US troops in Zhari district, Afghanistan (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

The White House had already released a five page summary of the classified evaluation. So the content of Thursday’s review wasn’t all that surprising.

It concludes that the surge is working, that US troops are making headway in reducing the Taliban’s influence in southern Afghanistan and that, American forces can begin withdrawing on schedule next July.

But the President cautioned today that the war in Afghanistan remains “a difficult endeavor.” He also took the opportunity to remind Americans why US troops are fighting a war so far from home.

“It was Afghanistan where Al Qaeda plotted the 9/11 attacks that murdered three thousand innocent people, Obama said. “It was the tribal regions along the Afghan-Pakistan border from which terrorists have launched more attacks against our homeland and our allies.”

President Obama added that if the insurgency in Afghanistan were left unchecked, Al Qaeda would have even more space in which to plan future attacks.

“We are focused on disrupting, dismantling and defeating Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan and preventing its capacity to threaten America and our allies in the future,” Obama said. “In pursuit of our core goal, we are seeing significant progress.”

Obama said that Al Qaeda’s senior leadership in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan is under more pressure today than at any point since they fled Afghanistan nine years ago.

“It’s harder for them to recruit, it’s harder for them to travel, it’s harder for them to train, it’s harder for them to plot and launch attacks. In short, Al Qaeda is hunkered down.”

That said today’s review acknowleges the challenges of making US gains against Al Qaeda and the Taliban “durable and sustainable.”

There are 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan at the moment working to ensure that that happens. The review says the majority of those troops won’t be coming home until 2014. That’s when the Afghan army is expected to take responsibility for the country’s security.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today that progress on that front is ahead of schedule.

“Afghan troops are already responsible for security in Kabul and increasingly taking the lead in Kandahar where they make up more than 60 percent of the fighting forces,” Gates said. “They’re performing well in partnership with coalition troops and will continue to improve with the right training, equipment and support.”

But that support may have its limits. This year has been the deadliest yet for American Forces with some 480 US casualties. And the Afghan war is now one of the longest wars in US history.

Some critics say that the Obama Administration is presenting an overly rosy view of progress in Afghanistan. Those critics include some Congressional Democrats who say it makes no sense to continue spending $100 billion dollars a year on a war that’s un-winnable.
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Ben Gilbert’s coverage from Afghanistan:
• Training the Afghan armed forces
• US working with Afghan police
• K-9 in Afghanistan
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by Ben Gilbert

Friday night at Kandahar's 'Boardwalk' (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

Specialist Joaqim Chavez and a friend look on as about 100 couples swing and dance in the cool autumn air on a Friday night at Kandahar’s “Boardwalk.” It’s a rectangular wooden walkway with a roof, open on the sides. Salsa night is one of the events held on the stage here…

“Well, it’s as close as we’re going to get to home, so we’re enjoying it. Something to look forward to for the weekend. It breaks up the monotony of the week. Makes the time go by faster…”

And it’s one of the few times troops can touch the opposite sex while they’re deployed. There are an estimated 25,000 troops based here at KAF, as the main military headquarters for southern Afghanistan is known. They stock supplies, take care of the journalists coming through, and fuel the fighter jets stationed here….

But when they’re not working, they need something to do and the boardwalk supplies it. It’s the epicenter of entertainment at Kandahar Airfield. There are restaurants and shops. Barbeques and concerts.

The Canadians built a hockey rink (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

“Yeah, something to do at night,” he says. “There’s a league that runs 24 teams, 550 people playing, with four different countries. It’s a good league, but tonight just screwing around”.

The Candians have been around Kandahar since 2006 – and they’ve built hockey rinks on even the smallest of bases. It’s their national pastime, says Gerrid Ferguson, another Canadian Army truck driver. He doesn’t see any problem with the fact that he’s playing hockey while a war is going on not far away.

“My last tour I was out in the desert the whole time, dug in, so to come back this time and have something like this on this tour, it’s not too bad. So what comes around goes around.”

That’s great for those who have come around…but some living in small, spartan forward operating bases , or FOBS, aren’t exactly happy about the relative luxury here.

Specialist Matthew Dimercurio, Private Allen Nichols and Private Marshall Wesley sat at a booth at Kandahar Airfield’s TGI Friday’s sharing a Sunday. Their rifles sit at their sides on the red faux leather benches. All three soldiers are from route clearance units, meaning they hunt for explosives, and live at small bases far from KAF. Two of these guys are here because of injuries, the other one, training. They’ll head back out to their units soon. They like the chai tea frappes and other amenities at the boardwalk but it’s also a bit much.

“People are pampered here…infantry and route clearance guys out there doing work, and we don’t’ get anything. The medical staff, logistic guys here get everything, and we’re screwed. Yeah, they get all the cool stuff. Guys who are outside the wire all the time, we’re out at little itty bitty FOBs, and we’re lucky if get to go back to our choo at night and play on computer, play x box, that’s the height of our day.”
Gilbert: “So you don’t object to it but make little more spread out”
“Yeah, my FOB’s been there for eleven years…no barbershops, you have to let your buddy from Kentucky cut your hair. You’re like what are you doing man? It’s pretty sad”.

