The relations between Pakistan and America have been strained for some time now. In November 2011, NATO cross-border airstrikes killed at least 24 Pakistani soldiers at a checkpoint near the Afghan border. The Pakistani government retaliated by closing down the NATO supply line route and demanded an unconditional apology from the U.S. Pakistan also demanded an end to drone attacks within its territory and increased transit fees for NATO trucks carrying supplies to Afghanistan.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Chairman of Pakistan’s People Party (PPP) said in a press statement in New York on March 2012, that US drone attacks violated Pakistan’s sovereignty. Bilawal’s words reflected the public mood across Pakistan, as mass rallies were staged to remonstrate against the deaths of soldiers and impending drone attacks.

The U.S. government launched its drone war in northwest Pakistan in 2004. Unsurprisingly, this  action led to a wave of fury across the Pakistani spectrum, with thousands coming out in the streets to protest against the violation of Pakistan’s territorial space. According to President Obama, the drone strikes target “al-Qaeda suspects who are up in very tough terrain along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

According to Amnesty International, “US drone attacks have doubled overall in Pakistan during the Obama administration. Thousands of people have been killed by the strikes – civilians as well as militants.” While the unmanned drone war is a new strategy in the U.S. war on terror in Pakistan, it does raise questions about the legality of such attacks. Though, the U.S. has assured time and time again that the targets are terrorists and not civilians, not much is known about the rules of engagement and how the new self defense war strategy complies with International humanitarian law.

The diplomatic wikileaks cables disclosure that Pakistan covertly assented to drone attacks, shared intelligence information, and allowed usage of its airfields was a shocking exposure of some prominent names within the Pakistani cabinet. This included interior Minister Rehman Malik, former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and Pakistani Army chief General Ashfaq Parvez.

According to Wikileaks cables, former Prime Minister of Pakistan Yousaf Razza Gillani permitted the drone attacks in the tribal areas of Pakistan. The Guardian reported that according to leaked cables, “Malik suggested we hold off alleged Predator attacks until after the Bajaur operation.” The Prime Minister disregarded the remarks, stating, “I don’t care if they do it as long as they get the right people. We’ll protest in the National Assembly and then ignore it.”

It was not until July 2012, that the U.S. issued its long overdue apology over the role it played in fatalities of Pakistan’s military personals, almost 7 months after the incident. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton delivered a nuanced apology over the telephone to Pakistani foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. Clinton said: “I offered our sincere condolences to the families of the Pakistani soldiers who lost their lives. Foreign minister Khar and I acknowledged the mistakes that resulted in the loss of Pakistani military lives.”

The Pakistani Parliament was quick to accept the apology and, against parliamentary resolution, reinstated supply lines to Afghanistan. However, the opposition faction in Pakistan’s National Assembly is not too happy with the elusive apology. According to opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, the U.S. has not apologized formally. The Difai-Pakistan Council (DPC) has announced an anti NATO march against the reopening of the supply line on July 8 in Pakistan.

Newstribe.com reported that Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Imran Khan, said the “US had not sought an unconditional apology over the cross border aggression.” Khan announced that his party will be protesting against the government decision on July 5 in Gujranwala.

While the Pakistani government was all set to convince its public over the resumed relations between the two countries, another US drone attack in Pakistan’s Wazeristan area on Friday has further heightened tensions. Speaking to Pakistani Newspaper, Dawn, Imran Khan condemned the latest attack and said that the “latest drone attack speaks volumes about so-called close working partnership between Pakistan and the US in [the] ongoing war.”

The recent death toll from strikes is estimated at 19-20, subsequently, leading to mounting public fury over the violation of the country’s sovereignty. Khan has been active in his campaign on the social network site, twitter, about identifying those unnamed dead people, including women and children, in the drone strikes.

Judging by the public anger and demonstrations in the streets, even though theoretically the joint venture of the drone war may be successful in eliminating potential nemeses in the barren areas of Pakistan, it is certainly failing to win the hearts and minds of the people of Pakistan.

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The past ten years has been a living nightmare for several Zanzibar refugees who have been stuck in the war-torn country of Somalia, living in fear in what is considered the most dangerous city in the world, Mogadishu. Fortunately for those refugees, there is a light at the end of the tunnel as many get to start their lives over by returning to their homeland this past week.

Thirty-eight refugees boarded a United Nations aircraft on Friday after escaping a political war a decade ago. “The returning families have been living in Mogadishu for over 10 years and have now decided that it is time for them to return, their bags are loaded, they are saying their farewells to Somalia, and we will be off soon to Zanzibar,” said Andreas Needham, spokesman for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) in Somalia.

Over 2,000 civilians of Zanzibar, the capital of Tanzania, fled the country in 2000 and went to Kenya, where they were then placed in the biggest refugee camp in the world, Dadaab. While some stayed in the refugee camp, others returned to Zanzibar and a few hundred migrated to Somalia and worked low paying jobs just to survive and feed their families. For those that went to Somalia, most lived in unsanitary and impoverished conditions, hiding out in abandoned, crumbling homes while others lived on the streets and sought shelter wherever they could find it.

In recent years, the United Nations Refugee Agency (known as the UNHCR) stepped in and gave aid to those living in Somalia. “Twelve of the original 23 families who approached UNHCR are being voluntarily repatriated,” the UNHCR added in a statement, noting that, “some of the men who remain have married Somali women.” The remainder of the refugees left in Somalia is staying there to see how the war-torn country of Tanzania finds peace before they decide to return to their home country.

According to the UNHCR, “the Zanzibaris’ journey was the opposite of almost a million Somalis who have fled to other countries in the region — the Horn of Africa nation generates the third highest number of refugees in the world after Afghanistan and Iraq.”

A total of approximately 1.36 million refugees from all over Africa have been forced to leave their homelands and are displaced in Somalia.

For the families that are returning home to Zanzibar, they are due to meet with government officials and are expected to receive help in rebuilding their lives. Many more are expected to return in the near future as positive results will be seen from the end of the political war and the election of a new president of Zanzibar.

Image Courtesy of   IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation/TURKEY

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Washington, U.S.A. — As World Population Day approaches, Wilson Center consultant and demographer Elizabeth Leahy Madsen says the Arab Spring demonstrates that countries with very young age structures are prone both to higher incidence of civil conflict and undemocratic governance. “Among the five countries where revolt took root, those with the earliest success in ousting autocratic leaders also had the most mature age structures and the least youthful populations,” she writes on the New Security Beat . What happens next in Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Syria will further test the connection between youth and democracy discovered by fellow Wilson Center consulting demographer Richard Cincotta.

