HEADLINES Find Elected Officials Enter ZIP Code: or Search by State See Issues & Action Select An Issue Area: Contact The Media Enter ZIP Code: or Search by State "The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him!" ~GW Bush, September 13, 2001 "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and I really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." ~GW Bush, March 13, 2002 EVENTS Civilian Deaths War Toll in Afghanistan Friday Noon Women in Black We invite local women to join us every Friday in downtown Traverse City (Front and Union) BOOKS Reaping the Whirlwind: The Taliban Movement in Afghanistan By Michael Griffin. 283 pp. Sterling, Va.: Pluto Press. $27.50. Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and undamentalism in Central Asia By Ahmed Rashid. 274 pp. New Haven: Nota Bene/Yale University Press. Paper, $14.95. Afghanistan's Endless War: State Failure, Regional Politics, and the Rise of the Taliban By Larry P. Goodson. 264 pp. Seattle: University of Washington Press. Cloth, $35. Paper, $22.50. Afghanistan By Chris Steele-Perkins. 127 pp. North Pomfret, Vt.: Trafalgar Square Publishing. $50. REFERENCE If you have any information regarding the terrorist attack on September 11th Legislation related to 9.11.01 Attack & Terrorism War = Terrorism The myths and realities of Osama bin Laden swirl together like the smoke over the ruins of the World Trade Center and its thousands of dead. Who is this man? Read 9.11 The case against bin Laden (PDF) al-Qaida network What do Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Usama bin Laden have a lot in common. Take the quiz United Nations : Universal Declaration of Human Rights Humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan Ten Things to Know About Terrorism Ten Things You Can Do to Prevent War Ten Things You Should Know about U.S. Policy in the Middle East 100 Questions & Answers about Arab-Americans : A Journalist's Guide Advice to Arab-American Parents : Helping Children Cope Advice to Educators : from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Break the Cycle : a Short Film — Please take a moment to watch a short but very powerful new animated film that advocates for justice, not blind revenge, in response to the 9-11 attacks Warning ... The US government has been warned for over ten years that if it did not stop bombing and killing Iraqis by the tens of thousands, that the US would suffer. The US government has been warned for over ten years that it would suffer if it did not stop supporting the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians. The US has been warned if it did not remove troops from the soil of Saudi Arabia, it would suffer. And the US has been warned that if it did not allow the Arabs to keep and control their own oil, without interference, the US would suffer. Bin Laden warned that the US would be attacked, months before the WTC was attacked. Both sides warn the other, over and over. That does not change anything. They both warn, and then they strike. As to death toll. About three hundred civilians have died in less than one week in Afghanistan. If that goes on for a year, over 15,000 Afghans will be killed. Will that be enough to atone for the deaths of 7,000 Americans? Eye for an eye. (Out of those 15,000, we don't know how many of those killed have anything to do with the destruction of the WTC, or the damage to the Pentagon. Nor do Bush and his cronies seem to care. ) The only question before us is, will the bombing of innocent Afghans be beneficial, either to the US or Afghanistan itself. It seems unlikely. Will the bombing of Afghanistan help the US adminstration increase its power and control over the Middle East, Central Asia, and over the American people? Will the bombing of Afghanistan increase the profits of US arms manufacturers? Will it give the military industrial complex a chance to test out new weapons system, to replenish their stocks, and come with plans for news means of killing large numbers of people? The answer to these questions is probably, yes. Will the bombing increase the security of most Americans? Highly dubious. Perhaps the adminstration wants to DECREASE OUR SECURITY, to enable them to INCREASE their power. From a purely Machiavellian point of view, they are doing what is necessary to gain power. And for the moment, they appear to be succeeding. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (UCCR) has established a hotline for reports of hate crimes against Arab American, Muslim and South Asian American victims of violent incidents following the hijacking attacks on September 11. The hotline number is 800-552-6843 Curious about the country the US is bombing? — Here are the basic facts , courtesy of the CIA; a thorough index of information on Afghani culture; and a gateway to other links Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden Sixty million people have been killed in wars during the 20th Century. Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety — deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Ben Franklin U.S. Government Statements & Resolutions The House agreed to H. Con. Res. 227 - condemning bigotry and violence against Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians. Resolution introduced by U.S. Representatives David Bonior and Tom Davis. Statement from Assistant Attorney General Ralph F. Boyd Jr. - regarding the treatment of Arab, Muslim Americans or Americans of South Asian Descent. President George W. Bush, visits the Islamic Center in Washington, D.C. - watch the speech about hate crimes against Muslims. At least 62 countries have lost citizens who were victims of the 11.09.2001 attack on the World Trade Center. Leading world religions • Christianity: 1.97 billion • Islam: 1.18 billion • Hinduism: 799 million • Buddhism: 355 million Leading U.S. religions • Christianity: 158 million • Islam: 6.1 million • Judaism: 6.1 million • Buddhism: 4 million • Hinduism: 1.3 million More Detailed Information

Afghanistan's Anti-War Movement
In a musty room near the edge of town, a group of bearded men sit on the floor and heatedly discuss strategy. The men are in the planning stages of an event that they hope will impact Afghan politics - a peace jirga, or assembly, that will agitate for the end of the war between the Taliban and Afghan government by asking the two sides to come to a settlement. "People are growing tired of the fighting," says Bakhtar Aminzai of the National Peace Jirga of Afghanistan, an association of students, professors, lawyers, clerics, and others. "We need to pressure the Afghan government and the international community to find a solution without using guns."

Blowback from Afghanistan
In the U.S. "debates," it was the bleakest moment for me so far when Barack Obama said he lamented the war in Iraq because it "weakened our capacity to project power around the world." Not because it was wrong to invade and occupy a distant country, or even because it was a failed war. But because it hampered U.S. ability to invade and occupy other places. In this, he agrees with John McCain, who says the United States has a "sacred duty to suffer hardship and risk danger to protect the values of our civilization and impart them to humanity" by military might. It is a core component of U.S. political culture. You don't get to run for president without it.

Afghanistan Seeks Changes In Western Troops Deal
Afghan President Hamid Karzai meets Thursday with President Bush and plans to push for major changes to the existing agreement on U.S. and other Western troops' operations in Afghanistan. The move comes as anger grows in Afghanistan over the number of civilian deaths at the hands of Western troops.

U.S. Secret Air War Pulverizes Afghanistan and Iraq
The U.S. military is increasingly relying on deadly air strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan as the ground occupations fall apart, killing untold numbers of civilians.

Afghan Police Are Set Back as Taliban
The Taliban have driven government forces out of roughly half of a key area that the U.S. and NATO had declared a success story.

