POLITICS: Afghanistan Spy Contract Goes Sour for Pentagon
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Pratap Chatterjee*
WASHINGTON, Mar 16 (IPS) – Mike Furlong, a top Pentagon official, is alleged to have run a covert network of contractors to supply information for drone strikes and assassinations in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the U.S. government.
The contract built upon his decade-long experience in running propaganda [...]
POLITICS: Policy Battle over Afghan Peace Talks Intensifies
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Mar 15 (IPS) – The struggle within the Barack Obama administration over Afghanistan policy entered a new phase when the president suggested at a meeting of his ”war cabinet” Friday that it might be time to start negotiations with the Taliban, according to a [...]
POLITICS: Fiction of Marja as City Was U.S. Information War
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Mar 8, 2010 (IPS) – For weeks, the U.S. public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a "city of 80,000 people" as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea [...]
INDIA, PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN & THE US
Global Geopolitics Net Sites
B.RAMAN
Here are my answers to four questions e-mailed to me on March 3,2010, by a correspondent of the "Washington Post":
Question: Is the Indian government growing increasingly frustrated over the Obama administration’s policy of reconciliation with the so called good Taliban? And why or how will this impact India and [...]
UN reveals Afghan corruption woes
AlJazeeraEnglish
January 20, 2010
A recent United Nations report has Afghanistan as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has just published a report that says half of all Afghans have h…
GUARDING AGAINST SWARM ATTACKS ON NUCLEAR ESTABLISHMENTS
NTERNATIONAL TERRORISM MONITOR—PAPER NO.611
Global Geopolitics Net Sites
B.RAMAN
A swarm attack is a commando-style attack involving multiple targets and/ or multile modus operandi—-that is a mix of the use of hand-held weapons and explosives. Since the Mumbai terrorist attack of November 26 to 29,2008, which was itself a major swarm attack, there have been [...]
Zbigniew Brzezinski: The Afghan war and the ‘Grand Chessboard’ Pt2
More at The Real News
CORRUPTION: The Great Afghan Gem Heist
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Lal Aqa Sherin
KABUL , Dec 23 (IPS) – In the last eight years Afghanistan’s precious stones and artifacts have been pillaged at record levels. Thieves, both foreign and domestic, often steal the riches from under the noses of officials.
They end up spread far and wide, from East [...]
INDIA, A TRADITIONAL PARTNER OF AFGHANISTAN
Global Geopolitics Net Sites
B.RAMAN
( Written at the request of an Italian journal)
Historically, India has had close relations with the rulers of Afghanistan and its people as well as with the Pashtuns on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border. The Pashtuns of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan under the leadership of [...]
POLITICS: Afghan Army Turnover Rate Threatens U.S. War Plans
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (IPS) – One in every four combat soldiers quit the Afghan National Army (ANA) during the year ending in September, published data by the U.S. Defence Department and the Inspector General for Reconstruction in Afghanistan reveals.
That high rate of turnover in [...]
POLITICS: Realities Collide at Halifax ”War Conference”
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Anthony Fenton
HALIFAX, Canada, Nov 22 (IPS) – While the world’s top military elites gather inside a fortified hotel to discuss NATO’s future, protesters question the organisation’s legitimacy, secrecy, and the lack of democratic debate about the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan.
An imposing ‘United States of America’-emblazoned aircraft [...]
AFGHANISTAN: Insurgents Infiltrate Security Forces
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Lal Aqa Sherin*
KABUL, Nov 21 (IPS) – A Taliban fighter infiltrated the Afghan police force, killing seven Afghan officers and British soldiers. Similar attacks have taken the lives of U.S. troops.
Afghan interior and defence ministries deny that the screening of prospective soldiers is poor, but a police [...]
Q&A: ”Karzai Assigned a Rabbit to Take Care of the Carrot”
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Chris Arsenault interviews MALALAI JOYA, author and Afghan parliamentarian
VANCOUVER, Canada, Nov 20 (IPS) – In the aftermath of national elections widely condemned as fraudulent, the United States and its allies are wondering what to do about Afghanistan.
Malalai Joya, an Afghan parliamentarian deemed ”the bravest women in Afghanistan” [...]
AFGHANISTAN: Black & Veatch’s White Elephant in Kabul
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Pratap Chatterjee*
KABUL, Nov 19 (IPS) – In a secluded valley a few miles from Kabul’s international airport, Caterpillar turbines custom-built in Germany and giant transformers flown in from Mexico hum away at a brand-new power plant.
If all goes as planned, one engineer sitting at a single computer with [...]
CORRUPTION: Paying Off Afghanistan’s Warlords
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Pratap Chatterjee*
KABUL, Nov 18 (IPS) – Every morning, dozens of trucks laden with diesel from Turkmenistan lumber out of the northern Afghan border town of Hairaton on a two-day trek across the Hindu Kush down to Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul.
Among the dozens of businesses dispatching these trucks are two [...]
CORRUPTION: Afghanistan, Iraq Near Bottom of Transparency Index
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Nov 17 (IPS) – Despite billions of dollars spent by the U.S. and other countries to improve governance in Afghanistan and Iraq, the two countries remain among the world’s most corrupt nations, according to the latest edition of Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI).
Of [...]
