AP EXCLUSIVE: Afghans scuttle US-Taliban talks!

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By KATHY GANNON and ANNE GEARAN, Associated Press / Aug 29, 7:28 AM EDT.

AP Photo/Anonymous.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Infuriated that Washington met secretly at least three times with a personal emissary of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Afghan government intentionally leaked details of the clandestine meetings, scuttling the talks and sending the Taliban intermediary into hiding, The Associated Press has learned.

In a series of interviews with diplomats, current and former Taliban, Afghan government officials and a close childhood friend of the intermediary, Tayyab Aga, the AP learned Aga is hiding in Europe, and is afraid to return to Pakistan because of fears of reprisals. The United States has had no direct contact with him for months.

A senior U.S. official acknowledged that the talks imploded because of the leak and that Aga, while alive, had disappeared. The United States will continue to pursue talks, the official said. Current and former U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks.

The United States acknowledged the talks after Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who apparently fears being sidelined by U.S.-Taliban talks, confirmed published accounts about them in June, but has never publicly detailed the content, format or participants. The first was held in late 2010 followed by at least two other meetings in early spring of this year, the former U.S. official said. The sessions were held in Germany and Qatar, he said.

A childhood friend of Aga's who spoke to the AP on condition he not be identified because he feared retaliation, said Aga was in Germany. A diplomat in the region said Aga fled to a European country after his contacts with the United States were revealed.

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Character & costumes of Afghaunistan

AFGHAN BOILER: Pakistan says it can bring Haqqani to peace talks!

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zeenews.india.com / Last Updated: Thursday, August 18, 2011, 12:37.

Islamabad: Pakistan's military says it can bring the notorious Haqqani militant network, considered one of the most lethal threats against US-led coalition troops in Afghanistan, to the negotiation table.

Instead, Washington is pushing Pakistan to carry out military assaults against Haqqani hideouts in the tribal regions.

The network is affiliated with the Taliban and al Qaeda and blamed for most of the major attacks in Afghanistan, particularly the often brazen assaults on the capital Kabul. It has been described as the glue that binds together the militant groups operating in Pakistan's tribal North Waziristan.

"The Haqqani network has been more important to the development and sustainment of al Qaeda and the global jihad than any other single actor or group," a study released earlier this month by West Point's Combating Terrorism Centre said.

A senior Pakistani military officer now says that Pakistan can deliver the Haqqani network to the negotiation table. Pakistan has kept open communication lines with Jalaluddin Haqqani, the elderly leader of the al Qaeda aligned network. The officer spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release the information.

The officer denied US and Afghan allegations that Islamabad is aiding and arming the network.

But delivering the Haqqanis would guarantee the Pakistanis a major role in negotiations to end the war and shore up their influence in Afghanistan after the Americans have gone.

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http://zeenews.india.com/news/south-asia/pakistan-says-it-can-bring-haqqani-to-peace-talks_726810.html

U.S. SOLDIERS SPORTS KILLING SCANDAL: Afghan Kill Team Whistleblower To Plead Guilty!

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By MATTHEW COLE,http://abcnews.go.com / Aug. 2, 2011.

U.S. Army Spc. Adam Winfield is seen in this undated file photo. (Courtesy Winfield family/AP Photo).

The U.S. soldier who was the first to come forward about the alleged sport killings of Afghan civilians last year has reached a plea agreement in his case, according to a person familiar with the agreement.

Adam Winfield, a member of the Army's 5th Stryker Brigade, is one of five soldiers charged in connection with the deaths of three Afghan civilians that occurred in southern Afghanistan between January and May 2010. Prosecutors allege that Winfield, Staff Sgt. Calvin R. Gibbs, Cpl. Jeremy Morlock, Spc. Michael S. Wagnon II, and Pfc. Andrew H. Holmes participated in one or more of the murders and staged them to make unarmed Afghans appear to be armed insurgents.

Winfield, who told his parents while deployed that members of his unit had planned and executed the killings for sport, had been charged with murder for his part in the third and final murder in May of last year.

In the deal, Winfield will plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and a minor drug charge. The involuntary manslaughter charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Winfield's lawyers have argued that their client was ordered to fire on an unarmed civilian but had fired high, and had not been responsible for the death. Winfield's original charge carried a maximum sentence of life without parole.

Military prosecutors are hoping Winfield's testimony in exchange for the plea agreement will help convict Gibbs, who is charged in all three Afghan deaths and believed to be the ringleader of the group.

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AFGHAN BOILER: Hamid Karzai Adviser Is Killed at Kabul Home!

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By JACK HEALY and ABDUL WAHEED WAFA / nytimes.com / Published: July 17, 2011.

