The US embassy in Islamabad has denied claims that NATO soldiers in Afghanistan fired mortars across the Pakistan border, killing at least three people.
Officials in the militant-infested Pakistan region of North Waziristan on Friday claimed shells fired by coalition forces battling Taliban fighters in the Afghan province of Khost had smashed into houses in Saidgi village.
But in a statement issued on Friday, the embassy said the claims were "completely false".
M WAQAR..... "A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary.Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death." --Albert Einstein !!! NEWS,ARTICLES,EDITORIALS,MUSIC... Ze chi pe mayeen yum da agha pukhtunistan de.....(Liberal,Progressive,Secular World.)''Secularism is not against religion; it is the message of humanity.'' تل ده وی پثتونستآن
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Pakistani Cricketers at centre of scandal return , dodging angry protesters
The three cricketers at the centre of spot fixing allegations slipped back into Pakistan early this morning, avoiding angry scenes at Lahore airport where protesters gathered with rotten eggs and placards. Team captain Salman Butt and bowlers Mohammed Asif and Mohammed Amir were led from their plane to a waiting bus and driven away through a cargo entrance within minutes of landing.
Their lawyers earlier said they had promised to co-operate with police investigations and would return to the United Kingdom if required.The three have already been suspended by the International Cricket Council and charged under its anti-corruption code.
They arrived home aboard a Kuwait Airways flight shortly after 4am in an attempt to avoid an angry confrontation.
An airport official said the three were in good spirits when they arrived.
"They were smiling and relaxed and were so fresh," he said. "Their body language was very positive. It seemed as if they had done something really great." A handful of protesters had waited for hours to greet their arrival. Some waved shoes while others brought rotten eggs.
Their numbers were soon swelled by taxi drivers and airport staff who started up an ironic chant of "Long live thieves and gamblers".
Malik abdul Ghaffar, 67, who travelled 50 miles with his son, brother-in-law and two nephews, said the players should be banned for life.
"They are traitors. They have brought a bad name to our country. They have destroyed our cricket," he said clutching a basket of eggs and putrid tomatoes.
"Their motive is wealth and only wealth." Police had to intervene at one stage to separate the demonstrators from a crowd made up of players' friends and relatives.
They tried to blame the English media for setting up the three cricketers.
They brought their own pro-player placards to the arrivals hall of Lahore airport, chanting and carrying posters of Butt that read: "Long live Salman Butt" and "Down to English media".
Shabat Basharat, 30, said: "They are our heroes and keep in mind that nothing has been proved against them. If they have done something wrong Scotland Yard would never allow them to return to Pakistan.
"We have come here to show our solidarity with the players." Scotland Yard detectives questioned the three over claims in the News of The World newspaper that they took money to deliberately bowl no-balls in a Test match at Lord's last month.
The players, who have denied any wrongdoing, were released without charge after being quizzed at a London police station on September 3.
Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik said the players had returned home for Eid after requests from their parents and the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Pakistan cricket has been beset by one crisis after another – from repeated match fixing allegations to drug use and ball tampering.
The latest scandal has unleashed an outpouring of anger at players many believe have let down their country at a time of national emergency, just as Pakistan was dealing with the worst floods in its history.
Angry fans threw tomatoes at donkeys named after the players as news of the spot-fixing broke.
The team and its management also face a summons to Lahore High Court where a lawyer has filed a petition accusing them of treason – a crime that carries the death penalty.
When Ijaz Butt, the team manager, returned to Pakistan earlier in the week he was greeted by cries of "Shame" and one demonstrator threw a shoe at him.
This time the Pakistan Cricket Board took no chances.
"To avoid any untoward situation, the players were sent home with security from a separate cargo gate," an airport official said.
Their lawyers earlier said they had promised to co-operate with police investigations and would return to the United Kingdom if required.The three have already been suspended by the International Cricket Council and charged under its anti-corruption code.
They arrived home aboard a Kuwait Airways flight shortly after 4am in an attempt to avoid an angry confrontation.
An airport official said the three were in good spirits when they arrived.
"They were smiling and relaxed and were so fresh," he said. "Their body language was very positive. It seemed as if they had done something really great." A handful of protesters had waited for hours to greet their arrival. Some waved shoes while others brought rotten eggs.
Their numbers were soon swelled by taxi drivers and airport staff who started up an ironic chant of "Long live thieves and gamblers".
Malik abdul Ghaffar, 67, who travelled 50 miles with his son, brother-in-law and two nephews, said the players should be banned for life.
"They are traitors. They have brought a bad name to our country. They have destroyed our cricket," he said clutching a basket of eggs and putrid tomatoes.
"Their motive is wealth and only wealth." Police had to intervene at one stage to separate the demonstrators from a crowd made up of players' friends and relatives.
They tried to blame the English media for setting up the three cricketers.
They brought their own pro-player placards to the arrivals hall of Lahore airport, chanting and carrying posters of Butt that read: "Long live Salman Butt" and "Down to English media".
Shabat Basharat, 30, said: "They are our heroes and keep in mind that nothing has been proved against them. If they have done something wrong Scotland Yard would never allow them to return to Pakistan.
"We have come here to show our solidarity with the players." Scotland Yard detectives questioned the three over claims in the News of The World newspaper that they took money to deliberately bowl no-balls in a Test match at Lord's last month.
The players, who have denied any wrongdoing, were released without charge after being quizzed at a London police station on September 3.
Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik said the players had returned home for Eid after requests from their parents and the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Pakistan cricket has been beset by one crisis after another – from repeated match fixing allegations to drug use and ball tampering.
The latest scandal has unleashed an outpouring of anger at players many believe have let down their country at a time of national emergency, just as Pakistan was dealing with the worst floods in its history.
Angry fans threw tomatoes at donkeys named after the players as news of the spot-fixing broke.
The team and its management also face a summons to Lahore High Court where a lawyer has filed a petition accusing them of treason – a crime that carries the death penalty.
When Ijaz Butt, the team manager, returned to Pakistan earlier in the week he was greeted by cries of "Shame" and one demonstrator threw a shoe at him.
This time the Pakistan Cricket Board took no chances.
"To avoid any untoward situation, the players were sent home with security from a separate cargo gate," an airport official said.
The Karzai empire, villas in Dubai and fears over Afghan aid
The Daily Telegraph
The family of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has been linked to more than a dozen expensive homes in the Gulf, raising fears that Western aid money sent to Afghanistan is being misused.
The Daily Telegraph today reveals a property empire in Dubai assembled at a cost of £90 million that is owned or occupied by close relatives and associates of Mr Karzai.
The property holdings emerged as Mr Karzai, who leads one of the world’s poorest and most deprived countries, has struggled to salvage Afghanistan's biggest private bank, Kabul Bank, which bankrolled the purchases.
The centrepiece of the holdings is a portfolio of 14 villas on the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai’s showpiece property development, registered in the name of Sher Khan Farnood, the former chairman of Kabul Bank. Kabul Bank also owns an apartment, two business plots and a loss-making airline, Pamir Airlines, in Dubai.
Mahmoud Karzai, President Karzai’s brother and the third-largest shareholder in the bank, like Mr Farnood, 46, occupies a “Signature” villa valued at up to £4 million. Other properties are valued between £3 million and £1 million.
He also made a £500,000 profit following the sale of a Dubai bought with a loan from Kabul Bank.
Mahmoud Karzai is not the only member of an Afghan political family living in villas distributed across the development where David Beckham, Michael Schumacher, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are also owners.
Haseen Fahim, another Kabul shareholder and the brother of the ex-warlord vice-president, Mohammed Qasim Fahim, lives nearby.
Senior British government ministers are privately furious that Kabul Bank has been used to buy property in the Gulf.
Ministers will not directly comment on the Karzai family over its business interests, but MPs said the apparent corruption in Kabul is undermining Western attempts to stabilise the country.
Adam Holloway, a Conservative member of the Commons defence committee, said: “A lot of people have become very rich on money that was supposed to help Afghanistan.”
The Afghan government relies on international aid to provide more than half of the revenues it uses to finance public sector wages. President Karzai ordered that all salaries of 250,000 government employees, including teachers, medical workers and security forces, would be paid by direct debit to accounts with Kabul Bank two years after it was established in 2006.
Mr Farnood occupies a grand villa adorned at the front with statues of Roman legionaries, manicured lawns on all sides, a sweeping beachfront and a swimming pool in the back garden.
A Mercedes SUV sits in the driveway.
His current status is unclear. The poker-playing former exile resigned last week under orders to hand back the Dubai properties but he has not been charged with any offence.
Kabul Bank, which runs the payroll for Nato-backed security forces, has been deserted by thousands of depositors since the country’s Central Bank launched an investigation.
For his part Mr Karzai is thinking of moving on from the villa because his children have gone abroad to study and he is highly critical of his former partner’s failure to avoid the pitfalls of the boom. “The property here in Dubai was another big mistake. Sher Khan did it single-handedly. The thing is, he’s not sophisticated enough for today’s global economy,” he said.
There could be worse to come, he added, pointing to the still unvalued cost of the investment in Pamir Airlines and other ventures. “These two were running the bank,” he said. “They made risky investments, lending over the limit... it was hopeless.”
The family of Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has been linked to more than a dozen expensive homes in the Gulf, raising fears that Western aid money sent to Afghanistan is being misused.
The Daily Telegraph today reveals a property empire in Dubai assembled at a cost of £90 million that is owned or occupied by close relatives and associates of Mr Karzai.
The property holdings emerged as Mr Karzai, who leads one of the world’s poorest and most deprived countries, has struggled to salvage Afghanistan's biggest private bank, Kabul Bank, which bankrolled the purchases.
The centrepiece of the holdings is a portfolio of 14 villas on the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai’s showpiece property development, registered in the name of Sher Khan Farnood, the former chairman of Kabul Bank. Kabul Bank also owns an apartment, two business plots and a loss-making airline, Pamir Airlines, in Dubai.
Mahmoud Karzai, President Karzai’s brother and the third-largest shareholder in the bank, like Mr Farnood, 46, occupies a “Signature” villa valued at up to £4 million. Other properties are valued between £3 million and £1 million.
He also made a £500,000 profit following the sale of a Dubai bought with a loan from Kabul Bank.
Mahmoud Karzai is not the only member of an Afghan political family living in villas distributed across the development where David Beckham, Michael Schumacher, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are also owners.
Haseen Fahim, another Kabul shareholder and the brother of the ex-warlord vice-president, Mohammed Qasim Fahim, lives nearby.
Senior British government ministers are privately furious that Kabul Bank has been used to buy property in the Gulf.
Ministers will not directly comment on the Karzai family over its business interests, but MPs said the apparent corruption in Kabul is undermining Western attempts to stabilise the country.
Adam Holloway, a Conservative member of the Commons defence committee, said: “A lot of people have become very rich on money that was supposed to help Afghanistan.”
The Afghan government relies on international aid to provide more than half of the revenues it uses to finance public sector wages. President Karzai ordered that all salaries of 250,000 government employees, including teachers, medical workers and security forces, would be paid by direct debit to accounts with Kabul Bank two years after it was established in 2006.
Mr Farnood occupies a grand villa adorned at the front with statues of Roman legionaries, manicured lawns on all sides, a sweeping beachfront and a swimming pool in the back garden.
A Mercedes SUV sits in the driveway.
His current status is unclear. The poker-playing former exile resigned last week under orders to hand back the Dubai properties but he has not been charged with any offence.
Kabul Bank, which runs the payroll for Nato-backed security forces, has been deserted by thousands of depositors since the country’s Central Bank launched an investigation.
For his part Mr Karzai is thinking of moving on from the villa because his children have gone abroad to study and he is highly critical of his former partner’s failure to avoid the pitfalls of the boom. “The property here in Dubai was another big mistake. Sher Khan did it single-handedly. The thing is, he’s not sophisticated enough for today’s global economy,” he said.
There could be worse to come, he added, pointing to the still unvalued cost of the investment in Pamir Airlines and other ventures. “These two were running the bank,” he said. “They made risky investments, lending over the limit... it was hopeless.”
9/11: the day that changed America
The morning of Tuesday 11 Sep 2001 was bright and crisp as thousands of people made their way to work in New York and Washington.
Most people thought that a terrible accident had happened when a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Centre just before 9am.
But within an hour, as thousands lay dead in the wreckage of the twin towers and the Pentagon, it was apparent that America had been the victim of a terrible terrorist attack that would change the country forever.
Most people thought that a terrible accident had happened when a plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Centre just before 9am.
But within an hour, as thousands lay dead in the wreckage of the twin towers and the Pentagon, it was apparent that America had been the victim of a terrible terrorist attack that would change the country forever.
Sept. 11, 2010: The Right Way to Remember
EDITORIAL:NEW YORK TIMES
Nine years after terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, a memorial and a transportation hub are taking recognizable shape and skyscrapers are finally starting to rise from the ashes of ground zero.
That physical rebirth is cause for celebration on this anniversary. It is a far more fitting way to defy the hate-filled extremists who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and to honor their victims, than to wallow in the intolerance and fear that have mushroomed across the nation. They are fed by the kind of bigotry exhibited by the would-be book burner in Florida, and, sadly, nurtured by people in positions of real power, including prominent members of the Republican Party.
The most important sight at ground zero now is Michael Arad’s emerging memorial. The shells of two giant pools are 30 feet deep and are set almost exactly in the places where the towers once were.
The huge waterfalls around the sides, the inscribed names of victims and the plaza are promised by the 10th anniversary next year. But two 70-foot tridents that were once at the base of the twin towers were installed last week. The museum will be built around them by 2012. And the first 16 of 416 white swamp oaks were planted on the eight-acre surface.
Surrounding that memorial will be a ring of commercial towers — eventually to be filled with workers, commuters, shoppers, tourists, the full cacophony of New York City. The tallest skyscraper is now a third of the way up. The developer Larry Silverstein has one of his skyscrapers taking shape — this one by the Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki. The bases of two more are finally beyond the planning stage.
The first outlines of Santiago Calatrava’s elegant PATH station are visible. Giant white ribs and other structures that will support the birdlike hall are moving into place. The temporary PATH station shuttles 70,000 commuters a day through the construction site.
After years of political lassitude and financial squabbling, rebuilding at the site began in earnest two years ago. That was when Mayor Michael Bloomberg exerted his considerable muscle to make sure the memorial is finished by 2011. At about the same time, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey established more control of the site. The authority and the mayor turned out to be a good team.
That cooperation and the visible progress are such a contrast with the way some political figures have been trying to use the Sept. 11 attacks to generate antipathy toward all Muslims. For weeks, politicians — mostly but definitely not all on the right — have been fanning the public controversy over plans to build an Islamic community center two blocks away from ground zero.
Then, Terry Jones, a minor preacher in Florida, managed to create a major furor by scheduling a ritual burning of the Koran for Sept. 11. Alarmed by hyperbolic news coverage, the top general in Afghanistan, the secretary of defense, the State Department and the president warned that such a bonfire would endanger Americans and American troops around the world.
It was bad enough to see a fringe figure acting out for cable news and Web sites, but it was deeply disturbing to hear John Boehner, the Republican leader in the House, equate Mr. Jones’s antics with the Muslim center.
In both cases, he told ABC News, “Just because you have a right to do something in America does not mean it is the right thing to do.” The Constitution does, indeed, protect both, but they are not morally equivalent. In New York City, a group of Muslims is trying to build something. Mr. Jones and his supporters are trying to tear down more than two centuries of religious tolerance.
It is a good time to remember what President Obama said on Friday, echoing the words of President George W. Bush after the attacks: “We’re not at war with Islam. We’re at war with terrorist organizations.”
Nine years after terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, a memorial and a transportation hub are taking recognizable shape and skyscrapers are finally starting to rise from the ashes of ground zero.
That physical rebirth is cause for celebration on this anniversary. It is a far more fitting way to defy the hate-filled extremists who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and to honor their victims, than to wallow in the intolerance and fear that have mushroomed across the nation. They are fed by the kind of bigotry exhibited by the would-be book burner in Florida, and, sadly, nurtured by people in positions of real power, including prominent members of the Republican Party.