In South Asia, Madsen finds that as Afghanistan and Pakistan’s political circumstances have become more entwined, their demographic paths are more closely parallel than expected. “For Afghanistan, given its myriad socioeconomic, political, cultural, and geographic challenges, this is good news. But for Pakistan, where efforts to meet family planning needs have fallen short of capacity, it is not,” she writes in the first issue of the newly relaunched ECSP Report, “Afghanistan, Against the Odds: A Demographic Surprise.”

Other top population issues to watch:

• New commitments to family planning: An international summit in London on July 11, co-hosted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s Department for International Development and supported by USAID and UNFPA, may produce financial commitments toward meeting a new and ambitious goal of generating $4 billion to fund contraceptives for 120 million women in developing countries by 2020.
• Changing fertility rates in Africa : Contraceptive use over the past five years is growing much faster than the regional average in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Rwanda, leading to declining fertility rates. However, contraceptive use in other countries, including Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda, and Zimbabwe, are declining or showing only modest increases.
• Revised global population projections : The 2013 revision of the World Population Prospects will provide a new global population prediction for 2050. This figure can vary dramatically: If the global fertility rate changes by 0.5 children per woman in either direction, the total population could be more than one billion higher or lower in 2050.

Since 1994, the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) has actively pursued the connections between the environment, health, population, development, conflict, and security. ECSP brings together scholars, policymakers, the media, and practitioners through events, research, publications, multimedia content (audio and video), and our award-winning blog, New Security Beat. The Environmental Change and Security Program Report 14 is the latest volume of ECSP’s flagship publication. Published since 1996, ECSP Report is now an online series of policy briefs.

The Wilson Center provides a strictly nonpartisan space for the worlds of policymaking and scholarship to interact. By conducting relevant and timely research and promoting dialogue from all perspectives, it works to address the critical current and emerging challenges confronting the United States and the world

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Despite the portentous threat of extradition hanging over his head, Julian Assange has managed to use his credentials to interview some of the most controversial figures across the world. In the ninth episode of Julian Assange show, he takes his viewers inside the tumultuous world of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. In this segment, Assange cross examines infamous Pakistani politician Imran Khan and gains perception into country’s foreign relations, its ongoing internal warfare , pending corruption and the status-quo of power structure in the society.

Imran Khan is one of the most recognized figures ever to come out of Pakistan. He will always be remembered for bringing the 1992 world cup trophy to his homeland, for his marriage to British socialite Jemima Goldsmith and for his philanthropic contributions to Pakistani society. He joined politics in 1996 and formed a party called ‘Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf’ (PTI) to fight injustice and corruption. His political voyage has been full of endearing hardships, multiple incarcerations and heartbreaks.

“Pakistan is changing fast, over the last two years US drone attacks and corrupt political dynasties have driven millions to this cause” said Assange. This is another glimpse of Arab Spring that has crossed over to Pakistan.

According to Khan, “Well, the battle in Pakistan, just like in the Middle East, is of a status quo, an entrenched status quo ‒ what you call the power structure ‒ benefited from the system, and the majority of the population wanted a change. ”

Khan has faced severe criticism from home and abroad for his docile political career. In 2007, US cables referred to him as “Pakistan’s one man party” He boycotted the 2008 elections over the protest of the National Reconciliation Ordinance deal that the Bush administration brokered between General Perveez Musharraf and Benazir Butto. The following deal gave amnesty to Bhutto and her party members over corruption cases.

Khan explains that in Pakistan there is a political mafia. According to Khan, “First of all, I boycotted the elections in 2008, um, because, you know, these elections were manipulated by the Bush administration. His party alongside other political parties boycotted 2008 elections over their fear of pre-poll rigging.” Khan argued that Musharraf allowed criminals to contest elections.

In the aftermath of 2008 elections, his party’s popularity decreased. But for past two years things have changed. As opinion polls in Pakistan reflect, Khan’s popularity has increased in the last six months to 60-80%. With over 306846 followers on Twitter, Khan and his party have risen to prominence. His popularity has come with a hefty price tag, as many political parties turned against him. His party is no longer actively seeking coverage in media, due to money being poured into channels by opposition parties.

But despite the setbacks, he has been holding mass rallies with over 100,000 people and as he puts it: “Now, since the big rallies, the whole political scene has changed. We have seen now politicians rushing to me. So people who are electables, realizing that the vote bank now belongs to me, they are coming to join me.” Khan compares his ardent following in Pakistan to one in former Middle East, where demand for change and a protest against anti-status quo movement saw fall of many governments. According to Khan, Pakistan has not experienced such mass turn out in rallies since the death of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

Assange quizzed Khan over the challenging and oft confusing relations between the US and Pakistan. In the aftermath of 9/11 and under the governance of General Musharraf, Pakistan became America’s key ally on its war on terror. Over time, the War on Terror has changed and evolved by transcending the Afghan boundaries and crossing into mainland of Pakistan. Khan said “no country has ever been bombed by its own ally, as we have been bombed in this country.” There is a mounting anger in Pakistan over American drone attacks on its soil. People of Pakistan are still coming to terms with the fact that certain factions of intelligence services aided Bin Laden in using Pakistan as his hide out. The war on terror has bore horrific consequences for Pakistan, 40,000 Pakistanis have been killed and in the last 4 years it has cost Pakistan $50 billion.

Khan holds Musharraf accountable for all the mess in contemporary Pakistan from growing corruption to country’s mounting debts to the war on terror. “Julian, it’s so shameful. You know, never has a country’s ruling elite, for personal benefits, never have they betrayed their people as much as this elite under Musharraf and the current elite”, Khan said.

Imran Khan provides another well known glimpse into a world of darkness, where corruption is rife, civil liberties are eroded and money and power has become an instrument of governance and military to exploit and exercise dominance over the poor population of a country. However, things are changing fast across the Pakistan’s political spectrum, with the recent eviction of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani from his office, judiciary maintaining its status, and the current President losing support fast amongst general public. With mounting debt of $12 trillion, an army killing its own people, and over 14 hours of power cuts in a day, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is in a dire need of miraculous savior. Now, whether Khan’s popularity in opinion polls will take him towards becoming a next leader of the troubled Pakistan remains to be seen.

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Chicago, U.S.A - Aon Benfield, the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon plc, has released the latest edition of its Global Catastrophe Recap report, which reviews the natural disaster perils that occurred worldwide during May.

Published by Impact Forecasting, the firm’s catastrophe model development center of excellence, the report reveals that two earthquakes and subsequent aftershocks struck northern Italy within a nine-day period, killing 25 people, injuring more than 400 others and causing extensive damage to the cultural heritage throughout the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, in addition to businesses and personal property.

