Media Dares, and Other Afghan News

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday February 19, 2015 · 5:53 PM PST

2015/02/19 · 17:53

The New York Times reports on an escalation of the secret war in Afghanistan.

As an October chill fell on the mountain passes that separate the militant havens in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a small team of Afghan intelligence commandos and American Special Operations forces descended on a village where they believed a leader of Al Qaeda was hiding.
That night the Afghans and Americans got their man, Abu Bara al-Kuwaiti. They also came away with what officials from both countries say was an even bigger prize: a laptop computer and files detailing Qaeda operations on both sides of the border.

American military officials said the intelligence seized in the raid was possibly as significant as the information found in the computer and documents of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after members of the Navy SEALs killed him in 2011.

The spike in raids is at odds with policy declarations in Washington, where the Obama administration has deemed the American role in the war essentially over. But the increase reflects the reality in Afghanistan, where fierce fighting in the past year killed record numbers of Afghan soldiers, police officers and civilians.

U.S. Is Escalating a Secretive War in Afghanistan, New York Times

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday January 29, 2015 · 6:02 PM PST

2015/01/29 · 18:02

In a news article, the New York Times reports that basically the whole damn war in Afghanistan has been classified. Not their precise words.

The United States has spent about $65 billion to build Afghanistan’s army and police forces, and until this month the American-led coalition regularly shared details on how the money was being put to use and on the Afghan forces’ progress.
But as of this month, ask a question as seemingly straightforward as the number of Afghan soldiers and police officers in uniform, and the military coalition offers a singularly unrevealing answer: The information is now considered classified.

The American outlay for weapons and gear for Afghan forces? Classified. The cost of teaching Afghan soldiers to read and write? Even that is now a secret.

U.S. Suddenly Goes Quiet on Effort to Bolster Afghan Forces, New York Times

This comes from the latest Special Inspector General quarterly report on reconstruction, which would want to report basic statistics on how the reconstruction is going, but can't.

Last quarter, ISAF classified the executive summary of a report that SIGAR had used as a primary source of information on ANSF capability. This quarter, the new Resolute Support Mission went further, classifying information SIGAR has, until now, used to publicly report on, among other matters, ANSF strength, attrition, equipment, personnel sustainment, infrastructure, and training, as well as Afghan Air Force and Special Mission Wing capabilities, and anticorruption initiatives at the Ministry of Defense (MOD) and Ministry of Interior (MOI).
Quarterly Report to Congress, Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.

In an opinion piece, the New York Times objects that basically the whole damn war in Afghanistan has been classified. Not their precise words either. But close enough.

The threats that Afghan and American troops face in Afghanistan remain all too real. But it strains credulity to believe that insurgents would become more proficient fighters by poring over lengthy inspector general reports about an increasingly forgotten war. Classifying that information unreasonably prevents American taxpayers from drawing informed conclusions about the returns on a $107.5 billion reconstruction investment that, adjusted for inflation, has surpassed the price tag of the Marshall Plan.
Inconvenient Truths in Afghanistan, New York Times

Secrecy News objects to making basically the whole damn war secret, and rolls its eyes at the absurdity of the justification given, too.

The General did not explain how budget and contracting information, among other routine data, could be used to sharpen attacks against allied forces.
DoD Classifies Data on Afghanistan Oversight, Federation of American Scientists

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday January 16, 2015 · 5:18 PM PST

2015/01/16 · 17:18

The Associated Press has reported that the Islamic State is now active in southern Afghanistan.

CAMP SHORABAK, Afghanistan -- Afghan officials confirmed for the first time Monday that the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is active in the south, recruiting fighters, flying black flags and, according to some sources, even battling Taliban militants.
The sources, including an Afghan general and a provincial governor, said a man identified as Mullah Abdul Rauf was actively recruiting fighters for the group, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq.

ISIS active in south Afghanistan, officials confirm for first time, Associated Press

This all concerns Abdul Rauf Khadim, a.k.a. Abdul Rauf Aliza, who was captured by the forces of Rashid Dostum, the current Vice President, at the fall of Kunduz in 2001.

