Clipmarks | Insurgency Clips

Women Test Limits

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 13:08:02 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "Now, women are taking courses run by nongovernmental organizations, getting educated and learning ways to improve their family incomes. Most important, the women have won over the men, she said.

“Their minds have changed,” Najiba said. “They want to share decisions, not too far, but they want to give us some share.”

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

BAMIAN, Afghanistan — Far away from the Taliban insurgency, in this most peaceful corner of Afghanistan, a quiet revolution is gaining pace.

Women are driving cars — a rarity in Afghanistan — working in public offices and police stations, and sitting on local councils. There is even a female governor, the first and only one in Afghanistan.

In a country with low rankings on many indicators of social progress, women and girls are the most disadvantaged.

More than 80 percent of Afghan women are illiterate. Women’s life expectancy is only 45 years, lower than that of men, mostly because of the very high rates of death during pregnancy.

The cult of war left women particularly vulnerable. For years now they have been the victims of abduction and rape.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The quiet work being done by women on the councils and in other jobs has helped turn things around for many in Bamian.

British commander says war in Afghanistan cannot be won

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:22:34 GMT

clipped by: Kelika

Clip Source: www.newsdaily.com

LONDON, Oct. 5, 2008 (Reuters) — Britain's commander in Afghanistan has said the war against the Taliban cannot be won, the Sunday Times reported.

"We're not going to win this war. It's about reducing it to a manageable level of insurgency that's not a strategic threat and can be managed by the Afghan army," he said.

But Afghanistan's Defense Minister expressed his disappointment on Sunday at the commander's statements, maintaining the insurgency had to be defeated.

Wardak said success also depended on how British forces were approaching the problems they faced in Helmand but did not say whether their current strategy was the right one.

Violence in Afghanistan has increased to its worst level since 2001, when U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the ruling Taliban following the September 11 attacks on the United States.

By bus from Ossetia to Ingushetiya, round the feuding fringe of Russia's empire

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 09:25:11 GMT

clipped by: rmowery

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

By bus from Ossetia to Ingushetiya, round the feuding fringe of Russia's empire

“Climb aboard, make it quick!” Machat, his mouth filled with gold, is eager to collect the fare before his bone-crunching minibus bucks forward. For 30 roubles, less than a euro, you can travel in his battered van from the once and (perhaps) future battlefield of Ossetia down the road to inspect the swelling insurgency of Ingushetia.

The journey, which begins at Vladikavkaz bus station, takes one through sandbagged checkpoints, past spotty soldiers who fiddle with the safety catches on their guns, and on to the M29, the road that fringes the northern foothills of the verdant Caucasian mountains, into what the Russians believe is bandit country. The M29 may sound as if it is dotted with Little Chefs. In fact it is Europe's Kidnap Highway.

Tags: russia, georgia, ossetia, chechnya

Afghan president Karzai calls for peace with Taliban

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:26:14 GMT

clipped by: tommy2balmy
clipper's remarks: Our correspondent says that many Afghan and western officials believe that the insurgency cannot be defeated militarily and that a political accommodation must be reached, but there has been fierce disagreements between Western countries and the Afghan government as to how this process should proceed.
Correspondents say that earlier attempts to negotiate with the Taleban have been beset by difficulties, especially when foreign powers have been involved.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said that he has made repeated efforts over the last two years to engage Saudi Arabia in peace talks with the Taleban.

Mr Karzai says that he is 'working for peace'

"Since two years I have been sending letters and messages to the Saudi Arabian king and requested him, as a world Muslim leader, to help us bring peace in Afghanistan," President Karzai told a news conference.

Mr Karzai says he wants to talk to moderate Taleban leaders

The BBC's Martin Patience in Kabul say that this is part of a reconciliation process supported by the Afghan government - as well as the US and UK - of reaching out to moderate leaders in the Taleban.

President Karzai also says he has made a fresh appeal for the Taleban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, to join peace negotiations.

"A few days ago I called upon their leader, Mullah Omar, and said 'My brother, my dear, come back to your homeland, come and work for the peace and good of your people and stop killing your brothers',"

Tags: karzai, afghanistan, taliban, mullah omar, war on terror

Dowd vs. Palin (cont.)

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:25:43 GMT

clipped by: nchnted
clipper's remarks: The Lipstick Jungle!!