The most important sight at ground zero now is Michael Arad’s emerging memorial. The shells of two giant pools are 30 feet deep and are set almost exactly in the places where the towers once were.
The huge waterfalls around the sides, the inscribed names of victims and the plaza are promised by the 10th anniversary next year. But two 70-foot tridents that were once at the base of the twin towers were installed last week. The museum will be built around them by 2012. And the first 16 of 416 white swamp oaks were planted on the eight-acre surface.
Surrounding that memorial will be a ring of commercial towers — eventually to be filled with workers, commuters, shoppers, tourists, the full cacophony of New York City. The tallest skyscraper is now a third of the way up. The developer Larry Silverstein has one of his skyscrapers taking shape — this one by the Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki. The bases of two more are finally beyond the planning stage.
The first outlines of Santiago Calatrava’s elegant PATH station are visible. Giant white ribs and other structures that will support the birdlike hall are moving into place. The temporary PATH station shuttles 70,000 commuters a day through the construction site.
After years of political lassitude and financial squabbling, rebuilding at the site began in earnest two years ago. That was when Mayor Michael Bloomberg exerted his considerable muscle to make sure the memorial is finished by 2011. At about the same time, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey established more control of the site. The authority and the mayor turned out to be a good team.
That cooperation and the visible progress are such a contrast with the way some political figures have been trying to use the Sept. 11 attacks to generate antipathy toward all Muslims. For weeks, politicians — mostly but definitely not all on the right — have been fanning the public controversy over plans to build an Islamic community center two blocks away from ground zero.
Then, Terry Jones, a minor preacher in Florida, managed to create a major furor by scheduling a ritual burning of the Koran for Sept. 11. Alarmed by hyperbolic news coverage, the top general in Afghanistan, the secretary of defense, the State Department and the president warned that such a bonfire would endanger Americans and American troops around the world.
It was bad enough to see a fringe figure acting out for cable news and Web sites, but it was deeply disturbing to hear John Boehner, the Republican leader in the House, equate Mr. Jones’s antics with the Muslim center.
In both cases, he told ABC News, “Just because you have a right to do something in America does not mean it is the right thing to do.” The Constitution does, indeed, protect both, but they are not morally equivalent. In New York City, a group of Muslims is trying to build something. Mr. Jones and his supporters are trying to tear down more than two centuries of religious tolerance.
It is a good time to remember what President Obama said on Friday, echoing the words of President George W. Bush after the attacks: “We’re not at war with Islam. We’re at war with terrorist organizations.”
Obama remembers Sept. 11, calls for unity...US remains one nation
Barack Obama has called on Americans to observe religious tolerance and make sure "we don't start turning on each other".
Amid an atmosphere of unease, President Barack Obama wants Americans to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by recapturing the sense of common purpose felt on that dreadful day.
"If there is a lesson to be drawn on this anniversary, it is this: We are one nation — one people — bound not only by grief, but by a set of common ideals," the president said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address.
"By giving back to our communities, by serving people in need, we reaffirm our ideals — in defiance of those who would do us grave harm."
Obama himself was marking the day nearly 3,000 people died in terrorist jetliner attacks with a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center in New York City. The president also planned to attend a memorial service at the Pentagon and participate in a service project in the Washington area.
First lady Michelle Obama was to join former first lady Laura Bush in Shanksville, Pa., where the fourth plane crashed after passengers rushed the cockpit. Vice President Joe Biden is in New York for the service at ground zero.
But this year's remembrances take place in an unusually tense environment, amid growing public suspicion of Muslims and controversies over an Islamic community center and mosque planned near ground zero and a Florida pastor's threat to burn Qurans on Saturday.
By late Friday, it appeared the Rev. Terry Jones had backed off his plan to burn the Muslim holy book, following international condemnation. In New York, protests were planned for Saturday by supporters and opponents of the proposed mosque.
Obama alluded in his radio address to the contentious atmosphere, though without specifically addressing either controversy.
"This is a time of difficulty for our country," Obama said. "And it is often in such moments that some try to stoke bitterness — to divide us based on our differences, to blind us to what we have in common.
"But on this day, we are reminded that at our best, we do not give in to this temptation," Obama said. "We stand with one another. We fight alongside one another. We do not allow ourselves to be defined by fear, but by the hopes we have for our families, for our nation, and for a brighter future."
At a White House news conference Friday Obama denounced the threatened Quran burning, said Muslims have the same right as any other religion to build near ground zero and issued a full-throated appeal for religious tolerance, reminding Americans: "We are not at war against Islam."
In the GOP's weekly address, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., echoed Obama's plea for a common purpose. Kyl called for the country to "recapture the unity that allowed us to come together as a nation to confront a determined enemy."
But without mentioning the president by name, Kyl seemed to question the Obama administration's commitment to the war on terror begun by his predecessor, George W. Bush. Obama recently declared an end to combat missions in Iraq even as he pledged to renew efforts to prosecute the war in Afghanistan and pursue al-Qaida terrorists.
"The fact that none of the subsequent attempts to attack us have succeeded seems to have removed some of the urgency and commitment so necessary to succeed in war," Kyl said.
Amid an atmosphere of unease, President Barack Obama wants Americans to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks by recapturing the sense of common purpose felt on that dreadful day.
"If there is a lesson to be drawn on this anniversary, it is this: We are one nation — one people — bound not only by grief, but by a set of common ideals," the president said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address.
"By giving back to our communities, by serving people in need, we reaffirm our ideals — in defiance of those who would do us grave harm."
Obama himself was marking the day nearly 3,000 people died in terrorist jetliner attacks with a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane hit the World Trade Center in New York City. The president also planned to attend a memorial service at the Pentagon and participate in a service project in the Washington area.
First lady Michelle Obama was to join former first lady Laura Bush in Shanksville, Pa., where the fourth plane crashed after passengers rushed the cockpit. Vice President Joe Biden is in New York for the service at ground zero.
But this year's remembrances take place in an unusually tense environment, amid growing public suspicion of Muslims and controversies over an Islamic community center and mosque planned near ground zero and a Florida pastor's threat to burn Qurans on Saturday.
By late Friday, it appeared the Rev. Terry Jones had backed off his plan to burn the Muslim holy book, following international condemnation. In New York, protests were planned for Saturday by supporters and opponents of the proposed mosque.
Obama alluded in his radio address to the contentious atmosphere, though without specifically addressing either controversy.
"This is a time of difficulty for our country," Obama said. "And it is often in such moments that some try to stoke bitterness — to divide us based on our differences, to blind us to what we have in common.
"But on this day, we are reminded that at our best, we do not give in to this temptation," Obama said. "We stand with one another. We fight alongside one another. We do not allow ourselves to be defined by fear, but by the hopes we have for our families, for our nation, and for a brighter future."
At a White House news conference Friday Obama denounced the threatened Quran burning, said Muslims have the same right as any other religion to build near ground zero and issued a full-throated appeal for religious tolerance, reminding Americans: "We are not at war against Islam."
In the GOP's weekly address, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., echoed Obama's plea for a common purpose. Kyl called for the country to "recapture the unity that allowed us to come together as a nation to confront a determined enemy."
But without mentioning the president by name, Kyl seemed to question the Obama administration's commitment to the war on terror begun by his predecessor, George W. Bush. Obama recently declared an end to combat missions in Iraq even as he pledged to renew efforts to prosecute the war in Afghanistan and pursue al-Qaida terrorists.
"The fact that none of the subsequent attempts to attack us have succeeded seems to have removed some of the urgency and commitment so necessary to succeed in war," Kyl said.
Sept. 11 observances
The three sites where nearly 3,000 people were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, will be venues for memorial services Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Pentagon Memorial: President Obama will deliver remarks at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Va. The memorial honors the 184 victims killed — 59 on American Flight 77 and 125 on the ground.
Flight 93 Memorial: First Lady Michelle Obama and former First Lady Laura Bush will speak at a ceremony in Shanksville, Pa., where Flight 93 crashed into a field after 40 passengers and crew members fought back against terrorists who had taken over the plane.
New York City: The names of the 2,752 victims killed at the World Trade Center will be read aloud and four moments of silence will be observed to mark the times that the planes hit the towers and the times that each of the two towers fell.
Pentagon Memorial: President Obama will deliver remarks at a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon Memorial in Arlington, Va. The memorial honors the 184 victims killed — 59 on American Flight 77 and 125 on the ground.
Flight 93 Memorial: First Lady Michelle Obama and former First Lady Laura Bush will speak at a ceremony in Shanksville, Pa., where Flight 93 crashed into a field after 40 passengers and crew members fought back against terrorists who had taken over the plane.
New York City: The names of the 2,752 victims killed at the World Trade Center will be read aloud and four moments of silence will be observed to mark the times that the planes hit the towers and the times that each of the two towers fell.
Obama to present Medal of Honor to soldier who displayed 'unwavering courage'
Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta rushed into enemy fire amid a Taliban ambush and pulled three wounded soldiers to safety. The president called Giunta to thank him for his 'acts of gallantry.'The first living soldier to be awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in a conflict since the Vietnam War will receive the award from President Obama in a White House ceremony, the White House announced Friday.
Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, 25, will receive the nation's highest award for valor for rushing directly into enemy fire during a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan on Oct. 25, 2007, and pulling three wounded soldiers to safety, according to a Pentagon account. Giunta had been knocked down by a bullet that slammed into a thick plate of his body armor, but recovered in time to fire his automatic rifle and hurl a grenade at the attackers.
Giunta first rescued two soldiers who had been wounded during the ambush along a wooded ridgeline in the rugged Korengal Valley in Kunar province, according to the Pentagon account. He then spotted two insurgents attempting to haul off a wounded American paratrooper and opened fire, forcing them to abandon the soldier and retreat.
"His courage and leadership while under extreme enemy fire were integral to his platoon's ability to defeat an enemy ambush and recover a fellow American paratrooper from enemy hands," the White House said in a statement.
Obama telephoned Giunta, who is stationed with an airborne unit in Vicenza, Italy, on Thursday to thank him for "acts of gallantry at the risk of his life that went above and beyond the call of duty," the statement said.
The Pentagon cited Giunta's "unwavering courage, in the midst of an ambush in which two American paratroopers gave their lives and several more were wounded."
The wounded paratrooper rescued by Giunta, who applied emergency medical aid to try to keep him alive, later died of his wounds, according to the Pentagon.
Giunta is the eighth service member to receive the Medal of Honor during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon. The other medals were awarded posthumously.
By contrast, 464 Medals of Honor were awarded for gallantry in World War II and 246 during the Vietnam War. A study by the Army Times last year found that there were two to three Medals of Honor awarded for every 100,000 service members during the earlier wars, compared with one in 1 million for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The disparity has led some members of the military and veterans' groups to complain that current troops are held to unfair standards. The awards process was tarnished in 2004 when Pat Tillman, a popular former NFL football player, was awarded a posthumous Silver Star after he was killed while serving in Afghanistan. Pentagon officials were accused of covering up the friendly fire that killed Tillman by creating a false account of heroism to justify the award.
The Korengal Valley has been one of the deadliest battlefields in Afghanistan for U.S. troops, who struggled to win the trust of local Afghans while a road was under construction to link the valley — just six miles long — to the rest of eastern Afghanistan. The troops operated from a remote outpost that regularly came under Taliban attack.
The isolated valley, home to tribesmen suspicious of outsiders, ultimately proved too costly to defend. In April, commanders in Afghanistan decided to shut down the mission in the valley after more than 40 U.S. service members died there over a five-year period.
Giunta, a 22-year-old specialist during the 2007 ambush, described his attempts to save paratrooper Sgt. Joshua Brennan to Elizabeth Rubin, who wrote an account of the battle in New York Times Magazine. He described killing one insurgent and chasing off the other as he rescued the badly wounded Brennan.
"He was still conscious. He was breathing. He was asking for morphine," Giunta told Rubin. "I said, 'You'll get out and tell your hero stories,' and he was like, 'I will, I will.' "
The battle is also described in the book "War" by Sebastian Junger.
"I didn't run through fire to save a buddy," Giunta told Junger. "I ran through fire to see what was going on with him and maybe we could hide behind the same rock and shoot together. I didn't run through fire to do anything heroic or brave. I did what I believe anyone would have done."
Giunta, of Hiawatha, Iowa, is a member of Company B, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, serving as a rifle team leader. He has served two tours in Afghanistan and has been awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
The White House did not announce a date for the award ceremony.
On Thursday, the White House announced that the president will award a posthumous Medal of Honor to Army Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller, a Green Beret from Harrisburg, Pa., for displaying "immeasurable courage" when drawing enemy fire during a Jan. 25, 2008, battle in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.
Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, 25, will receive the nation's highest award for valor for rushing directly into enemy fire during a Taliban ambush in Afghanistan on Oct. 25, 2007, and pulling three wounded soldiers to safety, according to a Pentagon account. Giunta had been knocked down by a bullet that slammed into a thick plate of his body armor, but recovered in time to fire his automatic rifle and hurl a grenade at the attackers.
Giunta first rescued two soldiers who had been wounded during the ambush along a wooded ridgeline in the rugged Korengal Valley in Kunar province, according to the Pentagon account. He then spotted two insurgents attempting to haul off a wounded American paratrooper and opened fire, forcing them to abandon the soldier and retreat.
"His courage and leadership while under extreme enemy fire were integral to his platoon's ability to defeat an enemy ambush and recover a fellow American paratrooper from enemy hands," the White House said in a statement.
Obama telephoned Giunta, who is stationed with an airborne unit in Vicenza, Italy, on Thursday to thank him for "acts of gallantry at the risk of his life that went above and beyond the call of duty," the statement said.
The Pentagon cited Giunta's "unwavering courage, in the midst of an ambush in which two American paratroopers gave their lives and several more were wounded."
The wounded paratrooper rescued by Giunta, who applied emergency medical aid to try to keep him alive, later died of his wounds, according to the Pentagon.
Giunta is the eighth service member to receive the Medal of Honor during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to the Pentagon. The other medals were awarded posthumously.
By contrast, 464 Medals of Honor were awarded for gallantry in World War II and 246 during the Vietnam War. A study by the Army Times last year found that there were two to three Medals of Honor awarded for every 100,000 service members during the earlier wars, compared with one in 1 million for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The disparity has led some members of the military and veterans' groups to complain that current troops are held to unfair standards. The awards process was tarnished in 2004 when Pat Tillman, a popular former NFL football player, was awarded a posthumous Silver Star after he was killed while serving in Afghanistan. Pentagon officials were accused of covering up the friendly fire that killed Tillman by creating a false account of heroism to justify the award.
The Korengal Valley has been one of the deadliest battlefields in Afghanistan for U.S. troops, who struggled to win the trust of local Afghans while a road was under construction to link the valley — just six miles long — to the rest of eastern Afghanistan. The troops operated from a remote outpost that regularly came under Taliban attack.
The isolated valley, home to tribesmen suspicious of outsiders, ultimately proved too costly to defend. In April, commanders in Afghanistan decided to shut down the mission in the valley after more than 40 U.S. service members died there over a five-year period.
Giunta, a 22-year-old specialist during the 2007 ambush, described his attempts to save paratrooper Sgt. Joshua Brennan to Elizabeth Rubin, who wrote an account of the battle in New York Times Magazine. He described killing one insurgent and chasing off the other as he rescued the badly wounded Brennan.
"He was still conscious. He was breathing. He was asking for morphine," Giunta told Rubin. "I said, 'You'll get out and tell your hero stories,' and he was like, 'I will, I will.' "
The battle is also described in the book "War" by Sebastian Junger.
"I didn't run through fire to save a buddy," Giunta told Junger. "I ran through fire to see what was going on with him and maybe we could hide behind the same rock and shoot together. I didn't run through fire to do anything heroic or brave. I did what I believe anyone would have done."
Giunta, of Hiawatha, Iowa, is a member of Company B, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, serving as a rifle team leader. He has served two tours in Afghanistan and has been awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart.
The White House did not announce a date for the award ceremony.
On Thursday, the White House announced that the president will award a posthumous Medal of Honor to Army Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller, a Green Beret from Harrisburg, Pa., for displaying "immeasurable courage" when drawing enemy fire during a Jan. 25, 2008, battle in Afghanistan near the Pakistan border.
