Afghanistan – News Stories About Afghanistan - Page 74

Nov 12, 2009 7:45 AM CST

Obama Rejects Afghan War Options

President wants modified plans, timetables

(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...

Taliban Is Paid to Protect
US Supply Convoys

INVESTIGATION

Nov 12, 2009 5:20 AM CST

Taliban Is Paid to Protect US Supply Convoys

US military funding Taliban through contractors

(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 aware...

US Ambassador Disagrees
on Afghan Troop Surge

Nov 11, 2009 6:49 PM CST

US Ambassador Disagrees on Afghan Troop Surge

Wants Karzai government to shape up first

(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’...

Body of Missing US Soldier
Found in Afghan River

Nov 11, 2009 11:27 AM CST

Body of Missing US Soldier Found in Afghan River

Second American is still missing, believed drowned

(Newser) - 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...

Huge Cache of Bomb Material Seized in Afghanistan

Nov 10, 2009 6:25 PM CST

Huge Cache of Bomb Material Seized in Afghanistan

Coalition troops find a half-million pounds of ammonium nitrate

(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...

Gorbachev:
Take It From Me,
Leave Afghanistan

Nov 10, 2009 5:01 PM CST

Gorbachev: Take It From Me, Leave Afghanistan

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

(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...

CBS: Prez Will Grant McChrystal Troop Request

Nov 10, 2009 5:50 AM CST

CBS: Prez Will Grant McChrystal Troop Request

White House denies decision made

(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...

Karzai's Not So Bad—
By Afghan Standards

BRET STEPHENS

Nov 10, 2009 1:23 AM CST

Karzai's Not So Bad— By Afghan Standards

Blame NATO missteps, not corruption

(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...

Muslims in US Military Suffer
Conflicts, Criticism

Nov 9, 2009 7:18 AM CST

Muslims in US Military Suffer Conflicts, Criticism

Face distrust from military, flak from mosques

(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...

Months of Clues
Missed in Hasan
Rampage

Nov 9, 2009 4:51 AM CST

Months of Clues Missed in Hasan Rampage

Shrink grew increasingly agitated, but superiors didn't act

(Newser) - Signs that the Fort Hood gunman could snap emerged not just days before his deadly rampage, but months earlier, say witnesses. Major Nidal Malik Hasan bought a gun soon after he arrived at the base last summer, and grew increasingly agitated and vocal over years about his opposition to the...

Casey:
Send More
Troops to
Afghanistan

TALK SHOW ROUNDUP

Nov 8, 2009 12:03 PM CST

Casey: Send More Troops to Afghanistan

Lieberman to probe Fort Hood shootings as 'attack' on US troops

(Newser) - President Obama would do well to give Stanley McChrystal more troops in Afghanistan, Army chief of staff George Casey said on Meet the Press today. "We have already made progress, and I would look for that progress to continue,” Casey said, without saying how many troops he thought...

Obama Eyes 30K+ Troop Surge

AFGHAN STRATEGY REVIEW

Nov 8, 2009 9:18 AM CST

Obama Eyes 30K+ Troop Surge

Said to be close to decision as Asia trip looms

(Newser) - President Obama is zeroing in on an Afghanistan strategy that likely includes sending in some 30,000 troops, reports Reuters —short of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's requested 40,000, but far greater than war-weary Democrats may support. An additional 4,000 trainers are likely to be sent, McClatchy reports, with...

NATO Airstrike Kills
7 Afghan Soldiers

Nov 7, 2009 8:30 AM CST

NATO Airstrike Kills 7 Afghan Soldiers

Mistaken assault on joint NATO, Afghan base

(Newser) - A NATO airstrike in the western province of Badghis mistakenly hit a joint base housing coalition troops and Afghan security forces, killing four Afghan soldiers and three policemen, Afghan officials said today. An Afghan army commando unit, district police members and foreign forces were in the base in the Bala...

Afghans Cool to
US Troop Increase

Nov 7, 2009 7:34 AM CST

Afghans Cool to US Troop Increase

Doubting Taliban can be defeated, they want foreigners out

(Newser) - Even as the Obama adminstration agonizes over deploying more troops to Afghanistan, the Afghan public is growing increasingly negative about the US presence in their country. Doubting that the Taliban can be defeated, most agree that the government should negotiate with insurgents, the New York Times reports, and they see...

Afghan Governor
Rejects Karzai Election

Nov 6, 2009 5:37 AM CST

Afghan Governor Rejects Karzai Election

Dispute could spark fresh fighting in northern province

(Newser) - A powerful warlord-turned-governor's rejection of Hamid Karzai's election victory is raising fears that one of Afghanistan's most stable provinces could collapse into fighting. Atta Mohammed Noor—the only one of Afghanistan's 34 governors to have openly supported Karzai's rival, Abdullah Abdullah—has denounced Karzai as an "unlawful president."...

UN Evacuates Afghan Staff

Nov 5, 2009 4:33 AM CST

UN Evacuates Afghan Staff

Hundreds pulled out after deadly Kabul attack

(Newser) - The United Nations is pulling more than half of its 1,100 international staff in Afghanistan out of the country as the security situation deteriorates. Some of the 600 staffers would return after new security arrangements were made, while others will be permanently relocated, said a spokesman. Much of the...

Rogue Afghan Cop
Kills 5 Brit Soldiers

Nov 4, 2009 6:17 AM CST

Rogue Afghan Cop Kills 5 Brit Soldiers

Culprit escapes after turning weapon on training team

(Newser) - Five British soldiers died in Helmand province yesterday after a rogue Afghan cop opened fire on a group of Afghan policemen and their British mentors drinking tea together. The mentors had been training the Afghans for two weeks when one of the trainees turned his weapon on them without warning....

Karzai Promises Change; Taliban Disses 'Puppet'

Nov 3, 2009 6:48 AM CST

Karzai Promises Change; Taliban Disses 'Puppet'

Insurgent 'brothers' reject the Afghan president's call for unity

(Newser) - Hamid Karzai made some sweeping but non-specific promises to banish corruption and reach out to opponents today in his first press conference since being re-elected by default. The Afghan president also reached out to "Taliban brothers," urging them to "embrace their land," but his overtures were...

Obama Calls for
New Afghan Chapter

Nov 3, 2009 2:50 AM CST

Obama Calls for New Afghan Chapter

Karzai congratulated, told to clean up his government

(Newser) - President Obama congratulated Hamid Karzai on his "messy" election victory yesterday while warning him that it was time to clean up corruption in his government. "I emphasized that this has to be a point in time in which we begin to write a new chapter," said Obama,...

Runoff Canceled;
Karzai Named Victor

UPDATED

Nov 2, 2009 7:48 AM CST

Runoff Canceled; Karzai Named Victor

Second term a done deal after opponent dropped out

(Newser) - Afghanistan's Karzai-appointed Independent Election Commission proclaimed President Hamid Karzai the victor of the war-ravaged nation's tumultuous ballot today, canceling a planned runoff two and a half months after a fraud-marred first round. The news came a day after his challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the runoff, and hours after...