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

After losing its moral superiority abroad with phony evidence for attacking Iraq, the U.S. has now lost its moral superiority in the financial arena. Once more, W. took the ball, carried it off the cliff and went biking.

Doctor K prolonged the war in Vietnam to help Nixon get re-elected and then advised W. on Iraq that the only way to beat an insurgency and save face is to stick it out, no matter how many American kids and foreign civilians die.

Summoning his old Harvard teaching days, Kissinger surely looked for a common didactic starting point: She has seen Russia. “Goot. I haff seen it, too.”

Kissinger probably explained détente and Metternich to Palin, while she explained the Iditarod and moose carving to him.

They talked Russia, which is relevant.

And Governor Palin spends so much time ostracizing reporters who might quiz her on NATO or the liquidity crunch that her press strategy is beginning to smack of Putin’s — but less lethal.

Thousands flee fighting in Somalia

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 06:50:40 GMT

clipped by: tommy2balmy
clipper's remarks: David Shinn, a former US diplomat who teaches at the George Washington University, said fighters from the hardline al-Shabab militia were trying to assert their authority in order to force the Ethiopians out.

They are trying "to show that they are in a position to perhaps even take control of Mogadishu if the Ethiopian forces were to leave", he told the BBC.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Thousands of people have been fleeing renewed fighting between African Union peacekeepers and Islamist insurgents in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

The peacekeepers, who came under heavy attack for the third day running, said they had to use unusually tough measures to repulse the insurgents.

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says Islamist insurgents have been gaining ground in the city in their fight against the Ethiopian-backed government.

Observers say there has been a change in tactics, with Islamists switching from hit-and-run raids to sustained attacks against peacekeepers.

Somalia has been wracked by conflict since 1991, when former President Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown.

Ethiopia intervened in 2006 to help the government oust Islamist forces from the capital and surrounding regions.

The Islamists then launched an insurgency against Somalia's transitional government and its Ethiopian allies.

Peacekeepers mired in Somalia

People

fleeing the worst violence in months

Tags: somalia

Thirty killed as Mogadishu is shelled

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 19:32:47 GMT

clipped by: tommy2balmy
clipper's remarks: Islamic militants with ties to al-Qaida have been fighting the government and its Ethiopian allies for control since their combined forces pushed the Islamists from the capital in December 2006. Within weeks of being driven out, the Islamists launched an Iraq-style insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians to date.

In recent weeks, the militants appear to be gaining strength and sidelining the fragile government. The group, known as the Council of Islamic Courts, has taken over the port town of Kismayo, Somalia's third-largest city, and dismantled pro-government roadblocks. They also effectively closed the Mogadishu airport by threatening to attack any plane using it.

"We keep recruiting new fighters to prepare them for the holy war against Ethiopian troops in our country and their Somali stooges," said Sheik Muhumed, a commander with al-Shabab, the group's military wing.

The United States considers al-Shabab a terrorist group, raising fears Somalia could become a have

Clip Source: www.examiner.com

(AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
A Somali man assists a critically wounded man, Monday, Sept. 22, 2008 a victim of a mortar attack on the Bakara market in Mogadishu. Mortars slammed into a market in Somalia's capital Monday, killing up to 30 people and overwhelming hospitals with dozens of wounded in the worst fighting in months, witnesses said. The fighting began after Islamic insurgents fired mortars at the capital's main airport and the presidential palace, said Ali Mohamed Siyad, who chairs Bakara market traders' association. Soon after, government forces and their Ethiopian allies retaliated with mortars and gunfire.

The African Union has sent about 2,000 peacekeepers to Somalia, but they generally are confined to the airport because security is so bad in Mogadishu. The U.N. has tried to push peace talks between the government and the opposition, but a recent deal with a more moderate faction of the Islamic group seems only to have worsened the violence.

Tags: somalia

On female suicide bombers in Iraq

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:46:05 GMT

clipped by: tommy2balmy
clipper's remarks: The last line clipped is especially chilling.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Contacted through previously successful means of reaching members of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the woman gave her name as Um Islam and agreed to speak to a Post special correspondent on condition that her real name and precise location not be mentioned.

Women, she said, had long been involved in the Sunni insurgency. Some came from other countries with husbands who were determined to become fighters in Iraq. The women treated wounded insurgents and carried explosives belts underneath their garments, taking advantage of conservative Muslim traditions, Um Islam said.