An initial, combined economic loss estimate from both tremors stood at EUR5 billion (USD6.25 billion), following significant damage in the provinces of Modena, Ferrara, Reggio Emilia, Rovigo and Mantua.

In Asia, severe and prolonged periods of rain impacted China throughout the month, affecting at least 22 provinces and killing at least 102 people.

According to China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA), at least 143,000 homes were damaged or destroyed during one prolonged event. More than 949,400 hectares (2.34 million acres) of cropland were also affected, contributing to a total economic loss listed at CNY16.88 billion (USD2.68 billion).

Meanwhile, powerful thunderstorms struck eastern Japan, resulting in high winds and tornadoes that killed at least three people, injured 59 others, and damaged more than 1,845 buildings in six separate prefectures.

Steve Jakubowski, President of Impact Forecasting, said: “The Italian earthquakes resulted in the largest natural disaster loss for the country since the L’Aquila earthquake event in 2009. The seismic activity was not unexpected, as Italy has long been recognised as a region exposed to the possibility of significant earthquake activity. Given the level of insurance coverage in the region, it is anticipated that insured losses would reach minimally into the hundreds of millions of dollars (USD). However, it remains too early to determine how negligible re/insurance losses may be from this event.”

In the United States, two periods of severe weather impacted central and eastern sections of the country; the first causing widespread hail and wind damage from the Dakotas to Maryland, resulting in an economic loss estimated at USD275 million, and more than 30,000 insurance claims valued atUSD150 million. A secondary severe weather outbreak across the central and eastern U.S. at the end of the month spawned significant damage as well. According to a preliminary report from the South-western Insurance Information Service, insured losses in Oklahoma alone were estimated at USD400 million.

Tropical Storm Beryl made landfall near Jacksonville Beach, Florida at peak intensity with 70 mph (110 kph) winds but did not cause any significant damage, injuries or fatalities.

And wildfires burned in several U.S. states during the month, including the largest fire ever recorded in New Mexico.

Excessive rainfall affected areas of the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec in May. In Thunder Bay, at least 1,100 homes were damaged as well as businesses and infrastructure, and flood damage with a 100-year return period was recorded in Montreal, where personal property and infrastructure were widely affected.

Additional flood events were recorded in Nepal, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Cuba, Georgia, Brazil and Venezuela.

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In a continued attack against the education of women in Afghanistan, 160 female students were poisoned Tuesday at a school in the north-eastern province of Takhar. The second wave of violence in only a week’s time, the incident follows a similar pattern as the first, with police suspecting the classroom had been sprayed with a toxic material before the girls arrived to take their lessons.

Aged 10 to 20, the students reportedly smelled a strange odor upon entering the room, before experiencing symptoms such as headaches and dizziness, with many vomiting before losing consciousness. All were immediately taken to the hospital; most were discharged after only a few hours.

While none of the victims are in critical condition from the poisoning, there remains the obvious potential for emotional trauma after the incident – which is undoubtedly the true goal of this vicious assault. Extremists in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, have long opposed the many attempts to educate women in the country.

From throwing acid in the faces of girls on their way to school, to setting off bombs near institutions that allow education for both sexes, it has never been a secret how these groups feel about the women of their country garnering knowledge.  One of the major goals of their campaign is to keep women ignorant, and what better way is there to do so than to emotionally scar girls from attempting to go to school again? From making these children fear the concept of it?

While no one has formally claimed responsibility for the poisoning of the schools, many have already pronounced the Taliban as the guilty party due to their history of violence and threats against schools and women. The militant group, however, denies any culpability in the incident, instead going so far as to claim that NATO and the United States are attempting to frame them for the heinous act.

Whether the Taliban was involved or not, the poisonings only serve to further increase concern about a potential comeback for the insurgents in the government, after the Western states agreed to pull their military forces out of the country by the year 2014.

The Taliban held a strong reign on Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, when U.S troops invaded to try and foster democracy within the nation.  Prior to U.S intervention, there was a ban on education for women, which many believe will come back into effect if the Taliban find themselves in a position to return to power.

Image Courtesy of   Lizette Potgieter / Shutterstock.com

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Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukraine intends to build transport and energy infrastructure facilities in Afghanistan, as well as help repair military equipment produced in the USSR, said the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych at the meeting with Hamid Karzai, the Afghani President. The meeting took place in the framework of the 2012 NATO Summit in Chicago.

Ukraine also aims to continue providing NATO with air transport support to finish the peacemaking campaign in Afghanistan by 2014, mentioned the Ukrainian leader. In addition to the listed intentions, President Yanukovych supported the security transition in Afghanistan by 2014, as outlined in the Lisbon Roadmap.

As a nation contributing to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), Ukraine also supports the 2014-2024 strategic partnership that involves the USA and NATO and is set to help establish peace on the territory of the Central Asian country.

Addressing the summit, Ukrainian leader also expressed the country’s readiness to join the Danish initiative Coalition of Committed Contributors. The so-called 3C-initiative will help fund Afghani security forces after 2014. So far 23 nations joined the initiative, reported Stephen J. Flanagan, PhD, at the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia hearing on April 26, 2012.

Ukraine has already joined the Central Asia Counternarcotics Initiative, countering threats of stability from Afghan and Pakistani violent extremist groups which use drug trafficking to fund their activities.

Currently, 22 Ukrainian peacekeepers are stationed in Afghanistan. The team from Ukraine features mine clearance experts, medics, army aviation advisors, and staff officers. It was recently announced that Ukraine planned to add to its ISAF mission a dog handler who specializes in mine and explosives detection.

Ukraine sent its first ISAF representatives to Afghanistan in May of 2007. A team of 10 to 30 Ukrainians (depending on the stage of the mission) performed tasks along with the peacekeepers from Denmark, Croatia, Georgia, and Lithuania. Among other peacekeeping jobs, Ukrainian team helped construct a mosque in a refugee camp in Chaghcharan.

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Over 120 girls and teachers were hospitalized Wednesday from the Bib Hajera Girls School in the Northern Afghanistan province of Takhar after being poisoned by a sprayed substance, CNN reports.

As of Thursday, forty girls were still under a doctor’s watch with symptoms ranging from dizziness, vomiting, headaches and loss of consciousness, Dr. Habibullah Rostaqi, the hospital director, said.

“Generally they are not in a critical condition. We are looking after them, but let’s see what happens later. We understand so far from the situation … they are more traumatized,” he said.

According to the BBC, police contemplate radical insurgents sprayed toxic materials in the classroom.

