Articles found July 15, 2007
Pardon for child 'suicide bomber'
Article Link
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- A 14-year-old would-be suicide bomber from Pakistan, caught while on a mission to blow up an Afghan provincial governor, was pardoned on Sunday by President Hamid Karzai.
Taliban insurgents and their al Qaeda allies have launched a wave of suicide attacks against Afghan, NATO and U.S.-led forces in the last two years, seeking to show the government and its Western allies are incapable of providing security.
Most of the victims are Afghan civilians.
The first whiskers of a moustache on his top lip, Rafiqullah stood to one side of the Afghan president, his father, with a full beard, stood to the other, at a ceremony in the capital on Sunday.
Rafiqullah's father, a poor tradesman from South Waziristan in Pakistan, had sent his son to a religious school, or madrassa, to learn the Koran. Later, when he asked where his son was, the teachers there brushed him off, he said.
Then last month, the 14-year-old was caught wearing a suicide vest on a motorbike in the eastern Afghan city of Khost.
"Today we are facing a hard fact, that is a Muslim child was sent to madrassa to learn Islamic subjects, but the enemies of Afghanistan misled him towards suicide and prepared him to die and kill," Karzai told reporters, his arm on the boy's shoulder.
The boy and father bowed their heads as Karzai spoke.
More on link
'New' al Qaeda tape may contain old clip of bin Laden
Article Link
Osama bin Laden stresses the importance of martyrdom for Muslim causes in a videotape that purportedly contains a 50-second message from the al Qaeda leader.
The 40-minute videotape, whose audio was being translated from Arabic by CNN, was intercepted before it was to appear on several Islamist Web sites known for carrying statements from al Qaeda and other radical groups.
The videotape, titled "A Special Surprise from As-Sahab. Heaven's Breeze Part I," was made in the last four weeks, but the clips appear to be old, said Octavia Nasr, CNN's senior editor for Arab affairs. There is no indication of where it was shot, and CNN cannot verify its authenticity.
"We're aware of the tape," a government official, who didn't want to be identified, told CNN. The official agreed that the tape's content is not necessarily new.
"There has not been, over time, a one-to-one correlation between release of a tape and any significant operation or attack afterward," the official added.
More on link
Uruzgan, were the Dutch hoodwinked?
by Louise Dunne 11-07-2007
Article Link
Tuesday's suicide attack in southern Afghanistan, which left at least 17 civilians dead and a number of Dutch soldiers injured, has again raised questions about Dutch involvement in Afghanistan. A year ago, the deployment of Dutch troops in the Afghan province of Uruzgan was widely seen as primarily a reconstruction mission but it's becoming clearer by the day that this is a military operation with all the attendant risks.
It's not the case that NATO's stated aim in Afghanistan has changed but public perception here in The Netherlands has, with reports of deaths and casualties a rude awakening for many. So how did this original misperception arise? Were Dutch voters hoodwinked by the politicians into supporting a fighting force dressed in the sheep's clothing of peacekeepers?
The original ISAF mission
The International Security Assistance Force's (ISAF) primary role is to support the government of Afghanistan in providing and maintaining a secure environment in order to facilitate the rebuilding of Afghanistan.
The official NATO statement on the purpose of the ISAF seems clear enough: establish security so rebuilding can begin. And security means fighting. But in the run-up to the 2006 decision to participate in the mission, the government put the emphasis on reconstruction.
More on link
Dutch ISAF troops 'failing'
21-06-2007 Louise Dunne and RNW Internet Desk (Older article - interesting issues)
Article Link
Unease about Dutch involvement in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan is steadily growing in the Netherlands and the director of a Dutch aid organisation has warned that the mission may be doing more harm than good.
The deaths of two soldiers over the past week has raised concerns about the dangers of the mission - but questions are also being asked about whether it's actually achieving anything and about the rising number of civilian casualties.
