AFGHANISTAN , DOES IT STILL MATTER ?

UN opposes Afghan death sentence

The UN in Afghanistan has criticised a court's decision to sentence a journalist to death for blasphemy.

The UN mission said the reporter, Perwiz Kambakhsh, did not have legal representation - which was a possible misuse of the judicial process.

It has called for a review of Kambaksh's conviction for distributing an article that criticised Islam.

He was arrested in 2007 after downloading material relating to the role of women in Islamic societies.

Warnings

The UN said that the court in the northern province of Balkh handled the case in a closed session on Tuesday and that 23-year-old Kambakhsh had no representation.

This, and warnings to journalists who may support him, "point to possible misuse of the judicial process", the mission said in a statement.

"We urge a proper and complete review of this case as it goes through the appeals process," it said.

The court sentenced Kambakhsh to death after finding he had insulted Islam by distributing articles downloaded from the internet that question the Koran.

The Afghan information ministry said on Thursday that the sentence was not final and the case would be handled "very carefully".

"But his arrest and sentence given to him has not been in relation with his journalistic activities and thus has no connection with the work of this ministry," it said.

The Institute for War and Peace Reporting told the BBC it believed Kambakhsh may have been targeted because his brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, a staff reporter for the institute, had written articles that criticised local strongmen.

"We feel very strongly that this is a complete fabrication on the part of the authorities... designed to put pressure on Perwiz's brother Yaqub, who has done some of the hardest-hitting pieces outlining abuses by some very powerful commanders in Balkh and the other northern provinces," the institute's country director Jean MacKenzie said.

Kambakhsh is a student at Balkh University and a journalist for Jahan-e Naw (New World).

The sentence has been welcomed by conservative Islamic clerics in Afghanistan but criticised by international human rights groups.

Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said it was "deeply shocked" by the trial and appealed to President Hamid Karzai to intervene "before it is too late".

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Published: 2008/01/24 19:26:12 GMT

Kabul vetoes Ashdown envoy role


Afghanistan has made it clear it does not want Paddy Ashdown to be the new United Nations envoy to the country.

The British peer served as the UN's High Representative and EU envoy to Bosnia from 2002 to 2005.

The Afghan ambassador to the UN told the BBC that while Lord Ashdown was held in high regard, he was not Kabul's preferred candidate.

Zahir Tanin said Afghanistan's choice would be General John McColl, Nato's deputy commander in Europe.

The British general served as the first head of the international security force in Afghanistan in 2002.

Mr Tanin said the Afghan government had been surprised to see Lord Ashdown being portrayed in the British media as the final choice for the post.

'Negative atmosphere'

"A negative atmosphere was generated through the media inside and outside Afghanistan, particularly in Britain, which hit a lot of nerves and paved the way for misunderstanding and concerns," Mr Tanin told the BBC.

He said Afghanistan's new preferred candidate was "another British respected figure, General McColl".

"It was about thinking who is going to be more helpful and who is going to be more able to work with the Afghan government and with different elements of the international community in Afghanistan," said Mr Tanin.

Strained relations

The dispute over the appointment comes at a time of strained relations between Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai and the West, says the BBC's diplomatic correspondent, James Robbins.

He says that although the UN, which will ultimately make the appointment, has not commented, the disagreement is an important symptom of far wider tensions between President Karzai and Britain.

The Afghan leader has recently criticised the performance of British troops fighting the Taliban in the restive Helmand Province.

He apparently sees Lord Ashdown as too strong a figure, who could look like a rival, our correspondent says.

Meanwhile, there is unease in London and Washington about the president's political authority, with the hope being that Lord Ashdown could help bolster the entire international effort in Afghanistan.

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Published: 2008/01/26 23:22:22 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Afghanistan's future 'in peril'

Two more Western reports say that international efforts are failing to make Afghanistan a stable state.
The Atlantic Council says that Nato is not winning in Afghanistan and Oxfam warns that the country faces a humanitarian disaster.

On Wednesday, the Afghan Study Group said more Nato troops were needed to take on the Taleban.

