Report: France to send 1,000 more troops to Afghanistan

Associated Press

March 22, 2008 at 9:20 AM EDT

LONDON — A British newspaper says French President Nicolas Sarkozy plans to announce next week that France will send 1,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.

London's The Times newspaper cites unnamed senior ministers as saying Mr. Sarkozy wants to demonstrate his commitment to the NATO alliance's Afghan mission during his two-day visit to London, which begins Friday.

One minister is quoted as saying Britain's Defence Ministry has made a working assumption Mr. Sarkozy will announce that “slightly more than 1,000 troops” are to be deployed to eastern Afghanistan.

Canada recently pledged to extend its mission in the dangerous southern region of Kandahar to 2011, on the condition that its NATO allies provide an additional 1,000 troops in the region.

The refusal of key European allies such as Germany, Italy and Spain to send forces to join Canada, Britain, the U-S and the Netherlands who are leading the fight in the south has led to months of ugly infighting within NATO.

France is widely expected to boost its role in Afghanistan beyond the 1,900 soldiers current there at a NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, on April 2-4. However, it's not yet clear whether the French soldiers will be sent to the south.

British and French defence ministries and the presidential Elysee Palace declined to comment on the report when contacted Saturday.

Dick Cheney Visits Afghanistan

By REUTERS

Filed at 6:37 a.m. ET

KABUL (Reuters) - Vice-President Dick Cheney visited Afghanistan on Thursday and met President Hamid Karzai ahead of a NATO summit where Washington will urge its allies to send more troops to the war-torn country.

NATO's Afghan mission is one of the toughest challenges faced by the 59-year-old alliance and has led to open differences among allies over strategy and troop levels.

Cheney said the mission of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan would be high on the agenda of the summit in Bucharest in early April.

"ISAF has made a tremendous difference in the country and America will ask our NATO allies for an even stronger commitment for the future," Cheney told a news conference in the Afghan capital, Kabul, where he made an unannounced visit.

"All free nations have an interest in a secure, democratic Afghanistan," he said.

ISAF has some 43,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting Taliban militants, who have regrouped since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the hardline Islamist movement from power after the September 11, 2001 attacks and relaunched their insurgency two years ago.

U.S. British, Canadian and Dutch troops are engaged in the bulk of the fighting in southern and eastern Afghanistan, while other NATO allies, notably France and Germany, have so far resisted U.S. pressure to allow their soldiers to operate outside the relative safety of the north of the country.

"The United States and the other members of the coalition need to have a sufficient force here to be able to ensure security to deal with the threat that's been represented by continuing activities by radicals and extremists, the likes of the Taliban and al Qaeda," Cheney said.

The U.S. vice president's last visit to Afghanistan was in February 2007, when a suicide bomber killed 14 people, including one U.S. and one South Korean soldier, in an attack on Bagram Air Base while Cheney was there.

The Taliban aims to wear down the will of NATO countries to carry on the fight in Afghanistan and force a withdrawal of foreign troops that would hand them a strategic victory.

U.S. SUPPORT "UNSHAKEABLE"

Already cracks are appearing in support for the war. Canada, with 2,500 troops in southern Afghanistan, wants NATO allies to provide another 1,000 soldiers to reinforce its combat forces as a condition for keeping its troops in the country.

Ordinary Afghans are also growing increasingly frustrated with the presence of foreign troops, the slow pace of development, official corruption and the lack of security.

Cheney said the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan was "firm and unshakeable," but the goal was for the Afghan army and police to take a greater role in providing security as time goes on.

The Afghan army currently has around 70,000 troops, but the Afghan Defence Ministry say a much larger force is needed.

The Afghan army is relatively well-trained and has taken a much greater role in fighting the Taliban over the last year, but the police lag far behind, are poorly trained, notoriously corrupt and often flee in the face of Taliban attacks.

"The continuation of NATO in Afghanistan is very, very important," Karzai told the news conference alongside Cheney at the heavily guarded presidential palace. "As the Afghan National Army gets stronger, there will be less pressure and responsibility on the foreign security forces."

Karzai and Cheney were also to discuss steps the Afghan government needs to take on fighting corruption and narcotics.

The country's raging illicit opium industry is the main factor driving corruption, with the illegal crop accounting for as much as a third of the entire economy. Afghanistan last year produced 93 percent of the world's opium, which is processed to make heroin, and efforts to curb the crop have largely failed.