Dozens of Afghan Civilians Die in Air Raids
Dozens of civilians, including women and children, have been killed in two foreign air strikes in southern Afghanistan, residents and a local member of parliament said on Friday. One of the raids by NATO hit houses in the Girishk district of Helmand province on Thursday evening, killing up to 50 civilians, a group of some 20 residents reported to journalists in Kandahar, the main city in the south. 0727 02 Wali Jan Sabri, a parliamentarian from Helmand, said he had credible information that between 50 to 60 civilians had been killed in a battle between the Taliban and NATO forces in Girishk. He said most of the victims were killed in air strikes. “Yes, there was a battle … and most of those killed were from NATO bombardment,” he told Reuters.

Editorial: Two Wrongs Don't Make It Right
Recently the Democrats who ran on a platform of ending the U.S. war on the world, buckled under, as they played politics as usual. Unfortunately, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan have been essential to maintaining the status quo in gas and oil (as global oil companies continue to reap obscene record profits year after year). What has not been part of the public dialog however, is the fact that had we invested these same hundreds of Billions of your tax dollars in developing solar, wind and other "clean" energy resources in the United States, we would no longer need foreign oil. Of course the capitalists, politicians, and oil barons oppose this solution, but who's country is this anyway? In Michigan this year Taxpayers in Michigan will pay $3.7 billion for the cost of the Iraq War in FY 2007. Let's for a moment examine what else we could benefit with from these funds...

Taliban Taking Over'
The Taliban have regained control over the southern half of Afghanistan and their frontline is advancing daily, a group closely monitoring the Afghan situation reports.

Neglected Afghanistan Flares Up
With only 18,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, versus 150,000 in Iraq, the military is spread pretty thin. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Taliban are back -- and with them questions about whether America neglected the first and most important front in the "war on terror." In the 1980s, America spent $3 billion arming the same Afghan religious militants who are battling us now. It was the precipitous withdrawal of that honey pot after the 1989 ouster of the Soviets that fueled the barbarous civil wars that wiped out Afghanistan's traditional village leadership. That, in turn, allowed the rise of the extreme Taliban movement of religious students.

Torture "Widespread" under U.S. Custody: Amnesty
Torture and inhumane treatment are "widespread" in U.S.-run detention centers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba and elsewhere despite Washington's denials, Amnesty International said on Wednesday. Protesters from the organization "Clergy & Laity Concerned About Iraq," take part in a protest demanding the shutdown of the U.S. operated prison at Guantanamo, Cuba, in front of the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, in New York, May 1, 2006. On May 3, Amnesty International said torture and inhumane treatment are "widespread" in U.S.-run detention centers in Afghanistan, Iraq, Cuba and elsewhere despite Washington's denials. In a report for the United Nations' Committee against Torture, the London-based human rights group also alleged abuses within the U.S. domestic law enforcement system, including use of excessive force by police and degrading conditions of isolation for inmates in high security prisons.

Iraq, Afghanistan Among Top Ten Failed States
Despite receiving some eight billion dollars a month in economic aid and military support over the past year, Iraq and Afghanistan rank among the world's 10 weakest states, along with much of Central Africa, according to the "Failed States Index" for 2006 released here Tuesday. Iraq ranks number four -- the same rating it received in the 2005 index -- behind the top-ranked country, Sudan; the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); and Cote D'Ivoire, according to the new index, which was released by the Washington-based Fund for Peace and Foreign Policy magazine.

Full Text of Bin Laden Tape
The following is the full text of a new audiotape from al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Parts of the tape were aired on Al-Jazeera television, which published the entire version on its Web site. The text was translated from the Arabic by The Associated Press.

Remember Afghanistan? Insurgents Bring Suicide Terror to Country
More than 1,600 were killed in 2005, and the murder rate is rising. It was the bloodiest 48 hours in what is turning into the most violent month in Afghanistan since the country was "liberated" during the US-led invasion in October 2001. And it is into this increasingly savage insurgency that up to 3,500 more British troops will be sent from March. The rule of law has collapsed. The government is trapped in its own fortified compound in the capital. Soon, Britain will commit another 3,500 troops to a dangerous mission with no clear goals or exit strategy ...

"Bush said God told him to invade Iraq, Afghanistan"
The US President George W. Bush told two senior Palestinian officials that God gave him a personal message to invade Iraq and Afghanistan.

New Reports Surface About Detainee Abuse
Two soldiers and an officer with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division have told a human rights organization of systemic detainee abuse and human rights violations at U.S. bases in Afghanistan and Iraq, recounting beatings, forced physical exertion and psychological torture of prisoners

Congress shares blame for war mistakes
Years from now when the historians begin analyzing the deadly mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan they will find that the one institution charged with standing guard between the civilian suits and the American troops in uniform that they command and send into harm's way utterly abdicated that vital responsibility. The mistakes of omission and commission that abound in the record of two military operations were made by a president, a vice president and a secretary of defense and his civilian aides. But they would never have been allowed to stand uncorrected and swept under a convenient rock without the complicity of Congress, controlled by the same party that controlled the White House. So when the time comes to point a finger don't forget those who people the marble halls of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives whose first duty seemed to be to protect the Republican Party and their president.

US Troops Begin Afghan Offensive
August 14, 2005—U.S. Marines and Afghan troops launched an offensive Saturday to take a remote mountain valley from insurgents tied to the deadliest blow on American forces since the Taliban regime was ousted nearly four years ago.

Loyalty
An open letter to the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan – on loyalty. I thugged around in eight different places in East Asia, Latin America, and Africa, where I pointed guns at people.  In the course of that career, I heard everything you have heard and felt everything you have felt about “loyalty.” Tricky thing, loyalty.

Afghanistan Becoming Narcotic State
The United Nations has warned that Afghanistan's 10 most powerful drug warlords could join forces in a Colombian-style cartel capable of turning the country into a narcotics state.

Is this American?
It is both peculiar and chilling to find oneself discussing the problem of American torture. One's first response to the report by the International Red Cross about torture at our prison at Guantánamo is denial. "I don't want to think about it; I don't want to hear about it; we're the good guys, they're the bad guys; shut up. And besides, they attacked us first." But our country has opposed torture since its founding. One of our founding principles is that cruel and unusual punishment is both illegal and wrong. Every year, our State Department issues a report grading other countries on their support for or violations of human rights.

You Call This Liberation
Pentagon experts have made a discovery: Muslims do not hate America's freedoms, but its policies.

Tradition Collide as Afghan Women Try to Vote
Afghanistan - Samerra said she wanted to vote for Masoda Jalal, the only Afghan woman running in Saturday's historic presidential elections, because she "would fight for more rights for women." But Samerra's father didn't agree with her choice. Centuries-old traditions are even more sacred than Islam, and the word of regional commanders and village elders - all of them male - is law.

Panel to Probe Fraud Claims in Afghan Vote
KABUL, Afghanistan - An independent commission will probe claims by all 15 challengers to interim leader Hamid Karzai that Afghanistan's first direct presidential election was marred by incompetence and fraud, a top official said Sunday.