Canada says that its soldiers will not stay in Afghanistan unless Nato deploys more troops in the south.

In the latest violence, the deputy governor of Afghanistan's Helmand province has been killed in a bomb attack on a mosque, officials say.


'Failing state' (shouldn't it read : FAILED STATE ?)

The three reports have appeared two years after a road map for international assistance was agreed in London.

Oxfam said a "major change of direction... to avert a humanitarian disaster" in Afghanistan was needed.

In an open letter, Oxfam predicts a "humanitarian disaster" in the country, pointing out that millions of dollars of development aid is being wasted.




The charity says that the international approach towards Afghanistan is lacking in direction and is "incoherent and uncoordinated".

"There are very many factors to explain the increasing insurgency, and of course criminality and the role of warlords and drugs traffickers is very important," said Matt Waldman, policy advisor on Afghanistan for Oxfam International.

"But we also have to understand that recruitment is much easier when people are living in desperate circumstances," he said.

'Resurgent violence'

The two American-based reports also warned that a new approach was needed to prevent Afghanistan becoming a "failed or failing state".

The US Atlantic Council began its report with the words: "Nato is not winning in Afghanistan" and talks of a stalemate.

"Without urgent changes Afghanistan could become a failed or failing state," it said.

"If Afghanistan fails, the possible strategic consequences will worsen regional instability, do great harm to the fight against Jihadist and religious extremism, and put in grave jeopardy Nato's future as a credible, cohesive and relevant military alliance."

Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles has rejected the suggestion that Nato is not winning the battle with the Taleban.

He told the BBC that the security situation was mixed, with violence localised. "Nato's own figures show 70% of the violence occurs in 10% of the districts."
(that's really wonderful news , isn't it ?)

He said the authors of the Atlantic Council report "were guilty early on of excessive optimism - of naive idealism - and they are now connecting with some of the realities in Afghanistan".


On Wednesday another body, the American Afghanistan Study Group, warned that "resurgent violence, weakening international resolve, too few military forces and insufficient economic aid" were all contributing to the country's woes.

In a separate development, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told President Bush that his country's troops will not stay in Afghanistan unless Nato deploys a further 1,000 soldiers in the restive province of Kandahar, where there is currently a Canadian contingent of 2,500 troops.

Seventy-eight Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have been killed in Afghanistan since Canadian troops were deployed in 2002.

The Taleban have mounted a comeback in Afghanistan over the past two years.

The south of the country has seen the worst violence since the Taleban were thrown out of power in the US-led invasion of 2001.

The Nato-led force has almost 37,000 troops in Afghanistan.

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Published: 2008/01/31 17:01:05 GMT

The Associated Press
updated 5:48 a.m. ET, Wed., Feb. 6, 2008

TOKYO - Opium cultivation in rebel-controlled areas in southern and southwestern Afghanistan is expected to grow this year, fueling the Taliban insurgency with more drug money, a U.N. report said Wednesday.
In addition to opium, the survey found an increase in cannabis cultivation, with 18 percent of villages planning to grow it in 2008, compared with 13 percent last year, when some 172,970 acres of cannabis crops were cultivated.

Christina Gynna Oguz, a U.N. representative in Afghanistan, said the study suggested officials should offer incentives to farmers in the more secure north not to grow poppy.

Troublesome alliance
But in the south, officials have to face an alliance between drug traffickers, corrupt officials, and insurgents.

"So there you will have to fight all these three elements, meaning that you must have much more emphasis on interdiction and fighting corruption," she said.

The report was issued as Tokyo hosted an annual international conference on the country's reconstruction on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The 24-member Joint Coordinating and Monitoring Board monitors the Afghanistan Compact, a five-year blueprint to promote security, the rule of law, human rights and development.

BRITISH MPs concerned by Karzai comments

MPs have expressed concern about the "tone and timing" of Afghan president Hamid Karzai's comments about the UK.
The Commons International Development Committee said such criticism could undermine British public support for long-term commitment to Afghanistan.

It said it was "disappointed" by Mr Karzai's comments last month that British military operations had made the situation in Afghanistan worse.