Karzai and Cheney were also due to talk about Afghan parliamentary and presidential elections next year and discuss Pakistan in the wake of elections there and how the neighbors can work together to fight the common Taliban threat, a senior U.S. administration official said.

Cheney will also meet U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi; Writing by Jon Hemming; Editing by Alex Richardson)

The sabre-rattling on NAFTA is worrying, but take it as an opportunity

MICHAEL HART AND WILLIAM DYMOND

Globe and Mail Update

March 14, 2008 at 11:39 PM EDT

Thanks to some opportunistic electioneering in Ohio by the two Democratic hopefuls, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Canadian interests – specifically, the North American free-trade agreement (NAFTA) – briefly became an item in the U.S. presidential campaign. While the campaign has moved on, the Canadian chattering classes remain fixated on the apparent threat to NAFTA, with many voices urging the government not to let the Americans bully us into reopening the agreement. As former officials involved in the negotiation first of the Canada-U.S. free-trade Agreement (FTA) and then of NAFTA, we are gratified to see such solicitude for these two treaties. On closer examination, however, there is both more and less to this story.

First the “less.” No, the Clinton-Obama political pandering poses no serious threat to NAFTA. Ohio is a vote-rich and union-rich state, two facts of life that make it almost axiomatic that Democratic politicians would rattle some sabres on trade. Ohio is also part of the U.S. rust belt that is undergoing some serious adjustments to changing economic conditions. Highly paid, unionized manufacturing jobs in that region have been declining since the 1970s. International trade contributes to this trend, though it has also fuelled the growth of high technology, financial services and other sectors in the U.S. Other factors, notably technological change, are more important causes of the rapid economic adjustments. Trade, however, is the politically easiest target. In the case of Ohio, it is not trade inside NAFTA, but trade with China and other low-cost suppliers that is burrowing into its manufacturing base. If anything, NAFTA has helped prolong auto-industry and other manufacturing jobs, by providing a more integrated North American trade and investment environment.

The evolution of the Ohio economy – and that of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and other parts of the rust belt – is too complicated a story to be captured in the images and slogans that make up a political campaign. Politics is about simplifying complex problems and phenomena, and offering attractively packaged solutions. Claims that NAFTA is part of the problem and that it can be renegotiated to create a better balance fall easily from the mouths of candidates fighting for every delegate they can get.

But that prospect is not real, as Austan Goolsbee, Senator Obama's economic adviser, admitted in an unguarded moment to Canada's consul-general in Chicago. It is unreal for any number of reasons. First of all, the FTA/NAFTA regime is now approaching its third decade. Negotiations began in 1986, to respond to problems that had been recognized in the early 1980s. The FTA came into force in 1989, NAFTA in 1994. Both have now been fully implemented; all transitional arrangements have been exhausted. Opening up NAFTA would consequently be tantamount to going back to the 1980s. Too much adjustment and investment have taken place since then, in reliance on the agreement's rules. By targeting NAFTA, the two Democratic candidates are promising a better yesterday.
Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
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(Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail)
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* Discussion: NAFTA chatter a chance to make changes

The Globe and Mail

Senators Clinton and Obama insist their real concern has to do with the labour and environmental side agreements. Sen. Clinton seems to have conveniently forgotten that it was her husband and a Democratic Congress who insisted on these side agreements. They are integral parts of NAFTA and form part of the U.S. legislation that has implemented it. The environment pact has worked well, providing a spotlight on potential problems in the enforcement of domestic environmental laws. The labour pact has been less active, not because of its terms, but due to a lack of credible complaints. If the U.S. has serious proposals for updating these agreements, Canada should be prepared to look at them with an open mind.

So much for the less, what about the more? Is there anything Canadians should be worried about? Yes, there is.

IF THINGS GET UGLY

Washington is going through one of its periodic protectionist moods on trade and investment. For all their talk about reaching out more and working with their friends and allies after the Bush administration is gone, Democrats show little interest in enhancing the global role and image of the U.S., when they talk threateningly about unilateral actions on trade. If our neighbours elect a Democratic president, Senate and House on Nov. 4, things could get ugly, as a falling U.S. dollar, the credit crunch and serious troubles in the housing market add to recession anxieties.

The target for much of that ugliness will be China and other low-cost suppliers to the U.S. consumer market. Most Americans do not have much understanding of the role of these suppliers in maintaining U.S. economic activity. Both politicians and the public fail to realize the benefit of Chinese manufacturing goods produced to U.S. design and using U.S. technology. A recent University of California study found that, of an Apple iPod sold in the U.S. for $299, $160 goes to American companies that design, transport and retail iPods. Only $4 stays in China with the firms that assemble the devices.