Opposition Alleges Afghan Election Fraud
Kabul - Afghanistan's first direct presidential election was thrust into turmoil hours after it started Saturday when all 15 candidates challenging interim leader Hamid Karzai alleged fraud over the ink meant to ensure people voted only once and vowed to boycott the results.

UN Expert Denounces Abuses in Illegal Prisons
A United Nations Independent Expert on Afghanistan is denouncing abuses taking place at an illegal jail there, and seeking answers from the United States on getting the prisoners released.

Afghan Rebels Widen Attacks
Attacks against American troops in Afghanistan and Afghan security forces and civilians have increased steadily in the last several months, posing new hurdles for reconstruction and political stability efforts, American commanders and Afghan officials say.

U.S. Air Raid Goes Astray, Hurts 8 Afghan Soldiers
U.S.-led forces have been involved in a series of so-called "friendly fire" incidents since they invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 in an operation that led to the Taliban's overthrow. In the worst recent one, last December, American raids in southeastern Afghanistan killed 15 children, drawing stern protests from the Afghans and the United Nations.

Army Ignored Ban On Private Interrogators
The Army hired private interrogators to work in Iraq and Afghanistan despite the service's policy of barring contractors from military intelligence jobs such as interrogating prisoners.

We're on bin Laden's trail: Bush
Bush may be looking at Osama's capture/killing as a last-ditch save from the embarrassment of a live Saddam about to blow the whistle on just where he got those WMDs he had a few years ago. But if Osama is caught, the CIA's perfidy comes to light, and if Osama is killed, then Bush has run out of villains and excuses for prolonging the wars. Bush is in a corner. What is he going to do, stage another 9-11 with a brand-new fresh-out-of-the-box supervillain? Stay tuned for this one...

Afghanistan: the forgotten war
While the eyes of world are on Iraq, the Taliban are reborn across much of this country and their al-Qa'ida allies are once more in the ascendant. As attacks mount and the death toll rises, Kim Sengupta in Kabul sees the US losing control

9 Afghan Kids Dead After US Air Strike
Children's hats and shoes littered a bloody field cratered by gunfire Sunday after a US airstrike, aimed at a wanted Taliban commander, mistakenly killed nine children in an Afghan mountain village.

Rumsfeld meets Afghan warlords
Reading between the lines, it sounds like the taxpayers are going to foot the bill for another gift to buy off the warlords.

Guantánamo's Limbo is Too Convenient
The Supreme Court's decision to hear the case of the prisoners at Guantánamo hinges not only on who they are or what they have done, but also on where they are being held. We can't fully understand the status of the prisoners, who have no rights under the Geneva Convention or the U.S. Constitution, without knowing the history of the U.S. presence at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba.

Bush's `war on terror' is a cruel hoax
" In 1997, US State Department officials and executives of the Union Oil Company of California (UNOCAL) lavishly entertained Taliban leaders in Washington and Houston... In January 1997, a State Department official told journalists in a private briefing that it was hoped Afghanistan would become an oil protectorate, “like Saudi Arabia”.... The US goal was the realisation of a 60-year “dream” of building a pipeline from the former Soviet Caspian across Afghanistan to a deep-water port."

Red Cross blasts Guantanamo
A top Red Cross official has broken with tradition by publicly attacking conditions at the US military base on Cuba where al-Qaeda suspects are being held.

Afghan women face 'daily danger'
The plight of Afghan women has improved little since the fall of the Taleban, according to the human rights organisation Amnesty International.

Guantanamo Worker Held in Security Probe
A physician working as a translator at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba was arrested Tuesday, authorities said, in the latest of a series of apprehensions that have raised questions about security at the center for terror suspects.

What good friends left behind
Two years ago, as the bombs began to drop, George Bush promised Afghanistan 'the generosity of America and its allies'. Now, the familiar old warlords are regaining power, religious fundamentalism is renewing its grip and military skirmishes continue routinely. What was the purpose?

U.S. helicopters target Taliban militants, kill 10 civilians
U.S. helicopters attacked a tent in southern Afghanistan, killing two Taliban militants and 10 nomadic tribesmen after the Taliban sought shelter there, a deputy governor in Zabul province said today.

"Both Wars were planned in advance before 9/11"
In an Interview with former British Minister Michael Meacher, which will be broadcasted by INN News Report on Friday, 6PM EST on U.S. Television. Meacher explained, that both Wars against Iraq and Afghanistan were planned in Advance before 9/11; he spoke about the role of PNAC, Oil and Cheney's controversial Energy Task Force in 2001.

U.S. Sees $2 Billion Extra Aid for Afghanistan
U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Thursday he hoped Afghanistan would receive around $2 billion in extra aid, warning that failure to rebuild the war-ravaged country "cannot be an option."

Threat of US strikes passed to Taliban weeks before NY attack
Osama bin Laden and the Taliban received threats of possible American military strikes against them two months before the terrorist assaults on New York and Washington. The Taliban refused to comply but the serious nature of what they were told raises the possibility that Bin Laden, far from launching the attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon out of the blue 10 days ago, was launching a pre-emptive strike in response to what he saw as US threats.

Taliban Raids Widen in Parts of Afghanistan
The Taliban, backed by new volunteers from Pakistan, are steadily expanding their attacks in southern and eastern Afghanistan.

Ex-Prisoners Allege Rights Abuses by U.S. Military
Prisoners released from the military camps at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and Bagram air base in Afghanistan have said in a series of interviews with Amnesty International that they were subjected to human rights abuses. "These interviews with former prisoners are damning and add to the poor record of the Bush administration with regard to human rights over the past 23 months," said Alexandra Arriaga, director of government relations for Amnesty International USA.

US turns to the Taliban
Such is the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, compounded by the return to the country of a large number of former Afghan communist refugees, that United States and Pakistani intelligence officials have met with Taliban leaders in an effort to devise a political solution to prevent the country from being further ripped apart.

America's Shameful Legacy of Radioactive Weaponry
Disturbing new evidence puts the US military's use of radioactive weaponry in the spotlight, casting doubt on the Bush administration's upbeat estimates on civilian war casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Camp Delta death chamber plan
Some detainees may be executed if convicted at military trials
A court and execution chamber could be built at the US detention camp in Cuba under plans being drawn up by military officials.

The Silent Genocide from America
When a US bomb or that of her allies landed on an Afghan village or town, the land and its people have become part of the deadly legacy of silent death. This death sentence is different from any other type because in this type death sentence all the people, their land and future generations are condemned to an inescapable genocide. The tragedy that makes this state of affairs so dreadful is the unavoidably invisible threat that targets everyone indiscriminately. Moreover, the threat has become endemic to the fiber of existence, contaminated the land, water and its inhabitants. In fact, when Bush jr. said, "we will smoke them out…" he lived up to his promise, making life an unattainable reality for the unborn and unsustainable reality for the living, hence, sentencing Afghan people and their future generations to a predetermined death sentence.