This has not been the first attack on schoolchildren in Takhar. Contaminated drinking water poisoned 150 students last month. Although no group has yet to claim responsibility for either attack, many have begun blaming the Taliban because the entire region is infamous for housing radical extremists wanting to suppress woman’s education, Reuters reports.

During the Educations World Forum in London January 2011 Dr. Farooq Wardak, Afgahan Education Minister, claimed that the Taliban surrender their fight again woman’s education. However, the group never confirmed the allegation, according to CNN.

However, last week, in areas where the Taliban are highly supported, the insurgents closed down 550 schools in 11 provinces.

Lutfullah Mashal, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) spokesman, told Reuters he believes the group’s newest offensive is to close schools before the 2014 withdrawal of foreign combat troops, which NATO just signed off Monday on President Barack Obama’s exit strategy, the BBC reports.

During the Taliban’s six-year reign, women were banned from education and work. After the group’s fall from power in 2001, women returned to schools, especially in the country’s capital, Kabul. However, there are still many attacks against students, teachers, and school buildings in areas where the Taliban are most supported.

Furthermore, the constant struggle over Afghan schools has created a strain in the newly established government, especially in the Eastern provinces. The insurgents’ anger comes from the government’s banning of motorbikes, a favorite of the Taliban. There has been a spike in attacks against schools after the government banned to use of motorbikes.

“The Afghan people know that the terrorists and the Taliban are doing these things to threaten girls and stop them going to school,” said Khalilullah Aseer, spokesman for Takhar police, told CNN. “That’s something we and the people believe. Now we are implementing democracy in Afghanistan and we want girls to be educated, but the government’s enemies don’t want this.”

Image Courtesy of  Lizette Potgieter / Shutterstock.com

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Tuesday night, President Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The key agreement signed in Kabul by the two presidents defines the relations between United States and Afghanistan and the US military presence in the country after 2014, when the last NATO-led troops are due to leave.

Obama’s surprise visit comes exactly on the one-year anniversary of the raid that led to the killing of Al Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden in the city of Abbottabad, Pakistan.

“Together, we’re now committed to replacing war with peace,” Obama said after signing the agreement. “With this agreement I am confident that the Afghan people will understand that the United States will stand by them,” he added.

“I’m here to affirm the bond between our two countries and to thank Americans and Afghans who have sacrificed so much over these last ten years,” the U.S. President stated after the signing ceremony. “Neither Americans nor the Afghan people asked for this war yet for a decade we’ve stood together.”

The occasion was called as “a historic moment for our two nations”.

By signing the agreement after months of negotiations, the United States guarantees to Afghanistan its sovereignty, assuring also their support after the withdrawal of the military force from the country.

During his visit to Bagram Air Field, addressing to U.S. troops President Obama said, “I know the battle’s not yet over. Some of your buddies are going to get injured. And some of your buddies may get killed. And there’s going to be heartbreak and pain and difficulty ahead. But there is a light on the horizon because of the sacrifices you made.”

At 7.30 p.m. EST, 4 a.m. in Afghanistan, Obama delivered a live address to the Nation.

“My fellow Americans, we have traveled through more than a decade under the dark cloud of war. Yet here, in the pre-dawn darkness of Afghanistan, we can see the light of a new day on the horizon.” he said in speech excerpts released in advance of his televised delivery by the White House.

“The Iraq War is over,” he added. “We have a clear path to fulfill our mission in Afghanistan, while delivering justice to al-Qaida.”

“Last year, we removed 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Another 23,000 will leave by the end of the summer. After that, reductions will continue at a steady pace, with more of our troops coming home. And as our coalition agreed, by the end of 2014 the Afghans will be fully responsible for the security of their country.”

Referring to the destruction of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, he added, “As we emerge from a decade of conflict abroad and economic crisis at home, it is time to renew America … a united America of grit and resilience, where sunlight glistens off soaring new towers in downtown Manhattan, and we build our future as one people, as one nation.”

This visit to Afghanistan and the signature of the U.S. Afghanistan agreement, emphasized by the anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, are aimed to underline the commitment  of the Obama administration for ending the war and supporting democracy in Afghanistan. Just the right move at a crucial time for a president who wishes to be re-elected, but how this event might affect the voters is yet to be seen.

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Early Sunday, a lone soldier walked out of his base and into the nearby village in the Panjway district of the Kandahar province in Afghanistan. This U.S. soldier then opened fire on civilians. Sixteen Afghan villagers, mostly women and children, were killed.

The soldier returned to the base and turned himself in to authorities following the killings. He remains in U.S. custody but his identity has not been disclosed. At this time his motive is also unknown. Initial reports from witnesses stated a group of possible drunk U.S. soldiers were responsible for the killings. U.S. officials maintain that there was simply one shooter.

Washington moved quick to put distance between the lone gunman and the 90,000 U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan. According to reports, President Obama phoned the Afghan President Hamid Karzai and expressed his shock and sadness as well as offering condolences to the victims’ families and the Afghan people.

In a statement released by the White House, Obama said, “This incident is tragic and shocking and does not represent the exceptional character of our military and the respect that the United States has for the people of Afghanistan.” Obama also vowed “to get the facts as quickly as possible and to hold accountable anyone responsible.”  To accomplish this goal a joint investigation will be carried out by the U.S. and Afghan authorities.

According to the Washington Post, President Karzai has already sent senior government officials to Panjway to investigate the shootings. During their visit they found that 11 of the dead were from one family. The shootings come at a sensitive time in U.S.-Afghan relations. Officials from both sides had signed a deal on Friday, March 9 to transfer a U.S.-run prison at Bagram airbase to Afghan authorities.

This transfer was insisted on by Karzai and was considered progress in reaching a Strategic Partnership Agreement, said the New York Times, allowing long-term American involvement in Afghanistan after 2014. Now officials are worried about retaliatory attacks. Tensions had begun to ease after the accidental burning of copies of the Koran at the main NATO base in Afghanistan just a few weeks earlier. Protests following the Koran burning led to the deaths of 30 people.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued an emergency statement on their website to alert “U.S. citizens in Afghanistan that as a result of a tragic shooting incident in Kandahar province involving a U.S. service member, there is a risk of anit-American feelings and protests in the coming days, especially in the eastern and southern provinces.”

The Taliban wasted no time issuing a statement condemning the killings and possibly adding fuel to the fire. “The so-called American peacekeepers have once again quenched their thirst with the blood of innocent Afghan civilians.” They also pledged to “avenge every single death inflicted by the savage murderer invaders.” It is difficult to predict the extent of the backlash but the officials in Washington seem to be preparing for the worst.

