CHINA GETS THE CENTRAL ASIAN GAS PIPELINE INSTEAD OF U.S.

"China's President Hu Jintao on Monday unveiled a landmark pipeline to transport Turkmen natural gas to China, a key victory for Beijing in its drive for access to Central Asian resources.... The 7,000 kilometre (4,350 mile) gas pipeline is a significant victory for Beijing, marking the culmination of years of lobbying for influence over the region's strategic energy resources... It first runs for 1,800 kilometres in Central Asia -- snaking through Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan -- before linking up with a further 5,000-plus kilometres of pipeline in China's far-west Xinjiang region. The China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) will eventually import up to 40 billion cubic metres of gas a year through the pipeline when it reaches full capacity in 2012-2013..."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h2ySwtf_yx7ojznvMBz0S0wmqFvg

"A common explanation for the US presence in Afghanistan is Washington's interest in Central Asian fuel sources-- natural gas in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and petroleum in Kazakhstan. The idea... was to bring a gas pipeline down through Afghanistan and Pakistan to energy-hungry India... For this reason some on the political Right in the US actually supported the Taliban as a force for law and order. If that was the plan, it has failed. Instead, China has landed the big bid to develop a major gas field in Turkmenistan, along with a pipeline to Beijing... So the US is bogged down in an Afghanistan quagmire, and China is running off with the big regional prize."
http://www.juancole.com/2009/12/china-wins-struggle-for-pipelinestan.html

U.S. FIGHTS IN AFGHANISTAN WHILE CHINA INVESTS

"... the China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, bid $3.4 billion... for the rights to mine deposits near the village of Aynak. Over the next 25 years, it plans to extract about 11 million tons of copper — an amount equal to one-third of all the known copper reserves in China... In a single move, Beijing strengthened its hold on a vital resource, engineered the single largest investment in Afghan history, promised to create thousands of new Afghan jobs and established itself as the Afghan government’s pre-eminent business partner and single largest source of tax payments... While the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda here, China is securing raw material for its voracious economy. The world’s superpower is focused on security. Its fastest rising competitor concentrates on commerce..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/world/asia/30mine.html?_r=2&sudsredirect=true

INSURGENTS LEARN TO DESTROY MRAPs

"... insurgents in Afghanistan have devised ways to cripple and even destroy the expensive armored vehicles (Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, or MRAPs) that offer U.S. forces the best protection against roadside bombs... The insurgents' success in attacking the hulking machines, which can cost as much as $1 million each, also raise questions about how vulnerable a new, lighter MRAP, the M-ATV, which is now being shipped to Afghanistan, are to the massive explosive charges... The Pentagon has spent more than $26.8 billion to develop and build three versions of the largest MRAPs, totaling some 16,000 vehicles... Another $5.4 billion is being spent to produce 5,244 M-ATVs, the smaller version..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/336/story/78443.html

TIME RUNNING OUT IN AFGHANISTAN

"... intelligence officials are warning that the Taliban -led insurgency is expanding and that "time is running out" for the U.S... the Taliban now have... "a full-fledged insurgency" and shadow governors in 33 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, including those in the north, where U.S. and other officials had thought the Islamic extremists posed less of a threat. The Taliban's return to the northern provinces, including Baghlan, Kunduz and Taqhar... poses serious security, logistical and political problems for the U.S... (because they) now threaten the northern supply route..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20091228/wl_mcclatchy/3386724

HUMAN TERRAIN WORKERS FEDERALIZED

"... Since the inception of the project in 2006... interpreters, researchers and managers, deployed overseas (in Iraq and Afghanistan) as part of the Army’s social science program, the Human Terrain System... have been generously-paid contractors, serving as cultural counselors to combat units... (Now) they’re all becoming government employees... Which means that Human Terrain pay is suddenly not all that generous. One linguist, previously pulling in an annual salary $270,000, will now make about $91,000 — if that person continues his warzone work for the Human Terrain project... The dollar amount reduction is more than 60%... the switch was ostensibly triggered by the American military’s new Status of Forces Agreement with the Iraqi government. The pact, which went into effect in January, gives Baghdad officials broad new powers to control contractors on their soil (but not U.S. civil servants)..."
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/02/more-hts-mania

