Opposition Afghan member of parliament Malalai Joya warns, “If Barack Obama heralds an escalation of the war, he will betray his own message of hope and deepen my people’s pain.”
The Karzai government’s amnesty offer to the Taliban reveals again the hypocrisy of US claims to be defending democracy, secularism and women’s rights in Afghanistan.
The Afghan attorney general announced that two cabinet ministers are being investigated on corruption charges—a week after President Karzai vowed in his inaugural address to fight corruption.
Richard Colvin, a former diplomat with Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, testified that all detainees transferred to Afghan prisons were likely tortured—and many of them were innocent.
The Pentagon is opening a new detention facility in Afghanistan amid charges from human rights groups that Bagram air base is becoming the “new Guantánamo.”
More than 350 Taliban inmates are on hunger strike at the Sarposa prison in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province in response to harsh conditions, including abuse by guards.
Two Czech soldiers serving in Afghanistan wore the insignia of SS divisions on their helmets, as German troops are engaged in their first ground offensive since World War II.
The apparent discovery of a 9-11 suspect’s passport in a mud hut in South Waziristan just as Hillary Clinton was scolding Pakistan for harboring al-Qaeda smells a little too convenient.
The Pakistani media have quoted Taliban and al-Qaeda sources denying responsibility for the deadly market attack in Peshawar, leading to a frenzy of conspiracy theories.
A strategically timed New York Times revelation of the CIA and narco ties of the Afghan president’s brother may be a ploy by elements in the US administration who have turned against Karzai.
The US embassy in Pakistan rejected claims that an Islamabad warehouse in the possession of a subcontractor to Blackwater/Xe was used to store heavy arms and ammunition for the company.
The US military is providing intelligence from Predator drones to assist the Pakistani army in its anti-Taliban offensive in South Waziristan, the Los Angeles Times reports.