The first of the nine to be captured, Abdul Rauf Aliza, remains something of an enigma to this day. Seized in November 2001 during the fall of Kunduz, the last Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan, he was held, with thousands of other men, in a filthy, overcrowded prison in Sheberghan run by General Rashid Dostum, one of the leaders of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, and was then transferred to the US prison at Kandahar airbase with nine other Afghan prisoners.
The Stories of the Afghans Just Released from Guantánamo: Intelligence Failures, Battlefield Myths and Unaccountable Prisons in Afghanistan, Andy Worthington

During interrogation at Guantanamo, Abdul Rauf seems to have effectively hidden his real role with the Taliban, presenting himself as a forced low-level conscript.

Analyst Note: Detainee has been uncooperative in terms of his complete involvement with the Taliban and the opium trade.
Administrative Review Board Input for Guantanamo Detainee, ISN: US9AF-000108DP, Department of Defense

He also has a pretty good rant about how new accusations kept piling on.

Things just keep on appearing the longer I stay here. I explained very clearly about some of these accusations with the interrogator. They never existed back when I was captured. I don't know where these things come from and did not cause all of these allegations that are on me right now.
Summarized Review Board Detainee Statement, Department of Defense

So they didn't know who he really was, but piled on other unsubstantiated charges. A double intelligence failure, assuming the goal of the interrogation was intelligence.

Mike Martin, in his book about Helmand, points out that a military tribunal questioning Abdul Rauf was pretty well clueless about some basic facts of Afghan politics, thinking that the Northern Alliance is Pashtun:

Q: The Northern Alliance is also Pashtun, why did you not side or join with them?
Combat Status Review Tribunal Transcript, Department of Defense

Abdul Rauf has a similar observation:

I don't know if you guys know how the government used to operate in Afghanistan.
Summarized Review Board Detainee Statement, Department of Defense

This level of knowledge, with the repeated intelligence failures, can be behind U.S. decisions on whether someone is to be imprisoned or freed. And also behind decisions on whether someone will be killed. Read More

Afghanistan After the War

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday January 03, 2015 · 7:23 PM PST

2015/01/03 · 19:23

The war in Afghanistan has ended.

ISAF in Afghanistan formally ended “Operation Enduring Freedom” this week, to begin “Operation Freedom’s Sentinel” for what the U.S. considers a new mission there.
War in Afghanistan Ends, Except Not at All, U.S. New and World Report

The end of the war has been responsible.

At the White House, President Obama acknowledged that "Afghanistan remains a dangerous place," but added, "Our combat mission in Afghanistan is ending, and the longest war in American history is coming to a responsible conclusion."
Phony end to ongoing war in Afghanistan, Post and Courier

If it is indeed a “responsible conclusion,” then a question arises over how the $1 trillion was spent? According to a recent study by the Financial Times, the United States spent $1.1 trillion, which is approximately $9 million per hour during the past 13 years of the Afghan war.
Was the Afghanistan withdrawal a ‘responsible’ finale?, Al Arabiya

Afghan security forces have taken on previous American responsibilities.

Afghan police were investigating an apparent army rocket strike on a wedding party that killed at least 28 people, many of them women and children, an official said Jan. 1, as President Ashraf Ghani marked the country's transition to full sovereignty after the formal end of the 13-year international military mission.
Police in southern Helmand province were looking into how soldiers came to fire a rocket on a house where a wedding was being celebrated late Wednesday, said the deputy provincial police chief, Bacha Gull.

The rocket appeared to have been fired from an army checkpoint near the house in Sangin district as guests waited for the bride to arrive, he said.

Rocket Kills 26 at Afghan Wedding Party, Associated Press

American forces are no longer engaged in combat in the war.

At least eighteen rebels were killed in air strikes by foreign forces in southeastern Paktika province of Afghanistan on Saturday, said police.
A senior police official, Nisar Ahmad Abdul Rahimzai told media that the air assault was carried out in Gayan district of Paktika province early morning. Foreign militants were also among the dead rebels, he added.

Air strikes kill 18 rebels in Afghanistan, KUNA

The end of the war is a cause for celebration.