A government spokesman said the UK fully supported the Afghan government.

It was committed to helping bring peace and stability to the country, he said.


Global security

In a report, the committee said criticisms of UK efforts "seem to be becoming more frequent".

Its Lib Dem chairman Malcolm Bruce said: "We are concerned about the recent deterioration in political relations between the government of Afghanistan and the UK.

"We recognise that the civilian and military effort is entirely dependent on the goodwill of the government and people of Afghanistan.

"But there is a risk that the tone and timing of recent comments by the government of Afghanistan which are critical of the UK could undermine British public support for the UK's long-term commitment to Afghanistan."


The committee said it would take at least a generation to develop Afghanistan, and abandoning it could have repercussions for global security.

It expressed disappointment that agreement had not been reached on one high-level figure to oversee UN, EU and Nato aid programmes - Lord Ashdown pulled out of the role in January, saying he did not have the backing of the Afghan government.

Opium trade

The report said: "We hope that the government of Afghanistan can recognise the long-term benefits for them of the UN appointing a strong representative to improve co-ordination."

It also said corruption and bribery were "rife" in the training of the Afghan national police force, and expressed concern about reports that state officials were involved in the opium trade.

But it criticised US aid efforts for not directing money through the Afghan government, saying it was "preventing the Afghans having ownership of the reconstruction of their country".

About 80% of UK government assistance goes through government channels.

The report said while the position for women had improved, they were still the victims of widespread violence in Afghanistan due to "'cultural' differences and local traditions". Reform of the justice sector should be a priority, it said.

Mr Bruce said Britain had to be "realistic about what can be achieved in the short term" in Afghanistan.

But he said it was vital that the international community stay committed to the reconstruction effort, "since the insurgency will not be defeated without tangible improvements in people's lives".

A spokesman for the Department for International Development said the UK had a long-term commitment to Afghanistan.

"We fully support the Afghan government and continue to work with it, President Karzai and the international community in the interests of the Afghan people," he said.

"The prime minister's statement to the House of Commons in December confirmed the UK's commitment to building Afghan-led security, governance, and development."


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Published: 2008/02/14 01:41:08 GMT

Canada urged to double troop strength

In absence of NATO reinforcements, Canadian commander seeks brigade of 5,000 to keep Taliban at bay in Kandahar province Tribal elders from the mountainous district of Khakrez complained last week that NATO has failed to prevent the Taliban from running amok in the northern part of the province.

Nodding his head gravely, a Canadian officer told the elders they're right.

"We don't have enough troops," Colonel Christian Juneau said.

The frustration among elders in Khakrez district is only the latest symptom of what appears to be a sharp deterioration in security in the outlying parts of the province in the past year, as the overstretched Canadian forces have drawn back into core districts.

The military says Taliban ambushes have decreased in four of 17 districts in Kandahar city, the key zone where the Canadians focused their operations during the latest rotation of troops. But the military has so far refused to give statistics for all types of insurgent activity, including ambushes, and has kept the numbers for the entire province a secret.

A hint of the military's view of the province came during an interview this week with Lieutenant-Colonel Gilles Linteau, commander of the Joint Provincial Co-ordination Centre, a liaison hub between security forces.

"The number of incidents has doubled, if not more, in Kandahar," he told The Globe and Mail, suggesting that this estimate applies to the period since September of 2006.

Asked for clarification of the figures, however, Lt.-Col. Linteau later sent an e-mail saying the military cannot give details.

An average increase in attacks across the province would suggest a markedly worse situation in the villages and suburbs, because most analysts agree that downtown Kandahar enjoyed some relief in 2007 from the onslaught of insurgent strikes that terrorized urban areas in the previous year.

Anecdotes from beyond the city limits seem to confirm the trend; soon after Canadian and Afghan officials climbed out of their helicopters and crunched across the snow to the chilly cement building that serves as the Khakrez administrative centre, they heard a litany of bad news.

"As soon as the snow leaves the ground, the Taliban will come and force people to join them," said Shah Wali, a member of the Achakzai tribe, which usually supports the government. "What should we do?"