KABUL, Afghanistan — A close adviser to President Hamid Karzaiwas killed on Sunday night after two gunmen stormed his walled home here. It was the second killing in less than a week of one of the president’s trusted but controversial political allies.

The aide who was killed on Sunday, Jan Mohammed Khan, served as governor of Oruzgan Province until 2006, when he was removed at insistence of Dutch officials over concerns that he was linked to drug rings. Since then, he had been a regular presence at the presidential palace.

He was killed alongside Mohammed Hasham Watanwal, a member of Parliament from Oruzgan.

The killing was another potentially heavy blow for Mr. Karzai, whose powerful half brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was assassinated on Tuesday by a close associate in southern Afghanistan. It also heightened concerns that militants were trying weaken the president’s standing and unravel the tenuous security gains in the still-violent south after months of intensified fighting by NATO and Afghan forces.

In response to the attack, Afghan police officers, soldiers and intelligence officers swarmed Mr. Khan’s neighborhood in western Kabul, where government officials and businessmen live behind high walls and steel gates, protected by many men with many guns.

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AFGHAN BOILER:Nine feared dead in cargo plane crash into a mountaintop!

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AP / The Hindu / KABUL, July 6, 2011.

An undated photo of the IL-76TD-90SW cargo plane is seen in an undisclosed location. The Russian-made Ilyushin-76 cargo plane chartered by the U.S. military crashed into a mountaintop in eastern Afghanistan. File photo - AP.

A Russian-made Ilyushin-76 cargo plane chartered by the U.S. military crashed into a mountaintop in eastern Afghanistan, officials said today, as fears rose for the fate of its nine-member Azerbaijani crew.

The plane was hauling equipment from the Azerbaijan capital of Baku to Bagram Air Field in eastern Afghanistan, said Kabul airport official Yaqub Rasoliob.

Afghan transport ministry spokesman Nangyalai Qalatwal said it was unknown whether any of the crew survived. Qalatwal said the plane belonged to Azerbaijan’s government.

No Americans were aboard the plane, said U.S. Army Maj James Lowe, a spokesman for the U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois. Lowe said the cargo included four pallets of heavy equipment, describing the flight as a standard shipment into Bagram.

The plane crashed into a mountain while flying at an altitude of about 12,500 feet, said British Maj Tim James, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan. There was no insurgent activity in the area at the time of the crash, he said.

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SOUTH ASIA: Afghanistan is the real Indo-Pak issue!

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Manvendra Singh Last Updated: 03 Jul 2011 09:45:16 AM IST / http://expressbuzz.com.

The recently concluded foreign secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan were marked by a civility and decorum that was as unexpected as it was pleasant. The ‘K’ word was used without restraint, and nobody exploded in apoplectic fits. And preceding the talks there was the juvenile incident involving INS Godavari and PNS Babur. It was truly juvenile in that there was no military or security reason for the two ships to even come close to each other. Much like a road rage incident, the Pakistanis were the first to register an FIR when the Indian High Commission was called in and a protest lodged. Despite the run-up being inauspicious, the talks were not affected. Obviously, as they say, a lot of water has flowed down Abbottabad. It was a miracle indeed.

For it will require a miracle to keep the perpetually wrangling neighbours from making a hash of things. Even as the joint statement issued by the two foreign ministries conveyed a message of positivity, its silence on the next big thing was ominous. While the ‘K’ word has ceased to arouse furies any more, what is worrisome is that the ‘A’ word remained absent from any discussion. If Kashmir is a thing of the past, then Afghanistan is the issue of the future. And any silence at this stage of the dialogue is deceptive, just as it is delaying the inevitable. There is a looming crisis that threatens to overshadow the current calm, and that calamity appears in the form of differing visions over the Hindu Kush.

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AFGHAN BOILER: Taliban hotel attack kills at least nine, rattles Afghan capital!

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http://www.washingtonpost.com / By Pamela Constable and Javed Hamdard, Wednesday, June 29, 5:48 PM.

As many as eight suicide bombers and gunmen attacked a landmark hotel overlooking the Afghan capital late Tuesday.

KABUL — Kamel Khan, 32, a businessman, was chatting with two friends on the poolside terrace of the hilltop Intercontinental Hotel Tuesday night when he heard a burst of gunfire and looked up. A man carrying a machine gun, with an ammunition belt across his chest and a knapsack on his back, was standing a few feet away.

“He stared at all of the guests like he wanted to kill us, and he had enough bullets to do it, but for some reason he just turned and kept going,” Khan said. After a moment of shock, Khan and dozens of other guests made a dash for the garden wall and fled downhill, while heavy shooting erupted behind them.