Obama says some progress seen on Afghan corruption
President Barack Obama said on Friday he has seen some progress in fighting corruption in Afghanistan but there was still much to be done.
"We're a long way from where we need to be on that," Obama told a news conference at the White House that ranged from the U.S. economy to foreign policy.
Obama cited some successes by Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government in battling corruption, which is seen as a major factor undercutting the U.S.-led war against Taliban militants.
"And we're going to keep on putting pressure on them on that front. Is it going to happen overnight? Probably not," Obama said.
He said the U.S. military and other agencies operating in Afghanistan needed to ensure their own activities were not abetting corruption.
"We're reviewing all that constantly and there may be occasions where that happens," Obama said.
"Let's make sure that our efforts there are not seen as somehow giving a wink and a nod to corruption. If we are saying publicly that that's important, then our actions have to match up across the board."
"We're a long way from where we need to be on that," Obama told a news conference at the White House that ranged from the U.S. economy to foreign policy.
Obama cited some successes by Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government in battling corruption, which is seen as a major factor undercutting the U.S.-led war against Taliban militants.
"And we're going to keep on putting pressure on them on that front. Is it going to happen overnight? Probably not," Obama said.
He said the U.S. military and other agencies operating in Afghanistan needed to ensure their own activities were not abetting corruption.
"We're reviewing all that constantly and there may be occasions where that happens," Obama said.
"Let's make sure that our efforts there are not seen as somehow giving a wink and a nod to corruption. If we are saying publicly that that's important, then our actions have to match up across the board."
US to Mark 9 Years Since September 11 Attacks
VOA.COM
Saturday marks the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
The country has planned a series of events to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed in the coordinated assaults by al-Qaida hijackers. The hijackers took over four commercial airliners, crashing two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 110-story buildings collapsed, trapping and killing many employees and rescue workers.
Another plane hit the Pentagon, the U.S. military headquarters just outside Washington, while the fourth went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers fought their hijackers. That plane is believed to have been destined for Washington.
President Barack Obama will commemorate the anniversary Saturday at a Pentagon memorial service, while Vice President Joe Biden will attend a ceremony in New York.
First lady Michelle Obama and former first lady Laura Bush are scheduled to speak at a ceremony in Shanksville.
Added to this year's anniversary is bitter controversy about plans by a Muslim group to build an Islamic cultural center and mosque near the former site of the World Trade Center.
Opponents say the proposal is disrespectful to the victims of the 2001 attacks, while supporters say the center will help bridge differences between the West and the Islamic world.
President Obama has said he supports Muslims' right to build a place of worship near the site, known as Ground Zero, but he also said he would not comment on the "wisdom" of doing so. Critics, including some Republican lawmakers, accused him of being insensitive to the families of the victims.
Work continues at Ground Zero on a museum and memorial to pay tribute to those who died in the 2001 attacks. In 2008, an outdoor memorial opened at the Pentagon. A national memorial also is being built at the Flight 93 crash site in Pennsylvania.
Saturday marks the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
The country has planned a series of events to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed in the coordinated assaults by al-Qaida hijackers. The hijackers took over four commercial airliners, crashing two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 110-story buildings collapsed, trapping and killing many employees and rescue workers.
Another plane hit the Pentagon, the U.S. military headquarters just outside Washington, while the fourth went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers fought their hijackers. That plane is believed to have been destined for Washington.
President Barack Obama will commemorate the anniversary Saturday at a Pentagon memorial service, while Vice President Joe Biden will attend a ceremony in New York.
First lady Michelle Obama and former first lady Laura Bush are scheduled to speak at a ceremony in Shanksville.
Added to this year's anniversary is bitter controversy about plans by a Muslim group to build an Islamic cultural center and mosque near the former site of the World Trade Center.
Opponents say the proposal is disrespectful to the victims of the 2001 attacks, while supporters say the center will help bridge differences between the West and the Islamic world.
President Obama has said he supports Muslims' right to build a place of worship near the site, known as Ground Zero, but he also said he would not comment on the "wisdom" of doing so. Critics, including some Republican lawmakers, accused him of being insensitive to the families of the victims.
Work continues at Ground Zero on a museum and memorial to pay tribute to those who died in the 2001 attacks. In 2008, an outdoor memorial opened at the Pentagon. A national memorial also is being built at the Flight 93 crash site in Pennsylvania.
Eid for 10,000 flood-affected families in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
PESHAWAR: Over 10,000 flood-affected families in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa celebrated Eidul Fitr in relief camps on Friday and received no special package for the festive day as the government failed to disburse the compensations even in those districts where the survey had been completed for the purpose.
The devastating floods hit the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on July 28 affecting over six million people in the province. Soon after the calamity, the provincial government set up 1,100 relief camps in schools and other government buildings accommodating 11,50,000 affectees.
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) officials said the provincial government strived hard to resettle the affected families in their native areas before Eid, but this gigantic task could not be carried out for a variety of reasons.
They informed that 9,227 families housed in 647 schools and some in other camps are still shelterless and they spent their Eid in the relief facilities. The flooding badly affected the districts of Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera where thousand of families lost houses to the flood and 7,000 families of the three districts spent their Eid in the relief camps.
In Charsadda alone, 3,703 families celebrated their Eid in 189 schools where they were provided food and shelter only. There was no festivity in these relief camps.
In Nowshera, 3,677 families housed in 228 schools observed the Eid in relief camps, while in Peshawar district 547 families observe their Eid in 43 relief camps set up in schools.
The officials said that so far 6,147 food items had been distributed to all the 9,227 families. However, the shelterless affectees told this scribe that they received no Eid package; neither in cash nor in kind.
Besides these districts, the flood affectees also spent their Eid in camps established in Bannu, Swat, Mardan, Shangla, Lakki Marwat, DI Khan and Swabi.
Initially, the provincial government has decided to distribute Rs20,000 compensation for damaged houses on the eve of the Eid as a special package on the festive day. The assessment for the package was also completed in at least three districts, Nowshera, Charsadda and Dir Upper.
All arrangements were put in place for the disbursement of the compensation, but as other provinces changed the payment criteria for the compensations at the Council of Common Interests meeting in Islamabad on Monday, the provincial government deferred the payment. It said that as the data from all the affected districts could not be gathered before Eid, therefore, any package to the affectees was not possible.
They PDMA officials said that as the flooding also affected 55,425 teachers, students and other government officials, which affected the assessment of the losses and disbursement of the compensation.
During a visit to the camps in Charsadda it was found that government officials did not visit these camps. The affectees in the native village of the Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Barrister Arshad Abdullah said the minister had distributed Rs500 Eidee to each child of the village while in camps they anxiously waited for any special package even on the Eid day.
One Jamil living in one of the camps in the district said: “This is the most miserable and painful Eid for me. I used to give Eidee to relatives and the poor on Eid, but today I myself need it.”
The devastating floods hit the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on July 28 affecting over six million people in the province. Soon after the calamity, the provincial government set up 1,100 relief camps in schools and other government buildings accommodating 11,50,000 affectees.
The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) officials said the provincial government strived hard to resettle the affected families in their native areas before Eid, but this gigantic task could not be carried out for a variety of reasons.
They informed that 9,227 families housed in 647 schools and some in other camps are still shelterless and they spent their Eid in the relief facilities. The flooding badly affected the districts of Peshawar, Charsadda and Nowshera where thousand of families lost houses to the flood and 7,000 families of the three districts spent their Eid in the relief camps.
In Charsadda alone, 3,703 families celebrated their Eid in 189 schools where they were provided food and shelter only. There was no festivity in these relief camps.
In Nowshera, 3,677 families housed in 228 schools observed the Eid in relief camps, while in Peshawar district 547 families observe their Eid in 43 relief camps set up in schools.
The officials said that so far 6,147 food items had been distributed to all the 9,227 families. However, the shelterless affectees told this scribe that they received no Eid package; neither in cash nor in kind.
Besides these districts, the flood affectees also spent their Eid in camps established in Bannu, Swat, Mardan, Shangla, Lakki Marwat, DI Khan and Swabi.
Initially, the provincial government has decided to distribute Rs20,000 compensation for damaged houses on the eve of the Eid as a special package on the festive day. The assessment for the package was also completed in at least three districts, Nowshera, Charsadda and Dir Upper.
All arrangements were put in place for the disbursement of the compensation, but as other provinces changed the payment criteria for the compensations at the Council of Common Interests meeting in Islamabad on Monday, the provincial government deferred the payment. It said that as the data from all the affected districts could not be gathered before Eid, therefore, any package to the affectees was not possible.
They PDMA officials said that as the flooding also affected 55,425 teachers, students and other government officials, which affected the assessment of the losses and disbursement of the compensation.
During a visit to the camps in Charsadda it was found that government officials did not visit these camps. The affectees in the native village of the Provincial Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Barrister Arshad Abdullah said the minister had distributed Rs500 Eidee to each child of the village while in camps they anxiously waited for any special package even on the Eid day.
One Jamil living in one of the camps in the district said: “This is the most miserable and painful Eid for me. I used to give Eidee to relatives and the poor on Eid, but today I myself need it.”
Solider connects with Afghan kids
cnn.com
Experts fear Afghanistan may be teetering on brink of civil war
Experts fear Afghanistan may be teetering on brink of civil war
Friday, September 10, 2010
NATO Drive on Kandahar Begins
New York Times
The white flags of the Taliban no longer fly from neighborhoods in Kandahar City, as they did in some areas only two weeks ago, replaced instead by the red, black and green Afghan colors.
But if the Taliban have been driven further underground, there has been no significant let-up in their campaign of terror and assassination against anyone connected with the government or foreign forces.
The long-delayed push by NATO forces has finally come to town, in fits and starts, and with mixed results. “The deliberate campaign has begun in Kandahar,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, the NATO commander, said on Aug. 31. “In some areas the Taliban momentum has reversed, but there’s clearly a lot more work to be done.”
Several times a day lately, mostly in rural districts just outside the city, there has been the distinct metallic vomiting sound of an American A-10 Warthog attack plane blasting a target with its cannon, which fires 70 30-millimeter shells a second. Fighting in those rural areas has been intense, sometimes with heavy casualties for American troops and Taliban fighters. Inside this city of half a million, the traditional home of the Taliban, though, the coalition’s fight has been much more low-key.
Most of the recent effort has focused on the Mehlajat area, a semirural zone in the southwest of the city, and the adjacent District 6. It is a part of Kandahar that bedeviled the Soviets during their occupation, and until a recent joint military operation there, it was the Taliban’s most important redoubt within city limits.
The area was notorious as a place where the police were afraid to patrol and death sentences were handed out by Taliban courts. Hostages were chained to trees for days on end, and government employees hanged from poles. The Taliban’s white flag flew from many of the mud-walled homes, surrounded by dense cornfields and pomegranate orchards laced with twisting lanes and canals, and heavily booby-trapped.
A five-day operation that concluded Aug. 31, mounted at the insistence of the Afghan authorities but backed up by American troops, succeeded in routing the Taliban from the area without a single civilian casualty. Nor was there a single Taliban casualty, and only 21 Taliban suspects were confirmed as captured, according to American officials.
“It’s not perfect, but it’s a good news story,” said Lt. Col. John Voorhees of the United States Army’s 504th Military Police Battalion, who commanded the American task force that backed up the Afghan police in Mehlajat.
It is also a work in progress, a visit to the area on Monday made clear — what amounts to on-the-job training for many of the Afghans.
The Americans, too, have had to learn fast; many of them are part of this summer’s influx of troops and, like Colonel Voorhees’s men, have been in the field for only a month or two. One of the companies in his task force lost two men, who were killed by an improvised bomb in Mehlajat, but otherwise casualties have been slight: five Afghan police officers, wounded by another bomb.
Now the Afghan police and American troops are settling in to create a permanent presence in this quarter of Kandahar City. Many of the 200 Afghan policemen are fresh recruits, straight from a six-week training program; 10 to 20 percent have not even been issued rifles yet, one of their own commanders said and American officers confirmed.
“They get a police baton and that’s all,” said Police Col. Abdul Qadim. “Can you imagine coming here with a stick?”
The Americans bring an array of modern weaponry, from surveillance drones to close air support. “We have to backstop them at every stage,” Colonel Voorhees said. “But they are out in front.”
The Americans also bring a greater appreciation for Afghan sensibilities than in the past. Lt. David Thompson brought along a backpack stuffed with $45,000 in Afghanis, the national currency, and spent $20,000 of that in three days — paying on-the-spot reparations to residents whose homes or fields were damaged in the fighting.
The operation in Mehlajat has three companies of American troops hunkered down in the fields and orchards, patrolling on foot. The Afghans are patrolling on foot with them, and even sleeping in the open.
Colonel Qadim is the head of what will become the new Police Substation 15, which at the moment consists of a semicircular trench with an orchard wall at its back and fields of corn and okra in front of it. While the Afghans took a break at sunset to eat their iftar meal on Monday, marking the end of the day’s fasting for Ramadan, Americans took up prone positions atop the ditch’s berm, pulling security for them.
Colonel Qadim said he was not happy about bedding down in the dirt, but site engineers have already started planning a building there as a joint headquarters for Afghan and American forces. “We have nothing but this ditch for protection now, but at least it’ll be our turn to serve our country,” he said.
People in the area greeted the troops with friendly waves. “They were truly terrorized before,” said Capt. Bradley Rudy, who heads an infantry company that was also part of the operation. “They’re just really glad we’re here now and staying.”
Many others, however, liken the operation to squeezing a balloon. “Kandahar City is getting worse day by day,” said Hamidzai Lalay, a former police official who is now running for Parliament, and who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in late July. “The operation in Mehlajat was good but not very effective. Good because no civilians were killed, but the negative part is that most of the insurgents just went to other parts of the city.”
On Wednesday, a policeman who was shopping for the coming holiday marking the end of Ramadan was shot to death. On Monday, two policemen and a civilian were shot to death in a local bazaar. On Sunday, a woman who worked for a humanitarian organization as a security guard was shot to death by gunmen who forced their way into her house. Also on Sunday, an employee working for an Afghan contractor who did business with the Americans was kidnapped from a restaurant in the city center, which has a police post right in front of it,.
One recent local media account put the number of assassinations in Kandahar City since mid-June at 397, suggesting a rate of four or five a day, a pace that appears to be continuing.
American officials will not confirm those numbers. “The city still has its challenges, that’s all I can say,” said Lt. Col. Victor Garcia, the deputy commander of Task Force Raider, in overall charge of Kandahar City. “I don’t want to go into any more details.”
The white flags of the Taliban no longer fly from neighborhoods in Kandahar City, as they did in some areas only two weeks ago, replaced instead by the red, black and green Afghan colors.
But if the Taliban have been driven further underground, there has been no significant let-up in their campaign of terror and assassination against anyone connected with the government or foreign forces.
The long-delayed push by NATO forces has finally come to town, in fits and starts, and with mixed results. “The deliberate campaign has begun in Kandahar,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, the NATO commander, said on Aug. 31. “In some areas the Taliban momentum has reversed, but there’s clearly a lot more work to be done.”
Several times a day lately, mostly in rural districts just outside the city, there has been the distinct metallic vomiting sound of an American A-10 Warthog attack plane blasting a target with its cannon, which fires 70 30-millimeter shells a second. Fighting in those rural areas has been intense, sometimes with heavy casualties for American troops and Taliban fighters. Inside this city of half a million, the traditional home of the Taliban, though, the coalition’s fight has been much more low-key.
Most of the recent effort has focused on the Mehlajat area, a semirural zone in the southwest of the city, and the adjacent District 6. It is a part of Kandahar that bedeviled the Soviets during their occupation, and until a recent joint military operation there, it was the Taliban’s most important redoubt within city limits.
The area was notorious as a place where the police were afraid to patrol and death sentences were handed out by Taliban courts. Hostages were chained to trees for days on end, and government employees hanged from poles. The Taliban’s white flag flew from many of the mud-walled homes, surrounded by dense cornfields and pomegranate orchards laced with twisting lanes and canals, and heavily booby-trapped.
