Afghanistan

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Roadside Bomb Brings US Afghan Toll to 21 in 5 Days

Petraeus: US withdrawal will be 'thinning out,' not abrupt departure

(Newser) - Four US troops were killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan today, bringing the American death toll to 21 since Friday. The US death toll for August now stands at 53, almost all of whom were killed in southern and eastern Afghanistan, where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, the...

Afghan War Reality Show Isn't Such a Bad Idea
Afghan War Reality Show
Isn't Such a Bad Idea
OPINION
Aug 27, 2010 3:12 PM CDT

Afghan War Reality Show Isn't Such a Bad Idea

Americans need a 'fresh angle' to re-engage

(Newser) - Pundits have come out swinging against Bomb Patrol: Afghanistan, a proposed reality show that G4 network is billing as a "real-life Hurt Locker." War as reality TV is seen as a sure sign of the further debasement of American culture . Rachel Maddow, for one, decried it as "...

See Alleged Cabbie Attacker's Videos

Some wonder if he had PTSD himself

(Newser) - Michael Enright filmed a lot of videos, none of which gave the slightest hint that he might be the kind of person accused of brutally attacking a cab driver with a knife. But his YouTube shorts (see them in the gallery) do have an interesting through-line—they all deal with...

Corrupt Karzai Aide Is on CIA Payroll

Official at center of corruption probe has fingers in many pies

(Newser) - The aide who Hamid Karzai intervened to free after his arrest on corruption charges has been on the CIA payroll for years, according to Afghan and US officials. It's not clear what exactly Mohammed Zia Salehi does to earn CIA cash, or whether the Afghan president knew he was an...

CIA Agent the Only 'Diplomat' Karzai Trusts

Kabul station chief relied on to reassure Afghan president

(Newser) - When the US needs to smooth over relations with Hamid Karzai, the State Department doesn’t get the call. Instead, the US is relying on the CIA’s Kabul station chief as its main go-between with the Afghan president, the Wall Street Journal reports, identifying the agent only by his...

Karzai Moves to Curb Afghan Anti-Corruption Agencies

Afghan president accuses agencies of abusing suspects

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai is looking to curb the powers of two American-supported anti-corruption agencies operating in Afghanistan with a presidential decree, the New York Times reports. The Afghan president claimed that abuses by the Major Crimes Task Force and the Sensitive Investigations Unit—in particular, the arrest of a close adviser...

Pakistanis Nabbed Taliban Boss to Stop Peace Talks

Naive CIA got played: sources

(Newser) - In an embarrassing development for the CIA, it looks like the capture last January of Taliban commander Abdul Ghani Baradar was anything but the joint US-Pakistani victory against terrorism it was presented as at the time. In fact, Pakistan captured Baradar to undermine secret peace talks between the Taliban and...

Karzai: US 'Mafia' Firms Are Looting My Nation

Demands contractors get out

(Newser) - In a rare US media appearance yesterday, Hamid Karzai blasted US private contractors in Afghanistan as "mafia-like" thieves and called for them to pull out of the country within the next four months. Appealing directly to US taxpayers on ABC's This Week, the Afghan president said the contractors waste...

Karzai Intervened in Aide's Corruption Probe

Bribery charge lifted after 'enormous pressure' from Afghan prez

(Newser) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai personally stepped in to secure the release of an aide arrested on corruption charges, officials say. The aide, Mohammad Zia Salehi, was arrested for soliciting a bribe. He was also being probed by two task forces for supplying cash and gifts like luxury Lexuses to presidential...

Afghan Archeologists Uncover Buddhist Site

Appeal for foreign money to protect ancient relics

(Newser) - As Western and Afghan forces battle Taliban Islamists for control of Afghanistan, archaeologists have discovered major relics of the country's Buddhist past in an area south of Kabul. The artifacts date back at least to the 5th century AD, and possibly to the era before Christ. "There is a...

Karzai to Kick Contractors Out of Afghanistan

Catches NATO unprepared with tough 4-month deadline

(Newser) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai enraged the US and his other NATO allies today by ordering all private security contractors to leave the country within four months. Though NATO had been working on its own plan to register and regulate the mercenaries, they weren’t prepared for the move, or the...

Petraeus: 2011 Afghan Exit Date May Not Work

US-led coalition can still succeed, he says

(Newser) - In his first public remarks since taking over the command of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan last month, Gen. David Petraeus told the New York Times that he will not be bound by Barack Obama's 2011 drawdown date. "The president didn’t send me over here to seek...

Taliban Publicly Stones Couple Over Affair

Crowd of about 100 killed adulterers

(Newser) - The Taliban had a couple publicly executed by stoning in Afghanistan yesterday, because “they had an affair,” the governor of the Imam Sahib district tells the Daily Telegraph . About 100 people, many of them Taliban insurgents, gathered to hurl rocks at the couple, who were forced to stand,...

Kickboxer Sought in US Marine Murder

Marine on leave stabbed after Thai bar fight

(Newser) - Police are seeking a British kickboxer in the stabbing murder of a US Marine in Thailand. Dashawn Longfellow, 23, was on holiday after being wounded in Afghanistan when he was challenged to a fight in a Phuket bar by kickboxer Lee Aldhouse, 28, according to witnesses. The two brawled after...

US Waging 'Shadow War' in Dozen Countries

And it's turning the CIA into a 'paramilitary organization': NYT

(Newser) - The New York Times takes an in-depth look at the "shadow war" being waged by the US in about a dozen countries, shining a light on a secret assault on terrorism that expands from North Africa to Yemen to former Soviet republics. Though the stealth war began under Bush,...

Survivor Tells of Medics' Last Moments

Gunshots, pleadings, death

(Newser) - The first sign of danger was the crackle of gunfire over their heads. Ten gunmen, their faces covered, rushed toward terrified humanitarian workers and began shouting "Satellite! Satellite!" —a demand to surrender their phones. Moments later, 10 of them lay dead, including two women hiding in the...

Germany to Launch Afghanistan Offensive

Move will appease allies, but be unpopular at home

(Newser) - The German military intends to launch a major offensive against Taliban strongholds in northern Afghanistan, in part to appease NATO allies that have criticized the country for being too passive, the Wall Street Journal reports. But the move could spark a political backlash back in Germany, where the unpopular war...

Rights Groups Urge WikiLeaks to Censor Names

'There was no consideration about civilian lives'

(Newser) - WikiLeaks has won praise from human rights groups in the past but now several have added their voices to those criticizing its leak of classified Afghanistan war records. A coalition of rights groups has written to founder Julian Assange, urging him to remove the names of Afghan civilians from the...

Taliban Execute Pregnant Widow for Having Sex

First she's flogged 200 times

(Newser) - The Taliban publicly flogged a pregnant Afghan widow some 200 times before shooting her to death for having sex. Her lover escaped. Bibi Sanubar, 35, "was shot in the head in public while she was still pregnant," deputy provincial police chief Ghulam Mohammad Sayeedi told Agence France Presse...

Afghan Civilian Deaths Jump 25%

Insurgents blamed, but NATO will catch flak anyway

(Newser) - The number of civilians killed in Afghanistan rose 25% in the first six months of 2010, the United Nations said in a report today that blamed insurgents for the spike. There were fewer civilian casualties from NATO action—a result of Stanley McChrystal's crackdown—but NATO will likely face increasing...

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