Canada will not be a direct target of know-nothing economics that believes trade is bad and no trade is good. But we could be sideswiped. Canada needs open global markets for trade and investment. Protectionism directed against any country hurts our economy. To forestall protectionist sentiment in the U.S., Canadians need to take a serious look at the Canada-U.S. relationship and consider areas where there is scope for constructive, co-operative engagement with the next administration. We should do this, whoever is sworn in as president next Jan. 20.

The Canada-U.S. relationship has drifted for more than a decade. It came close to coming off the rails in the Martin years. Dialogue at the most senior levels of government almost ceased, as petulance and prickly self-righteousness became the salient characteristics of Canadian management of the relationship. The Harper government brought maturity and perspective, but it is still difficult to discern to what purpose the Prime Minister wants to put this civility. He urgently needs to fill that gap, and no later than the end of this year. Specifically, he needs to reconnect Canadian policy with Canadian interests. Ministers and officials, now devoting resources to minor trade agreements with minor trading partners – that includes the European Union – need to refocus their energy on matters that count. As it stands, to use a Texan saying, Canadian trade policy is “all hat and no cattle.”

THICKENING BORDER

Ideas and initiatives have always had to come from Canada because Americans do not devote a lot of thought to the Canada-U.S. relationship, and when they do come up with ideas, Canadians are quick to see these as threatening. It will be better for Canadians to begin mapping out what kind of agenda meets the interests of both countries. Finding an answer big enough to interest American politicians and not so big as to frighten Canadian politicians will tax the imagination of officials and others interested in Canadian public policy. In our view, Canadians need to work out a plan to deal with these concerns:

What steps can be taken to achieve a more open and more secure border for cross-border trade and investment? Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, the border has been thickening, to the detriment of trade.

What can we do together to promote our common interests in the security of the Arctic, the sustainable exploitation of Arctic energy supplies, and environmentally responsible navigation through Arctic waters? Russian and other claims in the high Arctic could be problems and need to be contained by well-thought-through efforts to establish a Canadian presence there. U.S. support will be critical.

What kind of legislative and other programs can we pursue in order to ensure long-term North American energy security?

What further steps can be taken to promote cross-border regulatory co-operation? As the two economies have become more integrated, small, incidental regulatory differences are adding to costs and reducing wealth-creating trade and investment opportunities.

What kind of institutional capacity do we need to have in place to facilitate and promote the governance of North American economic and security concerns and to ensure appropriate co-operation at the state/provincial and legislative levels?

What steps can we take to work together in promoting global peace, security and development, particularly in Afghanistan and other troubled states?

What do we need to do together to address global and cross-border environmental issues?

On some of these matters, direct bilateral interests are at stake. On others, we share values and goals that arise from our common humanity. Canadians like to make a difference in world affairs. The U.S. is the one country that has much in common with us and has the capacity and resources to make a major difference. We can be more effective if we work with the Americans, not at cross-purposes.

At one level, the sabre-rattling on NAFTA is worrisome. At another, it is a wakeup call and an opportunity. Let's seize it.

Michael Hart is Simon Reisman professor of trade policy at Carleton University's School of International Affairs. William Dymond is Senior Executive Fellow at Carleton's Centre for Trade Policy and Law. Both are former federal officials.

Judge sides with Khadr defence team

OMAR EL AKKAD

Globe and Mail Update

March 14, 2008 at 3:49 PM EDT

A U.S. military judge has sided with Omar Khadr's defence team and ordered that a senior U.S. officer be deposed before Mr. Khadr's trial begins.

In a ruling issued Friday, Army Colonel Peter Brownback sided with the defence on five motions, granting Mr. Khadr's lawyers more access to a variety of information the prosecution had until now refused to hand over.

One of the most important rulings regarded a U.S. officer named "Lieutenant Colonel W.," who wrote a report about the 2001 Afghanistan firefight where Mr. Khadr is alleged to have killed a U.S. soldier. In a copy of the report dated the day after the firefight, the Lt.-Col. wrote that the U.S. soldier's attacker was subsequently killed by other soldiers.

In an almost identical copy of the report written several months later, that reference is altered to say that the U.S. soldier's attacker was only "engaged" by other soldiers, implying the attacker — alleged to be a then-15-year-old Mr. Khadr — lived.