D.U. and the next generation
I have recently received large numbers of photographs of birth deformities that are being experienced. I urge you to more fully understand the risks of depleted uranium.

Karzai threatens to resign if no improvement in government
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has threatened to resign unless the Afghan government improves situation in Afghanistan politically and economically within three months, Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) said Tuesday.

US plans death camp
The U.S. has floated plans to turn Guantanamo Bay into a death camp, with its own death row and execution chamber. Prisoners would be tried, convicted and executed without leaving its boundaries, without a jury and without right of appeal

No light in the Afghan tunnel
Operation Enduring Freedom – launched in Afghanistan a month after 9-11 – is now officially over. But despite Pentagon spin to the contrary, our casualty count from that war-torn land won't be winding down anytime soon.

How Not to Run a Country
Hamid Karzai seemed like the perfect leader to head the transitional government of Afghanistan. He was well-educated and media-friendly, with family and extensive experience in the United States. Mr. Karzai is now in deep trouble. The post-Taliban era is on hold because the Taliban, apparently including their one-eyed leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, are still around. Taliban guerrillas killed more than 30 Afghan soldiers and a Red Cross worker last month, and Mr. Karzai appealed to neighboring Pakistan to crack down on cross-border marauding.

More prisoners sent to Cuba base
Pentagon officials say about 30 detainees have been transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention centre from Afghanistan.

Former prisoners angered at yearlong detention by U.S.
Two Afghans just freed from U.S. military custody expressed bitterness Friday at being sent to prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, without being questioned first at home -- asserting they could easily have proven their innocence.

U.S. Special Forces may have captured Bin Laden
U.S. Special Operations Forces have launched what was described as a major attack on Al Qaida strongholds in eastern Afghanistan over the last few days and Pakistani sources said several Al Qaida leaders have been captured.

Attacks Aimed At Coalition Forces In Afghanistan
21-Apr-2003—Attention is focused on Iraq -- but Afghanistan remains a dangerous place for American troops.

Taliban looks to reclaim control
At a time when the United States is promising a reconstructed, democratic postwar Iraq, many Afghans are remembering hearing similar promises not long ago. Instead, what they see are thieving warlords, killings on the roads and a resurgence of Taliban vigilantism.

Taliban Reviving, Afghan Gov't Faltering
Security forces swept through remote hills in northwestern Afghanistan on Monday in search of several hundred suspected Taliban fighters blamed for launching a recent wave of attacks. At a time when the United States is promising a reconstructed democratic postwar Iraq, many Afghansare seeing is thieving warlords, murder on the roads, and a resurgence of Taliban vigilantism.

Taliban Reviving Structure in Afghanistan
Before executing the International Red Cross worker, the Taliban gunmen made a satellite telephone call to their superior for instructions: Kill him? Kill him, the order came back, and Ricardo Munguia, whose body was found with 20 bullet wounds last month, became the first foreign aid worker to die in Afghanistan since the Taliban's ouster from power 18 months ago.

Innocent Afgans tortured at camp Xray
Fox News about Camp Xray Torture, BBC about innocent Afgans tortured for about a year, some admitted innocents still held. PBS Video about how the real Al queda And the Talban were Airlifted to safety.

Hidden US Losses In Afghanistan Continue To Mount
The onslaught of attacks against US and NATO forces and their mounting losses point to the success of the Afghan resistance and the failure of US occupation of Afghanistan.

Bodies of 500 US, UK soldiers lying in Jacobabad?
Around 500 dead bodies of American and British soldiers killed during military operation in Afghanistan have been lying in a morgue at Shebhaz Airbase in Jacobabad. Sources said American and British authorities, which were planning to shift these dead bodies from their own countries, delayed the decision after eruption of war in Iraq .

Prisoners Suffocated in Containers
The journey from Kunduz to Shibargan, in northern Afghanistan, lasts between two and three days and 43 prisoners died, according to General Jurabek, of the Northern Alliance, some due to asphyxiation and others, due to the wounds they had received in battle and which had not been properly treated. One survivor is quoted as saying that in his container, only seven people survived.

Attacks in Afghanistan show upsurge, US says
The first night since the start of war in Iraq saw the highest number of attacks on US and allied forces here in months. The upsurge in attacks, which injured no one, coincided with the start of a major sweep for Al Qaeda sympathizers

The Nuclear Nightmare Starts
When questions were asked in the British parliament a year ago about whether depleted uranium (DU) weapons had been used in the military strikes on Afghanistan...

Pentagon Considered Poisoning Afghan Food Supply
Deep inside the sixth of eight glowing articles in its series "10 Days in September" about what wonderful crisis managers George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice are, The Washington Post on February 1 buried the following bit of information: The Pentagon was considering poisoning Afghanistan's food supply.

Opium alert
Opium cultivation has reached record levels in Afghanistan

Guantanamo: A Black Hole
Years from now, when the war on terrorism is a chapter in history, America will be remembered for the values it practiced. The Bush administration must become mindful of this perspective as it crafts a policy to handle more than 600 detainees at Guantánamo Bay.

Amnesty International: There is no 'Acceptable' Torture
Just days after George W. Bush reportedly assured UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello that the US is not torturing prisoners during interrogation, an article in today's New York Times quotes numerous US officials admitting that US interrogators are using such methods as holding prisoners in prolonged painful positions and withholding access to food and water.

Former Afghan Prime Minister's Letter To Annan
The Hizb-e-Islami chief, Gulbadin Hekmatyar Thursday wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General and protested against killings in Afghanistan during US bombings. Hekmatyar said the indiscriminate air bombing and firing by the US forces on innocent civilians in war-torn country has ruined the nation and killed thousands of people.

Further Specific Evidence of Torture and Other Inhuman and Degrading Treatment of Prisoners by the United States
Responding to a request for more information with regard to CCR’s Request to the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS), CCR yesterday filed with the Commission a detailed account of the treatment of prisoners held at Baghram Air Force Base, Afghanistan and other locations

Center for Constitutional ights R Petitions the Organization of American States to Action on Reports of Torture
The Center for Constitutional Rights along with other groups requested that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States ensure that no torture tactics are being used by U.S. military or third party interrogators

Afghan prisoners beaten to death at US base
World: Two prisoners who died at US military base in Afghanistan had been beaten, says military pathologist.

Afghan Women Restricted Despite Taliban Demise
Women in many parts of Afghanistan continue to face discrimination and intimidation more than a year after the fall of the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban regime, according to a U.N. report issued on Thursday.

Prisoners 'killed' at US base
Two Afghan prisoners were killed while in US custody at their base at Bagram, a military coroner has concluded.

