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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: Afghanistan

Afghanistan stories: 816 news summaries

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Pakistani Intelligence Sheltering Taliban Leader

Mullah Omar hiding in Karachi: US sources

21 minutes ago
(Newser) - Pakistan’s intelligence service is secretly sheltering the Taliban’s top leader, US intelligence sources tell the Washington Times —helping Mullah Omar escape from the town of Quetta, along the Afghanistan border, to the port city of Karachi, deep within Pakistan. The sources say Mullah Omar is leading a... More »

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Afghanistan • Taliban • Karachi • US intelligence • Mullah Omar • Pakistan intelligence services

Suicide Bomber Kills 16
in Afghanistan

Two children among the dead in latest attack

12 hours, 27 minutes ago
(AP) - A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed 16 people, including two children and a policeman, and wounded at least 23 others today in a busy city square in western Afghanistan. The violence comes a day after President Hamid Karzai, in his second inaugural address, said he has placed national reconciliation... More »

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Afghanistan • Taliban • suicide bomber • suicide bombing • South Waziristan

 Karzai Sworn In, 
 Vows  to Fight 
 Corruption  

Afghan prez promises to take over country's security in 5 years 

Nov 19, 09 7:31 AM CST
(Newser) - Hamid Karzai vowed to fight corruption today after he was sworn in to a second 5-year term as president of Afghanistan. Karzai, whose election victory was tainted by widespread allegations of vote-rigging, said his government would learn from "our mistakes and shortcomings of the last eight years." The... More »

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Afghanistan • Hillary Clinton • Hamid Karzai • disputed election • Abdullah Abdullah • Afghanistan election

Olympics, anyone?

 Afghans Revive 
 Goat-Carcass Sport 

Buzkashi draws sponsors in post-Taliban economy

Nov 18, 09 11:49 AM CST
(Newser) - Not even the Taliban managed to kill it, and now buzkashi, the national sport of Afghanistan, is thriving again, attracting corporate sponsors and emboldening its boosters to contact Olympics officials, with the ambition of building an international following. Did we mention it’s a virtually rule-less polo-like game played by... More »

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Afghanistan • horse • polo • Olympics • carcass • buzkashi • headless goat carcass • national sport

US Fears Insurgents Are Eluding Pakistan Crackdown

Dubious success of campaign could affect Afghan troop decision

Nov 18, 09 8:57 AM CST
(Newser) - Pakistan's drive to oust militants from South Waziristan has been suspiciously successful, prompting US fears that the enemy is simply eluding Pakistani forces. The military, for example, recently captured Sararogha, the Taliban’s de facto capital. “It all started here,” a commander boasts to the New York ... More »

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Afghanistan • Taliban • Pakistan • Pakistan military • South Waziristan

KARZAI INAUGURAL

 Clinton Makes 
 Surprise Afghan Visit 

Secretary arrives amid heightened security, meets with McChrystal

Nov 18, 09 7:40 AM CST
(AP) - Hillary Clinton made an unexpected appearance in Afghanistan today to attend the inauguration of President Hamid Karzai and meet with Gen. Stanley McChrystal. It's Clinton's first trip to Afghanistan since becoming secretary of state. Clinton called the visit "a specific opportunity for everyone to take stock of where we... More »

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Afghanistan • Hillary Clinton • Hamid Karzai • secretary of State • Kabul • Stanley McChrystal • Karl Eikenberry

Analysis

In Afghanistan Debate, Obama Focuses on Exit

White House wants
to make sure surge
will enable handover

Nov 17, 09 8:15 AM CST
(Newser) - The Obama administration’s extended ruminations on an Afghan surge aren’t really over how many troops to send in—they’re about how they’ll get those troops out. Obama’s main problem with the initial military plan was that it seemed too open ended, administration sources tell Gerald... More »

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Afghanistan • Barack Obama • troop surge • Hamid Karzai • troop levels • Afghanistan war • President Obama • Afghanistan exit strategy

Afghan Rocket Misses
French General, Kills 3 Kids

Insurgents target marketplace meeting

Nov 16, 09 8:40 AM CST
(Newser) - A rocket attack intended for a French general instead killed three children and wounded 20 others in a busy market northeast of Kabul today. Insurgents fired into the marketplace hoping to hit a meeting between Brig. Gen. Marcel Druart and tribal elders from Tagab Valley, where France is in the... More »

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Afghanistan • terrorist attack • Afghanistan war • French troops • Tagab Valley

TALK SHOW ROUNDUP

 Clinton: Karzai on the Hot Seat 

White House 'will expect more,' focused on defeating 'those who attacked us'

Nov 15, 09 10:51 AM CST
(Newser) - It's time for Afghan President Hamid Karzai to put up or shut up, Hillary Clinton said today, underscoring the White House's heightened expectations of Kabul. "We are expecting there to be a major crimes tribunal, an anti-corruption commission," she told This Week, adding that the original Afghan... More »

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Afghanistan • Hillary Clinton • Rudy Giuliani • Harry Reid • Hamid Karzai • Mitch McConnell • David Plouffe • George Stephanopoulos • David Axelrod • Sarah Palin • terror trial • Eric Holder • 9/11 attacks • President Obama • Sunday morning talk shows • Going Rogue

 Afghan 
 Calculus: 
 40K Troops 
 Equals $40B 

High long-term costs a big factor in debate

Nov 14, 09 4:04 PM CST
(Newser) - When President Obama rejected advisers' recommendations on Afghan troops and insisted they be retooled with exit strategies, he had the war's long-term financial costs in mind, an insider tells the New York Times . While military strategy gets the headlines, the financial constraints also are weighing heavily. Some specfics:
  • Gen.
... More »