A five-day operation that concluded Aug. 31, mounted at the insistence of the Afghan authorities but backed up by American troops, succeeded in routing the Taliban from the area without a single civilian casualty. Nor was there a single Taliban casualty, and only 21 Taliban suspects were confirmed as captured, according to American officials.
“It’s not perfect, but it’s a good news story,” said Lt. Col. John Voorhees of the United States Army’s 504th Military Police Battalion, who commanded the American task force that backed up the Afghan police in Mehlajat.
It is also a work in progress, a visit to the area on Monday made clear — what amounts to on-the-job training for many of the Afghans.
The Americans, too, have had to learn fast; many of them are part of this summer’s influx of troops and, like Colonel Voorhees’s men, have been in the field for only a month or two. One of the companies in his task force lost two men, who were killed by an improvised bomb in Mehlajat, but otherwise casualties have been slight: five Afghan police officers, wounded by another bomb.
Now the Afghan police and American troops are settling in to create a permanent presence in this quarter of Kandahar City. Many of the 200 Afghan policemen are fresh recruits, straight from a six-week training program; 10 to 20 percent have not even been issued rifles yet, one of their own commanders said and American officers confirmed.
“They get a police baton and that’s all,” said Police Col. Abdul Qadim. “Can you imagine coming here with a stick?”
The Americans bring an array of modern weaponry, from surveillance drones to close air support. “We have to backstop them at every stage,” Colonel Voorhees said. “But they are out in front.”
The Americans also bring a greater appreciation for Afghan sensibilities than in the past. Lt. David Thompson brought along a backpack stuffed with $45,000 in Afghanis, the national currency, and spent $20,000 of that in three days — paying on-the-spot reparations to residents whose homes or fields were damaged in the fighting.
The operation in Mehlajat has three companies of American troops hunkered down in the fields and orchards, patrolling on foot. The Afghans are patrolling on foot with them, and even sleeping in the open.
Colonel Qadim is the head of what will become the new Police Substation 15, which at the moment consists of a semicircular trench with an orchard wall at its back and fields of corn and okra in front of it. While the Afghans took a break at sunset to eat their iftar meal on Monday, marking the end of the day’s fasting for Ramadan, Americans took up prone positions atop the ditch’s berm, pulling security for them.
Colonel Qadim said he was not happy about bedding down in the dirt, but site engineers have already started planning a building there as a joint headquarters for Afghan and American forces. “We have nothing but this ditch for protection now, but at least it’ll be our turn to serve our country,” he said.
People in the area greeted the troops with friendly waves. “They were truly terrorized before,” said Capt. Bradley Rudy, who heads an infantry company that was also part of the operation. “They’re just really glad we’re here now and staying.”
Many others, however, liken the operation to squeezing a balloon. “Kandahar City is getting worse day by day,” said Hamidzai Lalay, a former police official who is now running for Parliament, and who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in late July. “The operation in Mehlajat was good but not very effective. Good because no civilians were killed, but the negative part is that most of the insurgents just went to other parts of the city.”
On Wednesday, a policeman who was shopping for the coming holiday marking the end of Ramadan was shot to death. On Monday, two policemen and a civilian were shot to death in a local bazaar. On Sunday, a woman who worked for a humanitarian organization as a security guard was shot to death by gunmen who forced their way into her house. Also on Sunday, an employee working for an Afghan contractor who did business with the Americans was kidnapped from a restaurant in the city center, which has a police post right in front of it,.
One recent local media account put the number of assassinations in Kandahar City since mid-June at 397, suggesting a rate of four or five a day, a pace that appears to be continuing.
American officials will not confirm those numbers. “The city still has its challenges, that’s all I can say,” said Lt. Col. Victor Garcia, the deputy commander of Task Force Raider, in overall charge of Kandahar City. “I don’t want to go into any more details.”
Peshawar police take security measures before Eid
Peshawar is on virtual lockdown a day before Eid al-Fitr after threats that terrorists might strike the city’s crowded bazaars."We have sealed the main trade centre in Peshawar cantonment. No vehicle will be allowed entry to avoid any car bombing," said a police official, Rahmat Khan.He said intelligence reports indicate that explosives-laden cars could be used to carry out attacks in Peshawar and other parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Those reports prompted the security measures.
Obama has tenuous grip on Democrats over taxes
Democrats in Congress are distancing themselves from President Barack Obama's push to let taxes rise for the wealthiest Americans, fearing it will further harm them in November's mid-term elections.
Obama stood firm on his stance in a fiery speech this week addressing the looming increase of all individual taxes. He repeated his pledge to let tax rates on high-end income groups rise -- individuals making more than $200,000 a year or couples earning over $250,000.
But congressional Democrats are worried as they face potentially big losses in November. Democrats in the most vulnerable districts are teetering, especially the party's conservative Blue Dogs who need to appeal to constituencies that sometimes look more like Republicans.
Without support from his own party, Obama's effort to let tax rates rise on the rich is in peril. The most public displays of support have come from the Democratic leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives.
"Democrats are peeling off," said Clint Stretch, a three-decade veteran of tax policy, now a principal at Deloitte in Washington. "My guess is in a lame-duck Congress (after the election) you'll get a one or two-year extension."
There are two potentially divisive issues at play -- whether to extend tax cuts for everyone or just the middle class, and whether to make those cuts permanent or temporary.
Uneasy Democrats are backing away from Obama's plan to only extend lower tax rates on the so-called middle class. A group of Democratic freshmen that backs extending all the lower rates are drafting a letter to their party's leaders expressing that position.
"It is time for Congress to be decisive about the tax rates facing small business owners next year," freshman Michigan Democrat Gary Peters said on Wednesday in a statement. "Extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for all earners is the right thing to do as anything less jeopardizes economic recovery."
In the Senate, at least three Democrats and independent Joe Lieberman have said they would prefer an extension of all the rates, citing the economic malaise.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner avoided talk of a compromise on Wednesday, appealing to fears about the widening budget deficit to defend Obama's plan.
"There are some Republicans in Congress who believe that we should go borrow $700 billion from our children, and investors around the world, so that we can afford to extend these tax cuts for the most fortunate two percent of Americans," he said on Fox Business Network. "We just don't think that is responsible economic policy."
Still, Obama has avoided threatening to veto any legislation containing an extension of the tax cuts.
ORSZAG ADDS TO HEADACHE
Former White House budget director Peter Orszag added to Obama's problem when he caught the White House by surprise with a New York Times editorial this week calling for a two-year freeze on current tax rates. After that period, he backed an automatic return to rates before former President George W. Bush lowered taxes nearly a decade ago.
Given the gridlock in Congress, Orszag said the cuts might have to be kept in place for all.
Orszag's comments reflect the gap between Obama and some congressional Democrats as well.
"I wonder if Obama can hold his own party on this," said Greg Valliere, a political analyst for investors at Potomac Research Group. "The jury is out on that."
Republicans pounced on Orszag's comments as evidence that economists, even those associated with liberals, are worried that tax increases on any income group could derail the recovery.
Orszag also disagreed with Obama's bid to make the lower tax rates for the lower and middle income groups permanent - keeping the president's campaign pledge to not raise taxes on the middle class.
The top Republican in the House, John Boehner, who would likely become House speaker if his party takes control, called for a two-year tax freeze of current rates a day after Orszag's comments.
"I have the sense it may be this is where the politics are headed," said Brookings Institution senior fellow Isabel Sawhill, who in an ideal world said she backs letting the high-end rates expire. "I think that could be a good compromise."
But a two-year extension would be awful timing for Obama.
"It could potentially imply them fighting this debate in the run up to the presidential election," said Sean West, an analyst with Eurasia Group, which advises investors.
Extending the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would cost an estimated $700 billion over a decade. Obama argues that the United States, which already faces a $1.3 trillion deficit this year, cannot afford that bill.
FORCING PELOSI'S HAND
Virtually no one predicts any real movement on the tax issue before the elections. The Senate, which will take the lead on the issue, comes back from a break next week, only to adjourn about a month later.
"I don't think (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi would swallow the extension unless the White House forced it on them," which is extremely unlikely before the election, West said.
It is unclear who Democrats need to appeal to more in the election -- liberals or moderates -- but the economy may supersede such distinctions, said Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report.
"At this point Democrats just need Democrats to show up regardless of their stripes," Duffy said, though she said there could be a danger to making it an argument about income class.
But the Democrats are a big party, and many believe that some moderates think calling Republicans out on fighting for lower taxes for the wealthy is a winning argument.
"I still think moderates feel that it's most important to keep tax rates lower on the middle class and let the rich pay a bit more - in the interest of not ballooning the budget deficit even more," Anne Mathias, analyst for investors at Concept Capital said.
Obama stood firm on his stance in a fiery speech this week addressing the looming increase of all individual taxes. He repeated his pledge to let tax rates on high-end income groups rise -- individuals making more than $200,000 a year or couples earning over $250,000.
But congressional Democrats are worried as they face potentially big losses in November. Democrats in the most vulnerable districts are teetering, especially the party's conservative Blue Dogs who need to appeal to constituencies that sometimes look more like Republicans.
Without support from his own party, Obama's effort to let tax rates rise on the rich is in peril. The most public displays of support have come from the Democratic leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives.
"Democrats are peeling off," said Clint Stretch, a three-decade veteran of tax policy, now a principal at Deloitte in Washington. "My guess is in a lame-duck Congress (after the election) you'll get a one or two-year extension."
There are two potentially divisive issues at play -- whether to extend tax cuts for everyone or just the middle class, and whether to make those cuts permanent or temporary.
Uneasy Democrats are backing away from Obama's plan to only extend lower tax rates on the so-called middle class. A group of Democratic freshmen that backs extending all the lower rates are drafting a letter to their party's leaders expressing that position.
"It is time for Congress to be decisive about the tax rates facing small business owners next year," freshman Michigan Democrat Gary Peters said on Wednesday in a statement. "Extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for all earners is the right thing to do as anything less jeopardizes economic recovery."
In the Senate, at least three Democrats and independent Joe Lieberman have said they would prefer an extension of all the rates, citing the economic malaise.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner avoided talk of a compromise on Wednesday, appealing to fears about the widening budget deficit to defend Obama's plan.
"There are some Republicans in Congress who believe that we should go borrow $700 billion from our children, and investors around the world, so that we can afford to extend these tax cuts for the most fortunate two percent of Americans," he said on Fox Business Network. "We just don't think that is responsible economic policy."
Still, Obama has avoided threatening to veto any legislation containing an extension of the tax cuts.
ORSZAG ADDS TO HEADACHE
Former White House budget director Peter Orszag added to Obama's problem when he caught the White House by surprise with a New York Times editorial this week calling for a two-year freeze on current tax rates. After that period, he backed an automatic return to rates before former President George W. Bush lowered taxes nearly a decade ago.
Given the gridlock in Congress, Orszag said the cuts might have to be kept in place for all.
Orszag's comments reflect the gap between Obama and some congressional Democrats as well.
"I wonder if Obama can hold his own party on this," said Greg Valliere, a political analyst for investors at Potomac Research Group. "The jury is out on that."
Republicans pounced on Orszag's comments as evidence that economists, even those associated with liberals, are worried that tax increases on any income group could derail the recovery.
Orszag also disagreed with Obama's bid to make the lower tax rates for the lower and middle income groups permanent - keeping the president's campaign pledge to not raise taxes on the middle class.
The top Republican in the House, John Boehner, who would likely become House speaker if his party takes control, called for a two-year tax freeze of current rates a day after Orszag's comments.
"I have the sense it may be this is where the politics are headed," said Brookings Institution senior fellow Isabel Sawhill, who in an ideal world said she backs letting the high-end rates expire. "I think that could be a good compromise."
But a two-year extension would be awful timing for Obama.
"It could potentially imply them fighting this debate in the run up to the presidential election," said Sean West, an analyst with Eurasia Group, which advises investors.
Extending the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans would cost an estimated $700 billion over a decade. Obama argues that the United States, which already faces a $1.3 trillion deficit this year, cannot afford that bill.
FORCING PELOSI'S HAND
Virtually no one predicts any real movement on the tax issue before the elections. The Senate, which will take the lead on the issue, comes back from a break next week, only to adjourn about a month later.
"I don't think (House Speaker Nancy) Pelosi would swallow the extension unless the White House forced it on them," which is extremely unlikely before the election, West said.
It is unclear who Democrats need to appeal to more in the election -- liberals or moderates -- but the economy may supersede such distinctions, said Jennifer Duffy of the Cook Political Report.
"At this point Democrats just need Democrats to show up regardless of their stripes," Duffy said, though she said there could be a danger to making it an argument about income class.
But the Democrats are a big party, and many believe that some moderates think calling Republicans out on fighting for lower taxes for the wealthy is a winning argument.
"I still think moderates feel that it's most important to keep tax rates lower on the middle class and let the rich pay a bit more - in the interest of not ballooning the budget deficit even more," Anne Mathias, analyst for investors at Concept Capital said.
World leaders condemn Quran-burning plan of U.S. pastor
World leaders and government officials have condemned the Quran-burning plan of U.S. pastor Terry Jones and raised concerns that the move may spark Muslim outrage around the globe and endanger U.S. interests.
In the latest development on Friday, Jones announced to put on hold his plan to burn hundreds of Quran copies Saturday to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, but threatened to go ahead unless his demand to relocate a mosque project in New York is satisfied.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has condemned the plan as "despicable," saying it will inflame "sentiments among Muslims throughout the world and cause irreparable damage to interfaith harmony and also to world peace."
In a statement Thursday, the president called for "doing all that it takes to stop such a senseless and outrageous act."
Indian Interior Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram called on U.S. authorities to take "strong action" to prevent such an "outrage" and urged the Indian media to exercise "great restraint" over the coverage of the act to help maintain peace and harmony.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama urging him to prevent Jones from fulfilling his plan. In the letter Susilo said the plan is a threat to world peace, and Indonesia condemns the act.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged the United States to prevent the plan, saying the event could become a pretext for killing. "This ghastly action ... will cause damage in the relations between religions, human and cultural communication between the nations," he said in a statement.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned of the reactions of Muslims and followers of other religions and urged U.S. authorities to carry out their duties to guarantee the basic right of American Muslims and prevent the promotion of such offensive acts.
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman denounced the plan as contradicting Christian teachings and humanitarian values such as love and respect. Burning the Quran "is a clear contradiction of the teachings of the three Abrahamic religions and of dialogue among the three faiths (Christianity, Islam and Judaism)," he said.
Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu also condemned the plan, warning it would endanger inter-religious tolerance. "The culture of peaceful tolerance and inter-communal and inter-religious tolerance that the international community is trying to achieve is under threat from marginal and extremist fanatics," he said in a statement.
A spokesman of British Prime Minister David Cameron said the government strongly opposes the Jones plan.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said burning the Quran is the most hideous and unthinkable crime or action, especially when the plan was initiated by the pastor of a church. He said that is no doubt an attack on Muslims, adding it would spark anger among Muslims throughout the world.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak condemned the initiative as despicable racism against Islam and Muslims and warned it would increase violence, terrorism and extremism worldwide.
Jordan's Islamic Action Front said the plan is a "form of declaring a war on Muslims" and urged all Arab and Muslim governments to take a firm position regarding this crime that provokes all Muslims.
U.S. President Barack Obama has also denounced the Quran-burning plan, saying the "destructive" plan could greatly endanger the lives of American men and women in uniform.
He urged Jones to stop the act. "I hope he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans," he said Thursday during an interview with ABC's program "Good Morning America."
Obama warned that the proposed plan could serve as "a recruitment bonanza " for al-Qaida and increase suicide bombers in the United States or European cities.
In the latest development on Friday, Jones announced to put on hold his plan to burn hundreds of Quran copies Saturday to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, but threatened to go ahead unless his demand to relocate a mosque project in New York is satisfied.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has condemned the plan as "despicable," saying it will inflame "sentiments among Muslims throughout the world and cause irreparable damage to interfaith harmony and also to world peace."
In a statement Thursday, the president called for "doing all that it takes to stop such a senseless and outrageous act."