Afghanistan plans gas pipeline
Afghanistan hopes to strike a deal later this month to build a $2bn pipeline through the country to take gas from energy-rich Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India. [Guess the White House lied to us about this one too. It was the Gas and Oil pipeline after all]

Sinking into the Afghan swamp
The war in Afghanistan, once a success story for US-led coalition forces, appears to be becoming increasingly untenable. Hardly a day goes by without some skirmishes with the Taliban, their Al-Qaeda supporters and their Hezb-e-Islami allies. There has been a steady increase in the level of violence involving Afghan, as well as Pakistani, extremists.

Italian Troops to See Afghan Deployment
About 500 Italian troops will soon replace a similar number of American soldiers deployed in eastern Afghanistan's volatile Khost region, U.S. and Italian military officials said Wednesday.

Sinking into the Afghan swamp
The war in Afghanistan, once a success story for US-led coalition forces, appears to be becoming increasingly untenable. Hardly a day goes by without some skirmishes with the Taliban, their Al-Qaeda supporters and their Hezb-e-Islami allies. There has been a steady increase in the level of violence involving Afghan, as well as Pakistani, extremists.

Perpetual Death From America
If they had killed us once, it would not be so bad. But what the Americans have brought upon us is not only depriving us but our future generations of our basic god given human right, the right to live. They will be killing us for generations to come"

U.S. bombers pound Taliban targets
U.S. B-52 and B-1 bombers have pounded a mountain ridge in central Afghanistan after ground forces spotted about 25 armed Taliban suspects taking up offensive positions, the U.S. military says.

Afghans Say 17 Civilians Killed in U.S. Raids
Provincial Afghan authorities said at least 17 civilians had been killed in bombing raids by U.S.-led forces that Washington says are aimed at rooting out remnants of the Taliban.

More Suicide Attempts Among Al-Qaida Prisoners
The Pentagon says there has been a sudden rise in suicide attempts by al-Qaida detainees at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Human rights groups say isolation of the detainees could be linked to the increase in suicide attempts. Human rights experts have also criticized the Pentagon for its treatment of the prisoners.

Agreement On US 3.2 Billion Gas Pipeline Project Signed
Since September 11th, 2001, there has been intense speculation regarding Bush administration negotiations with the Taliban regarding this very project prior to the attacks. American petroleum giant Unocal very much wanted this project for years, but it was stymied in 1998 after bin Laden blew up two American embassies in Africa, causing the Taliban to be diplomatically isolated. There are a number of reports that describe a reinvigoration of this pipeline plan after Bush took office, and further describe the Bush administration's negotiations with the Taliban including threats of war if the project was not allowed to pass through Afghanistan. Some say these threats, in the name of the pipeline, triggered the 9/11 attacks. The Taliban is gone, Afghan President Harmid Karzai is a former Unocal consultant, and the pipeline deal is finally done.

Afghanistan: The Nuclear Nightmare Starts
A startling new report based on research in Afghanistan indicates that our worst fears have been realized. The study, produced by the Uranium Medical Research Centre (UMRC), points to the likelihood of large numbers of the population being exposed to uranium dust and debris.

The Untold War
Chasing Phantoms Across Afghanistan

Guantanamo prisoners still held because of 'wrangling'
Almost 10% of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have no meaningful connection with al-Qaida or the Taliban and have been held for more than a year because of bureaucratic wrangling and obstinacy, published reports said yesterday.

US troops saw Afghan slaughter, claims TV documentary
A British documentary claims to have proof that American troops watched the slaughter of thousands of captured Taliban fighters during the Afghan war.

How We Forgot About the Women of Afghanistan
It shows just how long our concern will probably last for those affected by our next military adventure

Old Fears in the New Afghanistan
One year after the overthrow of the Taliban, there has been little improvement in the lives of most Afghans.

Winning the Peace in Afghanistan
Afghanistan requires substantial outside help to avoid returning to the lawlessness that opened the door to the Taliban a decade ago.

Photos of Hooded Terror Prisoners Rekindle Debate
Four photographs of shackled and hooded terror prisoners from Afghanistan, apparently taken as a souvenir by a U.S. soldier, were mysteriously made public yesterday and brought renewed allegations of human-rights violations against the United States for treatment of captives in its war on terror.

Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy, Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden

Afghans Talk of Guantanamo Detention
Three Afghans released after months of captivity at a U.S. military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba said Tuesday they were chained up and denied contact with their families but were not otherwise mistreated by their American captors. One freed detainee said they were kept in cages "like animals."

Detainees at US Base Could Be Held for Years: Military Official
Hundreds of detainees in the US-led war on terror could remain for years at a US military base -- where they are being held without trial -- a military commander said. Navy Captain Bob Beuhn, commander of the Guantanamo Bay military base where 598 suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban members are incarcerated, would not rule out the detainees could remain at the US outpost for two decades.

Afghanistan Is On The Brink Of Another Disaster
The garden was overgrown, the roses scrawny after a day of Kandahar heat, the dust in our eyes, noses, mouth, fingernails. But the message was straightforward. "This is a secret war," the Special Forces man told me. "And this is a dirty war. You don't know what is happening." And of course, we are not supposed to know.

To Rebuild Afghanistan
A country that has suffered as long and as cruelly as Afghanistan needs sustained international help to restore the rudiments of normal life.

Girls' school bombed in Afghanistan
A bomb attack blamed on remnants of the former Taliban regime has closed the only girl's school in the town of Ghazni west of Kabul, residents said on Saturday. Following the attachk the area was leafletted "The leaflets said that the Taliban have not gone. We are still here. We will kill women if they come to school again'."

CNN, CBS both paid for video said to be from al-Qaida cache in Afghanistan
CNN and CBS have revealed that they both paid sources for access to videotapes that depict al-Qaida poison gas experiments, although the dueling networks insisted the money didn't fund terrorism.

Afghan officials to probe atrocity claim
The Afghan government will send an investigative team to the site of a reported mass grave of hundreds of captured Taliban fighters suffocated in shipping containers in last fall's war, the Foreign Ministry said today.

UN Evidence of Taliban Massacre
The UN has gathered enough evidence to begin a criminal investigation into the allegation that almost 1,000 captured Taliban are buried in mass graves in Afghanistan, it was revealed last night.

Instability Remains as U.S. Eyes Attack on Iraq
As the United States starts preparing for the next round in its 'war on terror', this time against Iraq, the situation in Afghanistan -- where this campaign began -- remains unstable and shows no signs of settling down.

Mounting anger over US atrocities in Afghanistan
Three weeks after an American AC-130 gunship killed and injured more than 100 civilians in the small Afghan village of Kakarak, US military officials have refused to admit that the raid was a mistake or to rule out similar actions in the future. The massacre and the dismissive attitude of US officials have added to the mounting anger among ethnic Pashtuns in Uruzgan and neighbouring provinces in the country’s south and east.

