Afghanistan

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Karzai Vows to Protect Taliban Chief in Talks

Will not cave to huge bounty, or US pressure to turn Omar over

(Newser) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai will ensure the safety of Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar if he agrees to peace talks, the Washington Post reports. "If I say I want protection for Mullah Omar, the international community has two choices: remove me or leave," Karzai said, referring to US...

Bin Laden Isolated, Struggling: Hayden

CIA: He's forced to move from place to place, isolated from his terror network

(Newser) - Seven years after 9/11, terror chief Osama bin Laden remains alive and free, but he's struggling, CIA director Michael Hayden said in a speech yesterday: "He appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organization he nominally heads." Hayden said bin Laden spends much of...

US Soldier Among 9 Killed in Afghan Market

Attack brings year's death toll to 5,400

(Newser) - A suicide car bomber struck a US military convoy passing through a crowded livestock market in eastern Afghanistan today, killing an American soldier and at least eight civilians and wounding an additional 74 civilians. Yesterday, two British troops were also killed when their vehicle was struck by an explosive while...

Obama to Focus on bin Laden, Revamp Afghan Approach

Eyes regional strategy, talks with Taliban, Iran

(Newser) - Barack Obama is drastically rethinking the war effort in Afghanistan, his security advisers tell the Washington Post, including making the capture of Osama bin Laden a top priority. The administration’s fledgling plan calls for a more aggressive regional approach, possibly involving help from Iran. Obama also favors the ongoing...

Britain Will Resist US Calls for Afghan Buildup

Army stretched too thin, top commander says

(Newser) - Britain should oppose any calls from President Obama to shift troops to Afghanistan as they are pulled out of Iraq, the country's defense chief says, arguing that UK troops need a breather. “I have said for a very long time that the British armed forces are stretched,” Sir...

World Policy Can Wait a While, Obama
 World Policy Can Wait
a While, Obama
opinion
Nov 9, 2008 7:30 PM CST

World Policy Can Wait a While, Obama

For a while, inaction may be the best course

(Newser) - From Iran to Venezuela, President-elect Obama's best foreign policy option is to lie low for now, John Barry writes in Newsweek. Sudden forays into tricky hotspots—think Bay of Pigs, or President Bush's North Korea missteps—can prove costly, and most of the world's problems need a breather anyway. In...

Saudis Fight Extremism With... Rehab?

Saudis rehabilitate terrorists using ideological approach

(Newser) - Saudi Arabia has a particular brand of counter-terrorism: a cozy detention center where captured militants share their feelings, practice art therapy, snack on Twix, rumble on PlayStation, and leave with the prospect of a wife. The retreat, Katherine Zoepf writes in the New York Times magazine, is part of the...

Afghans Hard-Pressed to Hold Gains in War on Opium

Corruption, other obstacles make cultivation of legitimate crops tough to maintain

(Newser) - Afghanistan’s second-largest opium-producing province has eradicated the drug, a remarkable feat but one that farmers fear is short-lived, the Christian Science Monitor reports. NATO-backed efforts in the country that makes 90% of Earth's opium have reduced poppy harvests, violence, and corruption nationwide. But to grow anything else, the region...

Freed Reporter Held in Cave Underground

But Canadian journalist says Afghan captors did not harm her

(Newser) - Canadian officials secured the release yesterday of a reporter who was kept in an underground cave in Afghanistan for a month, CNN reports. Melissa Fung said her abductors bound her hands and feet, but that she was never mistreated. Afghan authorities arrested three people in the case and are looking...

US Strike Kills 40 at Wedding: Afghans

President Karzai angry; military investigating incident

(Newser) - A US air strike killed 40 civilians at a wedding party Monday, the Afghan government said today. The US said it was investigating the incident, but would not verify any attack or death toll, the New York Times reports. A Kandahar province official said US forces were fighting with the...