Although a few officials are trying to put up a good front, there is little to celebrate at the moment. As the clock ran out on 2014, the new American-brokered government failed to produce a cabinet, the last NATO combat forces officially departed at midnight Wednesday, and the insurgents were howling at the gates of the city. Perhaps the spring will bring signs of change, but for now it seems wise to remain circumspect, lie low and huddle under thick winter clothing as invisibly as possible.
Kabul was eerie and dangerous under the Taliban. It feels that way again. Washington Post

The United States has left Afghanistan with a Unity Government.

Palace aides say the appointment process has been delayed by conflicting demands for professional competence, ethnic balance and political rewards, as Gani and Abdullah have divided key agencies and negotiated over candidates.
By all accounts, the crucial pending decision in this Rubik’s Cube of interlocking scenarios and deals is who will head the Interior Ministry, a powerful ethnic fiefdom awash in weapons and riddled with graft. Gani and Abdullah are believed to have agreed on most other ministries, but both leaders face continued pressure from their respective allies to appoint different individuals to the high-stakes post.

Frustrated Afghans wonder who is in charge amid cabinet delays and Taliban attacks, Gulf News

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday December 18, 2014 · 5:55 PM PST

2014/12/18 · 17:55

Wikileaks has released a 2009 CIA document, Best Practices in Counterinsurgency.

This is a secret CIA document assessing high-value targeting (HVT) programs world-wide for their impact on insurgencies. The document is classified SECRET//NOFORN (no foreign nationals) and is for internal use to review the positive and negative implications of targeted assassinations on these groups for the strength of the group post the attack. The document assesses attacks on insurgent groups by the United States and other countries within Afghanistan, Algeria, Colombia, Iraq, Israel, Peru, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Chechnya, Libya, Pakistan and Thailand. The document, which is "pro-assassination", was completed in July 2009 and coincides with the first year of the Obama administration and Leon Panetta's directorship of the CIA during which the United States very significantly increased its CIA assassination program at the expense of capture operations. It produces a chart for US officials to use in strategically assessing future operations and methods in HVT assassinations.
CIA Best Practices in Counterinsurgency, Wikileaks

The document contains bullet points about the best practices in capturing or killing people, including discussion of which is better.

The report is pessimistic about the effectiveness of the CIA program of killing high value targets in Afghanistan, where the high value targets are usually killed.

A CIA report in 2009 found that "high-value targeting" had limited utility in beating back the Taliban in Afghanistan, ahead of an increase in drone strikes against the group.
The internal agency report, released without official permission Thursday by WikiLeaks, analyzed the targeting of insurgent group leaders for capture or assassination by U.S. and other governments in various armed conflicts.

In Afghanistan, where the report said targeting emphasizes lethal attacks, government corruption, “endemic lawlessness” and the “egalitarian Pashtun structures” associated with the Taliban hindered the effectiveness of efforts, the report found.

“Senior Taliban leaders’ use of sanctuary in Pakistan has also complicated the [targeting] effort,” says the report, written by the CIA’s Office of Transnational Issues.

WikiLeaks Releases Downbeat CIA Appraisal of Strikes in Afghanistan, U.S. News and World Report

The CIA analysis released Thursday provides a new snapshot into the intelligence the White House and Pentagon were working with at the time. It acknowledges that “high-value targeting” had been conducted against the Taliban only on an intermittent basis at that point, with limited effect. Counterinsurgency operations conducted against the Taliban to that point had moderate effect, according to the report.
CIA analysis: ‘high-value targeting’ had limited effect against Taliban, Washington Post

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday October 22, 2014 · 3:03 PM PDT

2014/10/22 · 15:03

Last week, Afghanistan Express published an English language article, criticizing the Islam of the Taliban and ISIS.

The newspaper is being investigated for blasphemy.

Top staffers at an Afghan newspaper are being investigated for blasphemy after the publication of an article that questioned whether Muslims should embrace the possibility that more than one God exists.
The investigation, apparently being led by intelligence and cultural affairs officials, came at the request of Afghanistan’s new president and chief executive officer.

New Afghan government investigates newspaper for ‘blasphemous article’, Washington Post

The upper chamber of parliament had condemned the article, and called for an investigation.