The US airforce followed the classic military strategy of sending a B-52 to kill 40 people at a wedding
The American military must take tips from Bart Simpson. As survivors gaze in bewilderment at the four bombarded Afghan villages and 40 people at a wedding killed by American missiles fired from American planes, the Pentagon thinks for a moment and says: "I didn't do it.'

Pentagon's Changing Message Inspires Distrust
There is a long history to bombing blunders - and one lesson the military authorities around the world never seem to learn is the importance of avoiding dogmatic descriptions of what they think happened. These often turn out to be untrue or just half the truth and the aims of the overall campaign are submerged in a welter of claim and counterclaim.

Shocked Afghans Criticize U.S. Strike; Toll Is Some 40 Dead and 100 Wounded
The Afghan government expressed dismay today at reports that about 140 civilians were killed or wounded in an American-led operation in southern Afghanistan on Monday and demanded a major review of American military operations here.

Afghans Link Civilian Deaths to U.S. Bomb
If an American bomb is found to be responsible for for the death of 40 Afghan;s celebrating a wedding, it could strain relations with the new government in Kabul.

Al-Qaeda Spokesman Says bin Laden Alive, Warns US to 'Fasten Seat Belt'
A spokesman for the al-Qaeda network emerged on television to announce that chief terror suspect Osama bin Laden and his cohorts were alive and well and warn the United States to "fasten its seat belt" in preparation for more attacks.

The Warlords Win in Kabul
The course of Afghanistan's loya jirga demonstrated that powerful forces inside and outside the country remain categorically opposed to democratic accountability.

US Rights Group Urges Forensic Probe Into Alleged Taliban Massacre
A medical human rights group called for a full forensic investigation into the reported killings -- allegedly amid US complicity -- of Taliban prisoners in Afghanistan. A documentary shown Thursday to the European Parliament in Strasbourg cited witness accounts that several dozen Taliban prisoners died at the hands of Northern Alliance soldiers, suffocated in a container after they surrendered in late 2001. The film claims US soldiers asked the Afghans to get rid of the bodies to avoid the appearance of satellite photos showing them, and that between 1,500 and 4,000 prisoners may have been buried.

Afghan Democracy and Its First Missteps
Although a great majority of voters at the loya jirga elected Hamid Karzai to be president, elation over the prospect of democracy in Afghanistan may be short-lived.

Truth Serums & Torture
A hot topic has been whether captured Taliban fighters and alleged al-Qaeda operatives should be subjected to "truth serums" or physical torture to make them talk. Hundreds of captured Taliban and al-Qaeda belligerents have been grilled, but apparently little useful has been gleaned.

US admits friendly fire killings 01-Jun-2002
The US military has admitted shooting dead three of its Afghan allies and wounding two others in a bungled operation in the troubled east Afghan province of Paktia.

U.S.: Growing Problem Of Guantanamo Detainees 30-May-2002
As the U.S. administration prepares to send some 150 new detainees to Guantanamo Bay, Human Rights Watch warned that their legal status is growing more problematic by the day. "The Bush administration cannot hold people indefinitely without charge or send them to countries where they might be tortured," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "As time goes by and the number of detainees grows, so does the pressure on the U.S. government to act."

Afghan Victims Deserve Support
by Medea Benjamin & Jason Mark - This is a case where a small amount of money can go a long way toward helping thousands and enhancing our own security.

US forces launch large operation in Afghan mountains 02.05.2002
Hundreds of coalition soldiers have launched an operation against Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in eastern Afghanistan's Paktia province, the Afghan Islamic Press reported. The operation began late Tuesday

Troops fight boredom in the war on terror
Al-Qaeda has dispersed and coalition soldiers are growing restless at the absence of an enemy

U.S. Says Afghan Warlord May Not Be Ally Forever 02.05.2002
The U.S. general commanding ground forces in Afghanistan signaled on Tuesday that an Afghan warlord who helped drive the Taliban from power may not remain an ally forever if he threatened Afghanistan's new government.

Losing the Peace?
As Afghanistan struggles to recover, the US prepares to move on.

An Uneasy Peace
Afghan women are free of the Taliban, but liberation is still a distant dream.

Military Uses NASA Images in Combat
The Navy has been using NASA satellite data to help guide ships and planes in the war on Afghanistan, marking the first time the military has employed the space agency's up-to-date information in combat, Navy officials said Thursday. Some in Congress have expressed concerns that NASA risks overstepping its 44-year-old civilian charter

Osama bin Laden has phoned the UK at least 260 times from Afghan hills
Records from the terrorist leader's satellite phone show he and his top men were in constant touch with the British arm of the al-Qaeda network.

Up to 9 Americans Killed in Latest Round of Afghan War
Up to nine Americans have been killed in recent days in fierce exchanges with Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in eastern Afghanistan, senior Pentagon officials said today.

Battle rages in Afghan mountains
The US estimates there are several hundred militants resisting what is reportedly the biggest US-led ground offensive of the war. A US soldier and three pro-US Afghan troops have been killed while the militants are said to have suffered heavy casualties.

At least 1 U.S., 2 Afghan soldiers killed
Pentagon sources say at least one U.S. and two Afghan soldiers were killed and several others wounded in skirmishes with al Qaeda and Taliban forces near the eastern Afghan town of Gardez on Saturday.

Is It Better Now?
"Is it better in Afghanistan now?" one concerned lady in the crowd inquired. Strada is a surgeon who since 1999 has been providing medical and surgical help to Afghans. His organization, EMERGENCY, based in Milan, operates first aid posts in the most heavily land-mined parts of the country, constructed a hospital in the Panshir Valley when it was under Northern Alliance control, and has worked at a facility in the capital, Kabul, beginning in 2000.

New Clues Suggest Bin Laden Is Alive on Afghan Border
Administration officials say they have indications that Osama bin Laden is alive and still moving around on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Lessons for Afghanistan
From the perspective of a Kosovar, who has spent years trying to topple Serb domination over Kosovo and build democracy in it, as well as someone who had to go through war and life under a U.N. protectorate after it, here are some lessons learned from the Balkans that may help in the present international effort in Afghanistan.

Afghans claim troops killed wrong people in raid
Afghans have challenged U.S. accounts of a firefight, claiming U.S. Special Forces soldiers killed the wrong people — sleeping in a school — during a raid

We Felt Safer Under the Taliban, say Kabul Residents
Just 10 weeks after the Taliban fled Kabul city, Afghans are already starting to say they felt safer under the now-defeated hardline militia than under the power-sharing interim administration that has replaced it.

The Others
What if all those Americans who declare their support for Bush's "war on terrorism" could see, instead of those elusive symbols--Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda--the real human beings who have died under our bombs? I do believe they would have second thoughts.

Afghan Victims of US Bombings Demand Compensation
Victims of the September 11 terrorist strikes in the United States handed over compensation claims to US officials here on behalf of Afghan civilians who lost family or homes in Washington's retaliatory bombing campaign in Afghanistan.

