Afghanistan – News Stories About Afghanistan - Page 71

For Pakistan, Taliban Leader Outranks US

Dec 14, 2009 4:55 PM CST

For Pakistan, Taliban Leader Outranks US

Islamabad backs off Haqqani, a crucial link to Afghanistan

(Newser) - Pakistani officials are balking at pursuing a Taliban leader who poses a major threat to US forces in Afghanistan, underscoring their lack of faith in the Obama surge. Pakistan has made a separate peace with Siraj Haqqani, allowing him the use of North Waziristan as a base of operations after...

Obama Overstates Domestic Al-Qaeda Threat: Experts

Dec 14, 2009 3:25 PM CST

Obama Overstates Domestic Al-Qaeda Threat: Experts

President, Clinton cite US arrests, but link to Pakistan appears weak

(Newser) - The White House has been overstating the link between recent domestic terrorism arrests and al-Qaeda activities in Pakistan and Afghanistan, security experts say. In justifying the Afghanistan troop buildup, President Obama cited recent arrests within the US; Hillary Clinton cited some of the same incidents a few days later. But...

King Pays to
Bring Troops
Home for
Holidays

Dec 14, 2009 5:30 AM CST

King Pays to Bring Troops Home for Holidays

But horrormeister thought $13K would be bad luck

(Newser) - When it comes to the holidays, Stephen King is glad to do the right thing—albeit in his own quirky way. Case in point: 150 infantry troops from Maine due to be shipped to Afghanistan next month were to spend the holidays at an Indiana training camp. King answered a...

16 Cops Killed in Afghanistan

Dec 14, 2009 4:39 AM CST

16 Cops Killed in Afghanistan

Two attacks target checkpoints

(Newser) - Militants slaughtered 16 police officers in two separate attacks in Afghanistan today. Gunmen opened fire on a checkpoint in Northeastern Baglan Province and one in Lashkar Gah, the capital of troubled Helmand Province in the south. At least two attackers were also killed in the firefight. It wasn't immediately clear...

Brit Military
Bishop 'Admires'
Taliban Loyalty

Dec 14, 2009 3:43 AM CST

Brit Military Bishop 'Admires' Taliban Loyalty

Gordon Brown does not agree

(Newser) - The Taliban's faith and loyalty to one another can be regarded as admirable, according to a British military bishop, who is urging an approach to them that recognizes they're not all bad. The Church of England's bishop to the Armed Forces, Stephen Venner, made his comments as Prime Minister Gordon...

Cocky Karzai Calls Gates' Bluff

MAUREEN DOWD

Dec 13, 2009 9:01 AM CST

Cocky Karzai Calls Gates' Bluff

Defense sec gets dissed by Afghanistan, Iraq 'puppets': Dowd

(Newser) - Robert Gates may be the man "running the world's best military," a force not inconsequential to stability in Afghanistan these days, but Hamid Karzai thumbed his nose at the defense secretary on his recent visit. "Puppets just aren’t what they used to be," notes Maureen...

CIA Terminates Blackwater Deal

Dec 11, 2009 9:37 PM CST

CIA Terminates Blackwater Deal

Security firm helped load killer drones in Afghanistan, Pakistan

(Newser) - The Central Intelligence Agency has severed ties with private security firm Blackwater, whose employees helped load the drone aircraft tasked with killing targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan. CIA chief Leon Panetta killed the contract, a rep tells the New York Times , which was instrumental in revealing the firm’s ties...

To End
Afghan War,
Reinstitute
the Draft

OPINION

Dec 10, 2009 12:44 PM CST

To End Afghan War, Reinstitute the Draft

People didn't oppose the Vietnam war, they opposed going to fight in it

(Newser) - There’s one surefire way to end the war in Afghanistan: bring back the draft. After all, that's what worked in the '60s, writes cartoonist Jeff Danziger, who was drafted and served in Vietnam. The protests over that war ripped the country apart, grinding the war effort to a halt....

How Obama Can
Earn the Peace Prize

OPINION

Dec 10, 2009 10:29 AM CST

How Obama Can Earn the Peace Prize

Get out of Iraq, stop the drone attacks, and get a state for Palestine

(Newser) - Barack Obama’s Nobel Prize was more of a nudge toward peace than a recognition of his accomplishments in pursuit of it. Juan Cole of Salon offers some ways Obama could live up to the award:

Get out of Iraq on time. We’ve done what we can, and the

...

Gates Arrives
in Iraq in Wake
of Bombings

Dec 10, 2009 8:12 AM CST

Gates Arrives in Iraq in Wake of Bombings

US officials say spate of violence won't affect withdrawal plan

(Newser) - Robert Gates flew to Baghdad today for an unannounced visit, finding a city still reeling from the bombings that killed at least 127 people on Tuesday. The defense secretary is scheduled to meet with Nouri al-Maliki and other top officials, and to offer condolences to victims of the attacks. He’...

