Iranian fighter jets escort U.S. military charter plane with 100 passengers to land in Bandar Abbas

Meteor Blades for Daily Kos

Daily Kos Staff Emeritus

Friday September 05, 2014 · 1:17 PM PDT

2014/09/05 · 13:17

Adam Goldman and Karen DeYoung at The Washington Post report:

A U.S. military charter aircraft flying from Afghanistan has been forced down in Iran by Iranian fighter jets, according to officials familiar with the incident.
The plane, which departed Bagram air base on Friday, was chartered by the Pentagon from Fly Dubai, an airliner based in the United Arab Emirates, and was carrying approximately 100 Americans and possibly a pair of Canadians. After being intercepted by the fighter jets, the plane was escorted to the southern Iranian city of Bandar Abbas.[...]

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the cause of the incident was related to the plane’s flight plan and expressed confidence the situation would to be resolved quickly.

The plane had been contacted by Iranian air traffic controllers, who instructed it to return to Afghanistan and file the correct plan. When the pilots informed the Iranians they did not have enough fuel to return to Bagram, they were asked to land.

That doesn't sound serious, just a high-tension error. We'll keep you posted.

1:16 PM PT: The Washington Post is now saying that the plane was not forced to land, but rather the fighter jets escorted it to land in Bandar Abbas and that it will resume its flight soon.

1:54 PM PT: From Reuters: "A Fly Dubai charter plane flying from Bagram Air Field to Dubai was re-routed to Bandar Abbas, Iran because of a bureaucratic issue today," the official said.

"Contrary to press reports, this plane was not forced down by the Iranian military," the official added. "The issue appears to have been resolved and hopefully the plane will be able to take off soon."

U.S. Pressures Afghanistan to Investigate Army Killings, 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.)

Wednesday September 03, 2014 · 5:12 PM PDT

2014/09/03 · 17:12

Kimberly Dozier reports that the U.S. is pressuring Afghanistan to investigate illegal killings by the Afghan army and other security forces.

The White House has called on the Afghan government to investigate up to 15 suspected cases of illegal killings by its security forces—with seven incidents this year, according to U.S. and Afghan officials in Kabul and Washington.
The incidents occurred in units in virtually every regional area of Afghanistan, with two of this year’s alleged extrajudicial killings reported by U.S. soldiers who witnessed the events, one of the officials said. The seven incidents were winnowed from more than 30 suspected cases, with a cluster of the reports concentrated in eastern Afghanistan and units of the 201st Corps near Kabul, which just received human rights training, several U.S. officials said.

The officials said many of the suspicious killings were reported by locals or Afghan soldiers themselves, in units that U.S. troops had largely left as part of their staged departure in preparation for an almost complete troop drawdown by the end of 2016 that could be accelerated to a drawdown by the end of this year, if an Afghan president isn’t chosen in time to sign a security agreement with the U.S.

Afghan Army Killings Threaten U.S. Aid, Daily Beast

Under the Leahy amendment and other laws, the U.S. cannot fund or provide assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity. Read More

Hamid Karzai All Packed Up and Ready to Go

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

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

Friday August 29, 2014 · 6:39 PM PDT

2014/08/29 · 18:39

Hamid Karzai is all packed up and ready to go.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is ready to leave the ARG presidential palace as he has packed up all his personal possessions.
Aimal Faizi, spokesman for President Hamid Karzai, has said that the president has already packed his personal belongings, including his books from shelves in his residence.

“The president has packed up already, days ago,” Karzai`s spokesman Aimal Faizi told AFP.

Faizi further added, “A lot of the furniture is staying as it belongs to the palace, but his personal belongings, everything and especially his books, which are very dear to him, are packed.”

President Karzai packs up to leave ARG presidential palace, Khaama

He is leaving his old house, at the Arg, for a new house still inside the walls of the Arg, but next door, and which will be the home of former presidents.

He hopes to leave on September 2, and maybe even will leave then.

"It is impossible to extend the current deadline," Mr. Karzai said on Saturday.
Karzai Sets Inauguration Date for Still Undetermined Successor, Wall Street Journal

The new president of Afghanistan, though, will not be announced until after September 10.