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Afghanistan • US military • US troops • war cost • Afghanistan war • President Obama • Stanley McChrystal

 Morale Down in Afghanistan: 
 Army 

One in six soldiers suffers from a psychological disorder

Nov 13, 09 6:00 PM CST
(Newser) - Morale is down and psychological problems rampant among troops in Afghanistan, who face a shortage of mental health professionals to help them deal with the stress of war. Only 5.7% of soldiers described their unit's moral as high or very high, down from 10.2% in 2007 and 10.... More »

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Afghanistan • mental health • US military • US Army • Afghanistan war • American soldiers • morale

 Obama Rejects 
 Afghan War  Options 

President wants modified plans, timetables

Nov 12, 09 7:45 AM CST
(Newser) - President Obama refused to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented to him in yesterday's 2 1/2 hour strategy meeting, the AP reports, as concerns soar over the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the ability of a corrupt Afghan government to eventually secure its own country. Obama... More »

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Afghanistan • Barack Obama • Hamid Karzai • Afghanistan war • Afghanistan exit strategy • Karl Eikenberry

INVESTIGATION

 Taliban Is Paid to Protect 
 US Supply Convoys 

US military funding Taliban through contractors

Nov 12, 09 5:20 AM CST
(Newser) - The Taliban is getting a big chunk of its financing by protecting supply convoys to the American military. Security contractors paid by the US to bring supplies into Afghanistan pay huge amounts of protection money to warlords and insurgents, an investigation by the Nation has discovered. Pentagon officials are... More »

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Afghanistan • Taliban • US military • security contractors • convoy • Afghanistan war • military contractors

US Ambassador Disagrees
on Afghan Troop Surge

Wants Karzai government to shape up first

Nov 11, 09 6:49 PM CST
(Newser) - The US ambassador to Afghanistan—a former general who served there as recently as 2007—is against increasing troop levels until the Afghan government gets its act together. In classified cables ahead of President Obama’s deliberations on a surge, Karl Eikenberry cites rampant corruption and mismanagement in Hamid Karzai’... More »

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Afghanistan • troop surge • Hamid Karzai • corruption • Afghanistan war • dissent • President Obama • Stanley McChrystal • Karl Eikenberry

 Body of Missing US Soldier 
 Found in Afghan River 

Second American is still missing, believed drowned

Nov 11, 09 11:27 AM CST
(AP) - Military divers have found the body of a US soldier who disappeared last week with a fellow soldier as the two tried to recover airdropped supplies from a river in western Afghanistan. The two Americans, from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, went missing Nov. 4 in Badghis... More »

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Afghanistan • US military • soldier • casualties • Afghanistan war

Huge Cache of Bomb Material Seized in Afghanistan

Coalition troops find a half-million pounds of ammonium nitrate

Nov 10, 09 6:25 PM CST
(Newser) - Coalition forces discovered an enormous cache of bomb-making material Sunday in Kandahar, seizing 500,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer illegal in the country and widely used in homemade bombs. A single bomb requires only 60 pounds of the substance, meaning the discovery will prevent thousands of bombs from... More »

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Afghanistan • Pakistan • bomb • fertilizer bomb • ammonium nitrate

 Gorbachev: 
 Take It From Me, 
 Leave Afghanistan 

'No prospect' for military victory, says former Soviet president

Nov 10, 09 5:01 PM CST
(Newser) - Mikhail Gorbachev—the man who pulled the Soviet Union's troops out of Afghanistan after a decade of stalemate—says the US should do the same. "There is no prospect of a military solution," he tells Bloomberg . The nation is too fragmented among clans, dooming even a troop surge... More »

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Afghanistan • Russia • Taliban • Mikhail Gorbachev

CBS: Prez Will Grant McChrystal Troop Request

White House denies decision made

Nov 10, 09 5:50 AM CST
(Newser) - President Obama has decided to grant Gen. Stanley McChrystal's request for a large and long-term increase in US forces in Afghanistan, according to CBS and AP , which cite "informed sources." The president will give the general almost all the troops he has asked for, boosting the size of... More »

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Afghanistan • troop surge • US military • Afghanistan war • President Obama • Stanley McChrystal

BRET STEPHENS

Karzai's Not So Bad—
By Afghan Standards

Blame NATO missteps, not corruption

Nov 10, 09 1:23 AM CST
(Newser) - Hamid Karzai's no saint but he's much better than Mullah Omar, civil war, or the murderous Soviet stooges that ruled Afghanistan for many years, writes Bret Stephens. It has become fashionable among "neo-neo-cons" who have suddenly discovered the virtues of good governance to slam Karzai's tainted administration, but history... More »

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Afghanistan • Hamid Karzai • disputed election • Mullah Omar • Abdullah Abdullah • Afghanistan election • Bret Stephens

 Muslims in US Military Suffer 
 Conflicts, Criticism 

Face distrust from military, flak from mosques

Nov 9, 09 7:18 AM CST
(Newser) - As the American Muslim community takes pains to distance itself from Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shootings add misery to the already complicated lives of Muslims serving in the armed forces. Drawn to the military by patriotism, Muslim soldiers arrive in Afghanistan or Iraq to find themselves confronting... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Iraq • Afghanistan • Muslim Americans • US military • Fort Hood shooting • Nidal Malik Hasan

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