Hanan Habibzai

By Nicole Colson    '' Source:  International.to News'' CHICAGO (IDN) - The U.S. war and occupation of Afghanistan was supposed to bring stability and democracy. Instead, Afghanistan remains a country on the brink of disaster – one that has clearly been exacerbated by the U.S. presence. More than 10 years after the U.S. war began, in spite of the presence of about 2,000 international aid groups, at least $3.5 billion in humanitarian funds and $58 billion in development assistance, humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan remain abysmal. This past winter, one of the harshest in recent years, compounded the suffering of those living in refugee camps – an estimated 35,000 people just in the capital of Kabul, and many more around the country. The camps, according to the New York Times , are euphemistically referred to as "informal settlements," because labeling them as what they really are, camps full of war refugees, is "politically se...

By Stephen Lendman In all US war theaters, troops commit unspeakable atrocities. Trained to dehumanize enemies, their mission involves killing, destruction, and much more. Local treasures are looted. Women are raped. Civilians are treated like combatants. Children are indiscriminately harmed like adults. Prisoners are tortured. Mutilations are common. Crimes of war and against humanity are institutionalized. It's all in a day's work like taking out the garbage. Viciousness defines US wars. No crime's too great to commit. Human lives are valueless. Only winning matters, then on to the next war. Lies, deception, unspeakable brutality, and cover-up define them. Scoundrel media are directly complicit, including claiming one soldier murdered 16 Afgans on March 11. Credible evidence suggests up to 20 involved. Claiming a lone gunman defiles the atrocity's affect on living family members, friends, and other Afghans victimized by numerous similar...

Stop the bombs and talk to the Taliban By Hanan Habibzai Keeping tabs on the events of the war in Afghanistan is not difficult. Press coverage includes daily reports of soldiers dying and killing, elections counts and recounts and even stories from the far flung tribal areas. But there is little about what the ordinary Afghan thinks. What is his story? How does the war affect him? Does he want President Karzai to stay in power? Does he want more troops, be they from the US or France? Do they make him feel safe? When answered these questions weave the missing thread through the real story of the war. These answers tell a frustrating tale. Look back to May, for example, when US air strikes killed more than 100 civilians. This is when the Afghan people first began to lose faith in President Barack Obama. As protocol required Obama and US secretary of state Hillary Clinton expressed their deep sympathy with the victims, and said sorry for the civilian deaths. But a change occurr...

Truth Subcontracted--When Misguided People Guided US’s Foreign Policy Dr. Mohammed Daud Miraki, MA, MA, PhD mdmiraki@ameritech.net Dr. Rahmat Rabi Zirakyar MA, PhD zirakyar1234@yahoo.com The recent incident at Bagram Airbase involving the burning of the Holy Koran has exhibited the return on the US’s investment in Afghanistan. This is the legacy in part of subcontracting the truth to the so-called cultural advisors. This is not the first time this type of disgraceful conduct witnessed by others or the news of such misconduct made its way to the media and stirred peoples’ emotions. Similar misconducts happened many times during US operations in Pashtun villages. This is due to the US government subcontracting the truth by hiring incompetent advisors. By subcontracting the truth to ignorant translators and advisors both linguistically and culturally with premeditated desire to undermine Pashtuns also contributed to the loss of Pashtun lives and destruction of their ...

Hanan Habibzai If you are Afghan, you don't dare to write any facts about the atrocities American military is continuously committing in Afghanistan, but this is the time to speak out, because the future of the country is constantly under attack. There is no future for the current generation of Afghanistan, as American-led military is intentionally targeting children and women. This week's ( 02/06/2011 )massacre of 12 children and two women in southern Helmand province left no option, but provoked thousands of Afghans to either join the Taliban or express their sympathy towards them. Therefore, the Taliban are becoming anti-occupation heroes and their popularity is increasingly spreading across the country. American-led foreign troops do not help themselves, but they strengthen the Taliban's position, when they appear to kill civilians from the air through heavy bombs containing white phosphorous and other chemicals.  Al Jazeera reports on similar cata...

  NATO Killed Children in Afghanistan  By Hanan Habibzai  Kapisa district police chief Abdul Hamid Erkin told AFP that "Two nights ago foreign special forces carried out a raid on a house in Geyawa village in Nejrab district.” The next morning their plane carried out an airstrike on a house in the village as a result of which seven children and one adult were martyred ." He said commanders of French troops who operate in the area "claimed that the target was a group of Taliban facilitators, but we checked the area and there were no Taliban.” In fact the people in the area have very strong anti-Taliban feelings. We filmed the victims, who were children, and showed it to the French commanders," Erkin said.  Children are the main victims Presidential statement confirmed Thursday that NATO airstrike killed eight children in Kapisa province northeast of the capital Kabul. The children were aged between about seven and 15, he said, while the adult was a m...

The Times Remembers the Dasht-e-Leili Massacre By Prof. Edward Herman I t is always interesting and enlightening to see the New York Times picking up a story belatedly and tracing through the reasons for its early neglect and later resuscitation. This often fits the Orwellian Big Brother principle of using a story only when it is politically helpful and suppressing it when it is inconvenient—forgetting, "and then, when it become necessary again [drawing] it back from oblivion" ( 1984 ). My favorite case was the failure of the New York Times to mention the Salvadoran army death list of 138 left-wing and liberal politicians back in 1982, when the United States was supporting a "demonstration election" there and publicizing the death list would suggest unfavorable electoral conditions, but then mentioning that list in 1989 when the left was tentatively entering an election and the paper was anxious to put that election in a good light, contrasting it with t...