The aim of the ISAF mission to Afghanistan is to establish security so reconstruction work can be carried out - but critics say troops in Uruzgan are fully occupied by fighting, leaving no time for rebuilding.
Focus for violence
Willem van de Put, director of Healthnet TPO, which provides medical aid in Afghanistan, told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that the ISAF soldiers are becoming a focus for the increasing violence:
"The original idea is that it would be the right balance between diplomacy
More on link
Canada commits $8 million to new Afghan projects
Updated Thu. Jul. 12 2007 10:15 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link
Canada will provide $8 million towards three new projects that are aimed at helping promote the rule of law and enhancing the justice system in Afghanistan.
The three projects are being implemented by the International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association, Rights and Democracy and CANADAEM.
"Today, Canada's New Government is partnering with trusted organizations to help Afghanistan make crucial legal reforms and build a sustainable foundation for the promotion of justice and the rule of law," International Cooperation Minister Josee Verner announced Thursday in a news conference.
"Canada's funding will help extend the scope of legal-judicial reform in Afghanistan to reach the most disadvantaged, including women and some of the most vulnerable elements of society."
The announcement came amid the results of a new poll that suggested Canadians are becoming more alarmed about the growing number of Canadian casualties in Afghanistan.
The Canadian Press-Decima Research poll found that 67 per cent of those asked felt the number of Canadians killed or wounded is unacceptably high -- even when considering whatever progress has been made rebuilding Afghanistan.
More on link
Al Qaeda sharpening U.S. focus, officials fear
Article Link
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Al Qaeda is increasing its efforts to get operatives into the United States for an attack and has nearly all the resources it needs to carry out such a mission, a draft of a new U.S. government intelligence analysis says, according to two government officials familiar with it.
Those resources include a safe haven along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border from which the terrorist organization's leaders can operate, the officials told CNN.
The classified report, called a National Intelligence Estimate, represents the combined analyses of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. Officials spoke to CNN anonymously because the report is not final.
Several U.S. officials said the final report is expected to emphasize what policymakers have been saying publicly: /topics/al_qaeda" class="cnnInlineTopic">al Qaeda is regrouping and remains intent on attacking in the United States. Watch analysis of why al Qaeda is growing »
On Wednesday, a senior government official told CNN about another analysis, prepared for senior U.S. policymakers, that concludes al Qaeda is the strongest it has been since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, despite more than five years of military actions and counterterrorism operations by the United States and its allies.
That analysis also dealt with the issue of al Qaeda's resurgence in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf last year gave primary responsibility for controlling the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan to tribal leaders.
More on link
British soldier killed in Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2007-07-13 05:30:52
Article Link
LONDON, July 12 (Xinhua) -- The British Ministry of Defense (MoD) said on Thursday that a British soldier was killed in Afghanistan.
"It is with much sadness that the Ministry of Defense must confirm the death of a British soldier from the 1st Battalion The Grenadier Guards near Gereshk in Helmand province, Afghanistan today, Thursday 12 July 2007." the MoD said in a statement.
"During an enemy contact, the soldier suffered a gunshot wound at approximately 0800 hours local time. He was rapidly evacuated by helicopter and despite the very best efforts of emergency medical staff he was pronounced dead on arrival at the field hospital." the ministry said.
Two other soldiers were injured in another part of the same operation, the ministry added.
The Grenadier Guards soldier was working as part of the 1st Battalion Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment Battlegroup, who are undertaking operations alongside Afghan National Security Forces to improve security in the Helmand River valley.
The fatality brought Britain's death toll in Afghanistan to 64.
More on link
Jonathan Kay: How Washington fumbled away Afghanistan
Article Link
When it comes to appraising the situation in Afghanistan, there are few sources more credible that Sarah Chayes. She is a Pashto-speaking American woman who has lived in Kandahar since 2002, helping ordinary Afghans through her NGO, the Arghand Cooperative. A year ago, she published The Punishment of Virtue, a fascinating account of her observations on post-9/11 Afghanistan. She also recently wrote a lengthy article for Boston Review (subsequently excerpted on the opinion pages of the National Post) about the many problems the country is facing, especially corruption. Canadian politicians and military leaders who visit Afghanistan often consult with her.