The US and the Taliban: a done deal
Afghan factions, mediated by the UN and US, reached some agreement in Bonn in December. The agreement was no sudden miracle; it was possible only because all the groups had met before, through contacts. The Bonn proposals were not new. They had been discussed for over three years.

U.S. Man Said to Be Hostage
American on aid mission is being held for ransom, family says. The identity of the captors is unknown. Lawlessness on the rise, again.

Feds to Charge American Taliban
President Bush has approved allowing the Justice Department to charge American Taliban John Walker Lindh in civilian court on charges of aiding terrorism, government sources said Tuesday.

Rule of Gun on the Rise After Ouster of Taliban
As Afghanistan's interim government tries desperately to move this demolished country into the category of somewhat functional Third World nation, one problem looms, perhaps above the myriad others: rampant lawlessness.

United States Should Join Peacekeepers, Biden Says
After touring the shattered capital of Afghanistan and talking to its temporary leaders, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joseph R. Biden Jr., said today that the United States should take part in a multinational military force to restore order to this country.

Feed Afghanistan, bring humanity to the war
Men and women dressed in rags jostle for food rations. Children with swollen bellies stare blankly. This is Afghanistan, where Americans were surprised to find that many Afghans survive on a deadly mix of grass and traces of grain.

Servicewoman Dies in Afghanistan
The seven Marines killed when a military plane crashed Wednesday in Pakistan included the first U.S. servicewoman to die since the war on terrorism began.

A Peek Inside Osama bin Laden's Diary
Dear Diary: Allah be praised, I'm still alive! And more praise to Him: the Americans and their lackeys are even less intelligent than we imagined.

After Afghanistan, US likely to focus on Indonesia, Philippines
After Afghanistan, the United States will likely focus on denying terrorist groups sanctuary in places like Somalia, Yemen, Indonesia and the Philippines, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told The New York Times.

Suddenly, he was gone
Osama bin Laden, the hated quarry of the United States, has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. Now it may be too late to scent his trail.

Thousands of Afghans likely killed in bombings
There is no agreement yet about how many ordinary Afghans have died from the U.S.-led bombardment, but one American academic estimates that the toll stands at 4,050 -- surpassing the number of people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States.

Bush shifts focus of war away from bin Laden
President George W. Bush on Friday stressed that capturing Osama bin Laden was only part of the US's objectives in Afghanistan, signaling a shift in the administration's approach to its campaign against terrorism.

Up to 60 die as US bombs tribal leaders by mistake
Evidence was growing last night that US planes mistakenly bombed a convoy of Afghan tribal leaders traveling to Kabul for the inauguration of the new Afghanistan government, leaving up to 60 dead.

Bin Laden rails against U.S. in new video
Osama bin Laden accused the United States of hating Islam in an excerpt of a videotaped statement aired Wednesday by the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television network.

Videotape is fake, say Pakistanis
Few ordinary Pakistanis seemed convinced that the video was the real thing. "This is totally manufactured. It's a drama," a spokesman for the Jamaat-e-Islami, Amirul Azeem, told Reuters. "If America really had any proof against bin Laden, they would have taken it to court."

U.S. Releases Videotape of Osama bin Laden PDF
The U. S. government released today a copy of a videotape of Osama bin Laden obtained by U.S. forces in Jalalabad, Afghanistan in late November.

Atta's Father Dismisses Videotape
The father of Mohammed Atta dismissed as a "forgery, a fabrication!" U.S. investigators believe that Atta was the ringleader behind the hijackings of the four passenger planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. The elder Atta, a 65-year-old retired lawyer, has repeatedly denied his son's involvement in the terrorist attacks and has also claimed to have spoken to his son by telephone after Sept. 11.

Flight instructor phoned the FBI last August
A flight instructor attempted to alert the agency that a terrorist might be taking lessons to fly a jumbo jet. "Do you realize how serious this is?" the instructor asked an FBI agent. "This man wants training on a 747. A 747 fully loaded with fuel could be used as a weapon!"

The Innocent Dead in a Coward's War
The price in blood that has already been paid for America's war against terror is only now starting to become clear.

Welcome to Kabul
The British Embassy had a cozy reception in Kabul the other day, offering Swedish meatballs, fruit punch and helpful tips about how to avoid getting shot.

Britons fight for Osama at Tora Bora
Dozens of British Muslims are fighting shoulder to shoulder with the last of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda soldiers. His troops are now fighting a last-ditch battle in a huge cave complex near the Afghan city of Jalalabad.

American in Taliban: Biological strike on U.S. near
An American Taliban fighter held captive by Marines in Afghanistan has told American officials that al Qaeda's next attack on the United States will take place in days and involve biological weapons Read Huffington: The Evildoers And The Misled
What are we to make of John Walker, the 20-year-old All- American kid who turned Taliban warrior? Maybe that Bush's "us vs. them, good vs. evil" talk is hollow rhetoric.

Hundreds massacred, hospitals, mosques destroyed
During the 60 days continued US bombardment in Afghanistan, hundreds of Taliban, civilians were massacred while several mosques, hospitals and entire villages were destroyed. The US warplanes continued hammering of Afghanistan from October 7 to December 6 also forced hundred of thousands people to leave their homes and compelled them on living in refugees camps in Pakistan and deserts.

Afghan Women's Group Gloomy on Post-Taliban Era
Afghan women staged a protest in Pakistan on Monday, denouncing past abuses by factions making up their country's new government and predicting that the lot of women would be no better than under the hard-line Taliban.

Unintended Victims Fill Afghan Hospital
In one bed lay Noor Mohammad, 10, who was a bundle of bandages. He lost his eyes and hands to the bomb that hit his house after Sunday dinner. Hospital director Guloja Shimwari shook his head at the boy's wounds. ''The United States must be thinking he is Osama,'' Shimwari said. ''If he is not Osama, then why would they do this?''

CIA Told Their Taliban Prisoners to Talk or Die
Video footage has emerged alarming and strengthens the case for an urgent inquiry. The conduct of the CIA operatives is disturbing, specifically the apparent threat of execution. "...death threats against prisoners violate international human rights and humanitarian law.

Welcome to Kabul
The British Embassy had a cozy reception in Kabul the other day, offering Swedish meatballs, fruit punch and helpful tips about how to avoid getting shot.

Huffington: The Evildoers And The Misled
What are we to make of John Walker, the 20-year-old All- American kid who turned Taliban warrior? Maybe that Bush's "us vs. them, good vs. evil" talk is hollow rhetoric.

Three U.S. Soldiers Killed by other U.S. Soldiers
Three U.S. servicemen were killed and 19 injured today in Afghanistan

Civilians abandon homes after hundreds are casualties of US air strikes on villages
Thousands of Afghans are abandoning their homes in the east of the country to escape United States air strikes on civilian villages that have killed hundreds of people.