At about the same time, Maulvi Mohammed Orsaji, head of the Takhar Provincial Council, was dining with a judge in the hotel’s formal dining room when several other gunmen entered and started shooting. Both officials were visiting Kabul for a governor’s conference that was scheduled for Thursday and Friday.

“I got down and hid behind a pillar, and I stayed there for the next five hours,” the shaken, elderly cleric recounted Wednesday morning. “There was shooting and explosions. By the time it was over, both my guard and my friend the judge were dead.”

“I was a fighter in the [anti-Soviet] jihad when I was young,” Orsaji continued. “But I never saw such a wild kind of attack in my life.”

The siege of the Intercontinental by a squad of Taliban suicide bombers and heavily armed gunmen was one of the most sophisticated and audacious attacks on the capital in years. It took the lives of at least nine civilians, including hotel staff and visitors, and wounded a dozen more, ending only when surviving attackers were shot dead by NATO helicopter gunships during a pre-dawn last stand on the hotel roof.

Officials from various police and government agencies gave contradictory information Wednesday about the number of dead and wounded, as well as their nationalities.

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AFGHAN BOILER: Washington’s dim view of Afghanistan drawdown!

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WASHINGTON, June 25, 2011 / NARAYAN LAKSHMAN / tHE hINDU.

An American soldier prepares to fire a 120mm mortar round at a nearby Taliban position at Forward Operating Base Howz-e-Madad, in Zhari district, Afghanistan on Wednesday. Photo: AP.

United States President Barack Obama’s announcement this week that there will be a 33,000-troop drawdown by next summer elicited a wide range of responses that revealed, more than anything, the cross-cutting impact of this major strategic decision.

For one, his would-be Republican challengers in the 2012 presidential election have trained their guns on the alleged weakness in U.S. foreign policy that the decision implied.

Speaking at a Maryland Republican Party dinner in Baltimore, an outspoken if poorly placed challenger, former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich had strong words for Mr. Obama’s failure to protect Pakistan-based informants of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency from being arrested in the aftermath of Osama bin Laden’s death.

“We should have taken extraordinary actions against Pakistanis within 24 hours,” Mr. Gingrich was quoted as saying, adding, “We should have said If you don’t release those people you can assume we have no relationship and we’ll chat with you from India.”

Others critiqued with a broader brushstroke, considering the strategic implications for the U.S.’ strategic approach to the region.

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AFGHAN BOILER: U.S. to withdraw 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by 2012!

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PTI / The Hindu /  WASHINGTON, June 23, 2011.

Members of a group called Military Families Speak Out listen to U.S. President Barack Obama announcing his plan for withdrawal from Afghanistan, at a home in California on Wednesday - AP.

The U.S. President decided to change the role of the troop from combat to support as the al-Qaeda's "only known leader" is now no more.

The United States will withdraw all 33,000 Americans troops from Afghanistan by the summer of 2012, beginning with an initial drawdown of 10,000 surge forces by this year-end, U.S. President Barack Obama said.

“Starting next month, we will be able to remove 10,000 of our troops from Afghanistan by the end of this year, and we will bring home a total of 33,000 troops by next summer, fully recovering the surge I announced at West Point (in December 2009),” Mr. Obama said in a nationally televised speech from the White House late last night.

“After this initial reduction, our troops will continue coming home at a steady pace as Afghan Security forces move into the lead. Our mission will change from combat to support. By 2014, this process of transition will be complete, and the Afghan people will be responsible for their own security,” he said.

The U.S. President said America was starting the drawdown from a position of strength, asserting that al-Qaeda was under “more pressure” than at any time since 9/11.

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US-TALIBAN PARLEYS: Gates Acknowledges Talks with Taliban

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By GINGER THOMPSON / Published: June 19, 2011.

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates acknowledged on Sunday that the United States had begun preliminary talks with members of the Taliban as part of an effort to end the war in Afghanistan.

But as he pressed his case against withdrawing a significant number of American troops from the region this year, he said that he did not believe the negotiations would produce any positive results unless the Taliban continued to feel military pressure through the end of the year.

In an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Mr. Gates cautioned that the talks were in such early stages — having begun a few weeks ago — that officials were still uncertain the Taliban participants were genuine representatives of the Taliban leader Mullah Omar. He said the effort was being carried out by American diplomats but did not directly involve the secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton. And he said several other countries were participating, though he did not specify which ones.

Do they have any better choice, under the non-cooperation of Pakistan, for a safe exit?

But, in their hurry to exit the Afghanistan Corridor, they are handing over a major part of Afghanistan to the notorious Taliban, leaving millions of innocent Afghanistanis in the lurch!