This week, Chayes wrote a fascinating piece for the op-ed page of The New York Times, in which she traces the root of the military problems that NATO troops (including Canadians) are facing in Afghanistan. Her surprising conclusion: the multinational NATO contigent is doing better than the all-American force it's replaced. The reason: NATO troops are good fighters -- but unlike the Americans, they also focus as closely on the underlying social and political context as on the business of fighting.
In fact, Chayes concludes that things would be a lot better in Afghanistan if NATO had been brought in earlier. Her conclusions in this respect are worth quoting at length:
But if NATO is doing better than the United States, why is Afghanistan doing worse? The answer is twofold. NATO was brought in too late, and under false pretenses.
Within days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, NATO voted to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty — its core principle, which states that an armed attack on one member will be viewed by the others as an attack on themselves. Never before in the history of the organization had the principle been activated. The American reaction was thanks but no thanks. Our government was sure we could go it alone in Afghanistan, that allies would be an inconvenience.
In 2003, NATO moved peacekeeping forces into Kabul and parts of northern Afghanistan. But not until 2005, when it was clear that the United States was bogged down in Iraq and lacked sufficient resources to fight on two fronts, did Washington belatedly turn to NATO to take the Afghan south off its hands. And then it misrepresented the situation our allies would find there. NATO was basically sold a beefed-up peacekeeping mission. It was told, in effect, that it would simply need to maintain the order the United States had established and to help with reconstruction and security.
More on link
Chinese-Made Armor-Piercing Bullets Found in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Sharon Weinberger July 13, 2007 | 10:43:02 AMCategories: Armor, Eye on China
Article Link
Is there a China connection with Iraq and Afghanistan? Yes, according to a departing senior Pentagon official, who says that the Chinese-origin armor-piercing bullets -- of particular concern to U.S. and coalition troops - have showed up in the two countries. This article, from the Financial Times, came out a few days ago, but I think was lost in the shuffle of Iraq news, so it's worth highlighting here:
More on link
Withdrawal from Iraq will affect India too: US
14 Jul 2007, 1030 hrs IST,IANS
Article Link
WASHINGTON: The Bush administration suggests that a premature withdrawal of US forces from Iraq would create a terror base there and cause reverberations across the globe from Afghanistan to Pakistan to India.
President George Bush "believes that leaving, in the absence of conditions that will allow the Iraqis to support themselves, would result in the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis and the kind of security challenge that would make your head spin," White House spokesman Tony Snow said on Friday.
Painting a very scary scenario of the situation after US withdrawal, he said, "...what would happen is that you would have a terror base in Iraq; you would have a strengthened Iran; you would have a rejuvenated Al-Qaida that gets a 'see, told you so,' would have increased ability to recruit throughout the globe."
"Furthermore, our allies in the region are going to say, well, wait a minute, we're not going to rely on the Americans. We'll cut side deals with Al-Qaida or Iran. You'll have increasing instability in Afghanistan that will bleed over into Pakistan, that will have ramifications in India," Snow suggested.
"On the other side, you take a look at what happens, and you have instability throughout the Saudi peninsula, it moves across the Middle East into North Africa. It's certainly going to have impact on Europe," he said.
"So the president understands that actions have consequences, and far-reaching consequences," Snow said reiterating Bush's resolve to stay put in Iraq despite a House vote requiring US forces to start leaving within 120 days and increasing restiveness among his own Republican senators.
More on link
Deadly attack on Pakistani troops
Article Link
North Waziristan is often the scene of troop clashes with militants
The number of soldiers killed in a suicide attack on a military convoy in north-western Pakistan has risen to 24, a Pakistan army spokesman has said.
Twenty-nine others were also hurt when the convoy was hit in the remote tribal region of North Waziristan.