"Searching women at the time was a red line, and there were no women guards searching other women at the checkpoints," explained Um Islam, an Iraqi who said her husband was killed by U.S. forces last year.

"We have one woman who is pregnant and is now waiting to deliver," she added, "after which she will be in line for a martyrdom operation."

Tags: iraq, war on terror, um islam, al qaeda in iraq, islamic state of iraq

Maliki Blames Bremer; and the Larger Story

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:07:02 GMT

clipped by: cptenaud
clipper's remarks: continued;

"The Iraqi administration and all government offices are suffering the consequences of Paul Bremer's mistakes," he said.
Following the 2003 war on Iraq, Bremer served as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority and exercised power over the civil administration.
He is widely criticized over the insurgency in Iraq that has partly resulted from his reportedly unilateral decision to formally dissolve the Iraqi army in May 2003.
The comments by al-Maliki came after Time magazine reported that Bremer had embezzled $9 billion of the oil-rich country's reconstruction budget.

Clip Source: www.vetvoice.com

by: Chris LeJeune

Tue Sep 16

It's election time, and as such it is the time when everyone blames everyone else for everything that has gone wrong. Armey blames Cheney for cajoling him into supporting the war. McCain blames Obama for high gas prices. And Maliki blames Bremer for the suffering in Iraq.

At a gathering of local officials of the Iraqi province of Karbala, al-Maliki added that the Iraqi government continues to suffer from the mistakes made by Bremer, who was appointed by U.S. President George W. Bush as the director of reconstruction and humanitarian assistance for post-invasion Iraq in 2003.

Tags: blame, game

Pakistan AGAIN warns US not to attack

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:48:51 GMT

clipped by: tommy2balmy
clipper's remarks: Once again Bush administration makes history as tribal elders now for first time look to Pakistani government as their allies not as their enemies.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Pakistan's army spokesman has made clear that its forces will not tolerate incursions into Pakistani territory.

Pakistan has thousands of troops in the border region

Tension is rising in Pakistan over an increase in US attacks along the border with Afghanistan.

Locals said seven US helicopter gunships and two troop-carrying Chinook helicopters landed in the Afghan province of Paktika near the Zohba mountain range.

US troops from the Chinooks then tried to cross the border. As they did so, Pakistani paramilitary soldiers at a checkpoint opened fire into the air and the US troops decided not to continue forward, local Pakistani officials say.

Army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told the Associated Press on Tuesday that "no incursion is to be tolerated".

Pakistan reacted with diplomatic fury when US helicopters landed troops in South Waziristan on 3 September. It was the first ground assault by US troops in Pakistan.

Pakistan's army has warned that the

US policy will widen the insurgency

Tags: pakistan, war on terror, afghanistan, us

Pentagon To Expand Intel Ops at US Prison in Afghanistan

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 01:38:24 GMT

clipped by: papananook
clipper's remarks: What incredible crap they sling at us...
Originally built as a Soviet air base in the 1980s, the Bagram prison was meant to be a short-term holding site. Bagram has been a flash point in the debate over U.S. treatment of detainees. The International Red Cross has negotiated with U.S. officials about conditions and access to detainees.

After peaking at nearly 700 prisoners in 2006, the population at Bagram has hovered for the past year at its 600-prisoner capacity, according to Central Command figures provided in response to a USA TODAY inquiry.

The intelligence hires are to be in place before next summer's scheduled completion of the new detention center that will hold 1,000 prisoners, an increase in capacity by 65%.

"In 2001 ... we never thought we'd still be (at Bagram) today," said Brig. Gen. Robert Holmes, deputy operations chief at U.S. Central Command, which oversees Afghanistan operations. "Now that we see this as a sustained activity, there were improvements to be mad

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon plans to expand intelligence operations at its main prison in Afghanistan, records and interviews with military officials show.

Interrogators and analysts are being sought for a bigger Bagram prison scheduled to open next year. They will be hired to question prisoners and provide intelligence that can be used on the battlefield, according to contract solicitations reviewed by USA TODAY. The Army also is seeking a "trained Mullah" to conduct Islamic services for detainees and advise U.S. officials on religious issues.