Because of the discrepancy in the two reports, Mr. Khadr's defence team asked for access to the Lt.-Col. so he could be questioned before the trial begins. Over the objections of the prosecution, Judge Brownback agreed with the defence, saying the taking of testimony "is in the interests of justice."

The judge also ruled that the prosecution must provide to the defence a list of all personnel who interrogated Mr. Khadr. If the defence wishes to interview any of those personnel, the judge ruled, the prosecution must provide a phone number and time for such an interview.

The prosecution was also ordered to make available to the defence any notes taken by interrogators and other government agents during all interrogations of Mr. Khadr dating back to 27 July, 2002 — the day of the Afghanistan firefight during which Mr. Khadr was captured.

Despite the string of victories, Mr. Khadr's defence team is complaining that the prosecution is stalling the release of certain documents to the public. Friday's judge's decisions came as a result of several motions filed by the defence. However, those motions, which contain more details about certain allegations and evidence, have not yet been made public. Mr. Khadr's lawyers argue that's because the prosecution is hoping to release the documents after the current bout of media attention to the case dies down.

Lawyers were set to leave Guantanamo Bay on Friday afternoon, and are not officially due back until May. However it is expected that the two sides will be back in court at Guantanamo Bay arguing over more discovery motions next month.

Mr. Khadr faces several charges before a U.S. military commission here. The most serious of the charges is murder. If convicted, the 21-year-old could face life in prison.

Following the revelation that a U.S. military report on the firefight was altered, Mr. Khadr's case was raised in Question Period in Ottawa Friday morning. In response, the Conservative government repeated the same position they have previously stated on the case: the charged against Mr. Khadr are very serious and the government has received assurances he is being treated humanely.

Afghanistan: Mobile-Phone Towers Are Taliban's New Target

Local officials in Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province said gunmen destroyed a mobile-phone tower in the Sangin district on March 2.



It follows two attacks on telecommunication towers in neighboring Kandahar Province on February 29 and March 1 after a Taliban demand that all telephone signals be turned off during the evening and overnight.

Taliban militants ordered mobile-phone operators last week to switch off their networks from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. each day. The insurgents say U.S. and NATO forces track the Taliban through their phone signals and then launch attacks on their hiding places.

Many military operations against Taliban leaders have been conducted by the U.S.-led forces at night.

But many Afghans, including politicians, dismiss the Taliban's justification for attacking the mobile phone sector as "meaningless."

Legislator Shurkiya Barekzai says that by attacking the towers the Taliban wants to damage Afghanistan's economy. She says the Taliban claims that coalition and Afghan forces tracking their forces via mobile signals "does not make any sense."

"I don't think [tracking the militants via signals] is the main reason, because if Afghan and international forces want to attack they could attack during the day, too," Barekzai says. "But we should remember that these mobile networks are crucially important for ordinary Afghans. People need and use them."

The mobile towers that came under attack belonged to the Roshan and Areeba companies.

The People Need Them

As almost the only means of communications in Afghanistan, cell phones have become increasingly popular all over the country. They were widely introduced in Afghanistan after the Western-backed government took power following the defeating of the Taliban in 2001.

The telecommunications industry is considered one of the fastest-growing and most profitable sectors of the Afghan economy. Four main telecom operators provide coverage to even the most remote corners of Afghanistan.

Destruction of the telecommunication towers will affect thousands of phone users in southern Afghanistan, including the Taliban fighters themselves, who rely on mobile phones for communications.

But communications experts say the demolition of the towers will not have a significant impact on the U.S.-led military forces, since they can use satellites and other means to pick up phone signals without depending on the phone companies.

Mobile users in Kandahar's many districts have complained that they did not have phone signals over the past two days.

Barekzai tells RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that depriving people of their principal means of communication would only further alienate the militants from the general Afghan population.

Many regions in Afghanistan do not even have access to regular mail service, landline phones, or the Internet, and therefore almost entirely depend on cell phones to communicate.

Police sources in Kandahar Province said security was tightened near the mobile towers after the Taliban attacks.

Some influential local tribal leaders have also offered to help protect such areas.

Abdul Ahad-Khan Masum, a tribal leader in Kandahar's Kajaki district, where a mobile tower was torched by militants, says that his people can protect the towers "if we are given the authority.

But he adds that "during the past 30 years, different powers have only been playing with the tribal leaders -- instead of benefiting from our influence. If the government and relevant authorities give us a chance, I think this issue [of protecting the mobile towers] would be solved, too."