Indian Interior Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram called on U.S. authorities to take "strong action" to prevent such an "outrage" and urged the Indian media to exercise "great restraint" over the coverage of the act to help maintain peace and harmony.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama urging him to prevent Jones from fulfilling his plan. In the letter Susilo said the plan is a threat to world peace, and Indonesia condemns the act.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged the United States to prevent the plan, saying the event could become a pretext for killing. "This ghastly action ... will cause damage in the relations between religions, human and cultural communication between the nations," he said in a statement.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned of the reactions of Muslims and followers of other religions and urged U.S. authorities to carry out their duties to guarantee the basic right of American Muslims and prevent the promotion of such offensive acts.
Lebanese President Michel Sleiman denounced the plan as contradicting Christian teachings and humanitarian values such as love and respect. Burning the Quran "is a clear contradiction of the teachings of the three Abrahamic religions and of dialogue among the three faiths (Christianity, Islam and Judaism)," he said.
Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu also condemned the plan, warning it would endanger inter-religious tolerance. "The culture of peaceful tolerance and inter-communal and inter-religious tolerance that the international community is trying to achieve is under threat from marginal and extremist fanatics," he said in a statement.
A spokesman of British Prime Minister David Cameron said the government strongly opposes the Jones plan.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman said burning the Quran is the most hideous and unthinkable crime or action, especially when the plan was initiated by the pastor of a church. He said that is no doubt an attack on Muslims, adding it would spark anger among Muslims throughout the world.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak condemned the initiative as despicable racism against Islam and Muslims and warned it would increase violence, terrorism and extremism worldwide.
Jordan's Islamic Action Front said the plan is a "form of declaring a war on Muslims" and urged all Arab and Muslim governments to take a firm position regarding this crime that provokes all Muslims.
U.S. President Barack Obama has also denounced the Quran-burning plan, saying the "destructive" plan could greatly endanger the lives of American men and women in uniform.
He urged Jones to stop the act. "I hope he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans," he said Thursday during an interview with ABC's program "Good Morning America."
Obama warned that the proposed plan could serve as "a recruitment bonanza " for al-Qaida and increase suicide bombers in the United States or European cities.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
In Afghanistan, The Civil Service 'Surge' That Isn't
As U.S. troops flood into southern Afghanistan, the same can't be said for Afghan government workers. There are critical shortages of government bureaucrats in regions such as Helmand and Kandahar. U.S. military officers are particularly frustrated by the lack of a civilian "surge."
Marine Gen. Richard Mills commands some 20,000 Marines in Helmand province, a key haven for Taliban fighters. But he says that what he really needs are a few good Afghan bureaucrats.
"It's a difficult thing to do — it's difficult to attract talented civil servants," Mills said.
Next door in Kandahar province, the governor, Tooryalai Wesa, is having the same trouble. "In some districts, we have only the district governor with the police chief," he said. "So if you could at least have an attorney there or a prosecutor or a judge or a finance guy."
U.S. officials say they have filled only about 25 percent of the key government jobs in Kandahar province, and that Helmand isn't much better.
It's a serious problem. The insurgency has gained strength because the Afghan government is either corrupt — or not around. Villagers in the south tell NPR that they haven't seen any government officials, sometimes for years. And some senior government officials, like district governors, sometimes don't even live in their districts.
It's not like Afghan government workers aren't available. There's a Civil Service Training Institute in Kabul, funded by the U.S. and other countries, that's graduating thousands of would-be bureaucrats.
"Right now, they've reached 11,000," said Earl Gast, who runs the Afghanistan programs for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide. "And the target is to get to 15,000 or 16,000 trained civil servants before the end of the year."
But Gast pointed out that there's a simple reason why many of them are unwilling to work in Helmand or Kandahar: "If you work for the government, especially, you've got a target on your back," he said.
Those two provinces have seen the worst of the fighting. A Kandahar district governor was killed by a car bomb this summer, and there has been a surge of assassinations of local government workers in Helmand province.
U.S. officials have responded by building dormitories where government workers can live under tight security, and the Afghan government is providing hardship pay to work in the provinces. But officials say recruitment is moving slowly.
Security isn't the only issue. The American government is also part of the problem: The U.S. military and the State Department are scooping up the best-educated Afghans to work as translators. One senior officer, who asked not to be named, said the smartest and most educated Afghans he met were all working for the U.S., and that it wasn't exactly a blueprint for the way the government ought to be doing this."We are competing in some ways with the Afghan government for staff," said Alex Thier, who is in charge of USAID's Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs in Washington. "We do pay more often than the Afghan government civil service salary."An Afghan government salary can run up to about $2,400 per year, but Afghan translators can make at least $80,000 a year working for the Americans.
Thier said the U.S. and its allies are trying to fix the disparity by providing more money to help Afghanistan beef up those government salaries. And he hopes that as security improves, more Afghans will agree to take up civil service posts in Helmand and Kandahar.
Private relief organizations, known as NGOs, are also attracting Afghans with better salaries. That's one more sector that people like Wesa have to compete against.
"Because the government cannot afford the salaries the NGOs pay for that, the international NGOs, so that will be a challenge," Wesa said.
But there's another, largely untapped, source of Afghan talent that he and others are trying to attract.
"My recommendation from the very beginning is to bring the former Afghans living overseas," Wesa said. "Canada, United States, Europe, Australia — those are full of former, experienced, educated Afghans."
Wesa himself was a college professor in Canada before he returned to his homeland two years ago. He hopes other Afghans will follow his lead, driven by patriotism — rather than a paycheck.
Marine Gen. Richard Mills commands some 20,000 Marines in Helmand province, a key haven for Taliban fighters. But he says that what he really needs are a few good Afghan bureaucrats.
"It's a difficult thing to do — it's difficult to attract talented civil servants," Mills said.
Next door in Kandahar province, the governor, Tooryalai Wesa, is having the same trouble. "In some districts, we have only the district governor with the police chief," he said. "So if you could at least have an attorney there or a prosecutor or a judge or a finance guy."
U.S. officials say they have filled only about 25 percent of the key government jobs in Kandahar province, and that Helmand isn't much better.
It's a serious problem. The insurgency has gained strength because the Afghan government is either corrupt — or not around. Villagers in the south tell NPR that they haven't seen any government officials, sometimes for years. And some senior government officials, like district governors, sometimes don't even live in their districts.
It's not like Afghan government workers aren't available. There's a Civil Service Training Institute in Kabul, funded by the U.S. and other countries, that's graduating thousands of would-be bureaucrats.
"Right now, they've reached 11,000," said Earl Gast, who runs the Afghanistan programs for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provides economic and humanitarian assistance worldwide. "And the target is to get to 15,000 or 16,000 trained civil servants before the end of the year."
But Gast pointed out that there's a simple reason why many of them are unwilling to work in Helmand or Kandahar: "If you work for the government, especially, you've got a target on your back," he said.
Those two provinces have seen the worst of the fighting. A Kandahar district governor was killed by a car bomb this summer, and there has been a surge of assassinations of local government workers in Helmand province.
U.S. officials have responded by building dormitories where government workers can live under tight security, and the Afghan government is providing hardship pay to work in the provinces. But officials say recruitment is moving slowly.
Security isn't the only issue. The American government is also part of the problem: The U.S. military and the State Department are scooping up the best-educated Afghans to work as translators. One senior officer, who asked not to be named, said the smartest and most educated Afghans he met were all working for the U.S., and that it wasn't exactly a blueprint for the way the government ought to be doing this."We are competing in some ways with the Afghan government for staff," said Alex Thier, who is in charge of USAID's Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs in Washington. "We do pay more often than the Afghan government civil service salary."An Afghan government salary can run up to about $2,400 per year, but Afghan translators can make at least $80,000 a year working for the Americans.
Thier said the U.S. and its allies are trying to fix the disparity by providing more money to help Afghanistan beef up those government salaries. And he hopes that as security improves, more Afghans will agree to take up civil service posts in Helmand and Kandahar.
Private relief organizations, known as NGOs, are also attracting Afghans with better salaries. That's one more sector that people like Wesa have to compete against.
"Because the government cannot afford the salaries the NGOs pay for that, the international NGOs, so that will be a challenge," Wesa said.
But there's another, largely untapped, source of Afghan talent that he and others are trying to attract.
"My recommendation from the very beginning is to bring the former Afghans living overseas," Wesa said. "Canada, United States, Europe, Australia — those are full of former, experienced, educated Afghans."
Wesa himself was a college professor in Canada before he returned to his homeland two years ago. He hopes other Afghans will follow his lead, driven by patriotism — rather than a paycheck.
Afghan election threatened by violence, says watchdog
Taliban violence and intimidation are threatening Afghanistan's parliamentary elections as the government fails to protect candidates, especially women, a human rights watchdog said Thursday.
Afghanistan is due to go to the polls on September 18, when around 2,500 candidates will contest the 249 seats in the lower house of parliament, the Wolesi Jirga.
The Taliban, who have been waging an intensifying insurgency for almost nine years, have said anyone associated with the poll is a target and have so far been blamed for the killing of at least three candidates.
Many others working on the elections have been attacked and kidnapped, with women candidates said to be the most vulnerable to intimidation and threats.
In a statement condemning the pre-election violence, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said: "Candidates -- as well as their staff members and election officials -- face assassinations, kidnappings and intimidation by insurgents as well as by rival candidates.
"Women candidates are facing the highest level of intimidation."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined calls for the Kabul government to provide adequate security for all participants in the poll, including voters.
Rachel Reid, HRW's Afghanistan researcher, was quoted as saying that the Taliban attacks and the "broad lack of confidence" in the Afghan government's ability to carry out a safe election, "threatens its validity".
"Insurgent violence, particularly against women candidates, was inevitable, but the government?s weak response was not," she said.
"While some candidates have complained to Human Rights Watch about the government?s lack of provisions for protecting candidates, others have not requested help or turned it down, citing a lack of confidence in the Afghan security forces," HRW said.
The Taliban threats and the deteriorating security situation follow last year's presidential poll, which was marred by extensive fraud, most of it found to be in favour of President Hamid Karzai.
The Taliban killed and injured hundreds of people leading up to and on election day last year, declaring the election a tool of foreign occupiers, mainly the United States which is leading anti-insurgency efforts.
The United States and NATO have 150,000 troops in Afghanistan, some of which will be deployed to help secure polling centres.
Afghan election authorities have said that security can be provided for 5,987 polling centres, out of a total of 6,835.
Most of those that will remain closed are in Nangahar province, on the eastern border with Pakistan, according to observer Democracy International.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC), which oversees the poll, has said the polling stations will remain shut because security cannot be guaranteed.
Candidates and their supporters have been bombed, kidnapped, shot and -- in one case in troubled Ghazni province south of Kabul -- beheaded.
Last month five people working for candidate Fawzya Gailani in eastern Herat were kidnapped and killed in what remains the most shocking attack on election workers since campaigning began in late June.
That attack sent a message to women candidates that "not just in Herat but in every other province it may not be safe for you to campaign," said Democracy International's Jed Ober.
Most threats reported to the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan were against women, HRW said in its statement.
It cited "at least 40 incidents of threatening letters or phone calls in 10 provinces. Many of these incidents include threats of violence if the woman does not withdraw her candidacy," it said.
Afghanistan is due to go to the polls on September 18, when around 2,500 candidates will contest the 249 seats in the lower house of parliament, the Wolesi Jirga.
The Taliban, who have been waging an intensifying insurgency for almost nine years, have said anyone associated with the poll is a target and have so far been blamed for the killing of at least three candidates.
Many others working on the elections have been attacked and kidnapped, with women candidates said to be the most vulnerable to intimidation and threats.
In a statement condemning the pre-election violence, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said: "Candidates -- as well as their staff members and election officials -- face assassinations, kidnappings and intimidation by insurgents as well as by rival candidates.
"Women candidates are facing the highest level of intimidation."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton joined calls for the Kabul government to provide adequate security for all participants in the poll, including voters.
Rachel Reid, HRW's Afghanistan researcher, was quoted as saying that the Taliban attacks and the "broad lack of confidence" in the Afghan government's ability to carry out a safe election, "threatens its validity".
"Insurgent violence, particularly against women candidates, was inevitable, but the government?s weak response was not," she said.
"While some candidates have complained to Human Rights Watch about the government?s lack of provisions for protecting candidates, others have not requested help or turned it down, citing a lack of confidence in the Afghan security forces," HRW said.
The Taliban threats and the deteriorating security situation follow last year's presidential poll, which was marred by extensive fraud, most of it found to be in favour of President Hamid Karzai.
The Taliban killed and injured hundreds of people leading up to and on election day last year, declaring the election a tool of foreign occupiers, mainly the United States which is leading anti-insurgency efforts.
The United States and NATO have 150,000 troops in Afghanistan, some of which will be deployed to help secure polling centres.
Afghan election authorities have said that security can be provided for 5,987 polling centres, out of a total of 6,835.
Most of those that will remain closed are in Nangahar province, on the eastern border with Pakistan, according to observer Democracy International.
The Independent Election Commission (IEC), which oversees the poll, has said the polling stations will remain shut because security cannot be guaranteed.
Candidates and their supporters have been bombed, kidnapped, shot and -- in one case in troubled Ghazni province south of Kabul -- beheaded.
Last month five people working for candidate Fawzya Gailani in eastern Herat were kidnapped and killed in what remains the most shocking attack on election workers since campaigning began in late June.
That attack sent a message to women candidates that "not just in Herat but in every other province it may not be safe for you to campaign," said Democracy International's Jed Ober.
Most threats reported to the Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan were against women, HRW said in its statement.
It cited "at least 40 incidents of threatening letters or phone calls in 10 provinces. Many of these incidents include threats of violence if the woman does not withdraw her candidacy," it said.
Obama Launches Fall Fight
President Barack Obama capped a rollout of new economic policies with a combative speech Wednesday that tipped the Democratic plan for the fall campaign: attack the Republicans' policies and try to monopolize the economic message until Election Day.
Speaking at Cuyahoga Community College in Parma, Ohio, the president gave his second aggressive campaign address of the past few days—delivering a speech that was part mea culpa, part policy address but mainly red meat for a Democratic base that party officials fear will sleep through the Nov. 2 vote. He conceded that his policies have "fed the perception that Washington is still ignoring the middle class." But he castigated Republican opponents for believing, "If I fail, they win."
"If we're willing again to choose hope over fear, to choose the future over the past, to come together once more around the great project of national renewal, then we will restore our economy, rebuild our middle class and reclaim the American dream for the next generation," he said, striking the revival-like cadences that buoyed his presidential bid.
The speech was billed as a major policy address to kick-start a flagging economy. The president formally announced three proposals the White House had hinted were coming: $50 billion in infrastructure spending; expanding and making permanent the lapsed research tax credit for business; and a measure allowing businesses to write 100% of their investment costs off their taxes through 2011.
Republicans labeled the economic proposals a new try at a failed policy, and instead urged him to extend all of President George W. Bush's tax cuts, not just those for the middle class. "The White House is doubling down on a job-killing plan when millions of unemployed Americans are looking for relief," said Utah Sen. Orrin G. Hatch.
But Mr. Obama's address was far more about politics than economics. The policies he has announced have been met with indifference by many embattled Democratic candidates, if not outright disapproval.
Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, the Democrats' candidate for an open Ohio Senate seat, said he wanted a job-creation tax credit. "I also wish we had seen all these proposals much sooner," he said. And Sen. Michael Bennet (D, Colo.), who is locked in a difficult campaign, said Wednesday, "I will not support additional spending in a second stimulus package."
"The rollout has not been good," said one Democratic congressional campaign aide, who noted there was little coordination between the White House and congressional leaders on the proposals.
Many Democrats did, however, like the President's new, combative tone, which they say is putting Republicans on the defensive. The goal, they say, is to turn the November midterms from a referendum on Democratic control in Washington to a choice between Democratic and Republican policies.
In his speech, the president singled out John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) the House minority leader, eight times by name, characterizing him as the face of a party that wants to bring back the economic policies of the George W. Bush era.
"My attitude is, you should be tough on anyone who always says 'no,'" said Mr. Fisher, the Democrat senatorial hopeful from Ohio, referring to Republicans who have opposed the president's policies.
