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Afghanistan

Biden Wants More Time, Advice on Afghanistan: White House

2021-04-07

[ToloNews] White House press secretary Jen Psaki ...a valley girl who woke up one morning and found she was spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of State under Obama... , referring to Afghanistan during a presser on Monday, said that US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S., father of Hunter... "wants to take the time to make the right decision" on Afghanistan. "It will be tough to meet the May 1st deadline for full withdrawal, for logistical reasons," Jen Psaki said. "We are continuing — he’s continuing to consult internally with his national security team and advisers and, of course, also with our partners and allies," she said. A week ago, the US special envoy for Afghanistan’s reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad met with senior Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... leaders including Mullah Baradar, the head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, to discuss provisions of the US-Taliban peace agreement, including the withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, according to the Taliban’s front man Mohammad Naeem. In the meantime, the United States reportedly asked the Taliban to agree to the continued presence of American forces for three or six months in Afghanistan after the May 1 deadline, sources close to the Taliban have said. According to the sources, the Taliban has so far not made their final decision about the request; however, the group has apparently insisted that first their 7,000 prisoners should be released, and names of Taliban officials should be dropped from the UN blacklist. Under the US-Taliban peace agreement signed on February 2020, all US forces stationed in Afghanistan must leave the country by May 1. But sources close to the Taliban have said that the Biden administration has asked the Taliban to agree on the presence of the US forces for another three or six months. This comes as an UN-led conference on Afghanistan is expected to be held in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... this month. Sources familiar with the matter have said that two dates — April 12 and 16 — are under discussion by involved parties for the meeting that some have said will continue for 10 days. In the meantime, senior politicians and government officials are reviewing over 25 peace proposals, including that of the Presidential Palace, to make a unified peace road map for the upcoming conference in Turkey. The committee reviewing the proposals operates under the High Council for National Reconciliation and is led by former vice president Mohammad Yunus Qanooni, and its members are politicians and senior government officials, including the national security adviser. The peace proposals have been sent by political parties to the council. The 15-member committee is also reviewing views from 30 members of the council about the peace proposals.

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Afghanistan

Payoff Political Settlement Could Resolve Parliament Row

2011-02-17

[Tolo News] Political settlement will work to have parliamentarians choose a speaker, a newly formed commission suggested on Wednesday. Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, head of a newly formed commission to help ease house speaker election said an amendment in parliament's internal regulations or political settlement could bring an end to the current situation. A change in internal regulations in the Afghan House of Representatives helps all politicians to run for the seat, Mr Mohaqiq said. Some Afghan politicians said the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society has shown willingness to cooperate with parliamentarian to choose a head. "The United Nations is willing to cooperate with us. We would welcome if they make any suggestions," said Sayed Ali Kazimi, an Afghan MP. Lawmakers suggested that political settlements should happen transparently. "The settlement should be reached among all MPs, not just some limited groups linked to Sayaf and Qanooni," said Nelofar Ebrahimi, an Afghan MP. Rasool Sayyaf is the Saudi puppet with semi-secret ties to Osama bin Laden. I believe he used to be related by marriage, in fact. Yunus Qanooni is the former interior minister who belongs to the Pandjir Valley group once headed by the late Ahmed Shah Masood. To quickly resolve the problem, serious talks are in progress with the government, Abdul Rab Rasul Sayaf, Mohammad Yonus Qanooni and some other prominent candidates.

