Free Republic

KABUL, Afghanistan — As country director for the International Monetary Fund, Wabel Abdallah spent years navigating the shoals of scandal in Afghanistan’s financial sector. Vadim Nazarov, a top political officer at the United Nations, dedicated himself over the past nine years to looking for a peaceful solution to the Afghan war. Dhamender Singh Phangurha, a British candidate in the coming elections for the European Parliament, was here on a consulting contract. All three happened to be dining Friday at a popular Lebanese restaurant in downtown Kabul, where they were among 21 people killed in an attack for which the Taliban...

Friday, The Times' Greg Miller and Julian E. Barnes reported that the United States has escalated its war against Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies by "deploying Predator aircraft equipped with sophisticated new surveillance systems that were instrumental in crippling the insurgency in Iraq." It's a story whose significance may extend well beyond the benighted hills and valleys of Pakistan's violent Pashtun hinterlands and onto the hustings of our current presidential campaign. Coupled with Thursday's report in the New York Times that President Bush has signed a secret order permitting Afghanistan-based U.S. special operations forces to cross into Pakistan without...

Pakistan order to kill US invaders Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | September 13, 2008 KEY corps commanders of Pakistan's 600,000-strong army issued orders last night to retaliate against "invading" US forces that enter the country to attack militant targets. The move has plunged relations between Islamabad and Washington into deep crisis over how to deal with al-Qa'ida and the Taliban What amounts to a dramatic order to "kill the invaders", as one senior officer put it last night, was disclosed after the commanders - who control the army's deployments at divisional level - met at their headquarters in the...

U.S. Says Iran-backed Groups Using Secret Arms Stores February 17, 2008 Reuters Mohammed Abbas The U.S. military said on Sunday it had evidence Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias in Iraq were increasingly using secret weapons stores to attack U.S. and Iraqi forces. The accusation comes days after Tehran postponed talks with the United States on improving security in Iraq for "technical reasons", a move that prompted rebukes from U.S. officials. "In just the past week, Iraqi and coalition forces captured 212 weapons caches across Iraq, two of those inside Baghdad, (which have) growing links to Iranian-backed special groups," military spokesman Real Admiral...

WELLINGTON -- New Zealand said on Monday it would send a warship and an air force surveillance plane to join a multinational task force in Middle East waters, but played down any link to possible U.S.-led action against Iraq. A frigate would be sent immediately to join the Canadian-led coalition task group patrolling the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman as part of the campaign against the Taleban and Al- Qaeda, Prime Minister Helen Clark told reporters. Early next year a P3 Orion Maritime surveillance plane would join the operation. There was a continuing threat of international terrorism and a...