So these guys are living it up while they can. They also do some shopping while they’re here. Afghan’s sell black market DVDs and local knick-knacks at a weekly bazaar. And the American PX, or Postal Exchange, is like a small Wal-Mart in the desert. IT sells everything from gold rings to TVs and computers. All the better to capture the combat pay these soldiers are making while they’re overseas, and a nice respite from the realities of the war outside the gate.
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Ben Gilbert’s coverage from Afghanistan:
• Training the Afghan armed forces
• US working with Afghan police
• K-9 in Afghanistan
• More of Ben Gilbert’s stories

Dog handler and dog of the 1-75 Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

Benny is on his first tour in Afghanistan, deployed with the 101st Airborne in the country’s violent Kandahar Province. He’s here to detect the biggest threat to troops: Improvised explosive devices, or IED’s — and chase down suspected Taliban if need be.

There’s been a lot of walking, but he’s handling it well so far. He tears through the difficult terrain fairly easily – certainly more so than his master.

Benny is a German Shepherd.

These military dogs just aren’t a man’s best friend — they can save lives. Staff Sergeant Marcus Bates, a military working dog trainer, says one of his colleagues discovered four different IED’s in less than a month.

“That’s lives right there — each one we find…one can take out five guys, that’s five guys lives who are saved, and can return out to the battlefield the next day,” Bates said.

Bates and his dog are just one of several dozen military working dog teams deployed with the 2nd brigade of the 101st airborne division. The brigade basically wants about 200 dogs so that every foot patrol outside the base has dog. Bates says the dogs’ sense of smell is far more powerful than humans — and can smell explosives hidden in the ground or in buildings.

“These dogs are a huge asset out here — I don’t think there’s any other piece of equipment that can be as effective as a military working dog team,” Bates said.

There are now more than 2,000 military working dog teams in the US military. The dogs and trainers go through a 120 day program at a cost of $15,000 per dog. The dogs have their own version of basic training. They learn to tolerate gunfire, clear obstacles, detect explosives, and of course, obedience.

When the dogs aren’t out in the field on patrols with the troops of the 101st airborne, they’re here at Camp Wilson. Their handlers, from the Marines, Army and Air Force, keep the dogs in shape by playing games.

There is the game where they are taught to take a human being down by biting an arm — but not to kill. Then there’s the other game where they search for explosives. Another soldier hides explosives from the dog, and his handler, so neither one knows where to look, says Staff Sergeant Brian Ruggiero.

“If the handler hides it then he knows what to look for, and if he doesn’t know where it is, then he’s going to work it just like he’s out there on patrol,” Ruggiero said. “He can’t cue his dog — he has to go of instinct and skill.”

Ruggiero hides the explosives in between two cardboard meal trays — to simulate a pressure plate IED. The dogs have a hard time finding the explosives. He says it’s difficult to train some of the dogs to look for something hidden under the ground or in a wall. Many of these dogs used to searching in things, like cars or other objects.

“Sometimes when introduce dog into new training scenario where nothing is, it throws them off because not used to sniffing where nothing is,” Ruggiero said. “So the dog has to get used to that, especially out here.”

The dog handlers train constantly and live with their dogs day and night. Staff Sergeant Bates and his dog, a Belgian Shepherd named Zorby, sleep next to each other in a big tent with other dog handlers and their Kay Nines. Sometimes it sounds like a kennel.

“Yes, living in here with dogs, gets a little noisy and cramped sometimes,” Bates said. “I don’t mind living next to dog. I was out there living on the ground, and I had my dog sleeping in the sleeping bag with me.

“I don’t mind it. I kind of like it that way – know(ing) where my dog is, what she’s doing. Creates great bond — bond that is formed between handler on deployment in conditions like this, it’s unbreakable.”

Ben Gilbert: On the other hand, have you ever lost a dog? You guys must be pretty upset when they do.
Bates: It’s hard to lose a dog, because it’s family, it’s our family, out here.

But eventually, the dogs and their handlers must part. The dogs often go through several handlers during their eight to ten years with the military. When they’re retired, they can be adopted. The role of dogs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and previous wars, has led to an effort for dogs to receive military awards — an honor they cannot receive now.

There’s also an association that’s lobbying for the installation of a national memorial to honor military working dogs. Neither has gained much traction so far.
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Ben Gilbert’s Afghanistan coverage on The World:
• The war in Afghanistan, nine years on
• Stabilizing Afghanistan
• More coverage by Ben Gilbert

Afghan National Army soldiers (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

Ben Gilbert’s Afghanistan coverage on The World:
• The war in Afghanistan, nine years on
• Stabilizing Afghanistan
• More coverage by Ben Gilbert

While leaders gathered in Lisbon, former lance corporal Joe Glenton walked up to the Prime Minister’s doorstep at 10 Downing Street in London and handed back his military medal. Glenton served in Afghanisan, then went to jail for nine months for refusing a second tour in 2007. Now an anti-war activist, he says NATO should end the mission quickly.