Major General Waheed Arshad admitted the attack could be linked to the storming of the Red Mosque this week.
Troops have been sent close to the area amid fears militants may be planning a "holy war" in response to the siege.
Although no-one has claimed responsibility for Saturday's bomb attack, Maj Gen Arshad acknowledged that it could be a response to the army raid on the Red Mosque in Islamabad on Wednesday.
More on link
Opposition Greens to hold special party congress on German
Afghanistan military mission Berlin, July 14, IRNA Germany-Afghanistan-Greens
Article Link
Rank-and-file members of the opposition Greens have forced a special party congress on the future of Germany's military operations in Afghanistan, press reports said Friday.
The executive board of the Green party has announced the convening of a special party meeting for September 15 to discuss the party's stance on German Tornado fighter jets missions over war-stricken southern Afghanistan and the German army's role in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) as well as 'Operation Enduring Freedom'.
Some 44 district and one regional party affiliations had demanded the holding of such a party meeting following an inner-party dispute over future German military mandate.
The venue for the special party congress has yet to be decided.
"I view it as a good opportunity to talk very broadly and also very publicly over the perspective for Afghanistan, Green party whip Steffi Lemke told dpa.
In other related news, Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung reaffirmed that German troops would not be deployed to southern Afghanistan.
More on link
Failure in Afghanistan risks rise in terror, say generals
Military chiefs warn No.10 that defeat could lead to change of regime in Pakistan
Nicholas Watt and Ned Temko Sunday July 15, 2007 The Observer
Article Link
Britain's most senior generals have issued a blunt warning to Downing Street that the military campaign in Afghanistan is facing a catastrophic failure, a development that could lead to an Islamist government seizing power in neighbouring Pakistan.
Amid fears that London and Washington are taking their eye off Afghanistan as they grapple with Iraq, the generals have told Number 10 that the collapse of the government in Afghanistan, headed by Hamid Karzai, would present a grave threat to the security of Britain.
More on link
Pardon for child 'suicide bomber'
Article Link
KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) -- A 14-year-old would-be suicide bomber from Pakistan, caught while on a mission to blow up an Afghan provincial governor, was pardoned on Sunday by President Hamid Karzai.
Taliban insurgents and their al Qaeda allies have launched a wave of suicide attacks against Afghan, NATO and U.S.-led forces in the last two years, seeking to show the government and its Western allies are incapable of providing security.
Most of the victims are Afghan civilians.
The first whiskers of a moustache on his top lip, Rafiqullah stood to one side of the Afghan president, his father, with a full beard, stood to the other, at a ceremony in the capital on Sunday.
Rafiqullah's father, a poor tradesman from South Waziristan in Pakistan, had sent his son to a religious school, or madrassa, to learn the Koran. Later, when he asked where his son was, the teachers there brushed him off, he said.
Then last month, the 14-year-old was caught wearing a suicide vest on a motorbike in the eastern Afghan city of Khost.
"Today we are facing a hard fact, that is a Muslim child was sent to madrassa to learn Islamic subjects, but the enemies of Afghanistan misled him towards suicide and prepared him to die and kill," Karzai told reporters, his arm on the boy's shoulder.
The boy and father bowed their heads as Karzai spoke.
More on link
'New' al Qaeda tape may contain old clip of bin Laden
Article Link
Osama bin Laden stresses the importance of martyrdom for Muslim causes in a videotape that purportedly contains a 50-second message from the al Qaeda leader.
The 40-minute videotape, whose audio was being translated from Arabic by CNN, was intercepted before it was to appear on several Islamist Web sites known for carrying statements from al Qaeda and other radical groups.
The videotape, titled "A Special Surprise from As-Sahab. Heaven's Breeze Part I," was made in the last four weeks, but the clips appear to be old, said Octavia Nasr, CNN's senior editor for Arab affairs. There is no indication of where it was shot, and CNN cannot verify its authenticity.