Noting the unprecedented scale of the 100 percent audit, and basing projections on information of the IEC and the UN experts supervising the process, Mr. Kubiš said that a rigorous and credible audit required time, but could be completed around 10 September. Following all necessary steps, as required by law, the inauguration of the new President should then be possible soon after.
UN updates President on progress of election audit, UNAMA

And Afghanistan Analysts Network counts the necessary steps on its fingers, to find that even this date is very ambitious.

To actually meet the 10 September deadline, which the palace is quite likely to insist on, the actual audit probably needs to be finished around 4 September. This so that the final checklists can be entered into the database on 5 September, IEC can announce its last decisions on 6 September, the candidates can register their complaints on 7 September, the IECC can address the complaints on 8 or 9 September and the IEC can then, theoretically, announce the new results on 10 September – provided there are no new crises (which, given the track record of the process, seems highly unlikely).
Elections 2014 (46): Déjà vu – Abdullah pulls out, process continues, Afghanistan Analysts Network

At any rate, the hopes of NATO, to roll out the new president of Afghanistan at a NATO meeting in Wales on September 4, are certainly now dashed. Read More

Afghan Election Update: All Very Embarrassing Edition

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

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

Wednesday August 27, 2014 · 1:52 PM PDT

2014/08/27 · 13:52

Yesterday, the Abdullah Abdullah campaign demanded of the United Nations, that Abdullah win the election for president of Afghanistan. The campaign gave the UN until today to do this.

“If by tomorrow morning our demands . . . are not accepted, our patience has ultimately run out,” said Manawi, who has been who was tasked by Abdullah with monitoring the recount.
U.S.-brokered accord to salvage Afghan presidential election faces new problems, Washington Post

The United Nations is in the unusual position of being able to determine the winner of a national election, because of the unusual nature of the U.S.-negotiated agreement between the two unelected candidates, for how one of them might now be elected.

"The 12 July agreement reached between Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and Dr. Ashraf Ghani required that the two campaigns have joint oversight of the audit," said U.N. envoy Jan Kubis. "It is highly unusual for the parties in an electoral contest to be given such prominence in designing the procedures to audit its results or to have such a hands-on role in the actual physical auditing."
Afghanistan Presidential Vote Audit Hampered by Abdullah No-Show, Wall Street Journal

The Abdullah campaign has been highly successful in negotiating concessions, via the threat of civil war. Beyond just issues of how the election audit would be conducted, a unity government, a power-sharing arrangement, with a change to the structure of the Afghan government was agreed on, though the details of the unity agreement are disputed. Read More

Update on General Abdul Raziq

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

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

Saturday August 23, 2014 · 3:46 PM PDT

2014/08/23 · 15:46

Brigadier General Abdul Raziq Achakzai, chief of police in Kandahar, and an American-supported strongman there, was rumored to be resigning a week ago.

Unconfirmed reports suggest Kandahar police chief Gen. Abdul Raziq is resigning from position.
An informed source has confirmed that Gen. Raziq is preparing to resign from his position as Kandahar police chief.

The source speaking on the condition of anonymity said Gen. Raziq is currently in Kabul and is expected to present his resignation in the near future.

Kandahar police chief resigns after ordering Taliban detainees execution, Khaama

No additional news about the rumored resignation has been reported since then.

Raziq had recently been quoted as ordering the extra-judicial execution of captured prisoners.

Kandahar police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, has ordered to execute Taliban detainees who are arrested during the military operations.
Gen. Raziq was speaking to reporters following an operation against Taliban militants in Zherai district of southern Kandahar province.

Kandahar police chief orders execution of militants arrested during operations, Khaama

Allegations of torture and killings by Raziq have a considerable history.

Over the past three years, the provincial police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, himself a target of a suicide bombing that nearly killed him, has pursued a no-holds-barred policy in his effort to gain the upper hand against the militants.
However, there are persistent reports of innocent people being tortured and killed, creating a backlash that local people say has fed support for the Taliban.

