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: Peace Talks May Follow Ex-Taliban Mediators’ Plan
By Gareth Porter*
KABUL - If peace talks do ultimately begin between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban leadership, they may well follow a "road map" to a political settlement drawn up by a group of ex-Taliban officials who have been serving as intermediaries between the two sides.
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AFGHANISTAN: Iraq Lessons Ignored at Kabul Power Plant
By Pratap Chatterjee*
WASHINGTON - A diesel-fueled power plant, nearing completion just outside Kabul, demonstrates that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and its contractors have failed to learn lessons from identical mistakes in Iraq, despite clearly signposted advice from oversight agencies.
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POLITICS: US, Karzai Clash on Unconditional Talks with Taliban
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
KABUL - On the surface, it would seem unlikely that Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who presides over a politically feeble government and is highly dependent on the U.S. military presence and economic assistance, would defy the United States on the issue of peace negotiations with the leadership of the Taliban insurgency.
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U.S.: Obama Calls for More Development, Counterinsurgency Aid
By Jim Lobe and Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON - U.S. President Barack Obama Monday called on Congress to approve major increases over the coming months in global health, development, and counterinsurgency assistance as part of a record 3.8-trillion-dollar 2011 federal budget.
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AFGHANISTAN: US Night Raids and Secret Prisons Anger Civilians
By Mohammed A. Salih
WASHINGTON - An investigative report published on TomDispatch.com about U.S. forces' operations in Afghanistan paints a gruesome picture of surprise night raids, indiscriminate killing and random detention of civilians during those raids, as well as what appears to be widespread use of torture of Afghan detainees.
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AFGHANISTAN: Officials’ Optimism on Economy Belies Deep Poverty
By Killid Correspondents*
KABUL - Afghanistan may be one of the poorest countries in the world, but official figures do not quite paint a picture of a country deep in the throes of poverty and underdevelopment.
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U.S.: Obama Faces Increasingly Daunting Picture Overseas
Analysis by Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - While President Barack Obama's first State of the Union Address Wednesday night will almost certainly focus on the economy, unemployment, and other pressing domestic issues, an increasingly worrisome international situation is likely to be tugging at the back of his mind.
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POLITICS: U.S. Taking New Tack on Afghan Poppies
By Matthew Berger
WASHINGTON - Counter-narcotics and counterinsurgency often go hand-in-hand in Afghanistan, where the opium poppy trade bankrolls much of the Taliban's operations and greases political corruption.
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POLITICS: Behind Cautious Signal, a Decision for Afghan Peace Talks
By Gareth Porter*
KABUL - Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's very cautiously-worded support for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban leadership in an interview published Monday is only the first public signal of a policy decision by the Barack Obama administration to support a political settlement between the Hamid Karzai regime and the Taliban, an official of McChrystal's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) command has revealed in an interview with IPS.
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AFGHANISTAN: In Run-up to Meet, US, Britain Push Reconciliation
Analysis by Sananda Sahoo and Jim Lobe*
WASHINGTON - On the eve of a major international conference on Afghanistan, senior U.S. and British officials are hinting that they are more open to a political settlement with elements of the Taliban than at any time since Washington helped oust it from power nine years ago.
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RIGHTS: U.S. Names Bagram Prisoners, Withholds Details
By William Fisher
NEW YORK - After years of stonewalling, the U.S. Defence Department has released the names of people imprisoned at the notorious Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
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RIGHTS: British Govt to Release Documents on Gitmo Case

By William Fisher
NEW YORK - After months of denial, the British government has agreed to release secret documents that lawyers say could prove that MI5 agents were present during the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's torture of a British resident held by the U.S. government for eight years.
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U.S.: Suicide Rate Surged Among Veterans
By Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON - Suicides among United States military veterans ballooned by 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to new statistics released by the Veterans Affairs (VA) department.
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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.