Killa T
August 6th 03, 07:56 PM
Faggot troll. Faggot Troll.
"Sidewinder" > wrote in message
ll.eu.org...
> Human Rights Watch released a report this past week saying that
> warlords, whom the U.S. military helped put in power so they could
> fight the Taliban and al Qaeda, are terrorizing much of the country.
>
> Their gunmen are intimidating journalists and political opponents as
> well as robbing, detaining and raping ordinary Afghans with impunity,
> the report said.
>
> At the same time, cooperation between the U.S. military and regional
> leaders has not always succeeded in thwarting the Taliban and al Qaeda
> -- notably in Kandahar.
>
> Twice in recent months, large Taliban groups have attacked U.S. or
> allied forces, and Kandaharis are increasingly critical of the United
> States for not acting more aggressively to stop terrorism and protect
> the populace.
>
> Recent efforts to flush out Taliban forces have brought some tangible
> results, but have failed to stop them from regrouping over the
> Pakistani border, beyond the reach of coalition forces.
>
> In early June, Kandahar provincial soldiers killed about 40 people
> they identified as pro-Taliban fighters during a clash six miles north
> of Spin Boldak, near the Pakistani border.
>
> Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali later said many of the dead
> carried Pakistani identification cards or mobile phones.
>
> On July 19, a large group of pro-Taliban fighters fired on a convoy of
> U.S. Special Forces and other coalition soldiers patrolling near Spin
> Boldak.
>
> The coalition soldiers returned fire and called in AH-64 Apache
> helicopters, killing between 22 to 24 enemy fighters, the U.S.
> military said.
>
> A Kandahar police official said the dead men were killed as they fled
> over the border into Pakistan.
>
> Mohammad Anwar, an Afghan trader who grew up in Spin Boldak and now
> lives in the Pakistani town of Chaman, said he is perplexed that
> high-ranking Taliban officials live openly in his prosperous
> neighborhood.
>
> In late June, he saw guns, money and motorbikes being dispensed at a
> local mosque, he said.
>
> "Everybody knows there are terrorists there, but they don't take
> action," Anwar said.
>
> "It scares me."
>
> Gen. Mohammad Akram Khakrizwal, the Afghan central government's
> highest-ranking police official in Kandahar, said he too has watched
> with alarm as remnants of the Taliban grow more visible and active.
>
> After coalition forces routed them, Taliban leaders fled and hid for
> six months, he said.
>
> Then they started appearing openly in Pakistan.
>
> "They wanted to know what the reaction would be," Akram said.
>
> "After there was no reaction from the coalition or the government,
> they started regrouping."
>
> Before long, he said, the Taliban and its allies began slipping into
> Afghanistan to disseminate anti-government, anti-coalition propaganda
> fliers, which Afghans call "night letters."
>
> "Then they started burning schools and, again, no one said anything,"
> he said.
>
> "The third phase was explosions. . . . Now they are targeting mullahs
> and police officials."
>
> To Akram, who fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the
> progression looks ominously familiar.
>
> "It is dangerous," he said.
>
> "During the Russian invasion, we did the same thing: step by step.
> These Taliban have been organizing step by step.
>
> "Now that they have not been stopped and they are in larger numbers,
> they will make the situation worse for the coalition forces and the
> Afghan government."
>
>
> >From The Washington Post, 8/2/03:
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15348-2003Aug2.html
>
> Afghan Political Violence on the Rise
>
> Instability in South Grows as Pro-Taliban Fighters Attack Allies of
> U.S.-Led Forces
>
> By April Witt
> Washington Post Staff Writer
>
> Sunday, August 3, 2003; Page A01
>
>
> KANDAHAR, Afghanistan --
>
> There is an armed guard in the house of God.
>
> At the front gate of the Abdurrad Akhunzada mosque, a turbaned
> watchman paces warily in the dusty twilight, hiding his Kalashnikov
> beneath an outsized scarf so he doesn't frighten men arriving for
> evening prayers.
>
> A remote-controlled bomb exploded at the mosque last month, injuring
> the mullah and 24 worshippers as they knelt, hands outstretched in
> supplication.
