Surgar Weekly, Kandahar, Afghanistan
Nine hundred civilians dead in Afghanistan
Human Rights Independent Commission, critically condemned civilians death in an announcement published earlier. It has also been said in the announcement that from the beginning of the year till present time, 900 hundred lives have been taken in the attacks by foreign troops and militants in Afghanistan.
Recently a huge number of civilians died in aired attacks by foreign troops in Shendand district of Herat. The interior ministry of Afghanistan accepted the death of 76 people in the attacks, but according to Shendand district residents, 110 civilians lost their lives.
At first, foreign troops claimed to have killed militants in the area of the attacks, but after the pressure of people, the Afghan government and the Human Rights Independent Commission, they announced to carry out serious investigations of the case in order to find out if the dead were civilians or militants.
The Afghan president Hamid Karzai, condemning the selfish attacks of foreign troops in Shendand district of Herat province, sent out an investigation team of 15 officials under the supervision of pilgrims and religious direction minister. After reaching to the scenes of the attacks, the investigation team officials announced to the media that the dead were all civilians and that there were no insurgents whatsoever.
Upon reaching the area of the attacks the investigation team also witnessed that the residents of the district were burying the dead, mostly women and children. Officials also claimed to find exact information about the incident and share it with the Afghan government and the foreign troops.
Karzia has also dismissed two high officials of National Army for covering the truth in the incident and has ordered them to be brought to the capital of the country Kabul for investigation. The dismissed two officials, 207th corps major Jalandar Shah and the Commando Battalion captain Abdul Jabar, were pointed out by the presidential press association.
United Nations Secretary General’s deputy in Afghanistan said that the consequence of such attacks is unacceptable and dangerous while condemning the deadly attacks in Shendand District of Herat by foreign troops which took tens of lives. According to Kay Eddie, the United Nations General’s Deputy, such attacks should not be repeated and are not tolerable for United Nations. Eddie asked for serious investigation about the incident and added that such attacks will create distrust among people and the foreign troops.
National assembly representatives were also condemned about the repetitive attacks by foreign troops and stated that the main reason for such attacks is the dreadful communication among the afghan and foreign troops. Some of the representatives has blamed some of high officials as careless and asked to take back their votes and dismiss them from their positions. On the other hand, some of the representatives have asked for a more fundamental solution to the problem and has talked with the government about it.
Besides other vital efforts, the Assembly will send some of its representatives to president Karzia to talk about the original solution of the problem.
Although the number of dead civilians in Shendand was announced almost 90 people by Independent press sources, but according to residents of the attacked area, 110 women and children lost their lives.
The residents of the attacked area blocked the Herat- Kandahar high way forcefully just hours after the attack but when National Army reached upon the scene, they opened fires on civilians, and according to the residents, six people were wounded. The is the first time that The National Afghan Army opens fire on their own people.

