RIGHTS-US: Afghan Prisoners Challenge Indefinite Detention

While the unsuccessful attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas day captured the headlines and put major political roadblocks in the path of prisoner release from Guantanamo Bay, the courts – far more quietly - continued to play a major role in influencing the detention issue.

MEDIA-US: Afghanistan Dominated TV Foreign News in 2009

Afghanistan and the U.S. military escalation in the civil war there dominated foreign-related news coverage by the three major U.S. television networks in 2009, according to the latest annual review by the authoritative Tyndall Report.

U.S.: Digging Out or Digging Deeper?

As 2009 draws to a close, the big question here is whether President Barack Obama is succeeding in digging out of the hole – international as well as financial - that he inherited from George W. Bush or digging deeper into it.

CORRUPTION: The Great Afghan Gem Heist

In the last eight years Afghanistan's precious stones and artifacts have been pillaged at record levels. Thieves, both foreign and domestic, often steal the riches from under the noses of officials.

POLITICS: U.S. Silent About Taliban Guarantee Offer on al Qaeda

The Barack Obama administration is refusing to acknowledge an offer by the leadership of the Taliban in early December to give "legal guarantees" that it will not allow Afghanistan to be used for attacks on other countries.

CANADA: “Cheek by Jowl” with U.S. on COIN in Afghanistan

July 2011 and beyond, no country will have been more closely integrated with U.S. President Barack Obama and Gen. Stanley McChrystal's counterinsurgency war in Afghanistan than the Canadians.

US: Soldiers Forced to Go AWOL for PTSD Care

With a military health care system over-stretched by two ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, more soldiers are deciding to go absent without leave (AWOL) in order to find treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

AFGHANISTAN: More Questions Than Answers

Last week President Obama made what is probably the most crucial announcement in the past five years of war.

US: Obama Launches Freedom of Information Initiative

Advocates for greater freedom of information are expressing approval of the Obama administration’s new ‘Open Government Directive’ - but some are sounding cautionary notes that executive agencies are still hiding behind "national security" to conceal government misconduct.

AFGHANISTAN: Troop Surge Spurs Obama’s Popularity

A poll released today finds that support among the United States public for President Barack Obama’s troop "surge" in Afghanistan has risen sharply since he delivered his speech last week. But, a plurality of the U.S. public do not believe Obama will follow through on his commitment to begin a withdrawal of U.S. forces in 18-months.

AFGHANISTAN: Gov’t and Donors Fail to Protect Women’s Rights

Attention over the past week has focused on United States President Barack Obama’s decision to "surge" troop levels in Afghanistan to 30,000 and begin a drawdown in 18-months, but a new report calls attention to the failure of the Afghanistan government and international donors to protect women’s rights.

US: Whistleblower Psychiatrist Warns of Soldier on Soldier Violence

Kernan Manion, a psychiatrist who was hired last January to treat Marines returning from war who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other acute mental health problems borne from their deployments, fears more soldier-on-soldier violence without radical changes in the current soldier health care system.

POLITICS: Pentagon’s War Pitch Belied by Taliban-Qaeda Conflict

U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen argued in Senate Testimony Wednesday that the 30,000- troop increase is necessary to prevent the Taliban from giving new safe havens to al Qaeda terrorists.

POLITICS: Neo-Cons Get Warm and Fuzzy Over “War President”

U.S. President Barack Obama's plan for a 30,000-troop surge and a troop withdrawal timeline beginning in 18 months has caught criticism from both Democrat and Republican lawmakers.

U.S.: Public Most Inward-Looking in 40 Years, Poll Finds

Despite President Barack Obama's emphasis on diplomatic engagement, the U.S. public has become more inward-looking and unilateralist than at any time since the early stages of the Vietnam War, according to the latest in a series of quadrennial surveys on foreign policy attitudes released Thursday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

U.S.: Obama’s Afghan Plan Has Something for Everyone… to Hate

President Barack Obama's speech Tuesday night at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point laid out his administration's plan to deploy an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan and start a phased withdrawal beginning in 18 months, but the plan has won the White House few supporters in either its own party or across the aisle.

US-AFGHANISTAN: Obama to Surge 30,000 Troops, With Deadline

In a highly anticipated speech Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama announced the dispatch of 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan over the next seven months and said he would begin drawing down the U.S. military presence there 12 months later.

U.S.: Obama Had Rejected His Own Speech’s Surge Rationale

President Barack Obama presented a case Tuesday for sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan that included both soaring rhetoric and a new emphasis on its necessity for U.S. national security.

Q&A: “Reconstruction Is Not Development as Usual”

National governments and the international community, the U.N. in particular, must rethink and debate the way post-conflict reconstruction is carried out, says a long-time U.N. expert and author.

POLITICS: Tajik Grip on Afghan Army Signals New Ethnic War

Contrary to the official portrayal of the Afghan National Army (ANA) as ethnically balanced, the latest data from U.S. sources reveal that the Tajik minority now accounts for far more of its troops than the Pashtuns, the country's largest ethnic group.

CANADA: Govt Stonewalls on Alleged Torture of Afghan Detainees

Canadians appear unlikely to get the entire story behind their military's transfer of Afghans captured in war to Afghan government authorities and possible torture.