>
> Two days later, a mullah, who had hung the Afghan flag in his mosque
> and said good Muslims support the nation's central government, was
> shot to death as he sat praying, a book open in his hand.
>
> A third Kandahar mullah was attacked this week, executed outside his
> mosque by gunmen on a motorcycle.
>
> All three clerics served on a religious council that recently decreed
> that, contrary to pronouncements by the Taliban Islamic movement,
> there is no legitimate jihad, or holy war, against the central
> government or the foreign troops that support it.
>
> A year and a half after the United States and its allies drove the
> Taliban from power, acts of politically motivated violence have become
> frequent and fierce in the key southern province of Kandahar, the
> birthplace of the Taliban and the source of countless shifts in Afghan
> politics and culture over the centuries.
>
> Bands of 50 or more pro-Taliban fighters have begun appearing around
> Kandahar, both along the border with Pakistan and in the interior of
> the province.
>
> Just over the border in the Pakistani town of Chaman, high-ranking
> Taliban officials are meeting openly and handing out guns, money and
> motorbikes, according to a witness and Afghan police officials.
>
> Poor Afghans who don't share the Taliban's strict interpretation of
> Islam or its mission of jihad are nevertheless accepting Pakistani
> money to plant land mines and bombs in Afghanistan, they said.
>
> In addition to Taliban fighters, other men with guns -- warlords --
> dominate much of Kandahar, allowing the trade in illegal drugs to
> flourish.
>
> Civic activists who once hoped to provide an alternative to both
> radical fundamentalists and marauding militiamen feel silenced and
> afraid.
>
> "If someone rises up to say something about democracy or social
> equality, then tomorrow he won't exist anymore," said Mohammad Wali
> Hotek, head of one of the largest tribes in the Pashtun ethnic group,
> which is predominant in the south.
>
> "As there is no rule of law in Afghanistan, the gunmen can do anything
> they want.
>
> "We are tough people," said Hotek, who was praying at the Abdurrad
> Akhunzada mosque when the bomb exploded there last month.
>
> "The experiences we are having now make us lose our hope for the
> future."
>
> Kandahar police also say they feel demoralized and targeted.
>
> In July alone, one district police chief was shot to death on his way
> home from work and another was killed along with five of his officers
> when a band of about 20 armed men stormed their compound, police
> officials said.
>
> This past week, five or six government officials were ambushed and
> killed along the same isolated road where a Red Cross water engineer
> was executed in late March.
>
> The mood in the province is so tense that when a major dust storm
> developed earlier last week, blotting out the sky with mustard-colored
> sand, some Kandaharis read it as a portent.
>
> "It just feels like something is building," said Sarah Chayes, an
> American former journalist who now runs a pro-democracy group called
> Afghans for Civil Society.
>
> "One year ago I didn't have any problem driving around Kandahar by
> myself. Now I feel it is a lot more dangerous."
>
> Kandahar's mounting security problems have dire consequences for the
> province's poorest people.
>
> In the four months since the execution of the Red Cross engineer, the
> number of nongovernmental organizations with foreign workers in
> Kandahar has dropped from 22 to just seven or eight, said Talatbek
> Masadykov, head of the Kandahar office of U.N. Assistance Mission in
> Afghanistan.
>
> Those who have remained often stick close to the city of Kandahar
> rather than risk traveling to outlying districts. Crucial
> reconstruction and humanitarian aid, from bridge repairs to food
> distribution, have slowed or stopped as a result, he said.
>
> The growing instability in Kandahar has ominous implications for the
> rest of Afghanistan.
>
> As the heartland of the Pashtuns, whose monarchs ruled Afghanistan for
> much of the past three centuries, and the place where the Taliban
> began its rise to power in the early 1990s, Kandahar has long been the
> trendsetter for the rest of the country.
>
> "Kandahar was the first capital of Afghanistan," said Masadykov.
>
> "Historically, those who know Afghanistan say that if you can solve
> the political issues in Kandahar, you can solve the issues in the
> whole country. If you can't do it in Kandahar, it means that you are
> lost."