Chris Coons, the Democrat running for Senate in Delaware, said the president's economic-policy rollout was "a critical way to reinforce that Democrats really are going to fight for these economic battles."
Republicans joined the fray, accusing the president of lying about their positions and refusing their offers to cooperate.
Rep. Boehner, the Republican House leader cited by the president, fired back with an economic proposal that he said should get bipartisan support: extend all of the tax cuts passed under George W. Bush for two years, and cut spending on programs not tied to national security to 2008 levels.
"If we're able to do this together, I think we'll show the American people that we understand what's going on in the country, and we'll be able to get our economy moving again and get jobs growing in America," Mr. Boehner said on ABC's Good Morning America.
It was no coincidence that the president spoke Wednesday outside Cleveland. Mr. Boehner had given his own economic address there last month, and Ohio's governorship, Senate seat and a slew of House seats are in play, with Democratic candidates struggling. Ohio's unemployment rate in July, 10.3%, was above the national average of 9.6% in August.
Ohio remains a critical swing state that Mr. Obama won in 2008 by almost five percentage points. Now it appears to be swinging back to the GOP, and Mr. Obama will have to regain momentum there to support his own chances at re-election to a second term as president.
Mr. Obama's speech signaled a return to campaign mode, drawing on campaign themes that propelled his 2008 surge—his grandfather's service in World War II, his father-in-law's struggle to work despite serious illness and his own work as a community organizer "in the shadow of a shuttered steel plant on the South Side of Chicago."
Giving his party a sharp target, the president castigated Mr. Boehner for proposing "the same [economic] philosophy that led to this mess in the first place."
He hit Republicans hard for opposing the administration's economic plan.
"Instead of setting our sights higher, they're asking us to settle for a status quo of stagnant growth, eroding competitiveness and a shrinking middle class," Mr. Obama said.
For their part, Republicans sought to emphasize, not dodge, their opposition to what they see as the failed policies of the Democrats.
Asked why Republicans are pulling ahead of Democrats in current campaigns, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential rival to Mr. Obama in 2012, said Republicans "in a very unified fashion have opposed bad policy. And the public appreciates it when a party fights against what it knows is bad policy."
Speaking at Cuyahoga Community College in Parma, Ohio, the president gave his second aggressive campaign address of the past few days—delivering a speech that was part mea culpa, part policy address but mainly red meat for a Democratic base that party officials fear will sleep through the Nov. 2 vote. He conceded that his policies have "fed the perception that Washington is still ignoring the middle class." But he castigated Republican opponents for believing, "If I fail, they win."
"If we're willing again to choose hope over fear, to choose the future over the past, to come together once more around the great project of national renewal, then we will restore our economy, rebuild our middle class and reclaim the American dream for the next generation," he said, striking the revival-like cadences that buoyed his presidential bid.
The speech was billed as a major policy address to kick-start a flagging economy. The president formally announced three proposals the White House had hinted were coming: $50 billion in infrastructure spending; expanding and making permanent the lapsed research tax credit for business; and a measure allowing businesses to write 100% of their investment costs off their taxes through 2011.
Republicans labeled the economic proposals a new try at a failed policy, and instead urged him to extend all of President George W. Bush's tax cuts, not just those for the middle class. "The White House is doubling down on a job-killing plan when millions of unemployed Americans are looking for relief," said Utah Sen. Orrin G. Hatch.
But Mr. Obama's address was far more about politics than economics. The policies he has announced have been met with indifference by many embattled Democratic candidates, if not outright disapproval.
Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, the Democrats' candidate for an open Ohio Senate seat, said he wanted a job-creation tax credit. "I also wish we had seen all these proposals much sooner," he said. And Sen. Michael Bennet (D, Colo.), who is locked in a difficult campaign, said Wednesday, "I will not support additional spending in a second stimulus package."
"The rollout has not been good," said one Democratic congressional campaign aide, who noted there was little coordination between the White House and congressional leaders on the proposals.
Many Democrats did, however, like the President's new, combative tone, which they say is putting Republicans on the defensive. The goal, they say, is to turn the November midterms from a referendum on Democratic control in Washington to a choice between Democratic and Republican policies.
In his speech, the president singled out John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) the House minority leader, eight times by name, characterizing him as the face of a party that wants to bring back the economic policies of the George W. Bush era.
"My attitude is, you should be tough on anyone who always says 'no,'" said Mr. Fisher, the Democrat senatorial hopeful from Ohio, referring to Republicans who have opposed the president's policies.
Chris Coons, the Democrat running for Senate in Delaware, said the president's economic-policy rollout was "a critical way to reinforce that Democrats really are going to fight for these economic battles."
Republicans joined the fray, accusing the president of lying about their positions and refusing their offers to cooperate.
Rep. Boehner, the Republican House leader cited by the president, fired back with an economic proposal that he said should get bipartisan support: extend all of the tax cuts passed under George W. Bush for two years, and cut spending on programs not tied to national security to 2008 levels.
"If we're able to do this together, I think we'll show the American people that we understand what's going on in the country, and we'll be able to get our economy moving again and get jobs growing in America," Mr. Boehner said on ABC's Good Morning America.
It was no coincidence that the president spoke Wednesday outside Cleveland. Mr. Boehner had given his own economic address there last month, and Ohio's governorship, Senate seat and a slew of House seats are in play, with Democratic candidates struggling. Ohio's unemployment rate in July, 10.3%, was above the national average of 9.6% in August.
Ohio remains a critical swing state that Mr. Obama won in 2008 by almost five percentage points. Now it appears to be swinging back to the GOP, and Mr. Obama will have to regain momentum there to support his own chances at re-election to a second term as president.
Mr. Obama's speech signaled a return to campaign mode, drawing on campaign themes that propelled his 2008 surge—his grandfather's service in World War II, his father-in-law's struggle to work despite serious illness and his own work as a community organizer "in the shadow of a shuttered steel plant on the South Side of Chicago."
Giving his party a sharp target, the president castigated Mr. Boehner for proposing "the same [economic] philosophy that led to this mess in the first place."
He hit Republicans hard for opposing the administration's economic plan.
"Instead of setting our sights higher, they're asking us to settle for a status quo of stagnant growth, eroding competitiveness and a shrinking middle class," Mr. Obama said.
For their part, Republicans sought to emphasize, not dodge, their opposition to what they see as the failed policies of the Democrats.
Asked why Republicans are pulling ahead of Democrats in current campaigns, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential rival to Mr. Obama in 2012, said Republicans "in a very unified fashion have opposed bad policy. And the public appreciates it when a party fights against what it knows is bad policy."
Obama implores minister to call off Quran burning
President Barack Obama is exhorting a Florida minister to "listen to those better angels" and call off his plan to engage in a Quran-burning protest this weekend.
Obama told ABC's "Good Morning America" in an interview aired Thursday that he hopes the Rev. Terry Jones of Florida listens to the pleas of people who have asked him to call off the plan. The president called it a "stunt."
"If he's listening, I hope he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans," Obama said. "That this country has been built on the notion of freedom and religious tolerance."
"And as a very practical matter, I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform," the president added.
Said Obama: "Look, this is a recruitment bonanza for Al Qaida. You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan." The president also said Jones' plan, if carried out, could serve as an incentive for terrorist-minded individuals "to blow themselves up" to kill others.
"I hope he listens to those better angels and understands that this is a destructive act that he's engaging in," the president said of Jones.
Obama told ABC's "Good Morning America" in an interview aired Thursday that he hopes the Rev. Terry Jones of Florida listens to the pleas of people who have asked him to call off the plan. The president called it a "stunt."
"If he's listening, I hope he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans," Obama said. "That this country has been built on the notion of freedom and religious tolerance."
"And as a very practical matter, I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform," the president added.
Said Obama: "Look, this is a recruitment bonanza for Al Qaida. You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan." The president also said Jones' plan, if carried out, could serve as an incentive for terrorist-minded individuals "to blow themselves up" to kill others.
"I hope he listens to those better angels and understands that this is a destructive act that he's engaging in," the president said of Jones.
Angelina Jolie says, ''No choice but to be optimistic in Pakistan''.
(CNN) -- Amid the overwhelming flood disaster in Pakistan, the world has "no choice but to be optimistic and to have hope" that things can improve there, actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie told CNN.
Jolie is in the country as the personal envoy of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres. She spoke to CNN from Islamabad after touring flood-hit areas of Pakistan, including the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region.
She described meeting a couple in their 70s who live on a pension and who watched as floodwater destroyed the family home they had worked hard to build.
"The woman is so embarrassed with her situation, and the man spoke of the fact that he never felt in his lifetime he is ever going to be able to recuperate what he's lost -- that he would never again have nice things, he would never have a nice bed, a nice house," Jolie told CNN.
They lived in this place since 1972 and raised their children and their grandchildren there. And in a moment, a few hours, it was completely gone."
She said the area the couple lived in is now covered in mud and dirt, with feces in the fly-covered river nearby, all because of the floods.
"It doesn't have the dignity that they deserve to live in -- anybody deserves to live in," Jolie said.
The couple lives in the village of Mohib Banda, where some 70 percent of the homes were destroyed or badly damaged by the swirling floodwater, according to the UNHCR.
The death toll in the country has climbed to 1,738, the Pakistan Disaster Authority said over the weekend.
Almost 21 million people have been affected by the flooding, Valerie Amos, the new U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said Monday.
Water-borne illnesses from contaminated floodwaters have erupted nationwide. At least 1 million Pakistanis have crippling diarrhea or respiratory infections, and about 65,000 cases of malaria have been reported.
Jolie's visit is intended to highlight the suffering of the millions of flood victims and the need for continuing aid for the displaced.
One reason relatively few people have paid attention to the suffering in Pakistan, Jolie said, may be disaster fatigue. She pointed out Pakistan has endured several disasters in recent years, including an earthquake in 2005 that killed more than 70,000 people.
"We tend to focus on one issue at a time, because that seems to be what people can absorb and care for," she said.
She added that it's difficult to convey the story of the disaster in Pakistan, and that even she had no idea what she would face.
"When I was standing in one of the houses, it was nine feet tall, the water. It was not a flood that made everything wet for a (while). It washed away children right out of their parents' hands. It destroyed lives."
Jolie said she would want people to remember this: "They are people. They are family, and lovely, lovely, hard-working people and beautiful children, and they deserve dignity and assistance, and we have to treat them with respect and try to preserve what we can of their livelihood and their future."
The Pakistani people are resilient and will move on, Jolie said, but she urged international support to help them do that.
"I think we have no choice but to be optimistic and to have hope," she said. "I think without that, we are just lost, and things deteriorate."
Jolie is in the country as the personal envoy of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres. She spoke to CNN from Islamabad after touring flood-hit areas of Pakistan, including the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region.
She described meeting a couple in their 70s who live on a pension and who watched as floodwater destroyed the family home they had worked hard to build.
"The woman is so embarrassed with her situation, and the man spoke of the fact that he never felt in his lifetime he is ever going to be able to recuperate what he's lost -- that he would never again have nice things, he would never have a nice bed, a nice house," Jolie told CNN.
They lived in this place since 1972 and raised their children and their grandchildren there. And in a moment, a few hours, it was completely gone."
She said the area the couple lived in is now covered in mud and dirt, with feces in the fly-covered river nearby, all because of the floods.
"It doesn't have the dignity that they deserve to live in -- anybody deserves to live in," Jolie said.
The couple lives in the village of Mohib Banda, where some 70 percent of the homes were destroyed or badly damaged by the swirling floodwater, according to the UNHCR.
The death toll in the country has climbed to 1,738, the Pakistan Disaster Authority said over the weekend.
Almost 21 million people have been affected by the flooding, Valerie Amos, the new U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said Monday.
Water-borne illnesses from contaminated floodwaters have erupted nationwide. At least 1 million Pakistanis have crippling diarrhea or respiratory infections, and about 65,000 cases of malaria have been reported.
Jolie's visit is intended to highlight the suffering of the millions of flood victims and the need for continuing aid for the displaced.
One reason relatively few people have paid attention to the suffering in Pakistan, Jolie said, may be disaster fatigue. She pointed out Pakistan has endured several disasters in recent years, including an earthquake in 2005 that killed more than 70,000 people.
"We tend to focus on one issue at a time, because that seems to be what people can absorb and care for," she said.
She added that it's difficult to convey the story of the disaster in Pakistan, and that even she had no idea what she would face.
"When I was standing in one of the houses, it was nine feet tall, the water. It was not a flood that made everything wet for a (while). It washed away children right out of their parents' hands. It destroyed lives."
Jolie said she would want people to remember this: "They are people. They are family, and lovely, lovely, hard-working people and beautiful children, and they deserve dignity and assistance, and we have to treat them with respect and try to preserve what we can of their livelihood and their future."
The Pakistani people are resilient and will move on, Jolie said, but she urged international support to help them do that.
"I think we have no choice but to be optimistic and to have hope," she said. "I think without that, we are just lost, and things deteriorate."
Pakistan's Intelligence failure
Two bomb blasts in two days targeting policemen and their families expose the weaknesses of our intelligence apparatus. First it was Lakki Marwat, where a suicide attacker rammed his vehicle into a police station. Then, on Tuesday, a bomb was detonated in a police residential colony in Kohat with deadly consequences. Add to this the deadly attacks on processions in Lahore and Quetta.
The intent of the militants is clear: they wish to demoralise the security forces of a country that is struggling for survival. This latest upsurge in violence is no coincidence — the enemies of Pakistan are attempting to inflict maximum damage at a time when resistance levels are low. As the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister pointed out, terrorists are hitting the police when the country’s attention is diverted from militancy because of the ravages of floods. Such attacks should have been foreseen and the intelligence failures involved are simply unacceptable.
True, the country’s military is stretched to the limit as we speak. It is in the forefront of rescue and relief operations that were beyond the capacity, and perhaps will, of the civil administration. Still, not for a moment can the fight against militancy be forgotten and nor can terrorists be allowed to regroup. The reports trickling in from the tribal areas are troubling. On the run last year following the armed forces’ fierce offensive, groups operating under the umbrella of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan are now said to be making a comeback and making the most of the nation’s misery. They cannot be allowed to succeed in their mission.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s remarks about Balochistan do not help at this critical juncture, because the problems plaguing that province are dissimilar from the wider fight against terrorism. Playing to the gallery, he said in Quetta on Tuesday that “use of force” was the only option available for restoring law and order in Balochistan. Missing the point entirely, the interior minister appears to be in favour of a Malakand-kind military operation in Balochistan which is only bound to fuel tensions, not quell them. Instead, he should be looking into tracking down those who fund militancy in this country and seem to have easy access to explosives. The minister needs to set his priorities right and gather better intelligence on terrorist networks and the routes they use, apparently with abandon. What is needed here is prevention. The ‘Balochistan issue’ is entirely different in its complexity from the insurgency raging in the tribal belt. Balochistan’s woes have been decades in the making and can only be resolved through dialogue.
The intent of the militants is clear: they wish to demoralise the security forces of a country that is struggling for survival. This latest upsurge in violence is no coincidence — the enemies of Pakistan are attempting to inflict maximum damage at a time when resistance levels are low. As the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa information minister pointed out, terrorists are hitting the police when the country’s attention is diverted from militancy because of the ravages of floods. Such attacks should have been foreseen and the intelligence failures involved are simply unacceptable.
True, the country’s military is stretched to the limit as we speak. It is in the forefront of rescue and relief operations that were beyond the capacity, and perhaps will, of the civil administration. Still, not for a moment can the fight against militancy be forgotten and nor can terrorists be allowed to regroup. The reports trickling in from the tribal areas are troubling. On the run last year following the armed forces’ fierce offensive, groups operating under the umbrella of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan are now said to be making a comeback and making the most of the nation’s misery. They cannot be allowed to succeed in their mission.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s remarks about Balochistan do not help at this critical juncture, because the problems plaguing that province are dissimilar from the wider fight against terrorism. Playing to the gallery, he said in Quetta on Tuesday that “use of force” was the only option available for restoring law and order in Balochistan. Missing the point entirely, the interior minister appears to be in favour of a Malakand-kind military operation in Balochistan which is only bound to fuel tensions, not quell them. Instead, he should be looking into tracking down those who fund militancy in this country and seem to have easy access to explosives. The minister needs to set his priorities right and gather better intelligence on terrorist networks and the routes they use, apparently with abandon. What is needed here is prevention. The ‘Balochistan issue’ is entirely different in its complexity from the insurgency raging in the tribal belt. Balochistan’s woes have been decades in the making and can only be resolved through dialogue.