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On January 16, Al-Qaida forces took over Radda, a Yemeni town 100 miles south of the capital, and captured the local prison, setting at least 150 convicts free. According to an Associated Press photographer, the al-Qaida militants who attacked Radda were equipped with rocket-propelled grenades, automatic rifles, and other arms.

Residents said that a black al-Qaida banner was flown at the top of a captured mosque. Around 200 militants invaded Radda from already captured points, according to security officials. These points included an ancient castle, mosque, and school. Some of the freed criminals were given arms and joined in the fighting, according to anonymous officials who were not allowed to speak to the media.

The officials divulged that the leader of the al-Qaida fighters was Tariq Al-Zahab, whose sister was married to Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaida cleric and recruiter who was killed in a U.S. airstrike. The fighters maintained a security ring around Radda, so nobody could enter or leave.

Al-Qaida militants are taking advantage of the fact that the Yemeni government has been weakened due to an anti-regime uprising which was influenced by the Arab Spring revolts. This takeover has added to the number of towns that al-Qaida has already conquered in the mostly lawless south. After months of opposing protests, President Ali Abdullah Saleh finally ended his 33-year rule. The capture of Radda gives al-Qaida a foothold close to the capital, which is believed to contain many terrorist sleeper cells.

Thousands protested the security officials’ failure to protect the town in the provincial capital of Bayda. They blamed Saleh for the attack, as did some tribal leaders. “We are surprised by the silence of the security forces,” said one protester, Abdel-Rahman al-Rashid, who lives in Radda. “They have not moved, which only means that this is all arranged to spark chaos.”

Yemen, being the poorest nation in the Arab world, has long been in danger of splitting up along regional lines, with al-Qaida in possession of remote, guarded areas in the country’s mountainous areas. If this happens, Yemen could turn into something similar to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and become a power base for militants to plot terrorist attacks against the US and its allies.

The active al-Qaida branch in Yemen has previously been connected to terror attacks on the United States and Saudi Arabia and is considered one of the most formidable franchises of the international terror organization. The US once viewed Saleh as an ally in the fight against al-Qaida. However, the US stopped its support last summer and encouraged Saleh to resign.

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Macbeth, at his darkest, described life as “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”. I can reveal, however, that because he was a timeless genius, Shakespeare was really describing Barack Obama’s June 22 speech on Afghanistan.

From the very first sentence, the aim of the President’s oratory was deception. “Nearly 10 years ago” he began, “America suffered the worst attack on our shores since Pearl Harbor”. First line, first mistake. The 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor – a historical event entangled in emotion, intended to invoke the myth of a golden age of United States military power saving the world from evil – was not an attack on US “shores”. Pearl Harbor was a military base in a foreign country (Hawaii) that the United States had annexed in 1897.

“We forget that in the crossroads of the ancient world, the graveyard of empires, it is not just “1500 [Americans] who have given their lives in Afghanistan”, but at least twenty times as many Afghans.”

“Our nation was united as we struck at al Qaeda and routed the Taliban in Afghanistan Obama continued. Following the awful crime of September 11 2001 it was not “Al Qaeda” that the US struck, but the men, women and children of Afghanistan. During the first couple of months of the bombing campaign that began on October 7, Professor Mark Herold of the University of New Hampshire concludes, NATO’s air force murdered 3000-3400 innocent civilians. Alone this exceeds the death toll of the 9/11 high-jackers.

President Obama proceeded to quote an unnamed soldier on the (illegal) assassination of Osama Bin-Laden: “the message is we don’t forget”. The ten years of war in Afghanistan, the deaths of thousands of civilians, and a state ordered killing were, so the President said, “a victory for all who have served since 9/11”. Like an Ancient Greek revenge hero, the president admitted that the motivation had been retribution, not justice.

It is hardly surprising that the policies announced along with this tale of sound of fury were just as disingenuous and divorced from reality. The US will withdraw 10000 troops from Afghanistan this year, and a further 20000 by next summer. It will also, so Obama says, complete a total withdrawal by 2014. Asking the Afghans when they would like foreign forces to withdraw is not even considered. The US, and the United Kingdom, will withdraw troops from Afghanistan, but there will not be a total withdrawal. Like Bahrain, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Oman, Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait, Afghanistan will be home to Western military bases for many years to come.

It was these military bases that, along with propping up the Hosni Mubaraks (“not a dictator” – B. Obama 2011) of the Middle East, and support for Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, motivated the attacks of 9/11 in the first place. Nonetheless, journalists have largely greeted this “tale told by an idiot” with glee. Anne Penketh, a blogger for the UK’s leading left-liberal newspaper The Independent, ebulliently announced: “He’s back! President Obama’s speech on Afghanistan could well mark the moment he got his presidency back”. The speech contained the “boldness that has been lacking in his foreign policy choices” she observed. Given that President Obama has been conducting 4-6 wars consistently since he took office, one fear to ask just what constitutes “boldness” in Ms. Penketh’s book.

The war in Afghanistan is officially the longest in US history. It equals the lengths of the First and Second World Wars combined. So long has it been that we forget the Taliban’s offer to hand over Osama Bin Laden in 2001. We forget that the war has always been illegal. We forget that in the crossroads of the ancient world, the graveyard of empires, it is not just “1500 [Americans] who have given their lives in Afghanistan”, but at least twenty times as many Afghans. We forget that we don’t count the bodies of our victims. Out, out brief candle.

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President Barack Obama addressed the nation on Wednesday night, discussing the Afghanistan war. He promised that 33,000 American troops will be out of the nation by the fall of 2012. Both sides of the aisle have expressed disappointment at the slow pace of the withdrawal.

“My fellow Americans, this has been a difficult decade for our country,” he said. “Yet tonight, we take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding.”

The 33,000 troops are part of the “surge” that Obama announced in his 2009 speech. That will leave approximately 68,000 U.S. troops still in Afghanistan, which is still significantly higher than the amount that was in the country when Obama took office.

“Fewer of our sons and daughters are serving in harm’s way,” Obama added. “We have ended our combat mission in Iraq, with 100,000 American troops already out of that country. And even as there will be dark days ahead in Afghanistan, the light of a secure peace can be seen in the distance. These long wars will come to a responsible end.”

Obama tried to strike a middle ground between the isolationism that is the new wave in Congress and the ongoing interventionism of the Bush years.

“We must chart a more centered course,” said the president. “Like generations before, we must embrace America’s singular role in the course of human events. But we must be as pragmatic as we are passionate; as strategic as we are resolute. When threatened, we must respond with force — but when that force can be targeted, we need not deploy large armies overseas. When innocents are being slaughtered and global security endangered, we don’t have to choose between standing idly by or acting on our own. Instead, we must rally international action, which we are doing in Libya, where we do not have a single soldier on the ground, but are supporting allies in protecting the Libyan people and giving them the chance to determine their destiny.”