It is not the first time the Taliban has challenged cell-phone companies in Afghanistan. In the past, the militants have accused mobile-phone operators of closely cooperating with U.S. and NATO troops. However, they did not carry out any of their threats until now.

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Norias Nori contributed to this report

Canada urged to double troop strength

In absence of NATO reinforcements, Canadian commander seeks brigade of 5,000 to keep Taliban at bay in Kandahar province

GRAEME SMITH

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

KHAKREZ, Afghanistan — Canada needs as many as 5,000 professional NATO soldiers — double its current force — to hold Kandahar's key districts, a senior commander says, suggesting that previous demands for extra troops are not enough for basic security in the province.

"If countries like Germany and France were not so afraid of committing forces, this problem would be solved readily," Major Richard Moffet, deputy commander of Canada's battle group, said in an interview.

He listed five Kandahar districts and suggested Canada needs to double its current troop strength of 2,500 to keep the Taliban away from those important areas.

"Easily you could have a brigade of 5,000 Canadians here just for Zhari, Panjwai, Arghandab, Shah Wali Kot and Khakrez, because to be honest, we haven't been to a few places in Panjwai yet," he said.

Military officials have spoken more bluntly about their lack of numbers recently, in private conversations and even publicly at meetings with Afghans.

Tribal elders from the mountainous district of Khakrez complained last week that NATO has failed to prevent the Taliban from running amok in the northern part of the province.

Nodding his head gravely, a Canadian officer told the elders they're right.

"We don't have enough troops," Colonel Christian Juneau said.

The frustration among elders in Khakrez district is only the latest symptom of what appears to be a sharp deterioration in security in the outlying parts of the province in the past year, as the overstretched Canadian forces have drawn back into core districts.

The military says Taliban ambushes have decreased in four of 17 districts in Kandahar city, the key zone where the Canadians focused their operations during the latest rotation of troops. But the military has so far refused to give statistics for all types of insurgent activity, including ambushes, and has kept the numbers for the entire province a secret.

A hint of the military's view of the province came during an interview this week with Lieutenant-Colonel Gilles Linteau, commander of the Joint Provincial Co-ordination Centre, a liaison hub between security forces.

"The number of incidents has doubled, if not more, in Kandahar," he told The Globe and Mail, suggesting that this estimate applies to the period since September of 2006.

Asked for clarification of the figures, however, Lt.-Col. Linteau later sent an e-mail saying the military cannot give details.

An average increase in attacks across the province would suggest a markedly worse situation in the villages and suburbs, because most analysts agree that downtown Kandahar enjoyed some relief in 2007 from the onslaught of insurgent strikes that terrorized urban areas in the previous year.

Anecdotes from beyond the city limits seem to confirm the trend; soon after Canadian and Afghan officials climbed out of their helicopters and crunched across the snow to the chilly cement building that serves as the Khakrez administrative centre, they heard a litany of bad news.

"As soon as the snow leaves the ground, the Taliban will come and force people to join them," said Shah Wali, a member of the Achakzai tribe, which usually supports the government. "What should we do?"

The 45-year-old with deep creases in his face said he took a risk by travelling from his village to meet the Canadian delegation, and he will be forced to invent a story to conceal the reason for his visit to the district centre. The Taliban might kill him for merely speaking with representatives of the Kabul government, he said.

The district has also grown dangerous for Malim Akbar Khan Khakrezwal, a former intelligence chief for Kandahar and now a leading tribal elder. His connections with the government have marked him, he said, and it's been impossible to visit the district for the past eight months.

"Six years ago we had only a few Taliban supporters in Khakrez," the retired major-general said. "Now we have a great number of them."

Pointing to white-capped mountains northeast of the town, he declared that the Taliban have camps in that direction where they're preparing insurgents for the next fighting season.

In the same direction, amid the same mountains about 70 kilometres north of Kandahar city, the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry established an outpost known as the Gumbad Platoon House in the spring of 2006. They spent several months patrolling the craggy northern reaches of the province, but Canada's regular forces abandoned the place later that summer as all available troops returned to the heart of the province for a battle with Taliban on the outskirts of Kandahar city.

No regular troops have returned to set up outposts in the area. In the meantime, the Taliban are believed to have gained stronger influence in the district, and the local inhabitants seem to have grown deeply skeptical about the government. When the provincial police chief stood in front of the assembled elders and declared they should support the "free and independent Muslim government," there was an uneasy rustling in the crowd, as people coughed and spit, and several men sitting near the front murmured, "No, no, no."