Kohat and more
EDITORIAL:Daily Times
Merciless and vengeful, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has struck once again, this time in a police colony in Kohat. Detonating an explosives-laden pickup inside the compound, just behind the guarded police lines, the blast ripped through almost 300 buildings, including schools, markets and residential homes. The scenes were truly horrific as the majority of the 20 killed were women and children who were inside their homes during iftaar time. It is expected that the death toll will rise as there were still some people trapped under the rubble of the TTP’s latest attack.
Vowing to take revenge for the drone strikes in the tribal areas, the TTP has promised more attacks on security and government officials. Such grim announcements and brutal massacres should not come as a surprise as the past week has demonstrated just how determined the militants are to step up their game now that the military’s attention has been diverted towards flood relief. Anyone who thought that the softest targets in society — women, children and residential areas — would be safe, has not understood the reality of the shadowy enemy we are up against. The militants aim to cause maximum damage, widespread fear and loss of lives to prove their point; what better way than to target the most vulnerable? That is why Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain has urged the security forces to implement well-coordinated and effective action against the terrorists. He has stated that it is vital that military attention be diverted from the floods to the insurgency once again.
After such an attack and chilling warning, it is vital that all efforts be taken to protect such areas. When it has been proclaimed that government, security and police officials are under the most threat, nothing should be left to chance; check-posts, apart from being an irritant, have done nothing to secure the urban and settled areas. We need better intelligence to prevent the militants from moving ahead with their dastardly mission. An insecure security force translates into one that is incapable of securing the citizenry.
As further evidence of the virulent spread of terrorism in all its manifestations, the Vice Chancellor (VC) of Islamia College University, Dr Ajmal Khan, was kidnapped on Tuesday by suspected militants. Dr Ajmal is the cousin of Awami National Party’s Chief Asfandyar Wali Khan. It is suspected that the VC has been taken to the Khyber Agency in an eerily similar fashion to the November 2009 kidnapping of the VC of Kohat University of Science and Technology, Dr Lutfullah Kakakhel, who was also spirited off and kept in captivity by the militants for six months. Targeting senior academics is in line with the Taliban view of obliterating education. Another girls school has been blown up in Kalam. This is sadly a routine activity for the militants.
The terrorists are spreading and setting off their attacks like literal hand grenades in almost all regions of the country — tribal and urban. From Kohat to Hangu, where a blast targeting two police mobile vans killed one constable, and Karachi, where an activist of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat was gunned down, no place seems safe from the grip of terrorism. It is time that a full throttle plan is enforced against this scourge that is making its malignant presence felt every single day.
It is time that the flood relief transitioned into rehabilitation. It is time that the government and civil administration of the country take over managing the flood efforts from the army so that an organised military offensive once again strikes at the heart of the Taliban insurgency. Without the army fully engaging in eliminating the terrorists, such attacks are likely to be witnessed with increasing frequency.
Merciless and vengeful, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has struck once again, this time in a police colony in Kohat. Detonating an explosives-laden pickup inside the compound, just behind the guarded police lines, the blast ripped through almost 300 buildings, including schools, markets and residential homes. The scenes were truly horrific as the majority of the 20 killed were women and children who were inside their homes during iftaar time. It is expected that the death toll will rise as there were still some people trapped under the rubble of the TTP’s latest attack.
Vowing to take revenge for the drone strikes in the tribal areas, the TTP has promised more attacks on security and government officials. Such grim announcements and brutal massacres should not come as a surprise as the past week has demonstrated just how determined the militants are to step up their game now that the military’s attention has been diverted towards flood relief. Anyone who thought that the softest targets in society — women, children and residential areas — would be safe, has not understood the reality of the shadowy enemy we are up against. The militants aim to cause maximum damage, widespread fear and loss of lives to prove their point; what better way than to target the most vulnerable? That is why Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain has urged the security forces to implement well-coordinated and effective action against the terrorists. He has stated that it is vital that military attention be diverted from the floods to the insurgency once again.
After such an attack and chilling warning, it is vital that all efforts be taken to protect such areas. When it has been proclaimed that government, security and police officials are under the most threat, nothing should be left to chance; check-posts, apart from being an irritant, have done nothing to secure the urban and settled areas. We need better intelligence to prevent the militants from moving ahead with their dastardly mission. An insecure security force translates into one that is incapable of securing the citizenry.
As further evidence of the virulent spread of terrorism in all its manifestations, the Vice Chancellor (VC) of Islamia College University, Dr Ajmal Khan, was kidnapped on Tuesday by suspected militants. Dr Ajmal is the cousin of Awami National Party’s Chief Asfandyar Wali Khan. It is suspected that the VC has been taken to the Khyber Agency in an eerily similar fashion to the November 2009 kidnapping of the VC of Kohat University of Science and Technology, Dr Lutfullah Kakakhel, who was also spirited off and kept in captivity by the militants for six months. Targeting senior academics is in line with the Taliban view of obliterating education. Another girls school has been blown up in Kalam. This is sadly a routine activity for the militants.
The terrorists are spreading and setting off their attacks like literal hand grenades in almost all regions of the country — tribal and urban. From Kohat to Hangu, where a blast targeting two police mobile vans killed one constable, and Karachi, where an activist of the Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat was gunned down, no place seems safe from the grip of terrorism. It is time that a full throttle plan is enforced against this scourge that is making its malignant presence felt every single day.
It is time that the flood relief transitioned into rehabilitation. It is time that the government and civil administration of the country take over managing the flood efforts from the army so that an organised military offensive once again strikes at the heart of the Taliban insurgency. Without the army fully engaging in eliminating the terrorists, such attacks are likely to be witnessed with increasing frequency.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Pakistan Shocked, Outraged of Alleged Cricket Fraud
It was perhaps the last thing that Pakistan needed. After weeks of enduring the misery wrought by unprecedented floods, the country has been hit by allegations that its national cricket heroes deliberately performed poorly in exchange for money. In a country where passion for the sport arguably outstrips religious fervor, already depressed cricket fans have reacted with a mixture of shock and outrage, as fears build that global sympathy for its flood victims may now be hurt by yet another sour tale of corruption and intrigue.
For the first time in weeks, Pakistanis rose on Sunday to find television coverage of the floods displaced by arresting hidden-camera footage captured by a British tabloid. The slightly grainy images, filmed by an undercover reporter for the News of the World, purportedly revealed a supremely confident and embarrassingly indiscreet man boasting of his ability to manipulate a test match between Pakistan and England in exchange for large sums of money. (See pictures of Pakistan's floods.)
"Our heads have been bowed by shame," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters on Aug. 29. "I am going to ask the Ministry of Sports to order a full inquiry." President Asif Ali Zardari also said that he had taken notice of the news reports and had solicited a full report. Few of his countrymen, however, share his patience. Many devout cricket fans have made up their minds, with some going as far as to urge the team to think twice before returning home.
In the video, in exchange for $230,000, the man, named as Mazhar Majeed, offered eerily accurate details of three occasions in the same test match when Pakistan's bowlers would bowl "no-balls." (A no-ball is a pitch that is delivered from outside the regulation pitching zone; it doesn't count and the batting side is awarded a run. There is no exact baseball equivalent, but it's similar to a pitcher, in the act of throwing the ball, stepping outside the pitching mound.) Of the options available to benefit betting syndicates, Majeed said that no-balls are the "easiest" and the "clearest" to fix. Not only did Majeed's predictions come true, the bowlers stepped outside the zone by remarkable distances. "Oh, it's a big no-ball," the television commentator observed after the first instance.
That was just a taste of what Majeed was willing to offer, according to the newspaper. "I've been doing it with them, the Pakistani team, for about two and a half years. And we've made masses and masses of money," the newspaper quoted him as saying. There were millions to be made, he added. A senior government official tells TIME that Majeed had been seen hanging around with the team during their recent tour of Australia, where lackluster performances first aroused suspicions of cheating. (Watch a video about cricket in India.)
That run of illicit wealth appeared to come to an end on Saturday after the newspaper furnished its evidence to the police. Scotland Yard said that it had arrested a 35-year-old man on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers after receiving information from the News of the World. The man has now been released on bail. Three Pakistani players have had their phones confiscated by the police.
The test-match series against England held especial appeal for many Pakistani fans. When British Prime Minister David Cameron accused Pakistan of "looking both ways" on the export of terrorism in the region while on a visit to India last month, the nationalist-minded among them hoped that revenge would be exacted on the cricket field. And when news channels could relay only the misery of those whose lives had been swept away by the floods, cricket became an attractive distraction.
It may be a long time before the national team can excite passions at home again. "This comes at the worst time," says Mohammad Malick, editor of the News, an influential English-language daily in Pakistan. "We've been suffering terrorism. We are suffering floods. And now they've just made us look like a nation of callous crooks." Desperate to lure much-needed foreign aid to ease the country's recovery from the floods, many Pakistanis are now worried that their long-suffering image abroad will be further ruined. "Everybody is not a cheater in Pakistan," says Aitzaz Ahsan, the country's leading lawyer and a politician. "The overwhelming majority are honest and hardworking, believe in the values of the civilized world, are resisting terrorism and are against corruption. It's a minuscule minority - often celebrities - that brings shame to honorable Pakistanis."
Many Pakistanis hasten to point out that former English, Indian and South African captains have fallen foul of cricket's decorous traditions before. But the Pakistani side's fortunes have been sliding in recent years, with controversy on-and-off the pitch. Mohammad Asif, one of the bowlers suspected of deliberately hurling a no-ball, has tested positive for the use of illegal substances twice. In 2008, he was arrested by Dubai police for possession of drugs, but was released on the grounds of insufficient evidence. A prominent Pakistani actress later accused Asif of not repaying the money he had supposedly borrowed from her, sparking a media frenzy.
While the cricketers are naturally responsible for their actions, the allegations have also intensified criticism of the national cricket board. "These days, many of our cricketers come from economically deprived backgrounds," says Malick, the newspaper editor. "These kids were nobodies, then they played a few matches and suddenly became celebrities. It goes to their heads and that makes them prey for crooked bookmakers. It's the board's job to get them used to their newfound wealth and fame." The senior government official tells TIME that he has repeatedly spoken to Zardari about replacing Ijaz Butt, the board's chairman. Each time, the official says, his pleas were rebuffed as he was reminded that Butt was the Defense Minister's brother-in-law and had to stay. In Pakistan, the president also serves as the patron-in-chief of the cricket board, a controversial tradition. "The country's elite have been found [lacking] in their adherence to the best values and have shown their corrupt ways," says Ahsan, the lawyer. If the elite are seen to constantly evade accountability, Ahsan continues, "the effect is that it corrupts the value systems down below."
The match-fixing controversy now threatens Pakistan's love affair with its cricket team. Since March 2009, when the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked by armed terrorists in the heart of Lahore, no international fixtures can be played at home. Now, suspicions of match fixing hang over seven of Pakistan's best players. If the allegations prove true, this country's millions of devotees could be left with no team worth cheering for.
For the first time in weeks, Pakistanis rose on Sunday to find television coverage of the floods displaced by arresting hidden-camera footage captured by a British tabloid. The slightly grainy images, filmed by an undercover reporter for the News of the World, purportedly revealed a supremely confident and embarrassingly indiscreet man boasting of his ability to manipulate a test match between Pakistan and England in exchange for large sums of money. (See pictures of Pakistan's floods.)
"Our heads have been bowed by shame," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told reporters on Aug. 29. "I am going to ask the Ministry of Sports to order a full inquiry." President Asif Ali Zardari also said that he had taken notice of the news reports and had solicited a full report. Few of his countrymen, however, share his patience. Many devout cricket fans have made up their minds, with some going as far as to urge the team to think twice before returning home.
In the video, in exchange for $230,000, the man, named as Mazhar Majeed, offered eerily accurate details of three occasions in the same test match when Pakistan's bowlers would bowl "no-balls." (A no-ball is a pitch that is delivered from outside the regulation pitching zone; it doesn't count and the batting side is awarded a run. There is no exact baseball equivalent, but it's similar to a pitcher, in the act of throwing the ball, stepping outside the pitching mound.) Of the options available to benefit betting syndicates, Majeed said that no-balls are the "easiest" and the "clearest" to fix. Not only did Majeed's predictions come true, the bowlers stepped outside the zone by remarkable distances. "Oh, it's a big no-ball," the television commentator observed after the first instance.
That was just a taste of what Majeed was willing to offer, according to the newspaper. "I've been doing it with them, the Pakistani team, for about two and a half years. And we've made masses and masses of money," the newspaper quoted him as saying. There were millions to be made, he added. A senior government official tells TIME that Majeed had been seen hanging around with the team during their recent tour of Australia, where lackluster performances first aroused suspicions of cheating. (Watch a video about cricket in India.)
That run of illicit wealth appeared to come to an end on Saturday after the newspaper furnished its evidence to the police. Scotland Yard said that it had arrested a 35-year-old man on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud bookmakers after receiving information from the News of the World. The man has now been released on bail. Three Pakistani players have had their phones confiscated by the police.
The test-match series against England held especial appeal for many Pakistani fans. When British Prime Minister David Cameron accused Pakistan of "looking both ways" on the export of terrorism in the region while on a visit to India last month, the nationalist-minded among them hoped that revenge would be exacted on the cricket field. And when news channels could relay only the misery of those whose lives had been swept away by the floods, cricket became an attractive distraction.
It may be a long time before the national team can excite passions at home again. "This comes at the worst time," says Mohammad Malick, editor of the News, an influential English-language daily in Pakistan. "We've been suffering terrorism. We are suffering floods. And now they've just made us look like a nation of callous crooks." Desperate to lure much-needed foreign aid to ease the country's recovery from the floods, many Pakistanis are now worried that their long-suffering image abroad will be further ruined. "Everybody is not a cheater in Pakistan," says Aitzaz Ahsan, the country's leading lawyer and a politician. "The overwhelming majority are honest and hardworking, believe in the values of the civilized world, are resisting terrorism and are against corruption. It's a minuscule minority - often celebrities - that brings shame to honorable Pakistanis."
Many Pakistanis hasten to point out that former English, Indian and South African captains have fallen foul of cricket's decorous traditions before. But the Pakistani side's fortunes have been sliding in recent years, with controversy on-and-off the pitch. Mohammad Asif, one of the bowlers suspected of deliberately hurling a no-ball, has tested positive for the use of illegal substances twice. In 2008, he was arrested by Dubai police for possession of drugs, but was released on the grounds of insufficient evidence. A prominent Pakistani actress later accused Asif of not repaying the money he had supposedly borrowed from her, sparking a media frenzy.
While the cricketers are naturally responsible for their actions, the allegations have also intensified criticism of the national cricket board. "These days, many of our cricketers come from economically deprived backgrounds," says Malick, the newspaper editor. "These kids were nobodies, then they played a few matches and suddenly became celebrities. It goes to their heads and that makes them prey for crooked bookmakers. It's the board's job to get them used to their newfound wealth and fame." The senior government official tells TIME that he has repeatedly spoken to Zardari about replacing Ijaz Butt, the board's chairman. Each time, the official says, his pleas were rebuffed as he was reminded that Butt was the Defense Minister's brother-in-law and had to stay. In Pakistan, the president also serves as the patron-in-chief of the cricket board, a controversial tradition. "The country's elite have been found [lacking] in their adherence to the best values and have shown their corrupt ways," says Ahsan, the lawyer. If the elite are seen to constantly evade accountability, Ahsan continues, "the effect is that it corrupts the value systems down below."
