Afghan Police Unit Defects to Taliban - NYTimes.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/world/asia/02afghan.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

KABUL, Afghanistan — For months, American and Afghan officials have been promoting a plan to persuade masses of rank-and-file Taliban fighters to change sides and join the government. The tactic, known as “reintegration,” is one of the big hopes for turning the tide in the war.

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Naweed Haqjoo/European Pressphoto Agency

Musa Khan Akbarzada, provincial governor in Ghazni, said a search was under way for missing officers.

Notes from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and other areas of conflict in the post-9/11 era. Go to the Blog »

But the Taliban, it appears, have reintegration plans of their own. On Monday morning, they claimed to have put them into effect.
In Khogeyani, a volatile area southwest of the capital, the entire police force on duty Monday morning appears to have defected to the Taliban side. A spokesman for the Taliban said the movement’s fighters made contact with the Khogeyani’s police force, cut a deal, and then sacked and burned the station. As many as 19 officers vanished, as did their guns, trucks, uniforms and food.
Even the local police chief, who missed the attack, said he suspected a defection en masse.
“This was not an attack, but a plot,” said Mohammed Yasin, the chief of the Khogeyani police force. “The Taliban and the police made a deal.”
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the Afghan officers decided to defect after “learning the facts about the Taliban.”
“We never force people to join us,” said Mr. Mujahid, whose name is fictitious. “The police joined us voluntarily and are happy to work with us, and to start the holy war shoulder to shoulder with their Taliban brothers.”

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OUR SOLDIERS HAVE BOUNTIES ON THEIR HEADS.... $1,000 PER AMERICAN SOLDIER. $6,000 PER AMERICAN VEHICLE... PAY ATTENTION AMERICA. These are our sons, daughters, husbands, brothers, fathers.... - Constitutional Emergency

Image by Getty Images via @daylifehttp://patriotsforamerica.ning.com/forum/topic/show?id=2734278%3ATopic%3A191260&xgs=1&xg_source=msg_share_topic

At least five Iranian companies stationed in Afghanistan are covertly funding Taliban militants, paying them salaries of $233 a month with a
$1,000 bonus for killing an American soldier, according to the Sunday
Times of London.
Blowing up a US military vehicle is worth $6,000, making insurgents better paid than any Afghan police officer or soldier.
"Iran will never stop funding us, because Americans are dangerous for them as well," said a Taliban treasurer, who travels from the
mountainous Wardak province to an Iranian construction company that
operates out of Kabul to pick up the cash.

AP

MONEY MAN: The regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (right) is paying to attack GIs in Afghanistan.

"The money we get is not dirty. It is for jihad," he said.
The treasurer said he has picked up almost $79,000 in the past six months.
Afghan intelligence and Taliban sources told the Times that the firms -- set up with foreign aid money within the past six months -- provide
cash for a network of district Taliban treasurers to pay battlefield
expenses and bonuses for killing the enemy and destroying their
vehicles.
The Iranian companies win contracts to supply materials and logistics to Afghans involved in reconstruction. The money often comes in the form of aid from foreign donors.
Profits are transferred through poorly regulated Afghan banks -- including Kabul Bank, which is partly owned by President Hamid Karzai's brother Mahmood
-- to Tehran and Dubai.
From there, the money returns to Afghanistan through the informal Islamic banking system known as hawala.
"This means the companies involved in funding the insurgency can cover their tracks easily. It makes it harder for us to trace the cash flow,"
a senior Afghan intelligence official said.
He said the Iranian companies had been formed with the intention of winning contracts funded by foreign aid so that donors' cash could be channeled
into the insurgency.
The Iranian embassy in Kabul refused to respond to the allegations.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/wanted_iran_bounty_on_us...

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7 killed, 30 injured in northern Afghanistan quake

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clipped from www.foxnews.com KABUL (AP) — A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck in mountains north of Afghanistan's capital early Monday, killing at least seven people and injuring 30, officials said. The temblor hit just before 1 a.m. (2030 GMT Sunday) in Samangan province, about halfway between Kabul and the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, according to the province's deputy governor, Kulam Sakhi Baghlani. Roads and communications are sparse in the area, and casualty reports take time to reach authorities. The quake was felt in Kabul as well as the neighboring countries of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Baghlani said three districts of scattered mud-walled villages were affected, with more than 300 homes damaged and dozens of head of livestock killed. Landslides sparked by the quake had blocked roads, making even more arduous what was already an eight-hour drive along winding mountain trails from the provincial capital of Aybak.

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UN in secret peace talks with Taliban

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It was the first such meeting between the UN and senior members of the Taliban. The fact that it took place suggests that peace talks have revived since exploratory contacts between emissaries of the Kabul government and the Taliban in Saudi Arabia last year broke down.

It also suggests that some Taliban members might be prepared for the first time to put faith in an international organisation to broker a deal to end the nine-year war.

News of the Dubai meeting surfaced at the end of a day-long conference in London intended to map out a transition over five years from a Nato-led military campaign to Afghan-led effort involving more political, social and economic measures to end the fighting.

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk Taliban commanders held secret exploratory talks with a United Nations special envoy this month to discuss peace terms, it emerged tonight. Regional commanders on the Taliban's leadership council, the Quetta Shura, sought a meeting with the UN special representative in Afghanistan, Kai Eide, and it took place in Dubai on 8 January. "They requested a meeting to talk about talks. They want protection, to be able to come out in public. They don't want to vanish into places like Bagram," the Reuters news agency quoted a UN official as saying, referring to the Bagram detention centre at a US military base outside Kabul. The western official said: "This 'new Taliban' is not that much more extreme than some of the people in government. They could be willing to compromise on some issues, like women's rights, girls education, even watching telly perhaps."

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Taliban attack shows tactical skill, military limits | Reuters

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• Taliban attack shows tactical skill, military limits | Reuters

  "The raids carried out by at least 10 gunmen, including suicide bombers, were well coordinated and bold even for Afghanistan and paralyzed the capital for several hours. However, while the militants spread out across a strategic area near government ministries and a luxury hotel, they failed to seize any of their declared targets and instead holed up in a poorly defended shopping center. "They just want to show their power, it was an 'attack show' from the Taliban, not a military-based action. I think there was not a military goal," said Wahid Mudjah, a Kabul-based writer and political analyst. "They just wanted a show for the international community." The attacks were perfectly timed. They came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai was swearing in cabinet members inside the presidential palace only hundreds of meters away, and after days of media chatter about a new "reintegration" drive to lure insurgents away from the battlefield. They were also dramatic, with an exploding ambulance adding to compelling images of a city under siege. Gunfire and loud explosions shook Kabul as black smoke billowed from the shopping center where fighters battled security forces for hours."

  tags: Muslim, Islam, Tal, taliban, tactical, Military, Religion, Global, News

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