The Obama administration attempted to frame the withdrawal as a result of success in the Middle Eastern nation, stating that the new strategy was coming from a position of “strength and success.” Earlier on Wednesday, both House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said they would accept the president’s new strategy as long as it had the backing of military leaders.

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The Obama administration is working to provide dissidents with a new tool in their struggle against corrupt regimes: covert communications networks that cannot be shut down by official censors.

According to The New York Times, the government’s plans range from parallel cellphone networks to a futuristic “Internet in a suitcase.”  The innocent-looking piece of luggage could easily be smuggled across a border and provide a highly-portable wireless connection that would give dissident groups a link to the outside world.  In essence, each ‘suitcase’ would act like a miniature cellphone tower and provide the ability to transmit information without using official networks.

In Afghanistan, the State Department and the Pentagon have spent $50 million to create an independent cellphone network to circumvent the Taliban’s attacks on official telecommunications services.  The US is also working to enable mobile phone users to send files directly from phone to phone via Bluetooth.

The recent uprisings in the Arab world have underscored the Internet’s  ability to foment widespread opposition.  Consequently, despots from Cairo to Damascus have sought to block their citizens’ access to the Internet in order to stifle uprisings.  During uprisings in 2009, Iran launched an “Internet slowdown” which made it much more difficult for activists to use social media to mobilize support for their cause.

“No matter how much circumvention the protesters use, if the government slows the network down to a crawl, you can’t upload YouTube videos or Facebook postings,” said Collin Anderson, a liberation-technology researcher who spoke to the New York Times.  “They need alternative ways of sharing information or alternative ways of getting it out of the country,” he continued.

Not all strategies are high tech, however.  In North Korea, America has shown an interest in local dissents who bury Chinese cell phones near the border for use in making clandestine calls.  Among other things, these calls have helped coordinate efforts to smuggle North Korean defectors across the border into China.

The New York Times quoted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as saying that “There is a historic opportunity to effect positive change, change America supports.”

“So we’re focused on helping them do that, on helping them talk to each other, to their communities, to their governments and to the world,” she continued.

The United States has a long history of using technology to undermine hostile regimes.  In 1940, it began using shortwave radio broadcasts to counter Nazi propaganda in Latin America.  The Voice of America began broadcasting behind enemy lines after America entered World War II.  And during the Cold War, it worked to counter Soviet propaganda.

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You would think there would be some limit. You would think that, deep down, an individual would know, or feel, or sense that their actions were so disgustingly outrageous that they should just stop. But no such limit exists. Would that it did, and would that it might spare us the upsurge of bile induced by such moments.

On May 12^th 1996 a particularly chilling one arrived. Asked, ludicrously, by a CBS news reporter if the death of half a million Iraqi children was ‘worth’ the apparent damage to Saddam Hussein’s infrastructure, and so – they said – to his capacity to build a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, Madeleine Albright replied: ‘we think the price is worth it’. It was the kind of depraved statement that makes you ashamed for your whole species.

Tony Blair’s September 24^th 2002 Iraq dossier, quite aside from its false claims of 45 minute WMD attacks, somewhat complicated Albright’s foul rambling. Robert Fisk accurately noted the true magnitude of its claim that Saddam had managed to stockpile WMDs:

“Now we were being told – if Blair was telling the truth – that the price was not worth it. The purchase bought with the lives of hundreds of thousands of children was not worth a dime. For the Blair dossier was telling us that, despite sanctions, Saddam was able to go on building weapons of mass destruction.”

After ten years of murderous sanctions, after eight years of annihilating the people of Iraq, after presiding over the deaths over a million Iraqis and Afghans, Tony Blair was appointed peace envoy to the Middle East within hours of leaving political office. Imagine, just for a moment, that Stalin had stepped down as leader of the Soviet Union in 1950 and immediately been appointed peace envoy to Eastern Europe; Blair’s 2007 appointment would rival, if not surpass, such a disgrace.

It continues to this day. On June 8^th 2011 The Guardian reported that Mr. Blair was calling for a ‘wider plan for the Middle East’. Announcing his support for a NATO removal of Muammar Gaddafi, Blair recommended that Western governments issue a ‘change or be changed’ warning to Middle East leaders (leaders that, he neglects to mention, have been propped up by Western governments for the last 40 years). There was one particularly vile phrase that our wonderful peace envoy employed: ‘we need to have an active policy, be players and not spectators sitting in the stands, applauding or condemning as we watch’. Mr. Blair’s phrase makes sense only under the presupposition that ‘we’ are in charge of the world. He entirely neglects the crucial question, which is what the people of the Middle East actually want.

It is for the people of the Middle East, who deserve the right to be masters of their own destiny, to decide what they want, and overwhelmingly that is not Western ‘intervention’. Is there anything more depraved than the fact that Tony Blair is giving advice on how to bring peace to the Middle East?

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/giuseppenicoloro/

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Pastor Terry Jones of Florida, one small, self indulgent man, has unleashed a flurry of hate felt all across the globe.  In his own act of hate, his small Florida church burned a copy of the Quran, something he has been threatening to do for months.  As expected, the Taliban used this act to justify their own violence. Protests in Afghanistan broke out following the Quran burning and many are turning violent.

Twenty people have been killed in the demonstrations including seven U.N. workers.  NATO officials re-iterated their condemnation of the Quran burning in an apparent attempt to quell the rising anger.

“We condemn, in particular, the action of an individual in the United States who recently burned the Holy Quran,” said the statement issued by military commander Gen. David Petraeus and the top NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill.  “We further hope the Afghan people understand that the actions of a small number of individuals, who have been extremely disrespectful to the Holy Quran, are not representative of any of the countries of the international community who are in Afghanistan to help the Afghan people,” the statement said.

U.S. President Barack Obama extended his condolences to the families of those killed by the protesters and said desecration of the Quran “is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry.” But he said that does not justify attacking and killing innocent people, calling it “outrageous and an affront to human decency and dignity.”

It is sort of ironic that our nation is now being judged by the act of one lunatic in the deep south.  Many Christians will quickly dismiss this instance, as they do with Westboro Baptist Church, claiming these are not “real” Christians or that their entire religion should not be judged based on a few extremists.  Excuse me?  Isn’t that what our nation has been doing to the Muslim faith since 2001?  Maybe we should just call the extremist Muslims not “real” Muslims.  Terry Jones and Westboro, however misguided they are, are still Christians.  They read the Bible and believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead.  Isn’t that it all takes to be a Christian?  If we expect moderate Muslims to take responsibility for their own extremist members, then Christians need to do the same.