A U.S. soldier stands in front of an election advertisement at the Bagram airbase north of Kabul September 11, 2008. Without noting the implicit irony, a RAND Corp analyst remarked that one of the goals of the increased operations at Bagram will be trying to "understand what is motivating people to join the insurgency."

The developments are the latest indication of U.S. plans for a long-term presence in Afghanistan,

To Pakistanis, Taliban looks like anti-colonialism

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 22:47:57 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "Some Pakistanis believe the Taliban insurgency is the latest in a long line of anti-colonial militancy stretching back to the mid-19th century uprisings against British rule. The Pakistan army, in contrast, is seen as an agent of the United States" "Without adequate political leadership, eradicating sympathy for the Taliban may prove more difficult than eradicating their hideouts in frontier Pakistan. But as long as NATO and the United States continue unilateral strikes in Pakistan that kill civilians, the real battle - for hearts and minds - will be lost"

Clip Source: www.atimes.com

The Taliban claim they fight in the name of Islam.

But if the Taliban are judged by actions and not words, their primary targets are ordinary Muslims.

Such acts against fellow Muslims seem unconscionable even to conservative Muslims not affiliated with the Taliban

Yet the Taliban manage to retain the sympathy of many Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan. A major reason for this is the presence of foreign troops that do not appear to understand the dynamics of local tribal politics. Another is the insecurity that most civilians exposed to the conflict face. When foreign forces kill civilians, the Taliban are able to avoid responsibility for the atrocities they commit.

The inescapable message is that the Taliban may not be loved, but the real criminals are foreign interlopers.

The United States and

(NATO) follow in a long line of

armies that have claimed to bring order to the region but have instead killed many civilians while serving their own interests and failing to respect local traditions

The Good General Takes on Afghanistan

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:27:44 GMT

clipped by: RecordSage

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

General David Petraeus takes on Afghanistan

Iraqi soldiers play at a farewell ceremony for General David Petraeus, who was hailed a hero for his success in Iraq

He is credited with taming the violence in Iraq, rewriting American counter-insurgency strategy and salvaging the reputation of the US military.

When General David Petraeus steps down today as the commander of US forces in Iraq however, he will have little time to savour the plaudits from fellow soldiers and the Bush Administration.

The general was hailed as “the hero of the hour” by the US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, for appearing to have pulled Iraq back from the brink of civil war after he successfully oversaw a surge of 30,000 extra US troops into the country.

It remains to be seen if he can have the same impact in Afghanistan, where violence has increased since the Taleban were overthrown in 2001.

Tags: david petraeus, afghanistan

Afghan governor killed by bomb blast

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 02:58:46 GMT

clipped by: tommy2balmy

Clip Source: www.presstv.ir

The governor of Afghanistan's Logar province along with his 3 bodyguards has been killed when his car was hit by a roadside bomb near Kabul.

Bomb blasts are on the rise in Afghanistan

Abullah Wardak, governor of the province of Logar, was visiting his family when was killed outside his house in Paghman, which lies some 20 km (12 miles) west of the capital, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary said.

No group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for the incident. Taliban militants often carry out similar attacks in Afghanistan.

A Taliban-led insurgency has been on the rise ever since the US-led invasion of the country in late 2001 with most incidents taking place in the south and east, claiming several thousand lives.

More than 3,700 people, including about 1,000 civilians, have been killed in the violence-hit country so far this year.

Tags: afghanistan, taliban, us, war on terror

Is This America's Most Important Weapon System?

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 03:24:29 GMT

clipped by: victorlamp
clipper's remarks: For more info, go directly to the blog post at
http://warnewsupdates.blogspot.com/2008/09/is-this-americas-most-important-weapon.html

Clip Source: warnewsupdates.blogspot.com

WNU Editor: The Belmont Club examines this possibility. I provide some more information and analysis at the bottom of this post.

The Database War -- Belmont Club

Ever since Bob Woodward hinted at the existence of a ‘Manhattan project’ type secret weapon which was largely responsible for an increase in US military effectiveness in Iraq, the press has been casting around eagerly for clues as to its nature. Woodward said, “If you were an al Qaeda leader or part of the insurgency in Iraq, or one of these renegade militias, and you knew about what they were able to do, you’d get your ass outta town.” The LA Times is focusing attention on a kind of surveillance device that allows UAVs to identify and track suspects from a distance, in a manner not unlike a giant supermarket barcode scanner looking down from the sky at objects parading miles beneath.