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Afghanistan

Taliban exploiting Afghan civilian deaths

2006-05-30

Civilian deaths caused by the US-led coalition in Afghanistan - including an airstrike that killed at least 16 villagers and a fatal traffic accident that sparked a riot in Kabul on Monday - are undermining President Hamid Karzai and boosting support for the resurgent Taliban, lawmakers and rights activists say. “It’s damaging for the dignity of the government,” said Noorulaq Homi, a lawmaker from Kandahar province. “The people distance themselves from the government and move toward the Taliban. It is a positive message for the enemy.” At least 16 people were killed in an airstrike on Azizi village in Kandahar on May 21. US security forces on Monday fired on protesters, killing one person and wounding two, in Kabul after a riot erupted because of a traffic accident involving US troops that killed three people, police and witnesses said. Such incidents place Karzai, the US-backed president, in a political fix. He remains reliant on the US-led coalition to protect his government but can’t ignore the public anger stirred by military mistakes. Karzai was also angered in mid-April when seven civilians were killed by coalition fire in eastern Kunar province. The risk of civilian casualties appears to have heightened as security forces and militants, who often hide among their ethnic Pashtun brethren, have gone head-to-head in some of the deadliest combat since the hard-line Taliban regime was ousted by US-led forces in late 2001. As many as 372 people have died in the fighting since May 17, mostly militants, many of them killed in airstrikes, according to Afghan and coalition figures. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, which keeps track of coalition attacks that result in civilian deaths, said at least 135 Afghans have been killed by coalition fire since it started keeping track in mid-2003, though it does not consider its record complete. An Associated Press estimate of civilian deaths during major combat - from the beginning of the US-led coalition invasion in October 2001 until about February 2002 - found that between 500 and 600 civilians were killed in that period. Other estimates put the toll much higher. In the time since then, an AP count based on figures from Afghan officials, the coalition and witnesses shows at least 180 civilians have died during coalition military action. Karzai took the unusual step last week of summoning the top US commander in Afghanistan, Lt Gen Karl W Eikenberry, and telling him “every effort” should be made to ensure civilians’ safety. He has also called an official investigation into the incident. The government and coalition have reported 16 dead civilians from the May 21 airstrike. But Abdul Qadar Noorzai, director of the rights commission office in Kandahar, said Friday that people from Azizi told him approximately 25 family members were killed in one mud-brick home and nine in the village’s religious school. Haji Ikhlaf, an Azizi resident wounded in the attack, told AP earlier that villagers had buried 26 civilians. Ahmad Nader Nadery, a member of the Afghan rights commission, said the accidental killings are being used by the Taliban and Al Qaeda as a recruiting tool. In the eastern city of Gardez, near the border with Pakistan, tribal leaders have shown the commission fliers printed by the Taliban that cited civilian casualties as a reason to join the militants’ struggle, he said. Parliamentary speaker Yunus Qanooni on Monday asked Afghans to exercise restraint in light of the riots in Kabul. “We call on the people to be tolerant because there is the risk this could be exploited by our enemies,” he said, referring to Taliban rebels. The worst such incident came in July 2002, when Afghan officials said 48 civilians were killed and 117 wounded in an airstrike in Uruzgan province. The dead included 25 members of an extended family attending a wedding celebration. In 2004, the US military said it had modified its rules of engagement after Karzai expressed outrage over the deaths of 15 children in two airstrikes in late 2003. Officials refused to say how the rules had been changed, saying that would help militants. The US military has responded to past accidental deaths by saying that efforts are made to avoid such casualties but that Afghanistan is still a combat zone where militants take cover among civilian populations. Col Tom Collins said the deaths in Azizi were a result of the militants firing from the mud-brick homes. He said international law gives coalition forces the right to return fire. Lawmakers in Afghanistan’s newly elected parliament have drafted a resolution condemning the civilian deaths in Azizi and calling for the military to take more care. “They (the coalition) need to be very careful to separate the civilians and the enemy,” said Saleh Mohammed Registani, a lawmaker from central Panjshir province. “The situation is getting worse. It’s a big problem for the coalition.”

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Afghanistan

Afghan Parliament Didn't Get The Word...