After the police chief's speech, Col. Juneau took the microphone and tried to explain why the district hasn't seen many troops for the past two years.

"The province of Kandahar is very big," the deputy commander of all Canadian forces in Afghanistan said. "We cannot provide security over the whole province at once."

But expanding the NATO presence into districts such as Khakrez will require a dramatic increase in the number of troops, military officials say.

Even more than 5,000 NATO troops may be required for the province, Major Moffet said, because beyond the troops needed for the core districts, NATO would also require forces to intercept the Taliban's supply routes in outlying areas.

Emphasizing that the assessment was only his personal opinion, Major Moffet said he would prefer to see the extra soldiers come from a single major country, rather than piecemeal from several contributors.

Continued increases in Afghan troops levels are also important, he added.

The problem with contributions from smaller NATO countries is that each group of soldiers would come with its own logistics personnel, the deputy commander said.

"If any country says, 'Okay we're going to provide 300 soldiers,' well, okay, how many fighters? A hundred and fifty? No, no, no. Send a battle group."

Germany has thousands of troops in northern Afghanistan but so far refuses to send them into the southern war. France is reportedly considering a major contribution of troops to Kandahar, however, and in recent weeks French soldiers have been increasingly conspicuous at Kandahar Air Field.

Canada has demanded an extra 1,000 NATO soldiers in Kandahar as the price for the extension of the Canadian operation, but the need for additional forces described by Major Moffet and other military officials goes far beyond that request.

More soldiers would mean fewer NATO casualties and less reliance on air strikes, Major Moffet said; air power can help the foreign troops when they're outnumbered by insurgents, but aerial bombings are frequently blamed for civilian casualties.

Having led some of Canada's biggest operations against the Taliban over the past six months, Major Moffet said he's convinced that his call for more troops does not resemble the ill-fated demands for troop increases of the Vietnam War.

"Honestly, I don't have the feeling that we're losing," he said. "All we need is a bit more cohesion at the NATO level and this problem would be solved."

The Department of National Defence was unavailable for comment.

Secret files against terror suspects revealed

COLIN FREEZE and TU THANH HA AND OMAR EL AKKAD

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

February 23, 2008 at 1:07 PM EST

The case against a group of Canadians sometimes referred to as "the Secret Trial Five" isn't as secret as it used to be.

Ottawa unveiled more specific allegations against the five terrorism suspects yesterday: for example, that one suspect called the satellite phone of al-Qaeda's second-in-command, and that another was in charge of a group of training camp recruits in Afghanistan.

In hundreds of pages of court documents yesterday, Canadian ministers signed new security certificates against alleged members of the al-Qaeda network. In doing so, the government narrowly beat a date imposed by the Supreme Court for the previous certificates to expire.

The controversial measure is intended to be used to jail and deport Canada's most dangerous non-citizens through court proceedings where the defendants are not allowed to hear all of the evidence against them.

The new process will still involve some court hearings the suspects can't attend, but to make the process fairer and more constitutional, the government yesterday appointed 13 "special advocate" lawyers to represent the suspects.

Federal Court judges have already ruled that the five suspects are likely threats who, for the most part, lied in court about their travels and associates. One suspect remains jailed while the rest are under strict house arrest. Fears that the suspects would be tortured abroad continue to stymie efforts to deport them.

Government officials did not say yesterday why they are now revealing more about the allegations against the men. Among the details the government apparently kept up its sleeve for years: 

* Syrian Hassan Almrei, accused of document forgery, is alleged to have gained access to a restricted area at Toronto's Pearson Airport in September, 1999. "Almrei and the five individuals appeared to have access cards and codes for a restricted access building on the [Pearson] grounds," the documents state.

* Egyptian Mahmoud Jaballah, long alleged to be a communications conduit for terrorist cells involved in the 1998 African embassy bombings, is said to have "communicated closely" with Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda No. 2. The new documents indicate that conversations Mr. Jaballah had in Canada were recorded, including ones in which he referred to Mr. al-Zawahiri as "the father" and dialled his satellite phone.

