Afghanistan

[DougF]

With increasing violence in this area this should not be a surprise.

3,200 Marines Told to Prepare for Afghanistan Deployment

WASHINGTON — Military officials said Monday that about 3,200 Marines are being told to prepare to go to Afghanistan — a move that will boost combat troop levels in time for an expected Taliban offensive this spring.

Once complete, the deployment would increase U.S. forces in Afghanistan to as much as 30,000, the highest level since the 2001 invasion after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The notices come as explosions rocked Kabul's most popular luxury hotel Monday, killing at least six people, including one American and a journalist from Norway. Officials said the assault on the Serena Hotel by militants may signal a new era of Taliban attacks.

The military began notifying the Marines and their families over the weekend, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates was expected to sign the formal deployment orders. It was not clear Monday whether the orders had been signed yet.

The proposal went to Gates on Friday, and while he told reporters that afternoon that he had some questions about the move, there has been every indication he was poised to approve it.

According to officials, 2,200 members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., will go to Afghanistan, as well as about 1,000 members of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, which is based at Twentynine Palms, Calif.

FOXNews.com - 3,200 Marines Told to Prepare for Afghanistan Deployment - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

[Michaelangelica]

The notices come as explosions rocked Kabul's most popular luxury hotel Monday

Which included the Australian Embassy

I noticed Bush was "sabre rattling' blaming Iran for sending money to Afghanistan. No mention of his friends in Saudi Arabia.

3,200 Marines Told to Prepare for Afghanistan

Tell them all to take a kite and TWO balls of string.

[Michaelangelica]

If the bullets don't get you, the cold will:-

Severe cold, snow kills scores in Afghanistan

Posted 6 hours 17 minutes ago

Aid workers say cold weather and heavy snow have killed more than 100 people and more than 35,000 head of cattle in the past week across Afghanistan.

Iran helping Afganistan Pres. Bush??
[QUOTE]Refugees deported

Meanwhile, the Afghan government has voiced concern over the expulsion of Afghan refugees living in Iran, urging its neighbour to halt the deportations due to cold weather and its lack of resources to look after them.

The foreign ministry says it has summoned the top Iranian diplomat in Kabul to express "serious concerns about forced and mass repatriation of Afghan refugees during the freezing months of winter."

Nearly 9,000 Afghans in Iran have been illegally deported in the past two weeks, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

NATO 'unprepared' to fight insurgency, says Gates

Posted 3 hours 58 minutes ago

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has unleashed rare public criticism of the NATO forces deployed in southern Afghanistan, saying they are unprepared to fight a guerrilla insurgency, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times.[/COLOR]

[Michaelangelica]

So if the bullets and the cold don't get you the friendlies will?

Former US congressman charged over militant links

Posted Thu Jan 17, 2008 8:48pm AEDT

A former United States congressman has been charged with having links to an Islamic group allegedly sending secret funds to militants in Afghanistan.

A federal grand jury has indicted the former US lawmaker for his links to a charity that sent funds to an Afghanistan-based supporter of Al Qaeda through banks in Pakistan.

Former Republican representative Mark Deli Siljander was named in a 42-count indictment against the Missouri-based Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA), charged with "engaging in prohibited financial transactions for the benefit of US-designated terrorist Gulbuddin Hekmatyar," the US Department of Justice said in a statement.

Siljander, 57, faces money laundering, conspiracy and obstruction of justice charges in the case.

Hekmatyar is an Islamist rebel leader who received US aid in the 1980s to resist the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He briefly served as Afghan prime minister in the 1990s and initially opposed the Taliban regime, but then switched sides after the October 2001 US-led invasion.

According to the indictment, in 2003 and 2004 IARA sent some $US130,000 to bank accounts in Peshawar, Pakistan "purportedly for an orphanage housed in buildings owned and controlled by Hekmatyar" - who is believed to be hiding in eastern Afghanistan or Pakistan while leading his Hizb-i-Islami (Islamic Party) faction.

Siljander, who represented a congressional district in Michigan from 1981 to 1987, owns and heads a public relations company.

Former US congressman charged over militant links - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

He is going to need a PR company

[Michaelangelica]

I'll bet no one saw this coming !