2006-03-29

Afghan lawmakers demand that Christian convert not be allowed to leave KABUL, Afghanistan – Afghanistan's parliament demanded Wednesday that the government prevent a man who faced the death penalty for abandoning Islam for Christianity from being able to flee the country. Italy granted asylum to Abdul Rahman, 41, and the Foreign Ministry said he would arrive there “soon,” maybe within the day. Rahman was released from prison Monday after a court dropped charges of apostasy against him because of a lack of evidence and suspicions he may be mentally ill. President Hamid Karzai had been under heavy international pressure to drop the case. Rahman was released from the high-security Policharki prison on the outskirts of the capital late Monday. Justice Minister Mohammed Sarwar Danish said Tuesday that Rahman was staying at a “safe location” in Kabul. His current whereabouts were unknown. The Italian government granted asylum to Rahman after Muslim clerics called for his death. “I say that we are very glad to be able to welcome someone who has been so courageous,” Premier Silvio Berlusconi said. Afghan lawmakers debated the issue Wednesday and said Rahman should not be allowed to leave the country. However, they did not take a formal vote on the issue. “We sent a letter and called the Interior Ministry and demanded they not allow Abdul Rahman to leave the country,” parliamentary speaker Yunus Qanooni told reporters on behalf of the entire body. Qanooni ==> Interior Ministry officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Rahman was put on trial last week for converting 16 years ago while he was a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan. He was carrying a Bible when arrested and faced the death penalty under Afghanistan's Islamic laws. The case caused an outcry in the United States and other nations that helped oust the hard-line Taliban regime in late 2001 and provide aid and military support for Karzai. Muslim clerics condemned Rahman's release, saying it was a “betrayal of Islam,” and threatened to incite violent protests. Some 500 Muslim leaders, students and others gathered Wednesday in a mosque in southern Qalat town and criticized the government for releasing Rahman, said Abdulrahman Jan, the top cleric in Zabul province. He said the government should either force Rahman to convert back to Islam or kill him. “This is a terrible thing and a major shame for Afghanistan,” he said. Rahman has appealed to leave Afghanistan, and the United Nations has been working to find a country willing to take him. Italy has close ties with Afghanistan, whose former king, Mohammed Zaher Shah, was allowed to live in exile in Rome with his family for 30 years. The former royals returned to Kabul after the Taliban fell. The United States and Germany welcomed Rahman's release from prison. “Obviously it's good news that he has been released,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. Germany, a major donor to Afghanistan that has about 2,000 troops in the NATO security force, also expressed satisfaction. “I think this is a sensible signal to the international community but also for the situation in Afghanistan,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. Aaah yes the religion of peace desiring a peaceful murder again.

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India-Pakistan

Revolution in the Pakistani mountains

2006-03-23

EFL Three major tribes live in North Waziristan, which has become the Taliban's prime stronghold outside of Afghanistan: the Wazirs, the Mehsuds and the Dawar. British soldiers referred to the Wazirs as wolves, and the Mehsuds as panthers of the mountains. The Dawar have traditionally been peace-loving, preferring shopkeeping to guns and towns over mountains. The Mehsud and Wazir tribes, though, have been arch-rivals for centuries. Traditionally, the Mehsuds have been part of the Pakistani establishment, and as recently as the past few years they supported the military's actions against Wazir tribes, who are mostly Taliban. In today's North Waziristan, though, Maulana Sadiq Noor and Maulana Abdul Khaliq are the unbending leaders of the Taliban-led resistance. They are both Dawar and, even more startling, the Wazirs and the Mehsuds are under their command. The man in charge of launching mujahideen raids into Afghanistan is Maulana Sangeen, an Afghan from neighboring Khost province. In South Waziristan, Haji Omar, a Wazir, is the leader of the resistance against Pakistani forces, while Afghan operations run from the area are taken care of by Abdullah Mehsud, of the Mehsud tribe. "Nobody has seen such an arrangement in centuries, where the Mehsuds and Wazirs are fighting side-by-side, and more, under the command of the Dawars," said a local bureaucrat in Waziristan who spoke to Asia Times Online on the condition of anonymity. The revolution that is sweeping across Waziristan is not confined to the region. It is on the march, with the eventual targets being Kabul and Islamabad. The overall command center is in South Waziristan, where al-Qaeda No 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri calls the shots, while Tahir Yaldevish, leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and a key figure in the Afghan resistance, moves around Paktika province in Afghanistan. Well-placed sources in the Taliban movement who spoke to Asia Times Online claim that the Taliban communicated "final messages" to Afghan and Pakistani officials, warning of direct attacks across both countries against top army and civilian officials. As a result, according to the sources, Pakistan stopped military operations in North and South Waziristan that were aimed at rooting out Taliban and foreign forces. In Afghanistan, the Taliban strategy is to terrorize Afghan officials and prevent them from cooperating with foreign forces. And once the allied forces are alienated, attacks on them will be intensified. At the same time, the administrations in the capitals of the two countries are becoming increasingly isolated. The US-backed ruling royalists in Kabul are now threatened by Islamists who completely dominate parliament after recent general elections. There is no doubt that radical Islamists, whether those of the Hizb-i-Islami, the Ittehad-i-Islami led by Professor Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, the alliance led by Yunus Qanooni or dozens of independent former Taliban, are now at the helm of political affairs in Kabul. And the US-backed ruling and nominally secular officers of the Pakistani army are more on their own than ever before. A silent alliance of religious elements and religious parties is keeping a sharp eye on developments in the mountains, waiting for its chance to join in the revolution as it rolls off the mountaintops.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Taliban kill Afghan election worker