>
> FAIR USE NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which
> has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am
> making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of
> environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific,
> and
> social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any
> such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US
> Copyright
> Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
>
>
"Sidewinder" > wrote in message
ll.eu.org...
> Human Rights Watch released a report this past week saying that
> warlords, whom the U.S. military helped put in power so they could
> fight the Taliban and al Qaeda, are terrorizing much of the country.
>
> Their gunmen are intimidating journalists and political opponents as
> well as robbing, detaining and raping ordinary Afghans with impunity,
> the report said.
>
> At the same time, cooperation between the U.S. military and regional
> leaders has not always succeeded in thwarting the Taliban and al Qaeda
> -- notably in Kandahar.
>
> Twice in recent months, large Taliban groups have attacked U.S. or
> allied forces, and Kandaharis are increasingly critical of the United
> States for not acting more aggressively to stop terrorism and protect
> the populace.
>
> Recent efforts to flush out Taliban forces have brought some tangible
> results, but have failed to stop them from regrouping over the
> Pakistani border, beyond the reach of coalition forces.
>
> In early June, Kandahar provincial soldiers killed about 40 people
> they identified as pro-Taliban fighters during a clash six miles north
> of Spin Boldak, near the Pakistani border.
>
> Afghan Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali later said many of the dead
> carried Pakistani identification cards or mobile phones.
>
> On July 19, a large group of pro-Taliban fighters fired on a convoy of
> U.S. Special Forces and other coalition soldiers patrolling near Spin
> Boldak.
>
> The coalition soldiers returned fire and called in AH-64 Apache
> helicopters, killing between 22 to 24 enemy fighters, the U.S.
> military said.
>
> A Kandahar police official said the dead men were killed as they fled
> over the border into Pakistan.
>
> Mohammad Anwar, an Afghan trader who grew up in Spin Boldak and now
> lives in the Pakistani town of Chaman, said he is perplexed that
> high-ranking Taliban officials live openly in his prosperous
> neighborhood.
>
> In late June, he saw guns, money and motorbikes being dispensed at a
> local mosque, he said.
>
> "Everybody knows there are terrorists there, but they don't take
> action," Anwar said.
>
> "It scares me."
>
> Gen. Mohammad Akram Khakrizwal, the Afghan central government's
> highest-ranking police official in Kandahar, said he too has watched
> with alarm as remnants of the Taliban grow more visible and active.
>
> After coalition forces routed them, Taliban leaders fled and hid for
> six months, he said.
>
> Then they started appearing openly in Pakistan.
>
> "They wanted to know what the reaction would be," Akram said.
>
> "After there was no reaction from the coalition or the government,
> they started regrouping."
>
> Before long, he said, the Taliban and its allies began slipping into
> Afghanistan to disseminate anti-government, anti-coalition propaganda
> fliers, which Afghans call "night letters."
>
> "Then they started burning schools and, again, no one said anything,"
> he said.
>
> "The third phase was explosions. . . . Now they are targeting mullahs
> and police officials."
>
> To Akram, who fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the
> progression looks ominously familiar.
>
> "It is dangerous," he said.
>
> "During the Russian invasion, we did the same thing: step by step.
> These Taliban have been organizing step by step.
>
> "Now that they have not been stopped and they are in larger numbers,
> they will make the situation worse for the coalition forces and the
> Afghan government."
>
>
> >From The Washington Post, 8/2/03:
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15348-2003Aug2.html
>
> Afghan Political Violence on the Rise
>
> Instability in South Grows as Pro-Taliban Fighters Attack Allies of
> U.S.-Led Forces
>
> By April Witt
> Washington Post Staff Writer
>
> Sunday, August 3, 2003; Page A01
>
>
> KANDAHAR, Afghanistan --
>
> There is an armed guard in the house of God.
>
> At the front gate of the Abdurrad Akhunzada mosque, a turbaned
> watchman paces warily in the dusty twilight, hiding his Kalashnikov
> beneath an outsized scarf so he doesn't frighten men arriving for
> evening prayers.
>
> A remote-controlled bomb exploded at the mosque last month, injuring
> the mullah and 24 worshippers as they knelt, hands outstretched in
> supplication.