The 45-year-old with deep creases in his face said he took a risk by travelling from his village to meet the Canadian delegation, and he will be forced to invent a story to conceal the reason for his visit to the district centre. The Taliban might kill him for merely speaking with representatives of the Kabul government, he said.

The district has also grown dangerous for Malim Akbar Khan Khakrezwal, a former intelligence chief for Kandahar and now a leading tribal elder. His connections with the government have marked him, he said, and it's been impossible to visit the district for the past eight months.

"Six years ago we had only a few Taliban supporters in Khakrez," the retired major-general said. "Now we have a great number of them."

Pointing to white-capped mountains northeast of the town, he declared that the Taliban have camps in that direction where they're preparing insurgents for the next fighting season.

In the same direction, amid the same mountains about 70 kilometres north of Kandahar city, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry established an outpost known as the Gumbad Platoon House in the spring of 2006. They spent several months patrolling the craggy northern reaches of the province, but Canada's regular forces abandoned the place later that summer as all available troops returned to the heart of the province for a battle with Taliban on the outskirts of Kandahar city.

No regular troops have returned to set up outposts in the area. In the meantime, the Taliban are believed to have gained stronger influence in the district, and the local inhabitants seem to have grown deeply skeptical about the government.

When the provincial police chief stood in front of the assembled elders and declared they should support the "free and independent Muslim government," there was an uneasy rustling in the crowd, as people coughed and spit, and several men sitting near the front murmured, "No, no, no."

After the police chief's speech, Col. Juneau took the microphone and tried to explain why the district hasn't seen many troops for the past two years.

"The province of Kandahar is very big," the deputy commander of all Canadian forces in Afghanistan said. "We cannot provide security over the whole province at once."

But expanding the NATO presence into districts such as Khakrez will require a dramatic increase in the number of troops, military officials say.

Even more than 5,000 NATO troops may be required for the province, Major Moffet said, because beyond the troops needed for the core districts, NATO would also require forces to intercept the Taliban's supply routes in outlying areas.

Emphasizing that the assessment was only his personal opinion, Major Moffet said he would prefer to see the extra soldiers come from a single major country, rather than piecemeal from several contributors.

Continued increases in Afghan troops levels are also important, he added.

The problem with contributions from smaller NATO countries is that each group of soldiers would come with its own logistics personnel, the deputy commander said.

"If any country says, 'Okay we're going to provide 300 soldiers,' well, okay, how many fighters? A hundred and fifty? No, no, no. Send a battle group."

Germany has thousands of troops in northern Afghanistan but so far refuses to send them into the southern war. France is reportedly considering a major contribution of troops to Kandahar, however, and in recent weeks French soldiers have been increasingly conspicuous at Kandahar Air Field.

Canada has demanded an extra 1,000 NATO soldiers in Kandahar as the price for the extension of the Canadian operation, but the need for additional forces described by Major Moffet and other military officials goes far beyond that request.

More soldiers would mean fewer NATO casualties and less reliance on air strikes, Major Moffet said; air power can help the foreign troops when they're outnumbered by insurgents, but aerial bombings are frequently blamed for civilian casualties.

Having led some of Canada's biggest operations against the Taliban over the past six months, Major Moffet said he's convinced that his call for more troops does not resemble the ill-fated demands for troop increases of the Vietnam War.

"Honestly, I don't have the feeling that we're losing," he said. "All we need is a bit more cohesion at the NATO level and this problem would be solved."

The Department of National Defence was unavailable for comment.

US Official Says Afghan Government Controls Only 30 Percent of Country

Voice of America
27 February 2008

The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, says the Afghan government controls only 30 percent of the country. His assessment came in testimony to a Senate panel Wednesday, as VOA's Deborah Tate reports from Capitol Hill.

Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee that a recent review by the U.S. intelligence community shows that the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai controls just under one-third of the country.

McConnell said most of Afghanistan is under local tribal control, while a small portion is under the control of the Taliban.