2005-06-05

Suspected Taliban militants gunned down an Afghan working on a U.S.-funded electoral project, officials said Sunday in the first killing of a worker linked to landmark legislative polls scheduled for September. Authorities, meanwhile, revealed the names of 2,884 Afghans hoping to contest the parliamentary elections — the country's next key step toward democracy after a quarter-century of war. Among those who have enrolled to participate in the polls are former warlords, at least two leaders of the ousted Taliban regime and President Hamid Karzai's main rival in presidential elections last year, Yunus Qanooni. In a separate case, security forces arrested two alleged Taliban leaders, while fighting between suspected rebels and Afghan soldiers near the main north-south highway in southern Afghanistan left at least one insurgent dead, officials said Sunday. Six other suspected Taliban rebels were captured in Saturday's fighting in Zabul province, said Afghan army commander Gen. Muslim Amid. Intelligence officials arrested the two Taliban leaders as they were driving in western Farah province on Saturday, Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammed Zaher Azimi said. One leader was identified as Mullah Abdul Rahim — a deputy for a key Taliban commander said to be close to the militia's fugitive leader, Mullah Omar, Azimi said. The other is regional Taliban leader Haji Sultan, he said. The Taliban and other insurgents have stepped up attacks following a winter lull in fighting. Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces have hit back hard, killing more than 200 rebels since March, according to Afghan and American officials. Election law permits any Afghan to participate as long as they do not have a criminal record and have severed any ties to armed groups. The slain election worker was part of a project educating villagers on how to cast their vote in Uruzgan province's Tirin Kot district. He worked for the Afghan Civil Society Forum, said Susanne Schmeidl, an adviser to the national organization. The project is partially funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, agency spokesman Rick Marshall said. Suspected Taliban rebels surrounded a village in the district Friday and shot the election worker as he came out of a mosque, Schmeidl said. The victim's cousin also was shot, but his condition was not immediately known, she said. Friday's killing was the first of someone working on the September elections, said a spokesman for the election commission, Sultan Ahmad Baheen. At least 13 election workers were killed ahead of October's presidential polls, and there are fears that the September ballot also could be violent. Beside the candidates registered for the legislative elections, another 3,186 people have signed up to participate in elections for new provincial assemblies, said Richard Atwood, chief of operations for the joint U.N.-Afghan election commission. Those lists include 588 women, he said. Females were banned from all public life under the hard-line Taliban movement, which was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001 for harboring Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda terrorist network. At least a quarter of all seats in the national and provincial assemblies have been reserved for women. Enough have registered for the national legislature, but there is a shortage for the provincial votes and five seats in the assemblies will be left vacant, Atwood said. The legislative elections were initially scheduled for June last year, but were delayed because of slow preparations and efforts to disarm warlords and militia commanders who the United Nations feared would intimidate voters. Atwood said that lists of candidates have been displayed at election offices around the country and people have until Thursday to formally challenge a candidate's right to run. An independent committee will rule on the challenges and a final list of approved candidates will be published July 12.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Armed militias still an issue