A Death Draws Attention to Afghan Police Methods, New York Times

In this month's Harper's, Anand Gopal investigates torture and executions in Kandahar.

The first bodies were found early in the morning, after the call to prayer, in the tall reeds abutting the southern edge of Kandahar city. One was lying faceup, lower lip split, stab wounds to the face and stomach, a hole where the left eye had been. The second, a few yards away, had brown-black mottled skin and burnt hair. The third body’s neck was partially sawed through, and the face bore the same pattern of black scarring and singed hair. All three were handcuffed.
The next day, in Subdistrict 7, a working-class area to the north of the city, a shopkeeper discovered a corpse in a canal. A report by the United Nations noted: “Head riddled with bullets and was smashed completely.” Two days later, at Mirwais hospital, Kandahar’s main health center, two bodies came in without any visible marks except a small hole, apparently made with a drill bit, in each of the skulls.

Kandahar’s Mystery Executions, Harpers (paywall)

Gopal, while investigating the story, had been detained at a checkpoint, and taken to the headquarters of a Raziq subcommander. The subcommander had Gopal thrown in jail. An American military officer, an advisor to Raziq, arrived at the jail, and took information to Raziq, who would decide what to do. Raziq had Gopal released from the jail, and ejected from Kandahar. Read More

NYT Reporter Questioned by Afghan Officials, for Coup Story

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

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

Tuesday August 19, 2014 · 12:36 PM PDT

2014/08/19 · 12:36

New York Times reporter Matt Rosenberg has been questioned by Afghan officials, over yesterday's story that some Afghan officials were threatening to seize power if the presidential election crisis is not resolved soon.

The Afghan attorney general’s office called in a New York Times correspondent for questioning Tuesday, and later banned him from leaving the country, after The Times published a story about discussions among some officials of imposing an interim government.
The correspondent, Matthew Rosenberg, 40, a three-year veteran of The Times’s Kabul bureau, was summoned to the attorney general’s office for what was billed as an “informal chat” Tuesday about an article published in that day’s newspaper

Rosenberg is being prevented from leaving the country.

“They did not explicitly tell me I couldn’t leave the country, but it was clear I was not free to go,” Rosenberg said. He said he was questioned by three men who were “polite but insistent” and who seemed equally concerned by the “idea” of the story and which officials and political leaders had spoken with him. He said the Times was consulting lawyers about his next step.
Afghanistan bars New York Times reporter from leaving country, Washington Post

The U.S. State Department has issued a statement.

"We are deeply disturbed by the actions of the Afghan attorney general and by this travel ban that has allegedly been put into place," said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf, "and urge the Afghan government to respect fundamental freedoms of expression and expression of the press, and we’ll continue to monitor it."
US ‘deeply disturbed’ after Afghans bar reporter from leaving country, The Hill

The Committee to Protect Journalists has, as well.

"We call on Afghan authorities to lift all travel restrictions on Matthew Rosenberg immediately," said CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. "Denying journalists freedom of movement is nothing more than a form of intimidation at a time when Afghanistan's democracy is most in need of independent political reporting."
New York Times reporter barred from leaving Afghanistan, Committee to Protect Journalists

The detail that Rosenberg is prevented from leaving, was seemingly told to Tolo news, before being told to Rosenberg.

Rosenberg confirmed on Twitter that he is unable to leave Afghanistan, adding that the government seemingly told Tolo TV, a news network, first
Why a New York Times Reporter Has Been Banned From Leaving Afghanistan, The Blaze

Last Thursday, in the Washington Post, Balkh governor Atta Mohammed Noor had once again threatened civil war, if Abdullah Abdullah was not declared the winner of the presidential election.

A powerful Afghan governor and former militia leader, who had threatened mass protests in the wake of the disputed presidential runoff in June, warned Wednesday of a “civil uprising” if the ongoing ballot recount proves biased and his candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, is not named the winner.
Attah Mohammed Noor, 50, had not been seen in public since the election controversy and was rumored to have fled Afghanistan. He came to the capital Wednesday and said he had been away undergoing surgery for shrapnel wounds suffered during the Afghan-Soviet conflict.