* A Moroccan, Adil Charkaoui, is said to have admitted to CSIS that fellow Montrealer Abderraouf Hannachi — who sent the so-called millennium bomber, Ahmed Ressam, to Afghan training camps — sent him there too. The court documents say that Mr. Charkaoui didn't just attend a terrorist training camp but was also in charge of recruits.An Egyptian who has admitted working for Osama bin Laden in Africa, Mohamed Zeki Mahjoub, was allegedly fingered as a high-level terrorist by another Egyptian security certificate detainee, Mr. Jaballah. "On Nov. 16, 1996, Jaballah disclosed that he and Mahjoub once worked alongside each other 'over there.' And that he [Jaballah] regards Mahjoub as a shrewd and manipulative individual." 

* An alleged Algerian sleeper agent, Mohamed Harkat, is said to have been overheard making ominous remarks. "In February, 1998, Harkat stated that he had to keep a 'low profile' as he needed status in Canada. Further Harkat said that as soon as he received his 'status' he would be 'ready,' which the (Crown) concludes meant that Harkat would be prepared to undertake a jihad in support of Islamic terrorism."

The charge sheets make no reference to earlier allegations made by Abu Zubaydah, a Guantanamo Bay detainee, who was recently revealed to have been interrogated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency using harsh methods.

Compared with the earlier cases, the charge sheets filed yesterday include more references to Canadian Security Intelligence Service spy methods, including telecommunications intercepts.

The government also announced yesterday that a sixth man, who was being held as an alleged Tamil Tiger terrorist, will no longer be subject to a security certificate. "The government of Canada has decided not to reissue a security certificate to [Manickavasagam] Suresh at this point," Mélisa Leclerc, a spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, said in a statement. She said the government is eyeing other legal measures.

Mr. Suresh was arrested in 1995. He brought a landmark case before the Supreme Court that resulted in a ruling that made it harder for Canada to deport immigrants to countries that practice torture.

Last year, Mr. Charkaoui's name was affixed to a Supreme Court ruling that parts of the old security certificate regime violated the Charter of Rights. The court gave the government one year to fix the law. Yesterday was the last working day before the court deadline.

The 13 "special advocates" that the new law created include many veterans of judicial inquiries who've fought government secrecy.

How Panjwai slipped out of control

Bitter dispute between police forces gives Taliban upper hand in district where Canadians were slain

GRAEME SMITH

From Friday's Globe and Mail

July 6, 2007 at 4:06 AM EDT

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Afghan police fought deadly battles against their own colleagues from the intelligence service in Panjwai recently, local officials say, in a bloody example of the chaos that has partly unravelled security in a district where six Canadians died this week.

In the hours after an explosion engulfed a Canadian troop carrier in Panjwai on Wednesday, military commanders described the attack as an exception to the success they have enjoyed in the district. Panjwai has been largely pacified, Canadian officials say, by a year of intense military effort and millions of dollars in aid.

"This part of Afghanistan, the Panjwai area, is one of the safer areas in the province," Brigadier-General Tim Grant said of the latest deaths.

But parts of the district are falling back into Taliban hands, locals say, after security duties were handed to a ragtag police force that quickly found itself overwhelmed by a lack of supplies and reduced to banditry for survival.
Brig-Gen. Tim Grant, the commander of the Canadian contingent in Afghanistan, relays the news that six Canadian soldiers were killed in the Panjwai district of Kandahar on Wednesday.

The 05 Police Standby Battalion, a reserve unit, became notorious for corruption and desertions soon after it deployed to Panjwai this spring. The police unit also marked a new low point in the recent history of policing in the region when a police commander revived an old feud with an official from the National Directorate for Security, the Afghan intelligence agency.

The personal dispute spiralled into open warfare between the two law-enforcement agencies around the villages of Mushan and Talokan in recent weeks, according to police who survived the battles, and village elders from the district.

At one point, officers from the 05 Battalion say they were besieged in a concrete outpost and watched three of their friends die slowly of gunshot wounds, unable to take them to hospital as they remained trapped for days by hostile fire.

Dozens have been reported killed or injured in the fighting, although it's unclear how many of the casualties were the result of internecine warfare and how many were caused by Taliban fighters returning to take advantage of the feud between government forces.

Ismatullah, a young police commander, said his 05 Battalion unit was assigned in April to take over security in Mushan, about 50 kilometres southwest of Kandahar city. By his own admission, Ismatullah says his men quickly resorted to thievery to supply themselves with things in short supply: money, food, bullets and fuel.

Even their outpost was taken by force, he said, describing how his police chased away a family that had been living in an abandoned clinic and turned it into a small fort.

