''An Afghan Mystery: Why Are Large Shipments of Gold Leaving the Country?''

From NYTimes

''Packed into hand luggage and tucked into jacket pockets, roughly hewed bars of gold are being flown out of Kabul with increasing regularity, confounding Afghan and American officials who fear money launderers have found a new way to spirit funds from the country.''

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''Post-American Afghanistan: options, proposals''

From Russia and India Report

''Russia is interested in NATO’s strategy after 2014 for when the withdrawal of the coalition forces from Afghanistan is planned. Other countries which have interests in Afghanistan would also like to receive an answer to the question raised by the Russian Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko in Brussels.

As you know, Afghanistan is often called a crossroads between the East and the West.''

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''Afghanistan’s forgotten deaths: Why money won’t silence these civilians''

From Voice of Russia

''More than a decade has passed since the US set foot in Afghanistan, demanding retribution for the horrid terrorist attacks of September 11, but much has changed. In this Middle Eastern country, people walk the streets with worry on their faces, as they never know what day will be their last. The mission for US and British soldiers is to find dangerous rebelsand eliminate them, and yet somehow they completely miss their intended targets. The reality is that hundreds if not thousands of civilians have been killed because of the military’s carelessness.''

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''Do You Know the History of the Afghani Currency?''

From News Central Asia

''The history of a country is more often than not represented also by the many twists and turns that its national currency must endure, as well.  When the country is also racked by decades of turmoil, economic strife, and foreign occupations, the stories become entwined even deeper still.  Afghanistan is one nation where this correlation has been more pronounced, but, hopefully, there are positive signs of stability, if the past few years can be used as a guide for future prospects.

The Afghani (International Code “AFN”) is the national currency unit of Afghanistan, and although its origins reach back to 1925, its current version replaced the former issuance during the crossover period from 2002 to 2003.  The currency now floats on the global foreign exchange (“Forex”) market and has a current valuation of 52.4 Afghanis to the U.S. Dollar.  Since the “redenomination” of the Afghani took place, the exchange rate has fluctuated within a range of the current value and 42.0, a dramatic improvement over previous performance when hyper-devaluation prevailed.''

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''Meet the Think Tankers Advising the U.S. Military in Kabul''

From ProPublica
By Justin Elliott

''Prominent members of conservative, Washington-based defense think tanks were given permanent office space at his headquarters and access to military aircraft to tour the battlefield. They provided advice to field commanders that sometimes conflicted with orders the commanders were getting from their immediate bosses.''

''So who were these think-tankers and what exactly were they doing?

We spoke to some of them.''....................continue reading

''U.S., Afghans Negotiating Over Troop Presence Beyond 2014''

From The New American

''The United States may be looking to keep 20,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the 2014 timeline for withdrawal, as negotiations began in Kabul Thursday over the continued presence of American forces. A number of thorny issues, including immunity from prosecution for U.S. military personnel, are among the current obstacles to a new agreement over the number and role of U.S. forces after the removal of most foreign combat troops over the next two years.''

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General: ''We’re Staying in Afghanistan, No Matter What Obama Said''

From Wired

''Remember how President Obama said on the campaign trail that he would “responsibly end the war” in Afghanistan in 2014? Or when Vice President Biden said the president’s plan was “to end the war in 2014?” The general they want to lead that war is singing a much different tune.

During his confirmation hearing to take command in Kabul, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that the U.S. needs to present a “clear and compelling narrative of commitment” to Afghanistan, beyond the 2014 timeframe for turning over security to the Afghans. Step one is to negotiate the contours of a post-2014 U.S. force in Afghanistan, to “create momentum for that narrative that I was alluding to.''

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''India, Russia differ on Afghan situation''

From Indian PunchLine
By MK Bhadrakumar

''Two contrasting estimations regarding the future of Afghanistan in the post-2014 scenario emerged in the region over the weekend from Moscow and New Delhi. The Russia-led Collective Security Organization [CSTO] is bracing for the apocalypse in Afghanistan following the “walkout” by the NATO forces. 

Whereas, India is mulling over the great investment opportunities in Afghanistan, undeterred by the worrying thoughts regarding the security situation. ''

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''Obama-II And Afghanistan-Pakistan: Worst Is Yet To Come?''

From Eurasia Review
By D Suba Chandran

''Now that he has been re-elected for another four years, will Obama relook his exit strategy and ensure a stable government in Afghanistan and thereby, stability in the Af-Pak region?

Unlikely. Obama’s personal mission and rhetoric in the Af-Pak region will be hugely shaped by what the entire American security establishment would want, and not his personal road map. Exiting Afghanistan seems to be the End Game for the American security establishment, irrespective of what happens. Neither does Obama have a vision for a stable Afghanistan leading to a secure Af-Pak region, unless he has kept it as a secret to be pursued in his second term.''