Thousands Ready For Assault On Bin Laden's Hideout
Thousands of Afghan tribal fighters accompanied by the SAS and U.S. special forces moved in on a network of mountain caves used by Osama Bin Laden last night.

Tale of an American Taliban
Hamid’s face is almost entirely covered in dirt and black soot, but it is quickly apparent that he is not just another beaten and frightened Taliban warrior. Abdul Hamid, age 20, is an American.

U.S. soldiers raise New York City flag at Afghan base
U.S. Marines at the Marine forward base in southern Afghanistan raise two flags Friday - one U.S. flag and one flag from New York City.

Sudan tried to give US Files on Bin Laden in 1996 - State Department Refused
From the fall of 1996 until weeks before the September 2001 attack on the World Trade Center, the Mukhabarat made repeated efforts to share its files on terrorists with the U.S. On more than one occasion senior F.B.I. officials wanted to accept the offers, but were apparently overruled by the State Department.

Who's who in Afghanistan
A guide to some of the leading figures in the Northern Alliance and the Taliban

Bin Laden 'is in White Mountains cave stronghold'
American officials have secretly met mujahedin leaders in Jalalabad to co-ordinate an attack against Osama bin Laden's suspected hideout in the White Mountains of eastern Afghanistan, according to a senior commander. Read

Afghans suspect bin Laden is hiding in mountain base funded by U.S.
Local militia leaders suspect bin Laden may be holed up in a mountain base called Tora Bora, an impregnable fortress built with U.S. aid during the Soviet occupation. Tora Bora sits about 35 miles south of Jalalabad, atop a 13,000-foot mountain, three hours by foot from the nearest road.

2,000 Afghan fighters to hunt bin Laden
A force of up to 2,000 Afghan mujahideen fighters is preparing to advance on Tora Bora, the east Afghanistan village where Osama bin Laden and hundreds of his Arab al-Qaeda followers are suspected to be hiding.

Afghan women eager to retain new freedom
For five years, the Taliban regime deprived her of an education and denied her the right to appear in public without a veil shrouding her face. Just two weeks after the Taliban fled the Afghan capital, she's resuming her education, and lifting a veil to speak to a reporter.

As burqas fall
This week, delegations from various Afghan factions will meet in Bonn, Germany, to discuss the future government of Afghanistan. At the behest of the United Nations, women will join the talks, making the discussions truly historic.

Rumors?
USA and United Kingdom "special forces" appear to be a competition to find bin Laden, leading to a serious rift between London and Washington

1,200 Taliban surrender near besieged Kunduz
Hundreds of Taliban soldiers streamed out of the besieged northern city of Kunduz yesterday, some to the welcoming arms of joyous crowds, others to the custody of their adversaries, each group following a script of surrender to the letter outside one of the last Taliban redoubts.

Hundreds of troops dozed in the sun. These were the Taliban elite
Luke Harding in Kundoz meets the surrendering remnants of a utopian movement facing the end

In Hindsight
The sudden collapse of the Taliban in most of Afghanistan is one of those events that seem to have been designed by the fates to teach policy-makers and pundits humility.

Dissident former Taliban official warned of al-Qaida's threat to Afghanistan
The most senior Taliban member to defect so far blamed Osama bin Laden and Taliban hardliners Saturday for making Afghanistan into a terrorist haven and sparking a disastrous war with the United States.

What To Do With Osama Bin Laden And The Real Concerns Of Afghan Women
Commentary and analysis in the Western press today focuses on the war in Afghanistan, including what to do with suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden should he be apprehended; the propaganda behind Western claims of concern for Afghanistan's women; and the chances of success for the upcoming conference in Bonn to discuss an interim government in Kabul.

Taliban May Have 500 Tanks in Kandahar
Taliban troops defending their embattled stronghold of Kandahar may have 500 tanks and would defend the ancient southern Afghan city to their last breath, said a former commander who recently escaped the city.

Taliban reportedly holding women, children hostage
Three Pakistani militants just returned from Afghanistan said yesterday that Taliban zealots and their foreign comrades, determined to fight to the finish, had detained the wives and children of hundreds of Afghan fighters in Kandahar to prevent them from surrendering or fleeing.

British Take a Blunter Approach to War News
After taking a Taliban-guided tour into southern Afghanistan last week, along with other Western journalists, Simon Ingram wrapped up his four-day experience for "BBC World News." The cameras showed a crowd of village men in turbans, their fists raised in anger as soldiers looked on.

Taliban hit by bombs used in Vietnam
Huge 15,000 pound minivan sized 'daisy cutter' bombs target frontline troops

Slap-Shots in Kabul
Once upon a time, Afghanistan had a hockey team. The Kabul team would play other teams in India. India at the time also included all of what is now called Pakistan.

Bin Laden Now a Target in Arab Media
"Terrorists don't know the methods of rational, calm debate . . . terrorists impose darkness on the climate of the intellect because they try to force their backward ideas on public opinion under the veil of religious correctness. They construe religious thought to suit their political objectives to reach power." . . . "disfiguring religious tolerance with insane acts.

All Taliban in Kunduz Agree to Surrender
All Taliban forces in the besieged northern Afghan city of Kunduz have agreed to surrender

Broadcasting and Bombing
America's Message of Greed and Violence for Thanksgiving and Ramadan as We Leave the Children Behind

Criticism Over Aid Widens US Rift
Relations between Britain and the US fell to their lowest point since the 11 September attacks yesterday after Clare Short broke ranks to criticize heavily the American commitment to the humanitarian relief work in Afghanistan.

U.S. Feminists Applaud Afghan Women's March
"Women's rights supporters in the U.S. and abroad rejoiced at the news that Afghan women marched for their rights in Kabul this week

Afghan repair bill could pass $50 billion
The United Nations is hurriedly trying to put a price tag on the task of rebuilding Afghanistan after more than 20 years of war. [Editor: With George Bush (the senior) as a business partner in the bin Laden construction company, I wonder how much the Bush family stands to profit from this venture]

CIA in firm control of south Afghanistan
The appearances that the Northern Alliance is firmly on top in Afghanistan and that it is in a position to dictate terms to the United States may be deceptive, those in the know maintain.

Exposed : Vital clues to Taliban's guilt
In one house, seared to the floor in a fetal position, are the charred remains of three people locals say were part of Osama bin Laden's terrorist group Al Qaeda. A chunk of the American bomb that blasted through their roof sits to one side.

Why the US bombed al-Jazeera’s TV station
Just before the Northern Alliance marched into Kabul on Monday November 12, US armed forces dropped a 500-pound bomb on the studios of the popular Arab satellite TV station al-Jazeera (the Peninsula). No one was hurt, as the building was not occupied at the time by any of the 10 al-Jazeera journalists and technicians based there, a decision having already been taken to evacuate the building in advance of the Northern Alliance’s entry into Kabul. The same attack damaged nearby offices of the BBC and the Associated Press.