Afghan Officials Helped Taliban Attack US Army

Nine Americans died when hundreds descended on camp

(Newser) - An Afghan police chief and a local government official aided Taliban militants who killed nine American soldiers, an internal military review has found. The July attack came as American and Afghan forces were constructing a base in the country's remote east, when around 200 fighters descended on the soldiers. The...

Obama, Not McCain, Would Be Third Bush Term
Obama, Not McCain, Would Be Third Bush Term
OPINION
Nov 1, 2008 6:25 PM CDT

Obama, Not McCain, Would Be Third Bush Term

Dem doesn't offer much hope of change from current president

(Newser) - Barack Obama has freely used the Bush card, reminding voters that John McCain has agreed with the president 90% of the time—but “the irony here is that Obama actually has much more in common with Bush than McCain does,” Bill Siegel writes in the National Review. He...

Petraeus Gets New Title, Plans Pakistan Visit

Chief of US Central Command headed to region he oversees

(Newser) - Gen. David Petraeus’ first official trip as head of the US military’s Central Command will be to Pakistan, the Tampa Tribune reports. Petraeus was sworn in today at MacDill Air Force base, in Tampa, taking over from Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey. Petraeus’ new responsibilities at Centralcom include planning in...

US Troop Deaths in Iraq Lowest Since War Began

Troops, militants shifting to Afghanistan as America's Iraq strategy succeeds

(Newser) - October is on course to tie July's record for the lowest number of troop deaths in Iraq, USA Today reports. Thirteen US troops have died so far in October in combat and non-combat incidents. For the first time since the war started in 2002, no US troops died in combat...

$3.2B Opium Stash May Be Taliban's Secret Weapon

International agencies alarmed by 8,000 of tons of missing opium

(Newser) - A huge pile of missing opium has international law enforcement agencies worried, Time reports. The UN estimates up to 8,000 tons of opium—enough to supply every addict in the world for two years—have disappeared between Afghanistan's poppy fields and the world market in recent years. Experts fear...

US Weighs Talks With Taliban
US Weighs Talks With Taliban
Oct 28, 2008 10:51 AM CDT

US Weighs Talks With Taliban

Petraeus, set to take charge of Afghanistan policy, backs at least limited negotiations

(Newser) - The US is strongly considering negotiating with at least some elements of the Taliban, the Wall Street Journal reports. The talks, which would exclude top leaders, are part of a draft White House assessment of strategy in Afghanistan, officials say. Gen. David Petraeus, who takes over Central Command this week,...

Jolie Returns, Moved, From Afghanistan Trip

Goodwill ambassador visited refugees, urges international aid

(Newser) - Angelina Jolie made a trip to Afghanistan last week in her role as goodwill ambassador for the United Nations, spending two days among the country's returning refugees. The actress visited sites where thousands of Afghans live in makeshift housing and struggle to find work, problems that typify the stress the...

Pakistan to Arm Local Militias
 Pakistan to Arm Local Militias 
Oct 23, 2008 10:32 AM CDT

Pakistan to Arm Local Militias

Insurgency strategy, successful for US in Iraq, boosts American confidence in ally

(Newser) - Pakistan plans to give weapons to thousands of  tribal fighters along its border with Afghanistan, the Washington Post reports—a strategy that has helped the US in Iraq. The move to link the militias—called lashkars—to anti-Taliban efforts is a boost to US confidence in Pakistan’s military efforts,...

Afghan Writer's Death Sentence Reduced

Student gets 20 years for 'blasphemy' about women's rights

(Newser) - Parwez Kambakhsh won’t be executed for distributing literature on women’s rights, but the student and part-time journalist will spend the next 20 years in prison, an Afghan appeals court ruled yesterday. “This is arguably worse for him,” one human-rights advocate told the Los Angeles Times of...

Military Opens $15M Dog Hospital

'Canine Walter Reed' will treat pooches wounded in combat

(Newser) - If GI Rover gets injured in Iraq, chances are he'll end up at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas, where the "Walter Reed of the veterinary world" has just opened. The base has long been training pups for service in all branches of the military, but its old animal...

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