-10/24/content_12314514.htm


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Karzai
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Kissinger
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Eric+Margolis

Um abziehen zu können, sollen die Sicherheitskräfte in Afghanistan massiv augestockt zu werden, aber für 120 Dollar finden sich für den gefährlichen Job nicht genügend Rekruten.

http://www.heise.de/tp/blogs/8/146417



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Afghanistan