http://www.aprodex.com/pipeline-opens-new-front-in-afghan-war-1028-n.aspx
To prepare for proposed construction in 2010, the Afghan government has reportedly given assurances it will clear the route of land mines, and make the path free of Taliban influence.
In a report to be released today, energy economist John Foster says the pipeline is part of a wider struggle by the United States to counter the influence of Russia and Iran over energy trade in the region.
The so-called Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline has strong support from Washington because the U.S. government is eager to block a competing pipeline that would bring gas to Pakistan and India from Iran.
The TAPI pipeline would also diminish Russia’s dominance of Central Asian energy exports.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/world/asia/07afghan.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
American airstrikes that Afghan officials and villagers said Wednesday had killed dozens and perhaps more than 100 civilians in western Afghanistan threaten to stiffen Afghan opposition to the war just as the Obama administration is sending 20,000 more troops to the country.
“We have some other information that leads us to distinctly different conclusions about the cause of the civilian casualties,” said the senior American commander in Afghanistan
“The governor said that the villagers have brought two tractor trailers full of pieces of human bodies to his office to prove the casualties that had occurred,” Mr. Farahi said. “Everyone at the governor’s office was crying, watching that shocking scene.”
Mr. Farahi said he had talked to someone he knew personally who had counted 113 bodies being buried, including those of many women and children. Later, more bodies were pulled from the rubble and some victims who had been taken to the hospital died, he said.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/05/08/terror/main5001358.shtml?source=RSSattr=HOME_5001358
A local official said that he collected from residents the names of 147 people killed during fighting on Monday night and Tuesday. If true, it would be the deadliest case of civilian casualties in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime.
But the U.S. military described that toll from the fighting as over the top.
“The investigators and the folks on the ground think that those numbers are extremely over-exaggerated,” U.S. military spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said. “We are definitely nowhere near those estimates.”
http://blogs.abcnews.com/george/2009/05/jones-imprudent.html
President Barack Obama’s national security adviser Gen. Jim Jones told me this morning that it would be “imprudent” to end U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan.
During his visit to the U.S. this past week, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan demanded all U.S. airstrikes end. He said a recent airstrike may have killed as many as 130 civilians.
“I think that we’re going to take a look at trying to make sure that we correct those things we can correct, but certainly to tie the hands of our commanders and say we’re not going to conduct air strikes, it would be imprudent,” Jones said in his first television interview.
“That’s part of the combined arms package and so we probably would not do that. But we are going to take very seriously the — and redouble our efforts to make sure that innocent civilians are not killed.”
Of Karzai’s demand, Jones said, “I think he understands that we have to have the full complement of our offensive military power when we need it. ”
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Yes, General Jones. I think he understands:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123879462053487927.html
National Security Adviser James Jones reported $900,000 in salary and bonus from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well as director fees from a number of corporations. He received, for example, $330,000 from Boeing Corp. and $290,000 from Chevron Corp.
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