Key Abdullah ally warns of Afghan unrest if vote recount is ‘one-sided’, Washington Post

Threats of civil war are background to Rosenberg's story that Afghan officials were planning a seizure of power.

“I see some people are really serious about it,” said a senior Afghan official. He said fears of a repeat of the civil war that engulfed Afghanistan in the years after the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1989 were driving the discussions.
“It’s not only tactical, it’s real, and it’s because the memory of the crisis years ago in the 1990s is still fresh, and they don’t want to go to that,” the official said.

Amid Election Impasse, Calls in Afghanistan for an Interim Government, New York Times

Afghan power struggles are being played out, partly via news article in the New York Times and the Washington Post. Threats of civil war, in the Post, are met with threats of a coup, in the Times.

Rosenberg says this is unusual.

Though it is unusual to telegraph plans for what could amount to a coup — though no one is calling it that — the officials all stressed that they hoped the mere threat of forming an interim government would persuade the country’s rival presidential candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, to make the compromises needed to end the crisis.
Amid Election Impasse, Calls in Afghanistan for an Interim Government, 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 August 17, 2014 · 4:49 PM PDT

2014/08/17 · 16:49

In an interview with the Washington Post, Atta Mohammed Noor, Governor of Balkh, has gone all civil war again.

A powerful Afghan governor and former militia leader, who had threatened mass protests in the wake of the disputed presidential runoff in June, warned Wednesday of a “civil uprising” if the ongoing ballot recount proves biased and his candidate, Abdullah Abdullah, is not named the winner.
Attah Mohammed Noor, 50, had not been seen in public since the election controversy and was rumored to have fled Afghanistan. He came to the capital Wednesday and said he had been away undergoing surgery for shrapnel wounds suffered during the Afghan-Soviet conflict.

Key Abdullah ally warns of Afghan unrest if vote recount is ‘one-sided’, Washington Post

Noor had previously gone all civil war in a Facebook post, back in July.

Noor had recently left Afghanistan, for his health.

Noor said Thursday that reports published by certain media agencies suggesting his resignation from Balkh Government Headquarters, are baseless.
He criticized the media agencies for intentionally broadcasting baseless reports while “following their vicious news agendas.”

Noor said he has temporarily moved outside the country due to some health issues and vowed to stand by the side of the Afghan people upon his return.

Ata Mohammad Noor dismiss reports regarding his resignation, Khaama

On returning, and the day of his going all civil war again in the Washington Post, Noor held meetings with the U.N. and the U.S.

Gov. Atta also met Thursday with Jan Kubis, the United Nations envoy to Afghanistan, and Amb. James Cunningham, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. Amb. Cunningham "reiterated that threats of violence are damaging and that resorting to extra-constitutional means would threaten the ability of the United States to provide any assistance to Afghanistan," said a U.S. government official familiar with the discussions but not authorized to speak on the record.
Afghan Election Rivals Hit New Snags, Wall Street Journal

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

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

Sunday August 10, 2014 · 4:28 PM PDT

2014/08/10 · 16:28

Xinhua reports on seemingly normal operations by Afghan security forces in Kandahar.

Furthermore, 171 Taliban militants, including several foreign militants, had been killed during nine-day battle in Zharay district of southern Kandahar province which began on July 27, provincial police chief General Abdul Raziq told reporters there earlier on the day.
Afghan forces make gains in fight against Taliban militants, Xinhua

Xinhua helpfully suggests what is notorious in the story.

Kandahar and Helmand are notorious for poppy growing and militancy.

But Khaama Press reports that notorious American-supported strongman, General Abdul Raziq, leading the operation, is taking no prisoners.

Kandahar police chief, Gen. Abdul Raziq, has ordered to execute Taliban detainees who are arrested during the military operations.
Gen. Raziq was speaking to reporters following an operation against Taliban militants in Zherai district of southern Kandahar province.

At least 171 Taliban militants were killed and nearly 40 others were injured during the operations in Zherai district, where around 300 Taliban militants launched an offensive around two weeks ago.