Therefore, Senate of National Assembly strongly condemning the release of such articles which are against Islam and beliefs of millions of Muslims of our country and Muslims of the world and is clearly declaring that Afghanistan Muslim nation has sacrificed two millions of human beings for Islam and Almighty Allah path and holy blood of Islam is flowing in arteries of each individual of this land and will never tolerate hearing, reading and releasing of such blasphemous opinions and thoughts in this land.
Mishrano Jirga of National Assembly by condemning such blasphemous movements seriously asks judicial organs and commission for reviewing media complaints and violations to take serious step for arresting and punishing of the article’s writer and runners of Afghanistan Express and report their results to the public.

Senate’s Declaration On Blasphemous Article Published In Afghanistan Express Daily, Bakhtar News

The paper has issued a statement of apology, which says that the article had been published by mistake.

Please accept our deepest apologize for our technical mistake in regard to article (Islam of Taliban and ISIS), which was published mistakenly instead of another article.
This Article does not reflect our idea on our holy religion Islam, our prophet Hazrat Mohammad (PBUH) and about our creator Allah (Subhanahoo Ta Alla), but it was published as a result of a technical mistake.

We (The Afghanistan Express Management Team) deeply apologize for this mistake and want to say that this is against our policy of statement.

Statement of Apology, Afghanistan Express

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday October 07, 2014 · 4:03 PM PDT

2014/10/07 · 16:03

Thirteen years ago today, the United States launched airstrikes on Afghanistan. It has been America's longest war.

Good afternoon. On my orders the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
These carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations, and to attack the military capability of the Taliban regime.

We are joined in this operation by our staunch friend, Great Britain. Other close friends, including Canada, Australia, Germany and France, have pledged forces as the operation unfolds.

More than 40 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and across Asia have granted air transit or landing rights. Many more have shared intelligence. We are supported by the collective will of the world.

More than two weeks ago, I gave Taliban leaders a series of clear and specific demands: Close terrorist training camps; hand over leaders of the al Qaeda network; and return all foreign nationals, including American citizens, unjustly detained in your country. None of these demands were met. And now the Taliban will pay a price.

By destroying camps and disrupting communication, we will make it more difficult for the terror network to train new recruits and coordinate their evil plans. Initially, the terrorists may burrow deeper into caves and other entrenched hiding places. Our military action is also designed to clear the way for sustained, comprehensive and relentless operations to drive them out and bring them to justice.

Presidential Address to the Nation, George W. Bush, October 7, 2001

The day before, Human Rights Watch had warned against United States support of Afghan commanders with poor records on human rights.

Human Rights Watch is concerned that unqualified support--military, political, diplomatic, financial--for this new coalition, which may come to constitute the basis for a future government of Afghanistan, will encourage further abuses. In responding to the crimes against humanity of September 11, the United States should not resort to means that themselves violate basic human rights and humanitarian law standards, or provide assistance to forces that do.
Military Assistance to the Afghan Opposition, Human Rights Watch, October 6, 2001

They singled out by name Abdul Rashid Dostum, Muhammad Muhaqqiq, and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf.

Human Rights Watch urged in particular that no cooperation be extended to Abdul Rashid Dostum, the head of the Junbish militia; Haji Muhammad Muhaqqiq, a senior commander of Hizb-i Wahdat; Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, leader of the erstwhile Ittihad-i Islami; and Abdul Malik Pahlawan, a former senior Junbish commander.
Afghanistan: Poor Rights Record of Opposition Commanders, Human Rights Watch, October 7, 2001

Jafar Haand, a Pashto-language broadcaster for Voice of America, highlights a photo of the current Afghan government establishment.

Last over three decades of #Afghan history in one picture. #Kabul pic.twitter.com/gs0vE2DslZ
— Jafar Haand (@jafarhaand) October 4, 2014

Among the commanders seen in the photo are Abdul Rashid Dostum, Muhammad Muhaqqiq, and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf.

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday September 29, 2014 · 1:43 PM PDT

2014/09/29 · 13:43

After a long, bitter, and very messy dispute about election fraud, Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai has been sworn in as President of Afghanistan.

Ghani is a reform-and-development-minded technocrat who had spent 23 years in the west. In 1978, at the time of the purges of the Saur Revolution, where intellectuals were among the targets, Ghani had stayed in the U.S.