"We're aware of the tape," a government official, who didn't want to be identified, told CNN. The official agreed that the tape's content is not necessarily new.
"There has not been, over time, a one-to-one correlation between release of a tape and any significant operation or attack afterward," the official added.
More on link
Uruzgan, were the Dutch hoodwinked?
by Louise Dunne 11-07-2007
Article Link
Tuesday's suicide attack in southern Afghanistan, which left at least 17 civilians dead and a number of Dutch soldiers injured, has again raised questions about Dutch involvement in Afghanistan. A year ago, the deployment of Dutch troops in the Afghan province of Uruzgan was widely seen as primarily a reconstruction mission but it's becoming clearer by the day that this is a military operation with all the attendant risks.
It's not the case that NATO's stated aim in Afghanistan has changed but public perception here in The Netherlands has, with reports of deaths and casualties a rude awakening for many. So how did this original misperception arise? Were Dutch voters hoodwinked by the politicians into supporting a fighting force dressed in the sheep's clothing of peacekeepers?
The original ISAF mission
The International Security Assistance Force's (ISAF) primary role is to support the government of Afghanistan in providing and maintaining a secure environment in order to facilitate the rebuilding of Afghanistan.
The official NATO statement on the purpose of the ISAF seems clear enough: establish security so rebuilding can begin. And security means fighting. But in the run-up to the 2006 decision to participate in the mission, the government put the emphasis on reconstruction.
More on link
Dutch ISAF troops 'failing'
21-06-2007 Louise Dunne and RNW Internet Desk (Older article - interesting issues)
Article Link
Unease about Dutch involvement in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan is steadily growing in the Netherlands and the director of a Dutch aid organisation has warned that the mission may be doing more harm than good.
The deaths of two soldiers over the past week has raised concerns about the dangers of the mission - but questions are also being asked about whether it's actually achieving anything and about the rising number of civilian casualties.
The aim of the ISAF mission to Afghanistan is to establish security so reconstruction work can be carried out - but critics say troops in Uruzgan are fully occupied by fighting, leaving no time for rebuilding.
Focus for violence
Willem van de Put, director of Healthnet TPO, which provides medical aid in Afghanistan, told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that the ISAF soldiers are becoming a focus for the increasing violence:
"The original idea is that it would be the right balance between diplomacy
More on link
Canada commits $8 million to new Afghan projects
Updated Thu. Jul. 12 2007 10:15 PM ET CTV.ca News Staff
Article Link
Canada will provide $8 million towards three new projects that are aimed at helping promote the rule of law and enhancing the justice system in Afghanistan.
The three projects are being implemented by the International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association, Rights and Democracy and CANADAEM.
"Today, Canada's New Government is partnering with trusted organizations to help Afghanistan make crucial legal reforms and build a sustainable foundation for the promotion of justice and the rule of law," International Cooperation Minister Josee Verner announced Thursday in a news conference.
"Canada's funding will help extend the scope of legal-judicial reform in Afghanistan to reach the most disadvantaged, including women and some of the most vulnerable elements of society."
The announcement came amid the results of a new poll that suggested Canadians are becoming more alarmed about the growing number of Canadian casualties in Afghanistan.
The Canadian Press-Decima Research poll found that 67 per cent of those asked felt the number of Canadians killed or wounded is unacceptably high -- even when considering whatever progress has been made rebuilding Afghanistan.
More on link
Al Qaeda sharpening U.S. focus, officials fear
Article Link
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Al Qaeda is increasing its efforts to get operatives into the United States for an attack and has nearly all the resources it needs to carry out such a mission, a draft of a new U.S. government intelligence analysis says, according to two government officials familiar with it.
Those resources include a safe haven along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border from which the terrorist organization's leaders can operate, the officials told CNN.
The classified report, called a National Intelligence Estimate, represents the combined analyses of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies. Officials spoke to CNN anonymously because the report is not final.
