Afghan Divide - regular coverage from the ground of the war-torn country by Afghan journalists for an international audience

IPS investigative series on local Afghans who have been abandoned or poorly treated by a complex web of U.S. contractors, their insurance companies, and their military counterparts despite years of service risking life and limb to help the U.S. military in the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

Mission Essential, Translators Expendable

Military Translators Risk Low Pay, Death

Pratap Chatterjee’s
report for CorpWatch

POLITICS-US: Obama Struggles to Regain Early Momentum
Analysis by Eli Clifton and Daniel Luban
WASHINGTON - The United States Congress returns to work Tuesday after a turbulent summer recess that has raised doubts over President Barack Obama's ability to face down domestic opposition from Republicans and enforce party cohesion on issues ranging from healthcare reform to troop commitments in the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan.
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POLITICS-US: Gates Sells Afghan Strategy Amid Growing Unease
By Stephen Morris
WASHINGTON - U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Michael Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) remained tight-lipped about the contents of a confidential report on the future of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan in a wide-ranging Pentagon briefing on Thursday.
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AFGHANISTAN: Best Left Alone for Democracy to Grow
By Melek Zimmer-Zahine*
KABUL - If the numerous foreign diplomats, envoys and super envoys assigned to Afghanistan really want to help the country, the best thing they can do during these vote counting and election-fraud investigation days and maybe weeks ahead is to go on vacation.
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POLITICS: Taliban's Tank-Killing Bombs Came from U.S., Not Iran
By Gareth Porter
WASHINGTON - In support of the official U.S. assertion that Iran is arming its sworn enemy, the Taliban, the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Dennis Blair, has cited a statement by a Taliban commander last year attributing military success against NATO forces to Iranian military assistance.
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/CORRECTED REPEAT*/AFGHANISTAN: Poll Fraud Probe Will Decide Runoff
By Lal Aqa Sherin*
KABUL - Partial results in Afghanistan's presidential polls tend to favour President Hamid Karzai with Abdullah Abdullah, former foreign minister, trailing in second place. Kabul lawmaker Ramazan Basherdost who is at third place, seems to have garnered more votes than former World Bank economist, Dr. Ashraf Ghani.
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KYRGYZSTAN: A New Great Game Begins
By Zoltán Dujisin
BISHKEK - A U.S. base located just 40km from a Russian base - it can happen in Kyrgyzstan, a new focal point in the great geopolitics of Central Asia where China and Turkey are beginning to show their cards as well.
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POLITICS-US: Prominent Conservative Calls for Afghanistan Pullout
By Daniel Luban
WASHINGTON - A prominent right-wing political pundit has called for the U.S. to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, the latest sign of a growing disenchantment with the war in the U.S.
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POLITICS-US: Afghan Elections Reveal Growing Doubts About War*
By Daniel Luban
WASHINGTON - Washington continues to wait on results from last week's elections in Afghanistan, but few analysts here expect the outcome to provide much of a boost to the U.S.-backed campaign against the Taliban, regardless of who wins.
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RIGHTS-US: CIA Probe Should Go Farther, Groups Say
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - Attorney General Eric Holder's decision Monday to investigate whether interrogators from the Central Intelligence Agency or its contractors violated any federal laws in applying "enhanced interrogation techniques" to detainees in U.S. custody overseas triggered immediate criticism from human rights advocates and appeared to widen the partisan divide between Republicans and Democrats.
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RIGHTS-US: Justice to Probe Detainee Abuses
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - The issue of detainee interrogation and abuse – lately eclipsed by the debate over U.S. health care reform – bubbled back to the surface Monday in a number of headline-making developments.
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POLITICS: "Cautious Optimism" In U.S. About Afghan Elections
By Danielle Kurtzleben
WASHINGTON - Security and diplomacy experts here are calling Thursday's polls in Afghanistan relatively successful, though they caution that the ultimate success of the elections in terms of security and legitimacy is yet to be seen.
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AFGHANISTAN: Stolen Land and Political Power
By Lal Aqa Sherin*
KABUL - Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission says that in the last seven months they have received 12 complaints about stolen land. The complaints cover the map, ranging from Wardak, Panjsher and Kapisa, to Parwan and Kabul.
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AFGHANISTAN: Near-Epidemic of Land and Home Theft
By Lal Aqa Sherin*
KABUL - Afghans are queuing up Thursday to vote in an election that could give President Hamid Karzai a second term. Still, many among them could be wondering if democracy is working for the majority of people.
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After working to strengthen independent media in Afghanistan for three years, IPS has teamed up with The Killid Group (TKG) and Pajhwok Afghan News (PAN) in 2007 to provide regular coverage from the ground of the war-torn country by Afghan journalists for an international audience. The partnership is a continuation of IPS's commitment to support local Afghan media, which has emerged as a platform for both debate and dissemination among the general public of diverse ideas, views and concerns about the country's past, present and future. And enhance pluralistic democracy by giving voice to Afghan citizens and civil society.