2005-01-04

In one his last moves to close 2004, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai held the first meeting with his new Cabinet, stressing that ministers need to work together to rebuild the war-torn country and carry it into a brighter future. In the meeting at the Presidential Palace in the capital Kabul, Karzai, the first elected president in Afghanistan, said that the Cabinet must focus on the economy, education and security and that the success of the government should be based on how well it fights against the flourishing drug industry. He also urged the ministers to turn away from tribal and ethnic loyalty and commit themselves to the people who have been struggling during warfare that lasted for a quarter of a century. The President said before the meeting that infighting in the Cabinet between political parties must be avoided. "I hope all of our ministers in the Cabinet, if they have any link with political parties, they should resign from those parties. If they do, then the people of Afghanistan will trust our Cabinet," said Karzai. Karzai's selection of ministers, announced just days before the first meeting, has been seen as a significant move. Some warlords holding positions as ministers in the interim government put together after the Taliban regime was ousted in late 2001 were removed. Most of the ministerial positions were filled by technocrats with experience related to their new jobs and a college degree was a requirement. "Taking out warlords and bringing in more qualified people is a fresh start for President Karzai to unify the country, establishing security and rebuilding a country that is in real need," said an Afghan analyst. Former Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, once a leading commander of the Northern Alliance, was replaced by his deputy Abdur Rahim Wardak, who fought against the Soviets in the eighties. Yunus Qanooni, who ran against Karzai during the presidential elections last October after being the Minister of Education, was not given a position in the Cabinet. Two ministers were appointed as governors in important provinces after being replaced in the Cabinet. Gul Afha Sherzai, former Minister of Public Works, was named governor of the Kandahar province, while Sayed Hussain Anwari, former Minister of Agriculture, is now the governor of the Kabul province, which includes the capital city. Karzai, who won the presidential elections on October 9 and took 55% of the votes, appointed the female presidential candidate Massouda Jalal as the Minister of Women's Affairs.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Afghanistan's Karzai meets chief rival over new cabinet post

2004-12-03

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has met his chief election rival Yunus Qanooni to discuss a possible role for him in the new government, an official close to the president said. Karzai, who will be inaugurated as Afghanistan's first democratically elected president on December 7, is expected to form his cabinet the following week. He met Qanooni late Wednesday and they discussed the cabinet, the official, who asked to not be named, told AFP the same day. "There is a strong possibility that Qanooni will join the new cabinet," he added. That'd be a good thing, I think. Qanoodi's one of the good guys. Karzai, who won 55.4 percent of the vote in the October 9 election, faces a tough challenge picking a government to tackle regional warlordism, an insurgency led by the former Taliban rulers and a burgeoning drug industry, which threatens to turn Afghanistan into a narco state. Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun, must also ensure that the ethnic Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara minorities are represented in his new administration. Karzai has repeatedly said he does not intend to appoint a cabinet of warlords or people with a brutal military past — and many ordinary Afghans voted for him in hopes he would end the rule of the gun in the war-torn country. Qanooni, who resigned, as education minister in Karzai's US-backed transitional administration to run against his former boss, is an ethnic Tajik. He was a lieutenant of assassinated resistance hero Ahmad Shah Masood and has close ties to the Northern Alliance group of commanders who ousted the hardline Islamic Taliban regime in conjunction with a US-led air campaign in late 2001. Although Qanooni came a distant second to Karzai in the polls, winning only a little over 16 per cent of the vote, he represents an important power block. He hails from the resistance stronghold of the Panjshir valley north of Kabul along with Defence Minister Marshal Mohammed Qasim Fahim and Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. Karzai did not win strong support in parts of northern Afghanistan, drawing his votes mainly from the Pashtun-dominated south and east of the country. I'd guess most of Qanooni's support came from the north... Qanooni could not immediately be reached for comment. But an official close to him confirmed to AFP that he had held a private meeting with Karzai in the president's heavily fortified palace. "Yes, I can confirm that the meeting took place," the official told AFP declining to give further details.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Afghan president on course for historic election victory