He left Afghanistan in 1977, intending to be away for two years. When pro-Soviet forces came to power, most of the male members of his family were imprisoned and he was stranded in the US.
He stayed at Columbia University and won his Ph.D. there, with a doctoral thesis (Production and domination: Afghanistan, 1747-1901) and was immediately invited to teach at University of California, Berkeley (1983) and then at Johns Hopkins University (1983-1991).

Biography of Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai

He returned to Afghanistan following the 2001 American invasion of the country, and the defeat of the Taliban.

The major question of Ghani's presidency will be whether he can succeed with a reform agenda, given the severely entrenched obstacles to success.

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday September 21, 2014 · 1:25 PM PDT

2014/09/21 · 13:25

Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai has been named as the next president of Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's election commission has declared former finance minister and ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani president-elect on Sunday, hours after he signed a power-sharing deal with runner up Abdullah Abdullah.
However, the commissioner withheld final election numbers after a U.N.-monitory audit.

The announcement Sunday followed Ghani and rival Abdullah Abdullah signing a power-sharing agreement to form a National Unity Government, ending weeks of political bickering following a June 14 runoff presidential election.

“The Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan declares Dr. Ashraf Ghani ... as the president of Afghanistan,” commission chief Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani said.

Ashraf Ghani Named President-elect in Afghanistan, Voice of America

Ghani, now 65, was a career academic and economist at World Bank who left Afghanistan in 1977 and only returned 24 years later to pursue his dream of rebuilding the country.
He studied at New York's Columbia University, before teaching at several US universities during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s. He worked with the World Bank from 1991, becoming an expert on the Russian coal industry, and finally moved back to Kabul as a senior UN special adviser soon after the Taliban were ousted in late 2001.

Ghani was a key figure in the interim government and became a powerful finance minister under President Hamid Karzai from 2002 to 2004, campaigning hard against burgeoning corruption.

Renowned for his energy, Ghani introduced a new currency, set up a tax system, encouraged wealthy expat Afghans to return home, and cajoled donors as the country emerged from the Taliban era.

But he also demonstrated a divisive character which earned him a reputation that still dogs him today.

Profile: Ashraf Ghani, Al Jazeera

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday September 20, 2014 · 12:26 PM PDT

2014/09/20 · 12:26

Palwasha Tokhi, a radio journalist and a student, was killed by unknown attackers in Mazar-i-Sharif. Killings of journalists are common.

Ms. Tokhi was the second radio journalist killed in Mazar-i-Sharif this year. Most of the killings of Afghan journalists have taken place in the provinces and most of the killings are unsolved.
“Since 2001, more than 40 journalists have been killed in Afghanistan, and none of the cases have been followed by the judicial system of Afghanistan,” said Abdul Mujeeb Khelwatgar, executive director of Nai. “This has made all the people behind the killings and violence against journalists brave enough to think they could do anything against journalists.”

Mr. Khelwatgar said that Afghanistan’s journalists had improved professionally, which has made them more likely to undertake investigative reporting and report on corruption, angering powerful local figures. And the withdrawal of American and NATO forces from much of the country has also emboldened would-be attackers of journalists, he said.

Journalists are generally more likely to be attacked by pro-government than by antigovernment forces, according to Nai’s data.

In Brutal Year for News Media in Afghanistan, a 7th Journalist Is Killed, New York Times

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday September 14, 2014 · 12:11 PM PDT

2014/09/14 · 12:11

On Remembrance Day in 2012, in Toronto, Laila Rashidie and Suraia Sahar held up a banner opposing Canadian military presence in Afghanistan. Coverage by the Toronto Sun questioned whether the two were Taliban supporters.

As settlement in a lawsuit, the Sun has now accepted that the two are not.

A column published in The Sun on November 14, 2012, and an interview that same day on Sun News expressed opinions of Tarek Fatah about a demonstration by the two of you during the November 11, 2012 Remembrance Day Service at Old City Hall, Toronto.
“We acknowledge that your shouts of protest did not occur during the Service’s two-minutes of silence honouring the deaths of members of Canada’s military but only after the police took your banner. As well, you have represented to us that neither of you are Taliban supporters, Islamists or Jihadis, and we accept your word on this.