Terry Jones needs to be held accountable for his actions.  Free speech does not apply to him any more than it would to me if I yelled fire in a crowded theater starting a stampede.  The U.S. Supreme Court has made that clear.  Jones had months to think about this and he was fully aware that his actions would have these types of consequences.  His holier-than-thou attitude is really just to get media attention.  He will get lots of media attention if he ends up jail.  Let’s grant Terry his wish.  Throw him in jail and give him the 24 hour attention he craves.

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The soldier Bradley Manning, who was accused by leaking more than 260,000 diplomatic cables, thousands of reports and one military attack video known as “Collateral Murder”. To Wikileaks, has been recently transferred from Quantico, which is a base of the Marine infantry to a military jail in  (Kansas).

The conditions the soldier faced at Quantico had been criticized by the congress, and for many civil rights groups. The Pentagon’s lawyer “ Jeh Johnson announced that Manning’s movement should not be interpret as an acceptance of the critics, since this “is not the case”. The detention conditions of Manning had been adjusted to all the legal standards, in each aspect”. Nevertheless, the Pentagon considers that the installations at Kansas are “ more appropriated for his continuous preventive detention”, Johnson claimed.

Due to the fact that the young soldier of 23 years old, has faced preventive detention from around 10 months, Manning lawyer, has solicited for manning to be submitted into an evaluation in order to determine and analyze if he has the appropriate “mental capability” to affront the trial.

Organization like International Amnesty, human rights organizations have criticize the detainment conditions, which Manning had to experience. Manning’s lawyers denounced by the beginning of March that the soldier had been receiving “inappropriate treatments in Quantico. Manning’s conditions were tough; he had to be in the cell 23 hours a day. The cell was not well equipped. He did not count with a pillow, sheets, and personal objects.

He was obligated to sleep naked, supposedly to guarantee his safety and lower the risk of suicidal attempt. According to the New York Times: President Obama and other administration officials have defended Private Manning’s treatment at Quantico, but Philip J. Crowley resigned as the State Department spokesman last month after publicly criticizing the Pentagon as “’ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid” in its treatment of him.

The new installations at Fort Leavenworth appear to be more suitable and appropriate. Lt. Col. Dawn Hilton, who is the garrison commander at Fort Leavenworth said: “ I encourage you to come out and see how wonderful our facility is,” she told reporters.

She also made clear, that once Manning arrived Leavenworth, he would be conducting an assessment by the mental health professionals at Leavenworth. Once verifying that the chances of him being a threat to himself and others, he would eat three meals a day in a group dining hall, also he will count with recreational time, indoors and out, during three hours per day. Finally he will also be allowed to interact with other prisoners.

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The head of Russia’s drug control service (FSKN) Viktor Ivanov recently slammed the Central European countries as well as NATO for their failure to effectively address the explosion of drug-trafficking and drug related crime since 2001. Mr Ivanov trace the source of the problem back to Afghanistan and their poppy farmers who produce 90% of the pure heroin worldwide. A UN resolution has previously described the narcotics flow from the Central Asian country as a threat to international peace and stability, according to the Russian news channel RT.

Mr Ivanov was outspoken about the Russian impatience with the international community in what he categorized as a lack of “an appropriate reaction” from NATO whom he holds responsible for controlling the war-torn country’s heroin situation. The reason for Russia’s fury can be found in the dramatic surge in heroin related deaths in their country since US forces invaded Afghanistan almost 10 years ago. In October last year, the head of FSKN explained to the Carnegie Moscow Center that although the amount of opium harvested in 2010 was half the amount produces the previous year, it is still twenty times higher than it was before the invasion. The decline in last years production, Ivanov attributes to ‘climate factors’ and crop disease rather than the eradication efforts. He based his conclusion on the fact that the number of acres planted had not changed since the previous year, according to RT.

The consequences of the heavy production in Afghanistan has been unprecedented for Russia. According to FSKN, 549 tons of heroin is consumed in Russia – compared to 212 tons in North America and 711 tons in Europe which have nearly four and over five times as big a population respectively. Mr Ivanov revealed that “at least 30.000 young Russian lives” are lost each year to heroin addiction and it is estimated that an annually 100.000 people worldwide die from consuming the Afghan opiates.

On top of this, Ivanov is gravely concerned about the rapid expansion of the Central Asian drug cartels who consider Russia a vast market for drug-trafficking. The Russian war on drugs have revealed a ‘mafia structure’ in the cartels which uses simplified visa rules and cargo deliveries for Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) citizens. Ivanov blames poor migration control as one of the main factors hampering the fight against drug trafficking inside of Russia. But his main critique is that the root cause of Russia’s national problem is far from being addressed adequately internationally.

One of the points is that farmers are expected to join the Taliban if efforts are made to destroy poppy crops. Mr Ivanov rejects this explanation. “When the US says you can’t deprive farmers of their livelihood, it actually sends a message to the Afghan leadership as well, saying they shouldn’t do it because, first, this will destroy people’s livelihoods and, second, you push farmers into the hands of the Taliban,” Ivanov told RT in an interview. “I think this is merely an excuse.”

The Russian frustration with NATO’s efforts in Afghanistan is also aimed at the coalition members. “The taxpayers of the coalition countries invested more than $300 billion into resolving the Afghan problem,” Ivanov argues. “In exchange, they received 5,000 tons of heroin, half of which landed in their stomachs, while global criminal and terrorist networks earned $1 trillion.”

In response to Russia’s criticism, Afghan Counter Narcotics Minister Zazar Ahmad Osmani told the RT “Afghanistan only produces opium, but you need additives, or precursors, to turn it into heroin, up to 1300 tons. Afghanistan does not produce them. Where do they come from? Obviously, there’s an international network trafficking these precursors. That’s why we say that the drug problem is not localized in Afghanistan – it’s international. When we say that millions of Russians die from drugs… 960,000 Afghans are addicted too.”

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Sufism, or ‘Tasawwuf’ as it is known in the Muslim world, is slowly recovering in Afghanistan after years of suppression and its role in the Afghan society could lend a much needed hand to the continuous effort of bringing a political solution to the country. Sufism or Islamic mysticism has been an integral part of Afghanistan almost as long as Islam itself – more than 1.300 years according to the BBC. The mystics have influenced the life of the Afghan people for so long that Afghanistan is commonly called “the home of Sufi saints”.