Several U.S. officials said the final report is expected to emphasize what policymakers have been saying publicly: /topics/al_qaeda" class="cnnInlineTopic">al Qaeda is regrouping and remains intent on attacking in the United States. Watch analysis of why al Qaeda is growing »
On Wednesday, a senior government official told CNN about another analysis, prepared for senior U.S. policymakers, that concludes al Qaeda is the strongest it has been since the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, despite more than five years of military actions and counterterrorism operations by the United States and its allies.
That analysis also dealt with the issue of al Qaeda's resurgence in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf last year gave primary responsibility for controlling the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan to tribal leaders.
More on link
British soldier killed in Afghanistan
www.chinaview.cn 2007-07-13 05:30:52
Article Link
LONDON, July 12 (Xinhua) -- The British Ministry of Defense (MoD) said on Thursday that a British soldier was killed in Afghanistan.
"It is with much sadness that the Ministry of Defense must confirm the death of a British soldier from the 1st Battalion The Grenadier Guards near Gereshk in Helmand province, Afghanistan today, Thursday 12 July 2007." the MoD said in a statement.
"During an enemy contact, the soldier suffered a gunshot wound at approximately 0800 hours local time. He was rapidly evacuated by helicopter and despite the very best efforts of emergency medical staff he was pronounced dead on arrival at the field hospital." the ministry said.
Two other soldiers were injured in another part of the same operation, the ministry added.
The Grenadier Guards soldier was working as part of the 1st Battalion Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment Battlegroup, who are undertaking operations alongside Afghan National Security Forces to improve security in the Helmand River valley.
The fatality brought Britain's death toll in Afghanistan to 64.
More on link
Jonathan Kay: How Washington fumbled away Afghanistan
Article Link
When it comes to appraising the situation in Afghanistan, there are few sources more credible that Sarah Chayes. She is a Pashto-speaking American woman who has lived in Kandahar since 2002, helping ordinary Afghans through her NGO, the Arghand Cooperative. A year ago, she published The Punishment of Virtue, a fascinating account of her observations on post-9/11 Afghanistan. She also recently wrote a lengthy article for Boston Review (subsequently excerpted on the opinion pages of the National Post) about the many problems the country is facing, especially corruption. Canadian politicians and military leaders who visit Afghanistan often consult with her.
This week, Chayes wrote a fascinating piece for the op-ed page of The New York Times, in which she traces the root of the military problems that NATO troops (including Canadians) are facing in Afghanistan. Her surprising conclusion: the multinational NATO contigent is doing better than the all-American force it's replaced. The reason: NATO troops are good fighters -- but unlike the Americans, they also focus as closely on the underlying social and political context as on the business of fighting.
In fact, Chayes concludes that things would be a lot better in Afghanistan if NATO had been brought in earlier. Her conclusions in this respect are worth quoting at length:
But if NATO is doing better than the United States, why is Afghanistan doing worse? The answer is twofold. NATO was brought in too late, and under false pretenses.
Within days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, NATO voted to invoke Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty — its core principle, which states that an armed attack on one member will be viewed by the others as an attack on themselves. Never before in the history of the organization had the principle been activated. The American reaction was thanks but no thanks. Our government was sure we could go it alone in Afghanistan, that allies would be an inconvenience.
In 2003, NATO moved peacekeeping forces into Kabul and parts of northern Afghanistan. But not until 2005, when it was clear that the United States was bogged down in Iraq and lacked sufficient resources to fight on two fronts, did Washington belatedly turn to NATO to take the Afghan south off its hands. And then it misrepresented the situation our allies would find there. NATO was basically sold a beefed-up peacekeeping mission. It was told, in effect, that it would simply need to maintain the order the United States had established and to help with reconstruction and security.
