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

By Mar 16
Afghanistan Spy Contract Goes Sour for Pentagon - Part 1 - Mike Furlong, a top Pentagon official, is alleged to have run a covert network of contractors to supply information for drone strikes and assassinations in Afghanistan and Pakistan for the U.S. government.
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POLITICS

By Mar 15
Policy Battle over Afghan Peace Talks Intensifies - The struggle within the Barack Obama administration over Afghanistan policy entered a new phase when the president suggested at a meeting of his "war cabinet" Friday that it might be time to start negotiations with the Taliban, according to a report in the New York Times Saturday.
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POLITICS

By Mar 8
Fiction of Marja as City Was U.S. Information War - For weeks, the U.S. public followed the biggest offensive of the Afghanistan War against what it was told was a "city of 80,000 people" as well as the logistical hub of the Taliban in that part of Helmand. That idea was a central element in the overall impression built up in February that Marja was a major strategic objective, more important than other district centres in Helmand.
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AFGHANISTAN

By Mar 3
Traffickers Step Up Import of Heroin-Making Chemicals - Drug traffickers are increasing imports of precursor chemicals used for processing opium poppy into heroin and morphine, according to a new State Department report released here Monday.
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US-AFGHANISTAN

By Mar1
Habeas Challenges for Bagram Prisoners - Four men who have been imprisoned for over a year – some for almost two years – are going to U.S. federal court to challenge their detention at the notorious Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
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POLITICS

By Feb 28
Defying U.S., Pakistan Keeps Custody of Baradar - The refusal of Pakistani intelligence to turn over Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and as many as six other top Taliban figures to the United States or the Afghan government has dealt a serious blow to the Barack Obama administration's hopes for Pakistani cooperation in weakening the Taliban.
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U.S.

By Feb 28
Blackwater's Migraines Multiply - Legal headaches are growing exponentially for the security firm formerly known as Blackwater – once the darling of the military-industrial community.
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U.S.

By Feb 27
DynCorp Oversight in Afghanistan Faulted - Afghan police are widely considered corrupt, unable to shoot straight, and die at twice the rate of Afghan soldiers and NATO troops. After seven billion dollars spent on training and salaries in the last eight years, several U.S. government investigations are asking why.
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AFGHANISTAN

By Feb 23
Marja Offensive Aimed to Shape U.S. Opinion on War - Senior military officials decided to launch the current U.S.-British military campaign to seize Marja in large part to influence domestic U.S. opinion on the war in Afghanistan, the Washington Post reported Monday.
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POLITICS

By Feb 22
Air Strike on Civilians Reverberates Beyond Afghanistan - Amid growing European discontent over the war in Afghanistan, the head of U.S. and NATO forces apologised Monday for an air strike that killed at least 27 civilians in the central part of the country Sunday.
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POLITICS

By Feb 18
Jailed Taliban Leader Still a Pakistani Asset - Contrary to initial U.S. suggestions that it signals reduced Pakistani support for the Taliban, the detention of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the operational leader of the Afghan Taliban, represents a shift by Pakistan to more open support for the Taliban in preparation for a peace settlement and U.S. withdrawal.
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US-PAKISTAN

By Feb 16
Baradar Capture Signals Closer Intelligence Cooperation - The capture of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar last week in a joint operation conducted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) represents the most important Taliban leader to be taken into custody since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
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U.S.

By Feb 15
Mandated Oversight Missing in Afghan Contracts - Lack of oversight of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) contractors in Afghanistan is not a new story.
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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.