Afghanistan

NOVANEWS by Zabi Rashidi Media Summary Images showing Afghani Muslims during their observance of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, which involves fasting, prayer and purification and is intended to teach patience, humility, and spirituality. Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. 5th August 2011 The Holy Ramzaa n Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, which lasts 29 to 30 days. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating and drinking and is intended to teach Muslims about patience, humility, and spirituality. Muslims fast for the sake of God and to offer more prayer than usual. Compared to the solar calendar, the dates of Ramadan vary, moving backwards by about eleven days each year depending on the moon; thus, a person will have fasted...

NOVANEWS Troops Killed Pregnant Woman, Child at Checkpoint Crossing antiwar.com The French government is struggling with damage control in the latest incident of civilian killings by NATO troops in Afghanistan, when French soldiers opened fire on a carload of civilians in Kapisa Province, killing three. The soldiers were operating a checkpoint in Kapisa and say that the car ‘failed to stop’ and was assumed to be a suicide bomber. Among the three slain were a small child and a pregnant woman. Preliminary reports have the French embassy issuing a formal apology for the killings, though NATO for its part simply reportts that “it appears that there had been no insurgents in the car” which was attacked. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack and rejected the notion of an apology...

NOVANEWS by David Swanson   Comparing the brain sizes of migratory birds and U.S. presidents may not help explain this one.  Birds have been avoiding Afghanistan for some years now.  Afghans with higher educations have been leaving for decades.  War profiteers, and occupation profiteers, and “reconstruction” profiteers seem to know their way out.  But imperial rulers, whether British or Soviet or U.S., seem utterly incapable of withdrawing other people’s kids from Afghan wars until no other option remains. Speaking with Afghans via Skype over the weekend, I heard their top concern as avoiding a “strategic partnership agreement” that includes permanent U.S. military bases.  This concern seems not to diminish in the slightest if the bases are called “enduring” or “stable” or anything o...

NOVANEWS By Prof. James Petras Global Research, Introduction Empires are built through the promotion and backing of local collaborators who act at the behest of imperial rulers. They are rewarded with the outward symbols of authority and financial handouts, even as it is understood that they hold their position only at the tolerance of their imperial superiors. Imperial collaborators are referred to by the occupied people and the colonial resistance as “puppets” or “traitors”; by western journalists and critics as “clients”; by the imperial scribes and officials as “loyal allies” as long as they remain obedient to their sponsors and paymaster. Puppet rulers have a long and ignoble history during the 20th century. Subsequent to US invasions in Central America and the Carib...

NOVANEWS Five Afghan children have been injured, some seriously, in a strike by criminal British attack helicopter. The youngsters were working in a field in Helmand province when they were hit by stray bullets from an Apache gunship. They were strafed by a burst of fire from the chopper’s devastating 30millimetre cannon.  The wounded children were flown quickly to Camp Bastion, the main British base in Helmand, for urgent treatment. Two of them were seriously injured although their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. It is not known if they have lost limbs in the incident. The other three had less severe wounds and were expected to be released from hospital. The incident, which happened in the Nahr-e-Saraj district on Saturday, is a huge blow for the Nato-led military co...

NOVANEWS by Zabi Rashidi   Security responsibility for Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of the northern province of Balkh, will be handed over to Afghan forces on Saturday, the governor’s office in northern Balkh province said. The transfer will increase to five the number of areas transferred to local control. The Balkh governor, local officials, high ranking officials from Kabul, and military and civil officials of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) will participate in the ceremony marking the transition in the province, the governor’s offices said in a statement. On Friday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said that the impending security transfer in Mazar-i-Sharif does not represent an end to Germany’s assistance to Afghanistan. He promised his country would c...

NOVANEWS by David Swanson   I recently sat down for 90 minutes to speak with six Afghan judges, all of them women, and an English-Dari interpreter, a man.  They spoke to me as individuals.  They aren’t preparing any investigations or indictments.  The relevance of their being judges is that they know the law.  They’ve studied international law, and they were visiting the United States to learn about our legal and political systems.  They believe the United States is guilty of war crimes. I was the one who raised the subject.  I pointed to Italian convictions of CIA agents for kidnapping, Spanish investigations of U.S. officials for torture, etc., and asked what these judges’ views were on international law violations, universal jurisdiction, and what appear to be clear crimes committ...

NOVANEWS  by David Swanson   I recently sat down for 90 minutes to speak with six Afghan judges, all of them women, and an English-Dari interpreter, a man.  They spoke to me as individuals.  They aren’t preparing any investigations or indictments.  The relevance of their being judges is that they know the law.  They’ve studied international law, and they were visiting the United States to learn about our legal and political systems.  They believe the United States is guilty of war crimes. I was the one who raised the subject.  I pointed to Italian convictions of CIA agents for kidnapping, Spanish investigations of U.S. officials for torture, etc., and asked what these judges’ views were on international law violations, universal jurisdiction, and what appear to be clear crimes commit...

NOVANEWS   The US Congress may express concern at the cowbody behaviour of many mercenaries in Afghanistan (which, of course, lessens local support for the glorious liberation they’ve experienced since 2001), but such things don’t concern former IDF prison guard Jeffrey Goldberg. He writes a curious post about protecting these brave souls who are presumably doing America’s fine work in the field of duty: A couple of nights ago, I was hanging around a major Middle Eastern airport, on a long layover. I had just come from Islamabad (yes, I realize I didn’t share the information that I was in Pakistan with Goldblog readers while I was there — trust me, it was for my own good) and was waiting for a flight to the States, and I began to notice something very troubling (I...

NOVANEWS The young man who greets his cousins rugby playing fiance with the two finger hand-as-gun gesture to the head, should fit in well with the Apache pilots slice ‘em and dice ‘em mentality. by Felicity Arbuthnot “They’re in their 20s, but like certain children, they have been told only one story, over and over. Like most children, they believe in an easily identifiable good and evil, and like most children, they are capable of unthinkable cruelty.” Michael Cunningham, novelist (1952- ) Prince Harry, third in line to the throne, is to return to Afghanistan, later in the year, we are told. It was the stuff of discard “B” movies. He would be: “one of the most treasured scalps” to the Taliban if captured; he will be “given a new identity (to ensure) he does not fall in to the hands of b...