More on link
Chinese-Made Armor-Piercing Bullets Found in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Sharon Weinberger July 13, 2007 | 10:43:02 AMCategories: Armor, Eye on China
Article Link
Is there a China connection with Iraq and Afghanistan? Yes, according to a departing senior Pentagon official, who says that the Chinese-origin armor-piercing bullets -- of particular concern to U.S. and coalition troops - have showed up in the two countries. This article, from the Financial Times, came out a few days ago, but I think was lost in the shuffle of Iraq news, so it's worth highlighting here:
More on link
Withdrawal from Iraq will affect India too: US
14 Jul 2007, 1030 hrs IST,IANS
Article Link
WASHINGTON: The Bush administration suggests that a premature withdrawal of US forces from Iraq would create a terror base there and cause reverberations across the globe from Afghanistan to Pakistan to India.
President George Bush "believes that leaving, in the absence of conditions that will allow the Iraqis to support themselves, would result in the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis and the kind of security challenge that would make your head spin," White House spokesman Tony Snow said on Friday.
Painting a very scary scenario of the situation after US withdrawal, he said, "...what would happen is that you would have a terror base in Iraq; you would have a strengthened Iran; you would have a rejuvenated Al-Qaida that gets a 'see, told you so,' would have increased ability to recruit throughout the globe."
"Furthermore, our allies in the region are going to say, well, wait a minute, we're not going to rely on the Americans. We'll cut side deals with Al-Qaida or Iran. You'll have increasing instability in Afghanistan that will bleed over into Pakistan, that will have ramifications in India," Snow suggested.
"On the other side, you take a look at what happens, and you have instability throughout the Saudi peninsula, it moves across the Middle East into North Africa. It's certainly going to have impact on Europe," he said.
"So the president understands that actions have consequences, and far-reaching consequences," Snow said reiterating Bush's resolve to stay put in Iraq despite a House vote requiring US forces to start leaving within 120 days and increasing restiveness among his own Republican senators.
More on link
Deadly attack on Pakistani troops
Article Link
North Waziristan is often the scene of troop clashes with militants
The number of soldiers killed in a suicide attack on a military convoy in north-western Pakistan has risen to 24, a Pakistan army spokesman has said.
Twenty-nine others were also hurt when the convoy was hit in the remote tribal region of North Waziristan.
Major General Waheed Arshad admitted the attack could be linked to the storming of the Red Mosque this week.
Troops have been sent close to the area amid fears militants may be planning a "holy war" in response to the siege.
Although no-one has claimed responsibility for Saturday's bomb attack, Maj Gen Arshad acknowledged that it could be a response to the army raid on the Red Mosque in Islamabad on Wednesday.
More on link
Opposition Greens to hold special party congress on German
Afghanistan military mission Berlin, July 14, IRNA Germany-Afghanistan-Greens
Article Link
Rank-and-file members of the opposition Greens have forced a special party congress on the future of Germany's military operations in Afghanistan, press reports said Friday.
The executive board of the Green party has announced the convening of a special party meeting for September 15 to discuss the party's stance on German Tornado fighter jets missions over war-stricken southern Afghanistan and the German army's role in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) as well as 'Operation Enduring Freedom'.
Some 44 district and one regional party affiliations had demanded the holding of such a party meeting following an inner-party dispute over future German military mandate.
The venue for the special party congress has yet to be decided.
"I view it as a good opportunity to talk very broadly and also very publicly over the perspective for Afghanistan, Green party whip Steffi Lemke told dpa.
In other related news, Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung reaffirmed that German troops would not be deployed to southern Afghanistan.
More on link
Failure in Afghanistan risks rise in terror, say generals
Military chiefs warn No.10 that defeat could lead to change of regime in Pakistan
Nicholas Watt and Ned Temko Sunday July 15, 2007 The Observer
Article Link
Britain's most senior generals have issued a blunt warning to Downing Street that the military campaign in Afghanistan is facing a catastrophic failure, a development that could lead to an Islamist government seizing power in neighbouring Pakistan.
Amid fears that London and Washington are taking their eye off Afghanistan as they grapple with Iraq, the generals have told Number 10 that the collapse of the government in Afghanistan, headed by Hamid Karzai, would present a grave threat to the security of Britain.
More on link