2004-10-21

Afghan President Hamid Karzai was on course for a clear victory in the country's historic election Thursday with more than half the votes counted. Karzai had almost 60 percent of the vote with an estimated 50.7 percent of total ballots counted, leaving him likely to secure the simple majority needed to avoid a second-round run-off. "It would be almost impossible for Karzai to lose 10 percent of his lead, so a run-off looks very, very unlikely, said a Western election expert familiar with the process. Experts said victory was just days away for the US-backed incumbent who had always been the clear favourite to win the October 9 poll, Afghanistan's first direct presidential election. His closest rival, former education minister Yunus Qanooni, announced late on Wednesday that he would accept the election result despite previously complaining of fraud, smoothing Karzai's way. "I have made sacrifices for the national interests of Afghanistan and I am ready to make another sacrifice," Qanooni told AFP. The ballot was the first ever chance for Afghans to choose their own leader, after enduring Taleban rule, civil war, Soviet occupation, a Communist regime, monarchies and British colonial rule. It was hailed worldwide for the massive voter turnout in the face of threats of violence by bitter Taleban loyalists. Based on election commission estimates, around 8,146,173 million of the 10.5 million registered voters cast ballots, meaning the winner needs 4,073,087 votes to win. Karzai has tallied 2,438,761 votes so far, leaving him 1,634,326 short of victory. Karzai is leading in 20 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces and posted 91 percent of the vote in Kandahar, the spiritual home of the former Taleban regime whose 2001 ousting in a US-led military campaign allowed him to come to power. He also polled 95 percent in the populous eastern province of Nangahar.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Karzai Rival Refuses to Concede Election

2004-10-17

Hamid Karzai's closest rival in Afghanistan's landmark election insisted Sunday he has a chance for victory, saying Karzai's commanding lead was based on early results and the election could turn on an investigation of fraud allegations. Former Education Minister Yunus Qanooni told the Associated Press that he was preparing to be in the political opposition as the country moves toward Western-style democracy — though he added that whether he recognizes the results depends on the honesty of the probe into fraud complaints. Preliminary returns from the Oct. 9 election put Karzai on course for a landslide in a vote supposed to cement Afghanistan's post-Taliban stabilization. Of the 595,000 votes tallied by Sunday morning, the U.S.-backed Karzai had received almost 64 percent. That puts Karzai on course for the simple majority needed to avoid a run-off, though only about 7 percent of the total ballots cast have been counted so far. Qanooni, who has about 17 percent of the vote, said "the figures will change" in his favor as more ballots are counted. Election officials also have cautioned against calling the election too soon.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Karzai widens early lead in Afghan poll

2004-10-17

Interim leader Hamid Karzai has moved far ahead of his rivals in early results from Afghanistan's first-ever presidential elections as ballot counting - delayed over alleged irregularities - has gathered speed. On Saturday morning, some 2,500 election staff got to work at eight counting centers across Afghanistan after a day off to mark the start of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Of 344,000 votes tallied by early evening, Karzai, the U.S.-backed favorite, had captured 71 percent, though the preliminary result was based on only 4.2 percent of the ballots cast. Former Education Minister Yunus Qanooni had 15.4 percent, ahead of ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum with 4.3 percent. Final results are expected at the end of October, although it should be clear who has won within days - and whether the victor secures the majority needed to avoid a run-off. A top election official has estimated that despite Taleban intimidation and bad weather, about 8 million of the 10.5 million registered voters cast ballots. Counting began slowly on Thursday after five days of delays as a panel of foreign experts probed electoral fraud allegations submitted by the 16 candidates.

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Afghanistan/South Asia

Exit Poll Predicts Karzai As Winner

2004-10-11

An exit poll conducted by an American non-profit group found that interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai won Saturday's first-ever presidential election with the outright majority needed to avoid a second round. The survey by the International Republican Institute, which seeks to promote democracy abroad, found Karzai ahead of second place finisher Yunus Qanooni by 43 percentage points. The group would not give specific vote totals for either man, nor did it release supporting data. But it said that Karzai was well over the 50 percent mark necessary to avoid a runoff.

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