Posted by: Uruzgar Jan | Aug 25 2008 19:38 utc | 3

The equanmity with which war criminals Bush and Rice greeted the news of Musharraf’s demise, betrayed a confidence that Zardari and his PPP have been bought, probably for less than the $700 mill a year Musharraf cost, since Zardari’s well known legal problems put him between a rock and a hard place during the negotiations.
The governing coalition had made an agreement about some non-negotiable issues. They were designed to ensure the political process regains credibility and transparency. The fact that Zardari has gone back on his undertaking to a/ return many of the presidential powers to parliament and b/ appoint a uniter as president, a figure that represents all of Pakistan rather than narrow political interests shows that this man sought to remove Musharraf out of selfish political ambition, to replace Musharraf with himself completely uncaring of the long term political structure of Pakistan.
Yeah I know surprise surprise.
We can expect many more massacres of Pakistanis by amerika at least until there is another coup. Zardari doesn’t have the army connections he needs to pull off this despicable behaviour. Of course a coup won’t fix the systemic problems since the scum also rises there and the army bosses are likely to be as greedy as he is. The lesson of Musharraf that you must stay in control of the military if you want to be a Pakistani dictator won’t be lost on whoever is plotting right now.
As for Nawaz Sharif; what is that saying about extra-ordinary times calling for the best in leaders. Sharif has been little better than the Zardari-Bhutto alliance over the years, maybe not as greedy but he did rule for a specific section of Pakistan’s community, rather than the whole nation just as the PPP did, but Zardari alone is going to be a much worse prospect for the ordinary Pakistani maybe even worse than Musharraf.
This is a man almost sociopathic in his greed for money and power, capable of any excess untempered by the usual restraints that politicians who have to talk to their voters normally have. He would rather eat a baby than kiss it and without the political sensibilities of Benazir Bhutto who could conceal her greed behind a mask of urbane civility. Pakistan is truly stuffed.
That is why Nawaz Sharif must make himself better than he’s ever been and rise above the temptations and threats to become a real leader of all Pakistan. If he can forget about the tacky politicking which draws leaders into compromises with garbage like Bush and Rice, maybe he can help the people of the Northern border areas to preserve their fiercely independent way of living.
Those poor buggers are paying a terrible price for their self reliance and pride. I suspect the massacres described by Uruzgar Jan are going to become commonplace on both sides of the border. Karzai can sack army leaders all he likes but it won’t bring back the dead, and anyway he will probably quietly re-instate them when the fuss dies down just as he did when one of his allies gang raped a middle-aged woman who had the cheek to ask why her son had been kidnapped by government forces.
Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan and other Pakistani leaders finally showing the spine to stand up for their people against Zardari and the foreigners is the most optimistic outcome. However the most likely outcome for Pakistan is going to be extreme political instability, which amerika will seek to control economically since they don’t have the military resources to do much in person. That is a particularly harsh way to gain obeisance since it involves poor people getting much poorer as amerika tries to use pavlovian reinforcements on the rich (ie the recent stock market ‘problems’).
In addition these sort of techniques rarely work – people try to ‘have their cake and eat it too’ – that is they will look for anyway of getting what they what without doing as they are told to.
That is a recipe for chaos and misery for the people of Pakistan, as well as a lot of bullshit fear being cranked up in the west about ‘rogue nuclear states’ and the ‘islamic bomb’ as if amerika has the god given right to say who can and can’t blow the bejeesus outta the rest of us.
They (amerikan imperialists) will end up creating that which they fear most a nuclear armed radical islamic state. In Pakistan, the most peaceful and law abiding people in the region before USuk began their meddling. People will be divided and distraught with only their faith to keep them together, so they will turn to their religion.
It’s all so predictable yet as powerful as amerika claims to be, they won’t be able to prevent their worst nightmare coming true. The harder they try to stop it the more likely it will be to happen.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Aug 25 2008 21:24 utc | 5

b, and all the rest, my take on the NYT article:
This article, by the NYT reporters Helene Cooper and Mark Mazzetti, is a classic in its own right.
Its task is not to inform the reader, but to send a message from one faction of the ruling gang to the other. The opening paragraph:

Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to the United Nations, is facing angry questions from other senior Bush administration officials over what they describe as unauthorized contacts with Asif Ali Zardari, a contender to succeed Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan.

says everything of import in the article, Khalilzad has contacts with Zardari that are outside normal channels. Someone is pissed.
The Cheney administration does almost everything out of channels, but usually doesn’t like to talk about it. Khalilzad’s actions, as described, are normal. ‘Channels’, for the empire of supermen, is a myth you have to overcome. Action is what counts, not foolish concerns about protocols and chains of command.
The source is, naturally, anonymous, but one State Department official is put on the front lines:

“Can I ask what sort of ‘advice and help’ you are providing?” Mr. Boucher wrote in an angry e-mail message to Mr. Khalilzad. “What sort of channel is this? Governmental, private, personnel?” Copies of the message were sent to others at the highest levels of the State Department; the message was provided to The New York Times by an administration official who had received a copy.