Only 50% Prefer
Obama to Bush

Poll Numbers

Dec 9, 2009 12:44 PM CST

Only 50% Prefer Obama to Bush

Latest numbers show steady decline for president

(Newser) - Only 50% of respondents to a recent poll say they prefer Barack Obama to George W. Bush, with 44% saying they’d like Dubya back. Given Bush’s vast unpopularity at the end of his term, that’s probably the most troubling number for the president in the latest Public...

Obama to Conyers: Stop 'Demeaning' Me

Dec 8, 2009 2:28 PM CST

Obama to Conyers: Stop 'Demeaning' Me

President calls liberal congressman to carp about criticism

(Newser) - John Conyers hasn't been shy about what he sees as the president's failings, and his remarks seem to have struck a nerve. “I’ve been saying I don’t agree with him on Afghanistan, I think he screwed up on health care reform, on Guantánamo," said the...

Bush Team
Blew Chance
to Nab Osama

John Kerry

Dec 8, 2009 1:30 PM CST

Bush Team Blew Chance to Nab Osama

Al-Qaeda leader was at Tora Bora, but Rumsfeld let him get away

(Newser) - The Bush administration had a golden opportunity to capture Osama bin Laden in December of 2001, and it didn’t even try, writes John Kerry. The historical record is by now crystal clear: bin Laden and his No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, were trapped at Tora Bora—bin Laden even wrote...

McChrystal:
We'll Know
by This Time
Next Year

Dec 8, 2009 11:23 AM CST

McChrystal: We'll Know by This Time Next Year

General says troop surge should show results within a year

(Newser) - The US should know by this time next year whether the troop buildup in Afghanistan worked, Stanley McChrystal told the House Armed Services panel today, though he cautioned that there was no easy road to success. "The sober fact is that there are no silver bullets," he said....

Gates, in Kabul, Contradicts Karzai's Timetable

Dec 8, 2009 7:15 AM CST

Gates, in Kabul, Contradicts Karzai's Timetable

'We're in this thing to win,' he tells reporters

(Newser) - Robert Gates and Hamid Karzai seemed to contradict each other at a press conference in Kabul today, with Gates saying the US commitment in Afghanistan isn’t open ended, and Karzai saying it will be at least 5 years before Afghanistan is ready for a US withdrawal. Gates arrived in...

Gates: 'Years'
Since Last
bin Laden Intel

TALK SHOW ROUNDUP

Dec 6, 2009 1:10 PM CST

Gates: 'Years' Since Last bin Laden Intel

White House pushes Afghan policy on Sunday circuit

(Newser) - The US hasn't had credible intelligence on Osama bin Laden's whereabouts in "years," Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted to ABC's George Stephanopoulos today. "We don’t know for a fact where Osama bin Laden is," the defense secretary said. "If we did, we’d go...

Obama's
Long Road to
Afghan Strategy

BEHIND THE SCENES

Dec 6, 2009 10:26 AM CST

Obama's Long Road to Afghan Strategy

Prez was relentless in analyzing every angle

(Newser) - Amid cries of "dithering" and the silent finality of Arlington's rows of white tombstones, President Obama calmly, analytically, and exhaustively reviewed all options in Afghanistan before finally announcing to his team on Nov. 29 that he would send in 30,000 more troops. The New York Times retraces the...

NATO Commits 7K More Troops

Dec 4, 2009 7:03 AM CST

NATO Commits 7K More Troops

Britain, Italy, Poland, Slovakia are in; France and Germany mum

(Newser) - NATO answered President Obama's call for reinforcements in Afghanistan today with a pledge to provide 7,000 more troops. The NATO secretary-general, speaking at a press conference, didn't say where the troops will come from, but Britain has already offered 500, and Italy, Poland, Georgia, and Slovakia will each deploy...

Obama Faces War
Without His Base

PEGGY NOONAN

Dec 4, 2009 5:51 AM CST

Obama Faces War Without His Base

Prez 'redeclared' Afghanistan war without Dems on board

(Newser) - It was reassuring to see a Democratic president admit that we're "in a real struggle with bad people," writes Peggy Noonan of Obama's Afghanistan speech, but it's too bad his supporters don't seem to be on board. Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush had a political...

Taliban:
Bin Laden's
Hiding in
Afghanistan

Dec 4, 2009 3:08 AM CST

Taliban: Bin Laden's Hiding in Afghanistan

Cohort offered to arrange meeting, says Pakistan inmate

(Newser) - A high-ranking Taliban member in Pakistani custody claims a cohort offered to arrange a meeting with Osama bin Laden earlier this year, and that the al-Qaeda leader is in eastern Afghanistan, not northern Pakistan as widely believed, the detainee told a BBC reporter. The inmate, who met with bin Laden...