http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/afghanistan/ en-us Sun, 3 Jan 2010 04:07:47 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2419823/posts Here is a video report on the suicide bomber attack that killed seven CIA agents in Afghanistan earlier this week. The report reveals that the bomber was a well-known informant for the CIA in Afghanistan who apparently was a double-agent. The Taliban in Pakistan claim he was a double-agent for them. He reportedly came from the Pakistan side of the border. He was driven onto the base in Afghanistan and was reportedly not subjected to a search because he was known to people there. He blew himself up in the gymnasium of the base, killing the agents. The CIA is... Freedom's Lighthouse http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2419823/posts#comment Sun, 3 Jan 2010 04:07:47 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419811/posts This could get really interesting... An Ismalic march to protest the UK involvement in Afghanistan - planned for Wootton Basset - one of the more patriotic spots left in the UK. No date appears to be set yet. Islam4UK, a platform for the global front Al-Muhajiroun, would like to announce the launch of a momentous march that is scheduled to take place in the following weeks, details of which will be released shortly inshaa'allah (God willing). The destination of this very special event is the small market town of Wootton Bassett, located 6 miles Southwest of Swindon, in northern Wiltshire;... Islam for the UK web site http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419811/posts#comment Sun, 3 Jan 2010 03:29:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419728/posts KABUL -- A senior commander connected to the Afghan Taliban and involved with the attack against the CIA that left eight people dead said Saturday that the bombing was retaliation for U.S. drone strikes in the Afghan-Pakistan border region. "We attacked this base because the team there was organizing drone strikes in Loya Paktia and surrounding area," the commander said, referring to the area around Khost, the city where the U.S. facility was attacked. The commander, a prominent member of the Afghan insurgency, spoke on the condition of anonymity. The suicide attack, which dealt the biggest loss to the agency... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419728/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 23:51:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419772/posts The suicide bomber who killed at least six Central Intelligence Agency officers in a base along the Afghan-Pakistan border on Wednesday was a regular CIA informant who had visited the same base multiple times in the past, according to someone close to the base's security director. The informant was a Pakistani and a member of the Wazir tribe from the Pakistani tribal area North Waziristan, according to the same source. The base security director, an Afghan named Arghawan, would pick up the informant at the Ghulam Khan border crossing and drive him about two hours into Forward Operating Base Chapman,... ABC News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419772/posts#comment Sun, 3 Jan 2010 01:33:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419756/posts WASHINGTON -- The attack that killed seven Central Intelligence Agency officers on a U.S. base in Afghanistan appears to stem from a strategy of calculated risk in running the spy agency's informant network, posing a sharp challenge as operations ramp up for the Obama troop surge. U.S. intelligence and military officials said Friday that Wednesday's attacker had been recruited as a possible informant and brought onto Forward Operating Base Chapman, passing through at least one checkpoint. He detonated his charge shortly before being searched, blowing himself up, killing seven and wounding six. It was a "high-level asset meeting gone bad,"... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419756/posts#comment Sun, 3 Jan 2010 00:49:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419755/posts KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – The Deh Afghan District, Zabul province, has historically been a hotbed of insurgent activity. Nestled between three mountain ranges and bordering Oruzgan province, Deh Afghan was once frequented by a high level Taliban command enroute to Pakistan and Kandahar province. But years of attention from the Afghan national army and U.S. Special Forces has finally begun to pay off. The early morning sun brought more than one kind of light as Special Forces and ANA soldiers were approached by a local villager. A man wasted no time with pleasantries, informing the ANA of the location... ISAF Joint Command - Afghanistan http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419755/posts#comment Sun, 3 Jan 2010 00:47:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419754/posts NEWS RELEASE ISAF Joint Command - Afghanistan 2010-01-CA–003 For Immediate Release KABUL, Afghanistan (Jan. 1) – A new program has awarded nearly $200,000 (U.S.) to local citizens for tipping off international forces to weapons caches in the past three months. The program called "Operation Jaeza" or "reward" has led to hundreds of tips leading to the recovery of multiple weapons caches and IEDs. Recent tips have lead to the discovery of 18 BM1 170mm rockets, 40 recoilless rifle rounds, 40 120mm mortars, 25 107mm rockets, five anti-tank missiles, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines, and anti-aircraft weapons. Operation Jaeza incentives generally range... ISAF Joint Command - Afghanistan http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419754/posts#comment Sun, 3 Jan 2010 00:43:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419751/posts NEWS RELEASE ISAF Joint Command - Afghanistan 2010-01-CA–005 For Immediate Release HERAT, Afghanistan (Jan. 2) – A young Afghan child received a gift from ISAF service members in Regional Command West, recently. The 2-year-old child suffers from a severe heart disease and was taken to Italy for surgery. A service member from the "Guardia di Finanza" (Italian Border Police) told doctors at RC-West of Said Salar’s case. Immediately the personnel there and Organizzazione Non Lucrativa di Utilita' Sociale, an Italian social organization, began preparations to send the boy to Italy because the surgery was beyond the current capabilities of Afghan... ISAF Joint Command - Afghanistan http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419751/posts#comment Sun, 3 Jan 2010 00:39:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2419651/posts I have no grand insights to offer but this