The match-fixing controversy now threatens Pakistan's love affair with its cricket team. Since March 2009, when the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked by armed terrorists in the heart of Lahore, no international fixtures can be played at home. Now, suspicions of match fixing hang over seven of Pakistan's best players. If the allegations prove true, this country's millions of devotees could be left with no team worth cheering for.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Pakistan Police horror
The Frontier Post
Editorial:
As a freak flash flooding is wreaking horror on our land and on our people, the police force is wreaking its own on them terribly. Two recent episodes alone should be sufficiently illustrative, both caught on camera. In one, the police let a lynching mob beat to death with sticks two young boys, both brothers, right under its eye and later string up their bodies on the pole in the square of the Sialkot village where this horrific killing occurred. Not that this is the first act of its kind. Incidents of vigilante justice have lately been surfacing increasingly, indicating worryingly that the polity is getting violent. But this is perhaps the first vigilante murder that took place under the police force’s very nose. Some media reports suggest that the lynching took place in the presence of a police posse and as many as 14 police cops are among the 17 persons booked for this murder. The footage put out by a private television channel shows at least one clearly-identifiable uniformed police official in the mob, moving about unconcernedly, if not indulgently, making no move at all to save the victims, and thus holding out the frightening spectre of law-enforcers’ collusive role. The other episode sends the creeps in the body all over chillingly, so shocking it is. It relates to the police savaging of a Bahawalpur medical college students, protesting against a whopping increase in their fee. A photograph, splashed by the national print media, shows a jovial danda-wielding police official, who seems holding a high rank, pouncing viciously on a female student while she is scurrying haplessly to shield herself from his stick assault. This could happen only in a wild, lawless polity where prevails the law of jungle, not a civilised society that at least we profess to be. The attacking cops are so bold in roughing up the protesting students that they are least pushed that their assault is being filmed. The photograph clearly shows a photographer taking snaps of their charge. It appears that they were rather happy being photographed as if they were performing some heroic deed by raining their danda strikes on students, unsparing even the female students, and that they would rather have their feat visually covered for record. The Supreme Court has, commendably, taken promptly the suo motu notice of the terrible lynching and has ordered a high-level investigation. Surely, the culprits will be held to account and will have to pay for their criminality. And there is every hope that the police roughing up of female students would not evade the judicial notice, either. It is the superior judiciary that indeed has been taking notice of official malevolence that often goes unnoticed by the executive branch whose job actually it is to deal sternly with official misconduct but it fails to do more often than not. In fact, over these times the police brutalisation of the hapless is coming to the public fore increasingly, thanks to modern communications technologies, indicating that there has been no change in police culture and in police psyche, notwithstanding all those assertions of the nation’s top echelons regarding having changed the force into a people-friendly apparatus. It may have become anything, but people-friendly it has become not. High-handedness, torture, savaging and extra-judicial methods still stay its preferred tools unrelentingly. Not once but many a time over these days footage showing cops leather-flogging the accused has made appearance to a horrified public. More terribly, police cops have been caught on camera beating even the flood-ravaged people, who need compassion not savaging. Starving, hungry and thirsty as they are, a certain amount of unruliness can naturally be expected from them while struggling to lay hand on some relief supply from a truck or a relief camp to mitigate their suffering. With sweet persuasion and mild reprimand, they can be brought to orderliness. But the police force, evidently, is not initiated in this art. It has been groomed only in employing the muscle power, although this force is often the first to lose all grit and make a hasty retreat with the tail between the legs if the challenge is severe and strong. The increasing waywardness and misconduct of the force telling tells that its internal mechanisms of vigilance and monitoring are very feeble. After all, how comes the top echelons of the force and their political bosses learn of a police savagery from media reports, not internally? It is only then that the top comes into action, and not infrequently after the superior judiciary has taken suo motu notice of it. The real snag, however, is the outside interference not only in the police working but even in its recruitments, postings, transfers and promotions. Unless merit in inducted decisively at every tier of the force and outside interference and patronage are outlawed completely from it, no good could be expected from it. Police cops would keep watching lynching and keep beating female students. That’s that.
Saved from: http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=ed&nid=50&ad=22-08-201
Dated: Sunday, August 22, 2010, Ramadan 11, 1431 A.H
Editorial:
As a freak flash flooding is wreaking horror on our land and on our people, the police force is wreaking its own on them terribly. Two recent episodes alone should be sufficiently illustrative, both caught on camera. In one, the police let a lynching mob beat to death with sticks two young boys, both brothers, right under its eye and later string up their bodies on the pole in the square of the Sialkot village where this horrific killing occurred. Not that this is the first act of its kind. Incidents of vigilante justice have lately been surfacing increasingly, indicating worryingly that the polity is getting violent. But this is perhaps the first vigilante murder that took place under the police force’s very nose. Some media reports suggest that the lynching took place in the presence of a police posse and as many as 14 police cops are among the 17 persons booked for this murder. The footage put out by a private television channel shows at least one clearly-identifiable uniformed police official in the mob, moving about unconcernedly, if not indulgently, making no move at all to save the victims, and thus holding out the frightening spectre of law-enforcers’ collusive role. The other episode sends the creeps in the body all over chillingly, so shocking it is. It relates to the police savaging of a Bahawalpur medical college students, protesting against a whopping increase in their fee. A photograph, splashed by the national print media, shows a jovial danda-wielding police official, who seems holding a high rank, pouncing viciously on a female student while she is scurrying haplessly to shield herself from his stick assault. This could happen only in a wild, lawless polity where prevails the law of jungle, not a civilised society that at least we profess to be. The attacking cops are so bold in roughing up the protesting students that they are least pushed that their assault is being filmed. The photograph clearly shows a photographer taking snaps of their charge. It appears that they were rather happy being photographed as if they were performing some heroic deed by raining their danda strikes on students, unsparing even the female students, and that they would rather have their feat visually covered for record. The Supreme Court has, commendably, taken promptly the suo motu notice of the terrible lynching and has ordered a high-level investigation. Surely, the culprits will be held to account and will have to pay for their criminality. And there is every hope that the police roughing up of female students would not evade the judicial notice, either. It is the superior judiciary that indeed has been taking notice of official malevolence that often goes unnoticed by the executive branch whose job actually it is to deal sternly with official misconduct but it fails to do more often than not. In fact, over these times the police brutalisation of the hapless is coming to the public fore increasingly, thanks to modern communications technologies, indicating that there has been no change in police culture and in police psyche, notwithstanding all those assertions of the nation’s top echelons regarding having changed the force into a people-friendly apparatus. It may have become anything, but people-friendly it has become not. High-handedness, torture, savaging and extra-judicial methods still stay its preferred tools unrelentingly. Not once but many a time over these days footage showing cops leather-flogging the accused has made appearance to a horrified public. More terribly, police cops have been caught on camera beating even the flood-ravaged people, who need compassion not savaging. Starving, hungry and thirsty as they are, a certain amount of unruliness can naturally be expected from them while struggling to lay hand on some relief supply from a truck or a relief camp to mitigate their suffering. With sweet persuasion and mild reprimand, they can be brought to orderliness. But the police force, evidently, is not initiated in this art. It has been groomed only in employing the muscle power, although this force is often the first to lose all grit and make a hasty retreat with the tail between the legs if the challenge is severe and strong. The increasing waywardness and misconduct of the force telling tells that its internal mechanisms of vigilance and monitoring are very feeble. After all, how comes the top echelons of the force and their political bosses learn of a police savagery from media reports, not internally? It is only then that the top comes into action, and not infrequently after the superior judiciary has taken suo motu notice of it. The real snag, however, is the outside interference not only in the police working but even in its recruitments, postings, transfers and promotions. Unless merit in inducted decisively at every tier of the force and outside interference and patronage are outlawed completely from it, no good could be expected from it. Police cops would keep watching lynching and keep beating female students. That’s that.
Saved from: http://www.thefrontierpost.com/News.aspx?ncat=ed&nid=50&ad=22-08-201
Dated: Sunday, August 22, 2010, Ramadan 11, 1431 A.H
Pakistan battles economic pain of floods
Pakistan is courting IMF help to alleviate the threat of economic ruin as enormous floods wipe out farmland and industry, triggering UN warnings that the restive country faces years of pain.
Authorities Sunday were evacuating people from a town and flood-hit villages in the south from encroaching floodwaters, which nationwide have killed 1,500 people and affected up to 20 million, according to official tallies.
Pakistan's weak civilian government has faced an outpouring of public fury over sluggish relief efforts, while officials warn the country faces economic losses of up to 43 billion dollars.
The International Monetary Fund said it would meet Pakistani officials in Washington this week to discuss the impact of floods that have devastated the country's southern agricultural breadbasket and its textiles industry.
Pakistan may reportedly ask the IMF to ease the terms of a 10-billion-dollar loan, which since 2008 has helped to prop up the enfeebled economy.
Millions of flood survivors in desperate need of food, shelter and clean drinking water meanwhile require humanitarian assistance to survive, as concerns grow over potential cholera, typhoid and hepatitis outbreaks.
On Saturday, six flood victims, including three women and two children, were killed and 25 others injured after being electrocuted in the Kashmore district of the southern province of Sindh, officials said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has praised the global community as emergency donations for Pakistan neared 500 million dollars, but warned the flood-stricken nation faces "years of need".
The United States, which has made the nuclear-armed nation a cornerstone ally in the fight against Islamic extremism, has given the most, followed by Saudi Arabia and Britain.
On Friday Ban welcomed the donations, but warned: "We must keep it up. Pakistan is facing weeks, months and years of need."
"It is very likely that the need for donations will strongly increase because... the number of people in need of immediate humanitarian aid has risen from six to eight million," Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Islamabad, told AFP.
The UN has increased its estimate of the number of people without shelter from two million to six million, he added.
"We have more than doubled the rate at which we are delivering relief but, since August 11, the number of people who need emergency help has undoubtedly more than tripled. We are in a race against time."
The UN World Food Programme said it urgently needed helicopters to get food to millions of flood victims who remain cut off by the high waters, although weather forecasters say the monsoon systems are easing off.
The WFP warned that the floods have killed or are threatening millions of livestock, and launched an urgent appeal for animal feed.
Flood survivors camping out in miserable conditions have staged angry, if isolated, protests against the government, shutting main highways and forcing police to mobilise.
Food prices are soaring. Pakistan has suffered an electricity crisis for years, but now the flood waters have forced power stations to close, exacerbating energy cuts and leaving entire communities without power.
"Alienation towards the government has increased and in the long run it can create internal instability. The opposition can cash in on that and in the long term, Islamist militants can benefit," analyst Hasan Askari warned.
Authorities Sunday were evacuating people from a town and flood-hit villages in the south from encroaching floodwaters, which nationwide have killed 1,500 people and affected up to 20 million, according to official tallies.
Pakistan's weak civilian government has faced an outpouring of public fury over sluggish relief efforts, while officials warn the country faces economic losses of up to 43 billion dollars.
The International Monetary Fund said it would meet Pakistani officials in Washington this week to discuss the impact of floods that have devastated the country's southern agricultural breadbasket and its textiles industry.
Pakistan may reportedly ask the IMF to ease the terms of a 10-billion-dollar loan, which since 2008 has helped to prop up the enfeebled economy.
Millions of flood survivors in desperate need of food, shelter and clean drinking water meanwhile require humanitarian assistance to survive, as concerns grow over potential cholera, typhoid and hepatitis outbreaks.
On Saturday, six flood victims, including three women and two children, were killed and 25 others injured after being electrocuted in the Kashmore district of the southern province of Sindh, officials said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has praised the global community as emergency donations for Pakistan neared 500 million dollars, but warned the flood-stricken nation faces "years of need".
The United States, which has made the nuclear-armed nation a cornerstone ally in the fight against Islamic extremism, has given the most, followed by Saudi Arabia and Britain.
On Friday Ban welcomed the donations, but warned: "We must keep it up. Pakistan is facing weeks, months and years of need."
"It is very likely that the need for donations will strongly increase because... the number of people in need of immediate humanitarian aid has risen from six to eight million," Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Islamabad, told AFP.
The UN has increased its estimate of the number of people without shelter from two million to six million, he added.
"We have more than doubled the rate at which we are delivering relief but, since August 11, the number of people who need emergency help has undoubtedly more than tripled. We are in a race against time."
The UN World Food Programme said it urgently needed helicopters to get food to millions of flood victims who remain cut off by the high waters, although weather forecasters say the monsoon systems are easing off.
The WFP warned that the floods have killed or are threatening millions of livestock, and launched an urgent appeal for animal feed.
Flood survivors camping out in miserable conditions have staged angry, if isolated, protests against the government, shutting main highways and forcing police to mobilise.
Food prices are soaring. Pakistan has suffered an electricity crisis for years, but now the flood waters have forced power stations to close, exacerbating energy cuts and leaving entire communities without power.
"Alienation towards the government has increased and in the long run it can create internal instability. The opposition can cash in on that and in the long term, Islamist militants can benefit," analyst Hasan Askari warned.
Clinton Invokes Climate Change Debate to Explain Pakistan Floods
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials are pointing to the devastating floods in Pakistan and other extreme weather events as signs that climate change is getting worse.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials are pointing to the devastating floods in Pakistan and other extreme weather events as signs that climate change is getting worse.
Clinton, in an interview with Pakistan's Dawn TV, said "there is a linkage" between the recent spate of deadly natural disasters and climate change.
"You can't point to any particular disaster and say, 'it was caused by,' but we are changing the climate of the world," she said.
Clinton said that on top of the Pakistan floods, which have forced millions out of their homes, the forest fires in Russia stand as another example. She said there's no "direct link" between the disasters in Pakistan and Russia but that "when you have the changes in climate that affect weather that we're now seeing, I think the predictions of more natural disasters are unfortunately being played out."
Climate change skeptics say the planet is going through natural phases -- the kind it's gone through for eons. Pakistan, in particular, is prone to flooding and is routinely drenched by the monsoon rains. Some officials have partially blamed deforestation and inferior levee systems for the historic flooding which has affected one-fifth of the country's landmass and triggered nearly a half-billion dollars in international aid commitments.
Scientists who study climate change tend to offer more nuance in their explanations of the possible link to a rise in greenhouse gas emissions. They generally say that no one natural disaster can be chalked up to man-caused climate change, but that it can contribute to those disasters happening more frequently and more intensely.
Both the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change and the World Meteorological Organization reiterated that point in light of the Pakistan floods. WMO climate data chief Omar Baddour was quoted saying it's "too early to point to a human fingerprint" behind the recent disasters but climate change may be "exacerbating the intensity" of them.
But some government officials have shown little equivocation in directly linking the Pakistan disaster with climate change.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan's foreign minister, said Thursday that his country's flooding "reconfirms our extreme vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials are pointing to the devastating floods in Pakistan and other extreme weather events as signs that climate change is getting worse.
Clinton, in an interview with Pakistan's Dawn TV, said "there is a linkage" between the recent spate of deadly natural disasters and climate change.
"You can't point to any particular disaster and say, 'it was caused by,' but we are changing the climate of the world," she said.
Clinton said that on top of the Pakistan floods, which have forced millions out of their homes, the forest fires in Russia stand as another example. She said there's no "direct link" between the disasters in Pakistan and Russia but that "when you have the changes in climate that affect weather that we're now seeing, I think the predictions of more natural disasters are unfortunately being played out."
Climate change skeptics say the planet is going through natural phases -- the kind it's gone through for eons. Pakistan, in particular, is prone to flooding and is routinely drenched by the monsoon rains. Some officials have partially blamed deforestation and inferior levee systems for the historic flooding which has affected one-fifth of the country's landmass and triggered nearly a half-billion dollars in international aid commitments.
Scientists who study climate change tend to offer more nuance in their explanations of the possible link to a rise in greenhouse gas emissions. They generally say that no one natural disaster can be chalked up to man-caused climate change, but that it can contribute to those disasters happening more frequently and more intensely.
Both the U.N. International Panel on Climate Change and the World Meteorological Organization reiterated that point in light of the Pakistan floods. WMO climate data chief Omar Baddour was quoted saying it's "too early to point to a human fingerprint" behind the recent disasters but climate change may be "exacerbating the intensity" of them.
But some government officials have shown little equivocation in directly linking the Pakistan disaster with climate change.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan's foreign minister, said Thursday that his country's flooding "reconfirms our extreme vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change."
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