Then we learn who is behind Mr. Boucher’s expression of displeasure:

Administration officials described John D. Negroponte, the deputy secretary of state, and Mr. Boucher as angry over the conduct of Mr. Khalilzad because as United Nations ambassador he has no direct responsibility for American relations with Pakistan. Those dealings have been handled principally by Mr. Negroponte, Mr. Boucher and Anne W. Patterson, the American ambassador to Pakistan. Mr. Negroponte previously was the United Nations ambassador, and Ms. Patterson the acting ambassador.

So this is a struggle between Khalilzad and Negroponte over running the Pakistan shipwreck. Negroponte just fired a shot, by means of the NYT, at Khalilzad. Once again, out of channels. Why, an innocent might ask, do we have a Secretary of State, if not to determine with the President the nation’s policy towards Pakistan, and to manifest it through the diplomats under her direction?
Well, the Secretary of State is not mentioned in the article. If Cooper and Mazzetti asked any questions about this affair to Condi, they are not reported. If they didn’t, well why not? Well, as I said above, the purpose of the article is “to send a message from one faction of the ruling gang to the other”. Stenography, as practiced by C&M and the other jokers at the Gray Lady, doesn’t permit question outside the defined area at issue. Condi is not part of this discussion, capisch’?
Just as an added fillip, the article mentions that Khalilzad irks others:

because of speculation that he might seek to succeed Hamid Karzai as president of Afghanistan

Better watch out Zalmay, your wish just might come true. Visions of Alexander Burnes!
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freed from spam trap – b.

Posted by: Dick Durata | Aug 26 2008 6:33 utc | 7

Thanks Dick – good analysis –
(btw – any comment with more than three active links gets spam-trapped and has to wait for me freeing it. I can’t change that limit.)
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This is very funny: Zardari is insane! His doctors said so! (when it was convenient to do)
Doubts cast on Zardari’s mental health

Asif Ali Zardari, the leading contender for the presidency of nuclear-armed Pakistan, was suffering from severe psychiatric problems as recently as last year, according to court documents filed by his doctors.
The widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was diagnosed with a range of serious illnesses including dementia, major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder in a series of medical reports spanning more than two years.
…
In court documents seen by the Financial Times, Philip Saltiel, a New York City-based psychiatrist, said in a March 2007 diagnosis that Mr Zardari’s imprisonment had left him suffering from “emotional instability” and memory and concentration problems. “I do not foresee any improvement in these issues for at least a year,” Mr Saltiel wrote.
Stephen Reich, a New York state-based psychologist, said Mr Zardari was unable to remember the birthdays of his wife and children, was persistently apprehensive and had thought about suicide.
Mr Zardari used the medical diagnoses to argue successfully for the postponement of a now-defunct English High Court case in which Pakistan’s government was suing him over alleged corruption, court records show.

Posted by: b | Aug 26 2008 10:28 utc | 9

More new trouble in Pakistan:

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Three gunmen who attacked the vehicle carrying the chief American diplomat in the northern city of Peshawar on Tuesday morning were armed with assault rifles and wore long hair and beards like the Taliban, the provincial police chief said.
The bulletproof Land Cruiser carrying the diplomat, Lynne Tracy, the principal officer at the United States consulate, was stopped by the three men who got out of an S.U.V. and fired, according to the police official, Naveed Khan, inspector general of police in the North West Frontier Province.
Ms. Tracy, who was on her way to work at the consulate from her home about a mile away, was unharmed, he said.
The attack came as the Taliban, in virtual control of the tribal areas adjacent to Peshawar, press in on the city, conducting suicide bomb attacks and kidnappings of civilians.
…
About 30 Americans work at the consulate, mostly managing economic development programs and working in liaison between the American military and the Pakistani army.
…

Hmmm.

Posted by: Hamburger | Aug 26 2008 18:38 utc | 11