Newly Discovered Water, Oil And Gas Locations Surveyed In Afghanistan

Newly Discovered Water, Oil And Gas Locations Surveyed In Afghanistan - Topix

David Strahan | Articles - In praise of the United States Geological Survey

The Terrible Plight of Afghan Children
Afghanistan Struggles to Provide Decent Healthcare to Children
By TAN EE LYN
KABUL, April 21, 2008

1 comment


Afghan labourer Chaman travelled a whole day to bring his son to Kabul to have a kidney stone removed after doctors in their home province turned them away because they could not afford the fees.
The two-year-old boy, who suffered excruciating pain forthree days, finally had the stone removed in a charity hospital funded by Turkey.

"The private hospitals are only for rich businessmen. Poor people have to use government hospitals and if they can't help, the children die," said the young father from Ghazni province as he unwrapped a piece of paper to show a brown pebble measuring half a centimetre in diameter. Ghazni is southwest of Kabul.

Foreign donors have given some $15 billion in aid to Afghanistan since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, but several times more was spent per person in other conflict zones such as Bosnia and East Timor.

The U.S. military alone spends $100 million a day fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan while the total spending by all donors is only $7 million a day, aid groups say.

Nevertheless, the number of health facilities in Afghanistan has risen from 550 in 2001 to 1,429 now.

The government says free basic healthcare is available within two hours walking distance to 85 percent of the population, from just 9 percent in 2003. But people say they are far from adequate and decent healthcare is available only to those who can afford to pay, travel to the capital city, or go overseas.

ABC News: The Terrible Plight of Afghan Children

[LaurieAG]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

I'll bet no one saw this coming

Hi Michael,

India to join Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan gas pipeline

Officials said the pipeline from Turkmenistan would be more easier to implement than the Iran-Pakistan-India line as it already had the backing of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

I'll bet they didn't see this one either.

YouTube - Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline is on

[Michaelangelica]

Originally Posted by LaurieAG

I'll bet they didn't see this one either.

not when politicians treat us all like mushrooms
(Kept in the dark and fed bullshit)



BTW having worked in "organisational development" (puke), I think your quote is spot on.

[REASON]

Originally Posted by Michaelangelica

I think your quote is spot on.

I do too.

[Michaelangelica]

24 May 2008

Afghanistan Alive Online Magazine

www.afghanistanalive.com, Kabul, Afghanistan

Supplied note:
"Afghanistan Alive is prepared by a small group of Afghan people and
a foreign consultant, who believe that the media generally portrays a
very negative picture of this country. Our aim is to show the good
things about it - despite the troubles here. Afghanistan has unique
people, culture and history. The magazine is published in Kabul,
Afghanistan, in Pashto and Dari - the official languages - as well as
English. Originally the magazine was produced as a printed
publication but now it is an online one. [...] You can read the early
editions of Afghanistan Alive Magazine here:
http://www.afghanistanalive.com/AAM2.pdf
http://www.afghanistanalive.com/AAM3.pdf

We also produce a weekly email summary of news about Afghanistan
called "Kabul-e-News". The website of Kabul-e-News is at
http://afghaistanalive.com/ken.htm [...] - Afghanistan Alive."

URL http://www.afghanistanalive.com/

[Michaelangelica]

24 May 2008

Afghanistan Alive Online Magazine

www.afghanistanalive.com, Kabul, Afghanistan

Supplied note:
"Afghanistan Alive is prepared by a small group of Afghan people and
a foreign consultant, who believe that the media generally portrays a
very negative picture of this country. Our aim is to show the good
things about it - despite the troubles here. Afghanistan has unique
people, culture and history. The magazine is published in Kabul,
Afghanistan, in Pashto and Dari - the official languages - as well as
English. Originally the magazine was produced as a printed
publication but now it is an online one. [...] You can read the early
editions of Afghanistan Alive Magazine here:
http://www.afghanistanalive.com/AAM2.pdf
http://www.afghanistanalive.com/AAM3.pdf

We also produce a weekly email summary of news about Afghanistan
called "Kabul-e-News". The website of Kabul-e-News is at
http://afghaistanalive.com/ken.htm [...] - Afghanistan Alive."

URL http://www.afghanistanalive.com/