"The Taliban was able to control with the population in the area about 10, 11 percent of the country," said McConnell. "The government, on the other hand, the federal government, had about 30, 31 percent, and the rest was local control."

It was a sober assessment from the nation's top intelligence official, coming more than six years after U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban and allow for the creation of a stable central government.

McConnell said the drug trade is one of Afghanistan's greatest long-term challenges.

"The insidious effects of drug-related criminality continue to undercut the abilities of the government to assert its authority, develop strong rule of law-based systems for governance, and build the economy," he said. "The Taliban, operating in poppy-growing regions of the country, gain at least some financial support through their ties to the local opium traffickers."

Defense Intelligence Agency director, Lieutenant General Michael Maples, told the Senate panel the intelligence community believes al-Qaida has expanded its support to the Afghan insurgency.

Maples said the government of Pakistan is working to crack down on the tribal areas along the Afghan border, which he says have been providing sanctuary to al-Qaida and the Taliban. But he says the effort has had little success.

"Pakistani military operations in the federally-administered tribal areas [FATA] have had limited effect on al-Qaida," said General Maples. "Pakistan recognizes the threat and the need to develop more effective counter-insurgency, counterterrorism capabilities to complement their conventional forces. Pakistan has adopted a military, political, administrative and economic strategy focused on the FATA."

Maples and National Intelligence Director McConnell appeared on Capitol Hill to discuss the intelligence community's annual assessment of worldwide threats to U.S. national security. They said al-Qaida remains a significant threat to the United States and its interests abroad.

The ugly truth in AfghanistanWhen managers from all the major humanitarian agencies in Kandahar gathered in a high-walled compound to swap war stories last month, it wasn't the tales of kidnappings and suicide bombs that caused the most worry. Nor was it the reports of insurgents enforcing their own brutal laws and executing aid workers.

"The scary thing was, no foreigners attended the meeting," a participant said. "Everybody had evacuated."

Most aid organizations quietly withdrew their international staff from Kandahar in recent weeks, the latest sign that the situation here is getting worse. It's now almost impossible to spot a foreigner on the city streets, except for the occasional glimpse of a pale face in a troop carrier or a United Nations armoured vehicle.

At least the foreigners can escape. For many ordinary people the ramshackle city now feels like a prison, with the highways out of town regularly blocked by Taliban or bandits. Residents have even started avoiding their own city streets after dark, as formerly bustling shops switch off their colourful neon lights and pull down the shutters. There is rarely any electricity for the lights anyway, partly because the roads are too dangerous for contractors to risk bringing in a new turbine for a nearby hydroelectric generator.

Corrupt police prowl the intersections, enforcing a curfew for anybody without that night's password, or bribe money. The officers seem especially nervous these days, because the Taliban hit them almost every night with ambushes, rocket-propelled grenades or just a deceptively friendly man who walks up to a police checkpoint with an automatic rifle hidden under a shawl.

Insurgent attacks have climbed sharply in Kandahar and across the country. But some analysts believe the numbers don't capture the full horror of what's happening in Afghanistan's south and east. When a girl in a school uniform is stopped in downtown Kandahar by a man who asks frightening questions about why she's attending classes, that small act of intimidation does not appear in any statistics.


Even so, the statistics are bad. The United Nations's count of security incidents in Afghanistan last year climbed to 13 times the number recorded in 2003, and the UN forecasts even worse this year. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization says insurgent attacks increased 64 per cent from 2006 to 2007. In the first two months of this year, some analysts have noticed a 15- to 20-per-cent rise in insurgent activity compared with the same period last year, raising alarm about whether the traditional spring fighting season has started early.NATO is not winning in Afghanistan," concluded the Atlantic Council of the United States,

Tracing The Roots Of War

Kevin Newman's new documentary is a history lesson on the ground

Maria Kubacki, Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Early in, early out -- that was the plan back in February, 2002, when Jean Chretien's Liberal government sent Canadian troops to Afghanistan as part of an international coalition mandated to drive out the Taliban in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

It was supposed to be a short-term mission, but six years later, Canada is still mired in a messy war that's claimed the lives of 79 Canadian soldiers so far.