Kandahar police chief orders execution of militants arrested during operations, Khaama

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

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

Thursday August 07, 2014 · 10:00 AM PDT

2014/08/07 · 10:00

John Kerry has returned to Kabul, to try to help resolve the protracted election dispute.

Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Kabul, Afghanistan, today, August 7, to meet with Afghan leaders, including presidential candidates Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and Dr. Ashraf Ghani, as well as President Hamid Karzai.
Secretary Kerry Travel to Afghanistan, Department of State

Immediately after Kerry's first visit, a month ago, there had been an enormous sense of relief. Afghanistan had been very close to civil war. War was at least temporarily averted.

But the audit effort turned into continual dispute. And the details of the proposed unity government are factionally contested. What was agreed to in the agreement is not agreed on.

A NATO meeting, in September, is at stake here, in the U.S. view.

The Obama administration is pressing the Afghans to inaugurate a president before NATO nations hold a summit meeting in Wales in early September.
“We would like to see the president inaugurated and arriving at NATO as part of a government of national unity,” said a senior State Department official who is travelling with Mr. Kerry.

Kerry Visits Afghanistan to Urge Election Deal, New York Times

The meeting is the last chance for a signing of the bilateral security agreement, allowing U.S. troops to stay in Afghanistan.

If the agreement is not signed by September, U.S. forces will have to prepare to leave and shut down bases, a huge logistical effort, to have them out of the country by December.
Kerry makes surprise visit to Afghanistan, The Hill

Also at stake are the Afghan government patronage networks and positions, at a time of declining international aid.

With the outcome of the election still uncertain, and each side’s political patronage networks at stake, the candidates have been reluctant to complete the power-sharing arrangements.
Kerry Visits Afghanistan to Urge Election Deal, New York Times

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

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

Monday August 04, 2014 · 6:04 PM PDT

2014/08/04 · 18:04

The protracted dispute over fraud in the Afghan election started seven weeks ago. The Abdullah campaign, fairly early on, released audiotapes claimed to show Afghan officials, including the head of the election commission, planning ballot stuffing. The authenticity of the audiotapes is not known.

John Kerry made an emergency visit to Kabul four weeks ago. He hashed out an agreement between the campaigns, that all voting would be audited under international supervision. And which also had a deal, not about auditing, but about restructuring the Afghan government to having a Prime Minister, the details of which are now in dispute.

Kerry, last week, published an editorial in Tolo News, distancing the U.S. from stronger takes on the plan coming from the Abdullah campaign. And saying that the U.S. had not cooked up a plan, in a back room with a few warlords and technocrats, to ignore the Afghan constitution, which had been cooked up by the U.S., in a back room with a few warlords and technocrats, back in 2003.

It's not for outsiders to describe the contents of the political framework both candidates accepted a few days ago. But I was there in the room, and I can tell you what is not in that one-page document.
It does not violate the Afghan constitution – it respects Afghan institutions and the role of the president as the head of government. It does not establish a parliamentary system – it creates a new position of chief executive who will report to the president until the president convenes a loya jirga to determine whether a permanent change is in the best interests of the country.

Op-Ed from Secretary Kerry

Poll

9 votes Show Results

The tapes are

9 votes Vote Now!

The tapes are

Real

1 vote

Fake

1 vote

CIA/NSA plot, to send Afghanistan into disorder

1 vote

A fucking mess, whatever

1 vote

Same as above, but stressing twelve years of previous fucking mess, getting us here

0 votes

Same as above, but thirty-five years

4 votes

Other

0 votes

Pie

0 votes

New Fraud Audiotape, and Other Afghan Audit News

Garrett for This Week in Afghanistan

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

Monday August 04, 2014 · 11:14 AM PDT

2014/08/04 · 11:14

The audit to select the next President of Afghanistan has stopped, and started, and stopped, and started, and stopped, and started, and stopped, and started.

To help in this movement towards Afghan sovereignty, delegations of foreigners are arriving.