Ismatullah says his unit contained 40 officers when they arrived in Mushan, but he now commands only a handful of men after 14 died, five were injured, and others ran away.

What remains of his group pulled back last month to the village of Zangabad, where the fighting continues, he said.

"I haven't slept in two days," he said, during a visit to Kandahar city for supplies. "We are ambushed every night. We have enemies from both sides, Taliban and government. It's a bad position."

Ismatullah's mobile phone rang as he talked and he quickly excused himself. Fighting had resumed, he said, and he needed to help his men.

Another police commander from the 05 Battalion, a middle-aged former mujahedeen fighter named Obidullah, said his unit in Zangabad has suffered similar losses. He commanded 50 police earlier this year, he said, but deaths and desertions have left him with 20 men.

The government hasn't given him enough supplies for any part of his job, he said; he even lacked money to give his fallen comrades a proper burial. But the biggest concern facing the local police is the infighting, he said.

"This is a big problem when two arms of the government fight each other," Obidullah said. "The Taliban take advantage of this."

The recent battles in Mushan started without any Taliban involvement, Obidullah said: The conflict was only between tribal relatives of two factions who held grudges dating back to the 1980s. But the infighting weakened the government forces and insurgents were able to seize the western edge of the district, he said.

The feud started with two commanders of the mujahedeen - holy warriors - who fought the Russians together but then squabbled over control of checkpoints around Kandahar after the Soviet retreat, said Haji Abdul Rahim Jan, a local tribal elder.

Both of the mujahedeen have long since died, Mr. Jan said, but their loyal followers Mohammed Azim and Abdul Ghafar continued the feud even after both enlisted as commanders of pro-government forces, Mr. Azim in the police and Mr. Ghafar in the intelligence service.

The NDS has now imprisoned Mr. Azim, the tribal elder said, and the policeman's family continues the feud. Pashtun culture contains a strong imperative for revenge, and Mr. Jan expressed concern that the dispute could grow into a tribal conflict.

"The tribes aren't involved right now, but they could be pulled in," he said.

Lieutenant-Colonel Rob Walker, Canada's battle group commander, said in a recent interview that he knows the 05 Battalion has struggled. The district has grown more restive since early June, he said, but it's hard to tell why the police have suffered so many casualties.

"They started getting hit," he said. "Was it because they were extorting people? Was it because they're soft targets for the Taliban?"

6 Canadians killed in Afghanistan

The Taliban takes responsibility for the attack on the troops, which also killed their interpreter.
From Times Staff and Wire Reports

July 5, 2007

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN — Six Canadian soldiers and their interpreter were killed Wednesday in southern Afghanistan when their armored vehicle hit a roadside bomb, officials said.

In a separate incident, the German government said one of its citizens had been kidnapped in Afghanistan.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the deadliest attack on Canadian troops since April, when six were killed in a similar incident.

The troops and their interpreter were returning from a joint operation with the Afghan army when their armored vehicle hit the device in the Panjwai district about 13 miles southwest of Kandahar, where Canada's 2,600-troop contingent is based.

Sixty-six Canadian troops and a diplomat have died since Ottawa sent forces to Afghanistan in late 2002.

"As with every attack, we will look at what has happened and will decide at that time if there is something we need to do to increase the protection for our soldiers," Brig. Gen. Tim Grant, head of Canadian forces in the country, said in a televised news conference in Kandahar.

Late last month, three Canadians died in Panjwai when their supply vehicle triggered a roadside bomb.

Canadian critics say their country's effort, which is scheduled to continue until February 2009, is focused too much on fighting and not enough on rebuilding Afghanistan.

In Berlin, German officials said the German citizen had been missing since last Thursday.

The ZDF television network reported that the man, who worked on road construction projects, had been in Afghanistan for several years and was kidnapped with his interpreter in the southwest province of Farah. It quoted sources in the German Foreign Ministry as saying that negotiations with the kidnappers would take place today.

About 3,200 German soldiers are based in northern Afghanistan near the city of Kunduz.

In May, a poll published in Germany's leading weekly, Der Spiegel, indicated that 56% of Germans favored withdrawing the country's soldiers from Afghanistan. The interviews were done two days after three German soldiers died in a suicide attack in Kunduz.

In February, German citizens Hannelore Krause and her Iraqi-born son, Sinan, were taken hostage in Iraq. Kidnappers threatened to kill them if German troops were not withdrawn from Afghanistan. The two still are being held.