A new Global Television documentary examines how Canada ended up digging itself in deeper and deeper in Afghanistan.

Revealed: The Path to War airs tomorrow night in advance of a parliamentary vote on an extension of the mission that would see Canadian troops remain in the volatile southern province of Kandahar until 2011.

"I'm fascinated by trying to uncover how the decision was made," said Global National anchor Kevin Newman, who co-produced, co-wrote and narrated the film.

"It's not always about helping the people of Afghanistan."

Some of the choices made along the way have been more about pleasing the United States, the documentary suggests. Having decided against participating in the war in Iraq, Canada felt pressured to continue making a major contribution in Afghanistan.

"People ask, 'Why are we in Kandahar?' " Newman said. "It has less, probably, to do with Afghanistan than it has to do with not going to Iraq."

Based on the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize-winning book The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar by political scientist Janice Gross Stein and former defence department insider Eugene Lang, the documentary looks at Canada's involvement in Afghanistan from the inside.

It's a chronological account built around interviews with the politicians who made decisions on policy as the conflict developed -- including former prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, as well as former defence ministers John Mc-Callum and Bill Graham.

The documentary also suggests that our military leaders --especially the current chief of the defence staff, General Rick Hillier -- saw Afghanistan as an opportunity to show the world that Canadian forces were capable not only of peacekeeping but of a combat role on the world stage.

Canada was compelled to participate in the initial Afghanistan mission once NATO invoked article 5, which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all. Beyond our responsibilities as a NATO member, there was also the need to show our loyalty to the U.S.

Still, Canada's part in the war in Afghanistan was never meant to be an open-ended contribution, notes Stein in the film. The original plan was "Six months in, six months out, tidy, wrap a bow around the package."

It's turned out to be anything but tidy as Canada's role grew to include leading the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul in 2003 and assuming responsibility for the provincial reconstruction team in Kandahar in 2005 -- a combat zone where 2,500 Canadian troops are still deployed.

"This is the story of Canada going to war by incremental steps, without ever fully realizing it," Stein says in the documentary.

"We put a small little toe in the water, and then we pull out," Newman said. "Then we go back a little longer, and then we pull out ... Now we're about to go in the longest with the proviso that we're pulling out in 2011, but as the documentary sort of suggests, sometimes things change in the fullness of time and the 2011 date which seems permanent today may not end up being that at the end."

Newman says the documentary was inspired in part by The Best and the Brightest, David Halberstam's book about how a series of incremental decisions led to the protracted U.S. war in Vietnam.

"Not to say that this is Canada's Vietnam. However, the way that the conflict has progressed, there are similarities in the ways decisions are made that make sense at the moment perhaps but in the long run end up getting you deeper into something. We are now in a position where people are reluctant to come and replace us. We're there and it's difficult for us to leave."

The current decision makers chose not to participate in the film, despite producers' best efforts to persuade key Tories, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to agree to interviews. Gen. Hillier was also approached.

"Nobody would agree to talk to us," Newman said.

The Liberals, on the other hand, were able to speak freely now that they're no longer in power.

Former defence minister John Mc-Callum, in particular, is disarmingly frank, speaking openly about how Canada ended up being stuck with the unenviable job of trying to bring security to the increasingly dangerous province of Kandahar. "We dithered, and so all the safe places were taken and we were left with Kandahar."

Newman hopes the film will generate "a lot of discussion" in advance of the critical vote that could put more Canadians in harm's way.

"Mostly I hope people start to recognize that we're living through history. This is the kind of film that you might have seen, about a different war, in a classroom. But this is happening to us now."

- Revealed: Path to War airs tomorrow night on Global at 10 p.m.

Copyright © 2007 CanWest Interactive, a division of CanWest MediaWorks Publications, Inc.. All rights reserved.

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

"If I were slightly younger and not employed here "

Grappling with global terror conundrum

The world's anti-terrorism experts met for a conference in Stockholm this week and, as Roger Hardy, the BBC's Islamic Affairs Analyst, found, optimism was in short supply.