“The arrival of a large contingent of international observers, in addition to the domestic observer groups, and UN experts is a powerful and tangible expression of the international community's commitment to Afghanistan,” said Ján Kubiš, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of UNAMA.
UN welcomes arrival of observers for audit of run-off election results

The United Nations would like to stress, once again, that about their participation in the audit to select the next President of Afghanistan, look, they were asked.

As agreed by the two Presidential candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, on 12 July, the audit will be conducted by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) in the full presence of international and domestic observers, candidates’ agents, the media and UN advisors.

And also to point out that they were asked.

Under the 12 July technical agreement reached by the two candidates, the UN was asked to propose the manner for the international supervision of the audit, which involves the entirety of the approximately 23,000 ballot boxes from the run-off.

And also to ask the guys who had asked them, to agree to what they had agreed on.

Mr. Kubiš called on the two presidential campaigns to honour their agreement to take advantage of the extensive international mobilization and goodwill through their participation in the fully transparent audit of every single ballot box which they themselves requested.

The United Nations does not ask the guys who had asked them, to agree on what they had agreed to. This is probably diplomatic, and perhaps more in John Kerry's court. Read More

Poll

6 votes Show Results

Who do you think will win the audit for President of Afghanistan?

6 votes Vote Now!

Who do you think will win the audit for President of Afghanistan?

Abdullah Abdullah

1 vote

Ashraf Ghani

1 vote

Civil war

2 votes

Taliban

1 vote

Pie

1 vote

Hashmat Karzai Assassinated, 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.)

Wednesday July 30, 2014 · 5:12 PM PDT

2014/07/30 · 17:12

Yesterday, Hashmat Karzai was killed at his home, in Karz.

Hashmat Khalil Karzai, a cousin of President Hamid Karzai and a powerful supporter of the presidential candidate Ashraf Ghani, was killed by a suicide bomber in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday as he greeted well-wishers at his home, government officials and a witness said.
Mr. Karzai was said to have been killed instantly when a young man embraced him and set off a bomb in his turban.

Bomber Kills Karzai Cousin Who Backed Recent Candidate for Afghan President, New York Times

[Kandahar provincial spokesman Dawa Khan] Minapal said a suicide bomber was among a group of people who were visiting Hashmat Karzai at his house for Eid al-Fitr celebrations when he detonated his explosives.
Another relative of Afghan President Karzai killed, CNN

Hashmat was a member of the Kandahar Provincial Council, and ascended in power after the 2011 assassination of Ahmed Wali Karzai.

In 2009, James Risen reported allegations that Hashmat Karzai had killed Waheed Karzai, as one in a series of revenge killings, all going back to an old dispute about an arranged marriage in the family.

The day before the assassination of Hashmat Karzai, gunmen had tried to kill Abdul Raziq, a powerful figure in Kandahar politics.

The six attackers, all of whom were wearing suicide vests, launched Sunday's attack from a school building near General Abdul Razeq's house in the Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province, but were shot before they could enter the residence, Zia Durani, provincial police spokesman, said.
Taliban claims attack on police official, Al-Jazeera

Hashmat Karzai was a campaign manager for Ashraf Ghani. The election has seen some assassinations, and many assassination attempts.

Responsibility for the killing of Hashmat Karzai is not known.

Hashmat was fiercely critical of the president and was known to have many enemies both within and outside the Karzai clan.
Karzai's powerful cousin killed, worsens strains over poll deadlock, Reuters

Newer
Older

RSS

Iranian fighter jets escort U.S. military charter plane with 100 passengers to land in Bandar Abbas

U.S. Pressures Afghanistan to Investigate Army Killings, and Other Afghan News

Hamid Karzai All Packed Up and Ready to Go

Afghan Election Update: All Very Embarrassing Edition

Update on General Abdul Raziq

NYT Reporter Questioned by Afghan Officials, for Coup Story

Atta Mohammed Noor Goes All Civil War Again, and Other Election News

Taking No Prisoners in Kandahar

John Kerry returns to Kabul

Abdullah Campaign Accuses UN/US of Plot to Steal Election

New Fraud Audiotape, and Other Afghan Audit News

Hashmat Karzai Assassinated, and Other Afghan News