U.S. SHOULD HAVE LET TALIBAN SURRENDER AL QAEDA

"... In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the United States government decided to respond militarily, and began to prepare its armed forces to overthrow the Taliban regime it believed was harboring al-Qaeda. Before the United States attacked, it offered Taliban leader Mullah Omar a chance to surrender bin Laden and his top associates. The first forces to be inserted into Afghanistan were Paramilitary Officers from the CIA's elite Special Activities Division (SAD).
The Taliban offered to turn over bin Laden to a neutral country for trial if the United States would provide evidence of bin Laden's complicity in the attacks. U.S. President George W. Bush responded by saying: "We know he's guilty. Turn him over", and British Prime Minister Tony Blair warned the Taliban regime: "Surrender bin Laden, or surrender power". Soon thereafter the United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan..."
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda#September_11_attacks


"... After 9/11, the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, assembled a council of clerics to judge his claim that Mr. bin Laden was the country’s guest and could not be surrendered. The clerics countered that because a guest should not cause his host problems, Mr. bin Laden should leave. But instead of keeping pressure on the Taliban to resolve the issue in ways they could live with, the United States ridiculed their deliberation and bombed them into a closer alliance with Al Qaeda. Pakistani Pashtuns then offered to help out their Afghan brethren..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/13/opinion/13atran.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=scott%20Atran&st=cse

AFGHAN SECURITY FORCES TO COST U.S. $10 BILLION PER YEAR

"... Gen. David H. Petraeus,... estimated that building and maintaining a combined army and police force of 400,000 — a size that American commanders believe may eventually be needed to fully secure the country — would cost more than $10 billion a year... (He said) “There’s no question... that Afghanistan will require substantial international funding for years to come in a whole host of different areas, not the least of which is their security forces.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/10/general-david-petraeus-wa_n_387371.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/10/world/asia/10policy.html?ref=world

OBAMA IGNORES TALIBAN OFFER ON AFGHANISTAN

"The Barack Obama administration is refusing to acknowledge an offer by the leadership of the Taliban in early December to give "legal guarantees" that it will not allow Afghanistan to be used for attacks on other countries... The Taliban... has chosen to interpret the Obama administration's position as one of rejection of its offer. The Taliban offer, included in a statement dated Dec. 4 and e-mailed to news organizations the following day, said the organization has "no agenda of meddling in the internal affairs of other countries and is ready to give legal guarantees if foreign forces withdraw from Afghanistan". The statement did not mention al Qaeda by name or elaborate on what was meant by "legal guarantees" against such "meddling", but it was an obvious response to past U.S. insistence that the U.S. war in Afghanistan is necessary to prevent al Qaeda from having a safe haven in Afghanistan once again. It suggested that the Taliban is interested in negotiating an agreement with the United States involving a public Taliban renunciation of ties with al Qaeda..."
http://www.ipsnews.net/login.asp?redir=news.asp?idnews=49701
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/16

U.S. TO BUILD AFGHAN ARMY FOR 5 YEARS, PAY IT FOR 15 YEARS

"... Afghan President Hamid Karzai said it may be five years before his army is ready to take on insurgents — a blunt warning that the planned exit strategy for U.S. troops from Afghanistan 18 months from now could grind slowly through 2014.
Karzai also said it will be at least 15 years before his government can bankroll a security force strong enough to protect the country from the threat of insurgency...."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091208/ap_on_re_as/as_gates_afghanistan

FT. HOOD SHOOTER BOTHERED BY WAR CRIMES

"... In the weeks before the rampage, the accused gunman, Maj. Nidal M. Hassan, an Army psychiatrist, told colleagues and Army lawyers that he wanted to report soldiers who had admitted in counseling sessions that they witnessed or committed war crimes in Iraq or Afghanistan. War crimes can include acts like torture, murder, sexual assault and cruel treatment. Though Major Hasan was discouraged from filing reports on his patients, military officials say, he would have been within his rights as an Army psychiatrist to have done so. Major Hasan’s efforts to report war crimes were first reported by ABC News..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/07/us/07therapists.html?_r=1&sudsredirect=true

RAPE IN AFGHANISTAN A PROFOUND PROBLEM

"Rape in Afghanistan is under-reported, concealed and a human rights problem of "profound proportions"... field research conducted late last year and early this year found rape affected all parts of Afghanistan, across all communities and social groups.... Women and girls are at risk of rape in their homes, in their villages and in detention facilities... Rape occurs within the family and beyond and victims are often prosecuted for committing adultery..."
http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Afghanistan-Pakistan/idUSTRE5AT26N20091130