As the event began - at a conference centre overlooking the famous Stockholm waterfront - we stood in silent commemoration of the victims of the Madrid train bombings of 2004.

It was a sign, had we needed one, that we were gathered in the Swedish capital to discuss one of the most important and difficult issues of our time.

The participants came at the topic from every angle.

There were senior soldiers and policemen, intelligence professionals, diplomats, think-tank experts, a handful of journalists - and, on the fringes, salesmen eager to explain the latest gadgets, designed to make us feel safer in a dangerous world.

Counter insurgency

Our common concern was how do you defeat an insurgency - and the phrase invoked more than once was T E Lawrence's dictum that it is like eating soup with a knife.

He, after all, was in a position to know, having led a much-romanticised Arab insurgency against the Turks in the First World War.


Insurgencies of course are not new.

At one point, delegates trooped off to see that classic Sixties film The Battle of Algiers - the moral of which is that a Western country, however powerful (and even one that is ready to resort to torture) will fail to crush an insurgency if it faces determined popular resistance.

Now the West and its allies are trying to adapt the lessons drawn from past insurgencies to help them fight a new kind of war.

Even defining the conflict is problematic. US President George W Bush dubbed it the "war on terror".

Others now prefer to call it a "global insurgency". Still others think that term is not quite right either.

Ideological struggle

But whatever it is, it is posing a whole host of dilemmas for those who are fighting it.

Above all, this new war is being fought, not just on the battlefield, but in the mind.


The West and its Islamist adversaries are competing for Muslim opinion - and that means Muslim opinion in Birmingham and Jakarta, as well as Baghdad and Kabul.
So in this battle for hearts and minds, how do you protect law-abiding Muslims, while continuing to capture or kill the violent ones?

And can you be sure you can tell the difference?

One British defence expert remarked: "We're not looking for a needle in a haystack - we're looking for a piece of straw in a haystack."


Everyone is having to reinvent their traditional role.

Soldiers are no longer just fighters but nation-builders.

Policemen must visit mosques and explain what they do to sceptical Muslim congregations.

Intelligence people are trying to get into the minds of an enemy they only dimly understand.

Government departments can no longer operate as "stovepipes" - the favourite jargon nowadays for agencies which do not co-operate with one another and sometimes do not even speak to one another.

It is clear there are still significant differences of approach - not least between the Americans, who tend to see terrorism as a form of war, and the Europeans, who tend to see it as a form of crime.

And, as the conference made plain, Europeans are far from being united in their perception of Muslim radicalism in Europe - and how their governments and societies should respond to it.

Pessimistic predictions

There is an abiding fear of social division.

The Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad polarised Muslim and non-Muslim opinion in Europe - and now there are fears that a film about the Koran, made by a right-wing Dutch politician, could do the same.

As for those salesmen for whom the conference was essentially a marketing opportunity, I had to confess to being technically challenged.

I never did master "predictive analytics" - and my favourite bit of gobbledy-gook was "open computer forensics architecture" - or OCFA for short.

And if, like me, you do an internet search for it, you may not end up much the wiser.


What struck me most, in three days of debate, was the degree of pessimism about the task at hand.

Yes, there has been a learning curve.

It is now widely recognised that Muslim hearts and minds matter and that military successes mean little if the battle of ideas is being lost.

But there is still a long way to go.

This came home to me when I spoke to an American military man who had helped produce the US Counter-Insurgency Manual.

How long did he think the "long war" - as many now call it - would last?

It is the kind of question journalists ask, and I did not expect that he would put a number on it.

But he did. "Thirty years if we get it right," he said. "A hundred years if we get it wrong."

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday 15 March, 2008 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4.

KABUL, Afghanistan - U.S. forces searching for bomb makers raided Afghan homes near the border with Pakistan early Wednesday, exchanging gunfire with militants. Six people were killed, including two children and a woman, Afghan officials said.