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''New Afghan war phase, with no decisive end seen''

trillions wasted.....................From Dawn.com

''A decisive end seems nowhere in sight. The allied offensive that just ended, spearheaded by an influx of 30,000 US troops, hammered the Afghan Taliban in its southern strongholds.

Yet the insurgency persists as the American-led international military coalition hands off security responsibilities to the Afghans before exiting in two years.

”We are probably headed for stalemate in 2014,” says Stephen Biddle, a George Washington University political science professor who has advised US commanders in Afghanistan and Iraq.''

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''The Bear Trap (Afghanistan’s Untold Story)''

From 'There are no Sunglasses'

''The author, Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf, was head of the Afghan Bureau of Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence and as such was effectively the Mujahideen’s commander-in-chief. He controlled the flow of thousands of tons of arms across Pakistan and into its occupied neighbor, arms that were bought with CIA and Saudi Arabian funds from the USA. One of the Mujahideen’s close allies was none other than Osama Bin Laden. This compelling book was put together with great skill the by military historian, Mark Adkin in conjunction with Brigadier Mohammad Yousaf and is essential reading for anyone interested in the truth behind the Afghanistan War which led to the conditions that exist there today.''

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''Beginning of a new ‘Great Game’ in Afghanistan''

From GulfNews via Phantom Report

''Afghanistan’s history bears witness to many a proxy war being fought between great powers and regional players on its dusty battlefields over centuries. Not surprisingly, that tradition is still being honoured today. With regional states busy carving out their respective spheres of influence, it is the Afghans who have to ultimately decide on how best to maintain a balance and who to extend and develop relations with nations as the political road map of the country is redrawn once again. A road map, that cannot be confined to a flat, one-dimensional aspect of juggling power between the tribal and ethnic groups that are the fundamental stakeholders, but one that takes into consideration the regional dimension and the wider international one.''

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''Global Drug Mafia and the Banks. An Introduction to the Subject''

From Strategic Culture

''The 2001 NATO invasion of Afghanistan – with the stated goal of hunting down terrorists - provides a stark example of an operation designed to establish a situation conductive to the expansion of the drug business in a whole country. Its actual result was a boost of drug output – of heroin and opium – in the settings of the international occupation. The Talibs who ruled Afghanistan prior to the coalition offensive managed to induce a considerable reduction of poppy farming, whereas the intervention led to an increase of drug production in Afghanistan by orders of magnitude and to the conversion of the country into the world's top narcotics supplier… Analysts, in fact, suggested that the September 11 terrorist attacks could have been arranged to help the drug business spread globally under the protection of the Western military coalition. ''

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part 2 

''The Taliban's War on Women''

From SBS Australia Dateline.................''Video of an Afghan woman being killed in front of cheering men shocked the world. Who was she? And how could it happen?''

For more on Yalda Hakim's report, go to the SBS Dateline website... http://bit.ly/QAH5Fx

''Obama in the era of Afghan realism''

From Indian Punchline
MK Bhadrakumar

''The New York Times report Tuesday titled “US Abandoning Hopes for Taliban Peace Deal” is a good sign that realism is finally dawning on the Barack Obama administration. A military victory over the Taliban was never on the cards and the US had come to accept it sometime ago already. But the desperate efforts to broker a peace deal with the Taliban, with Pakistan playing the role of an honest broker, continued up until recently. ''

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''US military deaths in Afghanistan hit 2,000''

this war should have ended 10 yrs ago...........................From Ahram Online

''U.S. military deaths in the Afghan war have reached 2,000, a cold reminder of the human cost of an 11-year-old conflict that now garners little public interest at home as the United States prepares to withdraw most of its combat forces by the end of 2014.''

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''Afghan schools and clinics built by British military forced to close''

From The Guardian

''Schools and health centres built by the British in Afghanistan as part of the military's counter-insurgency strategy are being forced to close down because President Karzai's government cannot afford to pay for them, the Guardian has learned.

Britain has spent hundreds of millions of pounds in the province over the last six years building and restoring services decimated by conflict and the years of Taliban rule.''

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''China's security boss surveys Hindu Kush''

From Asia Times
By MK Bhadrakumar

''With the "transition" in Afghanistan set to shift up a gear through 2013 - as the last residues of the United States' "surge" are pulled back from the war theater and as the 2014 deadline approaches for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to withdraw - Beijing seems destined to play a larger role. In terms of China's national priorities over the development of its eastern regions, especially Xinjiang, and the consolidation of its rapidly expanding economic investments in Afghanistan and Central Asia, Beijing has no choice but to project itself as a stakeholder in the stabilization of Afghanistan.'' 

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''Insurgency winning war in Afghanistan, troops die for nothing''

From RT.com

''Another day, another disaster: So what now for Afghanistan?''

From The Independent

''Kim Sengupta reports on a chaotic 24 hours that saw the Allies in disarray, the exit strategy seemingly in tatters and a dozen killed by a suicide bomb''

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