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/world/asia/20gates.html?_r=1

US Cross, Afghanistan: in peace talks with Taliban: Karzai!

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The United States is holding talks with the Taliban, Afghan president Hamid Karzai said on Saturday, in what is thought to be the first official confirmation of such contacts. “Talks with the Taliban have started... the talks are going on well,” Karzai said, addressing a conference in Kabul. “Also foreign forces, especially the United States, are carrying out the talks themselves.”

The US-led war in Afghanistan is in its 10th year and there are increasing calls for a political settlement to the conflict.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton earlier this year called on Taliban members to split from al Qaeda, renounce violence and accept the constitution so they can be reconciled to society.

If it serves their purpose, they wouldn't have any qualms to handover the Afghanistan to Devils!

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http://www.hindustantimes.com/US-in-peace-talks-with-Taliban-Karzai/Article1-711055.aspx

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation: India poised to join Shanghai grouping!

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Sandeep Dikshit / The Hindu.

ASTANA: The six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), which could play an important role in stabilising Afghanistan after the drawdown of foreign troops, opened its doors for India's membership at its 10th anniversary summit being celebrated in the heart of the Great Steppes on Wednesday.

Besides Afghanistan, India feels an expanded SCO could encourage Pakistan to weed out terror outfits based on its soil as well as promote connectivity that in turn could boost economic activity.

These points were made by External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna during his intervention at the SCO summit that was attended by nine heads of state, including the Presidents of Russia, China, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Iran and Tajikistan.

Lauding the SCO for its “constructive and forward looking role in contributing towards peace in Afghanistan,'' Mr. Krishna hoped that by becoming involved with the SCO, Afghanistan could become the geo-strategic bridge between Central and South Asia as well as a trade and transit hub. Afghanistan is poised to be upgraded from Dialogue Partner to Observer that would give it access to all discussions of importance at the SCO.

The SCO consists of Russia, China and four Central Asian countries (barring Turkmenistan). India, Pakistan and Iran are among those with Observer status. All these nations virtually ring Afghanistan that shares ethnic linkages with most of them.

Its hightime India too joins the bandwagon!

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http://www.hindu.com/2011/06/16/stories/2011061662440100.htm

Afghan Boiler: Neutral Afghanistan serves regional stability!

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M. K. BHADRAKUMAR / the hindu.

A view of the NATO Defence Ministers Summit in Brussels, June 9, 2011. File photo - AP.

The U.S. and NATO now acknowledge that a complete withdrawal from the South and Central Asian region by 2014 is not on the cards. Regional powers face a challenge.

The Anglo-American project to craft an Afghan endgame that ensures long-term western military presence in the South and Central Asian region has entered a critical phase. The United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) now acknowledge that a complete withdrawal from the region by 2014 is not on the cards. Several stages of diplomatic and political deception concealed this “hidden agenda.” Regional powers — Pakistan and India, in particular — are sadder and wiser today.

Looking back, the military stalemate in Afghanistan provided a persuasive argument for the West to justify the opening of a political track. The U.S. and Britain literally shoved down the throat of regional countries at the London conference in January last year their idea of reconciliation with the Taliban. India was assured that what was being contemplated was mere “reintegration” — and not “reconciliation” — and was given a bit of tutoring in the subtle uses of the English language. Pakistan was in a triumphalist mood, having been assured privately that it would be the kingmaker in any peace process. Equally, Russia was basking in the sunshine of the newly-invented process of “reset” in relations with the U.S. Iran, which was consistently wise to the western game plan, boycotted the London conference. China, of course, kept its head below the parapet.

Following the London conference, which must stand out as a first-rate drama of diplomatic deception, the U.S. and Britain rightly proceeded to claim an “international mandate” for talking to the Taliban. With the help of Saudi Arabia, a series of secret meetings with the representatives of various insurgent groups commenced. NATO aircraft provided transportation for Taliban participants in these meetings and according to Der Spiegel, Berlin got U.S. intelligence operatives and Taliban representatives to meet face-to-face on German soil more than once. All the while, the Anglo-American deception continued and a thick layer of fog surrounded the entire process. Mark Sedwill, U.K.'s special representative on Af-Pak, during last week's visit to New Delhi, said with a delightfully airy vagueness that will be the envy of any diplomat: “There are channels of communication being explored… This outreach to the senior leaders is still in the very early stages. And we don't know how serious they are… It is Afghan-led but that doesn't mean that others are not involved. Others are involved. All initiatives are with Afghan consent and on their behalf.”

Not long ago they wanted to exit by 2014, completely;  now they want to find means and ways to stay back. Has this something to do with strained US-PAK relations?

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http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/article2107404.ece?homepage=true