The U.S.-led coalition said its forces were searching compounds in Khost province for a militant named Bismullah who organized roadside bomb attacks and smuggled weapons. Militants shot at the troops, who returned fire and killed "several militants," including Bismullah and Rahim Jan, another man suspected of making bombs, the coalition said.

A woman and two children were among six people killed, said Khibar Pashtun, a spokesman for the Khost governor.

The coalition statement said a woman and a child who were in one of the buildings from which militants were shooting were killed.

"Coalition forces take every possible precaution to ensure the safety of non-combatants during the conduct of operations. It is regrettable that militants continue to place innocent lives at risk simply to further their own agendas," Maj. Chris Belcher, a spokesman for the coalition, said in a statement.

If we wait to get out until we route out all the militants we will be in those places forever since the people resent us being there and will continue to fight.

This came home to me when I spoke to an American military man who had helped produce the US Counter-Insurgency Manual.

How long did he think the "long war" - as many now call it - would last?

It is the kind of question journalists ask, and I did not expect that he would put a number on it.

But he did. "Thirty years if we get it right," he said. "A hundred years if we get it wrong."

New hope for Helmand province

By Alastair Leithead
BBC News, Kabul



There are few jobs in Afghanistan as daunting and as dangerous as governor of Helmand province, but this weekend step forward Gulab Mangal, the new hope for Helmand.
The southern province, where thousands of British troops clash daily with Taleban insurgents, grows half the country's opium poppies, and it has had two governors in the last two years.

There are few places as complicated.

Traditional tribal structures have broken down and Taleban militants, drug lords and criminals mix into an already complex set of tribal tensions and historical rivalries.

So what makes Governor Mangal think he can succeed where others have failed?

"It's a big challenge, but there will be a lot of changes in the next year," he says.

Push for reconciliation

For a start he is not from Helmand, but a Pashtun from Paktika province in the south-east.


He argues it means he is more likely to strike a balance as he does not come into the job with the baggage of being from one tribe at the expense of another.

"The first thing I will do is to hold a series of shuras, or meetings, with tribal councils across the province to try and gain widespread support for the Afghan government," he says.

And he sees reconciliation with local Taleban commanders and foot soldiers as an important part of the job - trying to persuade them to switch over and back the government.

"I'm going to work hard to get the insurgents to change sides and work with the government rather than against it.

"The British are already doing this and we will work together," he adds.


Despite the controversy which saw a British and an Irish diplomat being expelled last December, talking to the Taleban is official government policy.

The new district head of Musa Qala in Helmand is a former Taleban commander.

He was brought in to govern after the Taleban were forced from a town they had held for months by a joint operation involving Afghan and international security forces.


Things in Musa Qala are going well so far, with 500 children now going to the refurbished school and a number of development projects being put into place to persuade people the government is better for them than the Taleban.

Jalali Popal is head of the Independent Directorate of Local Governance which has been tasked with strengthening an area crucial to Afghanistan's success.


He sees reconciliation as an important element of improving security.

"Anyone who wants to lay down their guns and accept the Afghan constitution, values and current version of the administration can enjoy all the privileges of any Afghan. It's always been the policy," he says.

"We choose our governors on five criteria - loyalty to the constitution and the current administration; efficiency and effectiveness; leadership and management skills; interacting with the international community effectively; and fighting corruption.

"Gulab Mangal has been very successful as governor of Laghman and Paktika - which was in a similar position to Helmand at the time - he brought a union between the government and the people effectively.

"We think it is more useful that someone not from Helmand should be appointed there."

Tribal dynamics

And Governor Mangal comes well recommended by members of the international community and the British who will be working with him.

"He is one of the most accomplished governors to have served Afghanistan since 2001," said Chris Alexander from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

"He brings experience, credibility to the job - credibility in both security and development issues."

But a former Governor, Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, is close to President Hamid Karzai and has been perceived as a strong voice of opposition to the previous governors, Daud and Wafa.

Governor Mangal will have to tread carefully in the complex tribal dynamics of Helmand, where there will be many pitfalls and, of course, the constant threat of attack by suicide bombers.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7310472.stm

Published: 2008/03/23 15:12:54 GMT