is too awful and too … astounding, really, to be relegated to Headlines. These people were the tip of the American spear against jihadist kingpins in the Afghan/Pakistani border region, the innermost circle in a big Venn diagram that starts with the CIA, proceeds to the units tasked with finding intel on AQ, and ends with the elite charged with building the target list for drone operators. In one split second, that last circle was practically erased. If you thought the biggest security breach of the past week was Flight 253,... Hotair http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2419651/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 20:09:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419619/posts KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan's parliament showed its teeth Saturday by rejecting the majority of President Hamid Karzai's nominees for cabinet posts, state television showed. Of 24 nominees, only seven were approved in a secret ballot by more than 200 parliamentarians, in a process that appears to have undermined the president's authority. "Of the 24 nominees introduced to parliament, seven have succeeded in getting your vote of confidence," parliamentary speaker Mohammad Yunus Qanoni said after counting finished. The seven ministerial nominees who won approval included those who had been approved by Karzai's supporters in the international community as competent and clean... Yahoo News (AFP) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419619/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:53:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2419546/posts Barack Obama was accused of double standards yesterday in his treatment of the CIA. The President paid tribute to secret agents after seven of them were killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan. In a statement, he said the CIA had been ‘tested as never before’ and that agents had ‘served on the front lines in directly confronting the dangers of the 21st century’. He lauded the victims as ‘part of a long line of patriots who have made great sacrifices for their fellow citizens and for our way of life’. Yet the previous day he had blasted ‘systemic failures’... dailymail UK http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2419546/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 16:51:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2419550/posts The coming year: 2010, will see a growing clash of conflicting mega-trends in the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater; trends which will ultimately have long-term impact not only on the region, but on all of Eurasia and global energy and political arenas. These main mega-trends are: 1. Obama’s Needs: The desperate efforts of the US White House of Pres. Barack Obama to appease and negotiate with any element of the “Taliban” — and the label “Taliban” is used with great looseness by most observers of the Afghanistan and Pakistan scene — willing to in order to expedite a US withdrawal and legitimize a... Oilprice.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2419550/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 16:59:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419208/posts A Taliban bomb claimed both his legs, but it couldn’t take away Sapper Gregg Stevenson’s courage. The 24-year-old stunned doctors by learning to walk on artificial limbs within two weeks. In February the 6ft 4in former rugby player will return to duty, ten months after the attack. And yesterday he insisted that his next goal is to go back to Afghanistan when his comrades from the 24 Commando Engineer Regiment return later in the year. His inspiring story emerged as it was confirmed that a sixth Army bomb disposal expert has been killed while trying to defuse IEDs (improvised explosive... Daily Mail (UK) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419208/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 23:01:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419173/posts U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan “are not winning yet, but we are going to win,” Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, told Stars and Stripes in an interview Friday. But the general said it was not possible to say how long it will take to achieve victory, which he defined as a situation where “the insurgency is not an existential threat to the government or the people” of Afghanistan. He added that protecting civilians remains the goal of the allied counterinsurgency strategy. “There’s no way to put an exact timeline on it, because as... Stars and Stripes http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419173/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 22:11:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419098/posts White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer writes on the White House blog in response to Cheney's criticism: I think we all agree that there should be honest debate about these issues, but it is telling that Vice President Cheney and others seem to be more focused on criticizing the Administration than condemning the attackers. What is telling, is how it took 4 days for the Administration to figure out how to address the recent terror plot, and only hours to confront Cheney. In the next paragraph, Pfeiffer does as all good Obamadsmen do: Blame the previous administration for where we... Flopping Aces http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419098/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 19:52:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419035/posts Maj. Matt Ciancarelli (left), the Civil Affairs Group officer for 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, talks to one of the teachers of the Kharko School, Garmsir, Afghanistan, just before the opening ceremony Dec. 27, 2009. The Marines of the CAG, 2/2, helped hold an opening ceremony for the school after 45 days of repairs and five years of closure due to earlier fighting in the area. (U.S. Marines photo by Lance Cpl. Dwight A. Henderson) Ayoub Omar (left), assistant district governor of Garmsir, Afghanistan, hands a key over to and shakes the hand of Habib Omar, the head of the... ISAF Joint Command - Afghanistan http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419035/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 17:57:58 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419026/posts PAKTYA PROVINCE, Afghanistan – An Afghan National Army Soldier unloads supplies during a combined civil assistance mission Dec. 29, while local citizens look on. The mission was a combined effort between U.S. Army Soldiers and their ANA counterparts to bring blankets, cooking stoves, food items, shoes and winter jackets to local citizens. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Andrew A. Reagan, 304th Public Affairs Detachment) By U.S. Army Sgt. Andrew A. Reagan304th Public Affairs Detachment PAKTYA PROVINCE, Afghanistan –  Afghan National Army Soldiers from the 203rd Thunder Corps, their counterparts from the Gardez Provincial Reconstruction team, and U.S. Soldiers assigned to... ISAF Joint Command - Afghanistan http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419026/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 17:44:38 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2364409/posts Levi Hill for the News Sun---Hobbs--The nation is facing an energy crisis where rolling blackouts, gas hoarding and high energy prices will become everyday occurrences. That was the message Tuesday from former Shell Oil Co. President John Hofmeister during a one-hour talk titled “Affordable Energy in the 21st Century: Enablers and Disablers” at Tydings Auditorium. New Mexico Center for Energy Policy http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2364409/posts#comment Sat, 17 Oct 2009 03:00:05 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418927/posts KABUL--The suicide bomber who killed eight Americans, including seven CIA officers, this week might have been able to get through multiple layers of security at the U.S. compound aided by an Afghan informant with the agency, a Western official said Friday. If this is true, it suggests insurgents had turned the tables on the CIA and been able to place their own agents close to the facility the CIA used to cultivate informants.On Wednesday, CIA officials had invited the attacker onto the base with the hopes of recruiting him as an informant. They used an Afghan intermediary to arrange the... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418927/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 14:21:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418910/posts Like soldiers, journalists know they risk their lives when they venture into war zones. And, like most soldiers, they feel the worst won't happen to them. But sometimes it does -- and it happened to Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang and four soldiers who were killed by a massive roadside bomb in Afghanistan, as the old year was dying and a new year about to begin. I did not know Michelle Lang -- but in a way, all of us in the news business knew her. We feel we have lost one of our own, just as soldiers feel they've... Toronto Sun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418910/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 13:40:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2418831/posts The bombing, just as President Barack Obama's surge is gathering pace, represented the biggest loss of life suffered by the US intelligence agency since an attack in Beirut in 1983. The CIA said on Thursday a further six agents had been injured in the attack. Claiming credit for the attack, a Taliban spokesman said the bomber was "an Afghan national army officer wearing a suicide vest". UK Telegraph http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2418831/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 06:05:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418805/posts Mark Hemingway (h/t Glenn Reynolds) writes: But what I can’t wrap my head around is that it took the President four days to acknowledge what he termed a “catastrophic” national security failure, but Cheney criticizes the administration’s handling of the war on terror and they have a rapid response on the White House blog in a matter of hours? Priorities! Then again, it took six days to respond to the riots in the streets of Tehran during their election, so four days seems about right for a barely averted domestic catastrophe. Also, is the White House aware of how small... Commentary Magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418805/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 04:55:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418771/posts Bombing in Afghanistan Devastates Critical Hub for CIA Activities By SIOBHAN GORMAN WASHINGTON—Wednesday's attack on a U.S. compound in Afghanistan devastated what has been a hub of counterterrorism and intelligence operations for the spy agency. Seven Central Intelligence Agency officers and contractors were killed and six more wounded in the suicide bomb attack at Forward Operating Base Chapman, CIA Director Leon Panetta said Thursday, the second-largest single-day loss for the spy agency in its history. Among the casualties was the agency's base chief, former intelligence officials said. There had been only four publicly acknowledged CIA fatalities in Afghanistan prior to... Wall St. Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418771/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 03:04:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418709/posts 12/31/2009 - KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- When the crewmembers of 451st Expeditionary Aeromedical Evacuation Flight first deployed to Kandahar Airfield in August, they knew they would be transporting many wounded warriors throughout Afghanistan. What they didn't expect was to be transporting some of those patients in nothing but their underwear. Hospitals here just had no clothing available. "These guys are giving their lives, their buddies are dying, some of them are giving their limbs in combat, and I think they deserve to be treated much better than being transported in just their underwear," said Master Sgt. Scott Wilkes, a 451st... Air Force News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418709/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 00:38:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418700/posts 12/31/2009 - CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan (AFNS) -- A team of Airmen handles thousands of passengers, pallets and vehicles flying into Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. The 'Port Dawgs,' as they liked to be called, proudly proclaim that they move as much cargo here as their unit does back home. But they have approximately 15 people instead of 200 handling the thousands of passengers and tons of cargo arriving monthly at the air field. The team is comprised of aerial porters, vehicle maintainers and leadership primarily deployed from Pope Air Force Base, N.C. They work loading and unloading cargo coming to the U.S.... Air Force News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418700/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 00:24:44 GMT