Agence France-Presse reports:
Confidential UN maps show a clear deterioration in security in parts of Afghanistan this year, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, as its mission there acknowledged security in some parts had worsened.
Two United Nations maps, one showing the situation at the start of this year's fighting season in March and the other towards its end in October, highlight a particular decline in parts of the north and east, the paper said.
Kieran Dwyer, communications director of the UN mission in Afghanistan, acknowledged security had got worse in some parts, hampering its mission, although he said he had not seen the maps.
"There are parts of the country that have become increasingly difficult to operate in during 2010 due to insecurity.
"This includes the targeting of humanitarian workers and government officials whose jobs it is to deliver services to the people," he told AFP.
Larger maps can be found here. |
According to The Wall Street Journal:
Many nongovernment organizations, or NGOs, operating in Afghanistan dispute that any progress has been made by the coalition this year. According to preliminary statistics compiled by the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office, which provides security advice and coordination to NGOs working in the country, the number of insurgent-initiated attacks surged by some 66% in 2010 from the previous year.
"The country as a whole is dramatically worse off than a year ago, both in terms of the insurgency's geographical spread and its rate of attacks," said Nic Lee, director of the Afghanistan NGO Safety Office. "Vast amounts of the country remain insecure for the unarmed civilians, and more and more areas are becoming inaccessible."
A Pentagon report released last month said insurgent attacks in Afghanistan rose 70 percent in 2010 over 2009 and 300 percent over 2007. Civilian deaths in Afghanistan are up 20 percent, and 496 American military personnel have been killed in Afghanistan in 2010, a 58 percent increase over 2009. More than half of U.S. fatalities in the Afghan war have occurred in those two years. Among NATO troops, 102 have died so far this year. Figures for Afghan fatalities, both military and civilian are unknown.
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At Daily Kos on this date in 2003:
These things take time, especially if the prosecutors want to do things right and make sure they build a solid case. But good news is that the Plame investigation is going strong.
The Justice Department has added a fourth prosecutor to the team investigating the leak of an undercover CIA officer's identity, while the FBI has said a grand jury may be called to take testimony from administration officials, sources close to the case said.
Administration and CIA officials said they have seen signs in the past few weeks that the investigation continues intensively behind closed doors, even though little about the investigation has been publicly said or seen for months.
While the administration might want to see this thing go away, you can bet the CIA is keeping a close eye on the matter. And if they are happy with the progress, then we can probably assume it's going well. ...
While we're at it, let's read into this a bit more. The administration must be confident that the leaker won't be someone as high up as Rove. A Rove indictment tomorrow would have huge repercussions for Bush's reelection effort. The people in the crosshairs (and Rove must know exactly who they are) must be mid- to low-level officials. Big enough to cause problems closer to election day, but not big enough to cause problems this far out. |
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Crooks and Liars' Newstalgia feature focuses today on Years Of Crisis - 1955 With Edward R. Murrow.