People without a Muslim background are said to often mistake Sufism as a sect of Islam but the order is more accurately described as an aspect or dimension of Islam. Ibn Khaldun, a 14th century Arab historian described Sufism as: “dedication to worship, total dedication to Allah most High, disregard for the finery and ornament of the world, abstinence from the pleasure, wealth, and prestige sought by most men, and retiring from others to worship alone”.

Sufis are known to have considerable influence in both rural and urban settings and are considered disinterested mediators in disputes. People in Afghanistan generally respect Sufis for their learning, and their shrines, the so-called Ziyarats, are popular pilgrimage sites all over the country. It is also said that the order possesses ‘karamat’ – a spiritual power that enables generosity and blessing power to a Sufi master. The Sufi order equally has millions of followers in Pakistan and India.

Despite the mysticism’s anchor in Afghan history, the Soviet invasion in 1979 and the subsequent armed resistance by the mujahideen introduced Wahabism which challenged the foundation of the Sufis. The ideology of Wahabism insists on a literal interpretation of Islam and view the Sufi ideas as anathema which drove a wedge between the two groups. The big blow came when the Taliban controlled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 – many Sufis were driven underground or prosecuted. It was especially members of the Chishtiyya Sufi Order who were vulnerable; this group considers music an effective route to reach Allah but as Afghan Culture Minister Sayed Makhdoom Rahin told the BBC “The Taliban invaded Sufi gatherings, humiliated and beat many of them and their musical instruments were smashed.” Sayed Makhdoom Rahin is himself of Sufi background.

Some believe that the revival and continuous respect of the Sufi order could influence the peace process at the grass roots level of Afghanistan. Sufi leader, Ahmad Shah Maududi explained to the BBC; “Influential and knowledgable Sufis can persuade a large number of Taliban to lay down their arms and can also provide guarantees to the Taliban about their safety and peaceful future.” Sufis believe that humans, as creatures of Allah, should be respected. “Tolerance, kindness and love to all and malice towards none are the virtues of Sufi,” a prominent Afghan Sufi master told the BBC. “This is the solution to the nation’s trauma and battle of the past 30 years.”

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At the Kabul International Conference 2010, which was the first Conference to be held in Afghanistan at Foreign Minister level and to be run by the Afghan government, President Hamid Karzai expressed the Afghan government’s determination to have control of security transferred from foreign to Afghan forces. The Conference set the deadline for 2014, but even at the time, the BBC’s Ian Pannell questioned the feasibility of the, albeit, optimistic goal.

In a report, the British journalist estimated that the security situation across the country would not allow plans to move forward in the near future. Violence was on the rise and June 2010 was the deadliest month in nearly nine years of war. Roadside bombings, assassination and suicide attacks were all increasing exponentially but despite these numbers, military commanders and politicians gathered at the Conference were convinced the process was on the right track. The argument was that the rise in violence was a temporary result of the troops’ effort which sometimes aggressively targeted the Taliban. They believed the security of people in the south and east was improving as a result of areas now being controlled by government and not the insurgents. Additionally, there was broad optimism among officials about the numbers and capabilities of Afghan police and soldiers.

The realities a good seven months after the inspiring commitments of the Afghan government and the International Community, are less optimistic. Despite possessing more capabilities than before, the police force and the Afghan army is not considered at all battle-ready. Both groups have problems with desertion, illiteracy, drug abuse, poor supply and logistics as well as a lack of representation from the majority Pashtun ethnic group, the group from which many Taliban members originate, according to the BBC. Concerns have also been raised about the Taliban’s capacity to infiltrate the security forces and investigations are taking place to figure out what happened in the known instances of insider attacks. Screening procedures may need to be significantly revised.

The biggest obstacle remains the hardline Islamic Taliban movement. The group emerged in the early 1990s in northern Pakistan following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and their early popularity was due to their humanitarian work for local communities – their involvement, however, soon brought international accusations of human rights and cultural abuses. A decade later, the Taliban in Afghanistan was accused of providing sanctuary for the al-Qaeda movement following 9/11 and was driven from power in Afghanistan by the US-led coalition.

The senior Taliban leader Mullah Omar has evaded capture since the invasion and is believed to be guiding the resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan. Despite being under pressure  from security forces in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Taliban is presumed to be steadily extending their influence and rendering vast tracts of Afghanistan insecure.

The Red Cross said at a rare press conference in December 2010 that the US plan to start withdrawing troops from July this year, in accordance with Afghan desire for security handover by 2014, would be a great mistake. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) expressed their concern by saying they expect fighting to increase in 2011 just as it had the year before – 2010 being the deadliest year of the war since 2001. Reuter’s quoted the head of ICRC in Afghanistan, Reto Stocker, for saying that “The proliferation of armed groups threatens the ability of humanitarian organisations to access those in need. Access for the ICRC has over the last 30 years never been as poor”.

This comes in conjunction with the increasingly tense relationship between the Afghan government and its Western backers. The often-uneasy ties have further deteriorated over a bank corruption scandal, a ban on private security contractors, election fraud, the establishment of a US base in the country and more recently, a row over civilian deaths in Kunar province.

The seven-months-old optimism is looking increasingly misplaced if the realities of the situation on the ground do not improve radically in the short term.

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Tear gas has been used against detainees of the asylum seeker detention centre on Christmas Island, off the coast of Australia.

According to information released in February by the Department of Immigration there are 1829 people being held in the Christmas Island detention centre. All are male.

The majority of the asylum seekers being held in detention throughout Australia are from Afghanistan and have been held in detention from between 6 months and 1 year.

A spokesmen for the Department of Immigration and Citizenship said the mood among those who remain in the centre is generally calm.

“There have been no reported injuries to staff or detainees although one person received medical treatment on-site for a pre-existing condition,” the spokesman said.

“Consideration is being given to what additional resources should be made available for the further management of facilities in the current climate.”

Amnesty International has expressed concern over the incident and issued a reminder that the organisation has been concerned about deteriorating conditions on Christmas Island after a visit there in October last year.

Amnesty says that it had concerns about the time the Department of Immigration takes to process claims, as well as the lack of adequate medical and mental health services available to those in detention. Amnesty International has repeated called for government to end mandatory detention in offshore and remote areas.

The Department for Immigration and Citizenship lists several keys to immigration detention, including that mandatory detention is essential to its current and future strategies for controlling Australia’s borders. .

The Department has also assured that a full investigation will be undertaken into the events at Christmas Island that led to authorities using tear gas.

“We view this sort of protest activity very seriously,” the spokesman said. “Such actions will not influence the outcome of people’s cases and we will be undertaking further discussions with those involved as to the acceptable way to raise any issues they may have.”

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