Having settled that, moving on to other news about Afghanistan, after the fold.
Read More

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad Investigated for Money Laundering, and Other Afghan News

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday September 09, 2014 · 1:45 PM PDT

2014/09/09 · 13:45

no image description available — Center: Abdul Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf speaking on television during Afghanistan’s constitutional loya jirga, December 2003. Left: Zalmay Kahlilzad lurking behind him.

Zalmay Khalilzad, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, is being investigated by the U.S. for money laundering. We know this because an Austrian blogger found documents about it in a garbage can in Vienna.

Zalmay Khalilzad, a former United States ambassador to Afghanistan, Iraq and the United Nations, is under investigation by the Justice Department for possible tax evasion and money laundering, an Austrian magazine reported on Monday.
The case, reported to involve the transfer of $1.4 million, apparently came to light after a blogger discovered documents from the Austrian state prosecutors’ office and a Vienna court in a garbage dump in Vienna between March and August. The blogger published several of the papers he found on his website recently.

The Austrian weekly newsmagazine Profil reported that the cache of papers included a document from the Justice Department, citing its investigation of Mr. Khalilzad, 63, concerning accounts belonging to Mr. Khalilzad’s wife, the social scientist and author Cheryl Benard.

Former Envoy Reported Facing a Federal Inquiry, New York Times

Austrian authorities have frozen the bank accounts of Cheryl Benard, Khalizad's wife. No charges have been brought.

The U.S. Justice Department in May 2013 asked Austrian authorities for records regarding the Viennese bank accounts of Khalilzad's wife, Cheryl Benard, according to a statement by Khalilzad's U.S. lawyer, Robert B. Buehler. Austrian authorities then froze the accounts.
Ex-US diplomat Khalilzad contests financial probe, Associated Press

In an email response to questions from the Los Angeles Times, Khalilzad said the Justice Department asked Austrian authorities for records about a transfer of funds from one of his U.S. bank accounts to an account in Vienna belonging to his wife. The funds were used to purchase an apartment for his family in Vienna, he said.
Austria freezes bank accounts of wife of ex-diplomat Zalmay Khalilzad, Reuters

Khalilzad has been a figure in Afghan/American politics, going back to the Carter and Reagan administration support of the Afghan anti-Soviet mujahideen. He is a member of the Project for the New American Century.

As the Bush administration's special envoy to Afghanistan, Khalilzad helped broker the 2003 constitutional loya jirga, where Afghanistan had effectively been given over to the warlords.

Abdul Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf, the leader of the Ittihad faction, speaking on television during Afghanistan’s constitutional loya jirga, December 2003.

Center: Abdul Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf speaking on television during Afghanistan’s constitutional loya jirga, December 2003. Left: Zalmay Kahlilzad lurking behind him.

Committee memberships at the jirga had been manipulated, putting a warlord in charge of each. This served as an intimidation and a control. Malalai Joya, a delegate from Farah Province, rose to speak against this. In line with committees serving an interest group, with each committee to make proposals, all the warlords should have been sat at one table.

Why do you not take all these criminals to one committee so that we see what they want for this nation. These were those who turned our country into the nucleus of national and international wars. They were the most anti-women people in the society who wanted to [makes pause] who brought our country to this state and they intend to do the same again. I believe that it is a mistake to test those already being tested. They should be taken to national and international court. If they are forgiven by our people, the bare-footed Afghan people, our history will never forgive them. They are all recorded in the history of our country.
Text of Malalai Joya's Historical Speech in the Loya Jirga

Newer
Older

RSS

Media Dares, and Other Afghan News

The Whole War Is Now Classified, and Other Afghan News

Islamic State Reported in Afghanistan

Afghanistan After the War

CIA Best Practices in Assassination, and Other News About Afghanistan

Afghan Government Investigates Newspaper, for Blasphemy

Thirteen Years of War, and Other Afghan News

Ashraf Ghani Inaugurated as President of Afghanistan

Ashraf Ghani Named as President of Afghanistan

Call the Fire Wagon. And Other Afghan News.

Not Taliban. And Other Afghan News.

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad Investigated for Money Laundering, and Other Afghan News