>
> Two days later, a mullah, who had hung the Afghan flag in his mosque
> and said good Muslims support the nation's central government, was
> shot to death as he sat praying, a book open in his hand.
>
> A third Kandahar mullah was attacked this week, executed outside his
> mosque by gunmen on a motorcycle.
>
> All three clerics served on a religious council that recently decreed
> that, contrary to pronouncements by the Taliban Islamic movement,
> there is no legitimate jihad, or holy war, against the central
> government or the foreign troops that support it.
>
> A year and a half after the United States and its allies drove the
> Taliban from power, acts of politically motivated violence have become
> frequent and fierce in the key southern province of Kandahar, the
> birthplace of the Taliban and the source of countless shifts in Afghan
> politics and culture over the centuries.
>
> Bands of 50 or more pro-Taliban fighters have begun appearing around
> Kandahar, both along the border with Pakistan and in the interior of
> the province.
>
> Just over the border in the Pakistani town of Chaman, high-ranking
> Taliban officials are meeting openly and handing out guns, money and
> motorbikes, according to a witness and Afghan police officials.
>
> Poor Afghans who don't share the Taliban's strict interpretation of
> Islam or its mission of jihad are nevertheless accepting Pakistani
> money to plant land mines and bombs in Afghanistan, they said.
>
> In addition to Taliban fighters, other men with guns -- warlords --
> dominate much of Kandahar, allowing the trade in illegal drugs to
> flourish.
>
> Civic activists who once hoped to provide an alternative to both
> radical fundamentalists and marauding militiamen feel silenced and
> afraid.
>
> "If someone rises up to say something about democracy or social
> equality, then tomorrow he won't exist anymore," said Mohammad Wali
> Hotek, head of one of the largest tribes in the Pashtun ethnic group,
> which is predominant in the south.
>
> "As there is no rule of law in Afghanistan, the gunmen can do anything
> they want.
>
> "We are tough people," said Hotek, who was praying at the Abdurrad
> Akhunzada mosque when the bomb exploded there last month.
>
> "The experiences we are having now make us lose our hope for the
> future."
>
> Kandahar police also say they feel demoralized and targeted.
>
> In July alone, one district police chief was shot to death on his way
> home from work and another was killed along with five of his officers
> when a band of about 20 armed men stormed their compound, police
> officials said.
>
> This past week, five or six government officials were ambushed and
> killed along the same isolated road where a Red Cross water engineer
> was executed in late March.
>
> The mood in the province is so tense that when a major dust storm
> developed earlier last week, blotting out the sky with mustard-colored
> sand, some Kandaharis read it as a portent.
>
> "It just feels like something is building," said Sarah Chayes, an
> American former journalist who now runs a pro-democracy group called
> Afghans for Civil Society.
>
> "One year ago I didn't have any problem driving around Kandahar by
> myself. Now I feel it is a lot more dangerous."
>
> Kandahar's mounting security problems have dire consequences for the
> province's poorest people.
>
> In the four months since the execution of the Red Cross engineer, the
> number of nongovernmental organizations with foreign workers in
> Kandahar has dropped from 22 to just seven or eight, said Talatbek
> Masadykov, head of the Kandahar office of U.N. Assistance Mission in
> Afghanistan.
>
> Those who have remained often stick close to the city of Kandahar
> rather than risk traveling to outlying districts. Crucial
> reconstruction and humanitarian aid, from bridge repairs to food
> distribution, have slowed or stopped as a result, he said.
>
> The growing instability in Kandahar has ominous implications for the
> rest of Afghanistan.
>
> As the heartland of the Pashtuns, whose monarchs ruled Afghanistan for
> much of the past three centuries, and the place where the Taliban
> began its rise to power in the early 1990s, Kandahar has long been the
> trendsetter for the rest of the country.
>
> "Kandahar was the first capital of Afghanistan," said Masadykov.
>
> "Historically, those who know Afghanistan say that if you can solve
> the political issues in Kandahar, you can solve the issues in the
> whole country. If you can't do it in Kandahar, it means that you are
> lost."
>
> FAIR USE NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which
> has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am
> making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of
> environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific,
> and
> social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any
> such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US
> Copyright
> Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
>
>