Glenton: “There’s a real up-swell of awareness now among military families and among the military, and among the people in this country, that this conflict is, has kind of turned into a face saving exercise and that’s why it’s being dragged out. this is an expensive, messy, gory face saving exercise and that’s quite clear to people”.

In Britain and other countries that are part of the Afghanistan coalition, there’s plenty of public opposition to the war. It’s one of the reasons President Obama has been careful about defining the goals for the summit.

President Obama: “I look forward to working with our NATO and our ISAF partners as we move towards a new phase – a transition to afghan responsibility that begins in 2011 with afghan forces taking the lead for security across Afghanistan by 2014. So this summit is an important opportunity for us to align an approach to transition in Afghanistan”.

So the focus is on transition instead of an open-ended combat mission. No surprise then that the secretary general of NATO, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is making it sound like the task is going smoothly.

Rasmussen: “We are seeing concrete progress on the ground right now in Afghanistan. We have sent in more international troops and it has a clear impact on the situation in Afghanistan. We are now attacking Taliban strongholds in the south of Afghanistan – in Helmand and Kandahar – and we have seen clear progress”.

Today and tomorrow, leaders will look at how to reshape the job in Afghanistan, especially as some nations start to pull out their soldiers. Britain’s Defense Secretary, Liam Fox, is promising his country’s troops will stick around after 2014 – but not as a fighting force.

Fox: “We certainly don’t want to be in a combat role. we understand and have been trying to encourage other NATO countries to ensure that there is a sufficient training force to get the afghan forces themselves up to a level of competence so that they can manage the security. but even then, after 2014 when the afghan government takes control, they are going to require help and advice”.

Aid agencies have been voicing their concerns over the way the planned handover is being prepared. Ashley Jackson is head of policy for Oxfam in Afghanistan. She says the International Security Assistance Force and American troops are making a mistake.

Jackson: “The forces are being scaled up so rapidly that accountability and transparency is being overlooked. So, you don’t have the tight command and control mechanisms to prevent abuses that we would like to see. I think we’re also seeing a reliance on quick fixes. ISAF in particular, US special forces are arming community defense militias – and these are local militias – ex-Mujahadeen, fighters from the civil war, to fight the Taliban. You know, this is even more concerning, because the accountability is almost non existent, the vetting of these forces is almost non-existent and this could in the long term lead to greater instability”

But with Afghan president Hamid Karzai openly criticizing the alliance, it’s unlikely leaders will want to slow the efforts to hand over authority to Afghans. Whatever happens this weekend, Michael Clark of the Royal United Services Insitute in London says it won’t be easy to find a graceful exit.

Clark: “Afghanistan has damaged NATO – it has. When NATO took on Afghanistan in a big way in 2005 it talked up the importance of the decision as a test of the new NATO. And by and large it’s failed that test”.

Leaders in Lisbon may not agree with that sentiment. All the same they plan to come away from this meeting with a new plan that they hope will lead them out of an even longer war in Afghanistan.
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• BBC coverage
• Afghan town’s despair as Nato eyes endgame
• On The World: Kandahar campaign in ‘final stages’

Ben Gilbert’s Afghanistan coverage on The World:
• The war in Afghanistan, nine years on
• Stabilizing Afghanistan
• More coverage by Ben Gilbert

A dozen Afghan men sat in the gravel outside the district governor’s office on a recent night, their hands zip-tied behind their back. The Afghan police detained them as part of Karim Jahn’s weekly “roundups” in the governor’s hometown, called Sanjaray.

Often, the roundups come after a security incident – like grenades being tossed at US troops. Karim Jahn’s been known to personally drag men away by their clothes, or their beards.

Most are innocent but he said the mass arrests are necessary, “We don’t know who the good guys are and who are the bad guys. So we are just arresting all of them and taking them to the district center. There, we investigate them. The guys who are good, we release them, but the bad guys, we keep them and send them to Kandahar or Kabul.”

Asked if this tactic risks alienating some of the very people he’s trying to win over, Karim Jahn said he has a simple way of telling the good from the bad.

“The innocent people support the government,” Jahn said. “The guys who get angry with us when we arrest them, we know that they are Taliban, and supporting Taliban.”

(Photo: Ben Gilbert)

This October, American troops pushed into the Taliban strongholds in the area. The US military now occupies large parts of Zhari the Taliban once dominated.

“It took a lot of effort to secure the area,” said Major Jerry Nunziato.

Nunziato is the civil-military operations officer for the American combat brigade in Zhari.

“Now that we have it, it’s that transition of getting the governance, and getting the governor, the physical representation of it, into these areas to let the people know, it’s just not about fighting. That’s done. We’ve pushed out. we’re now securing you. and here’s the deliverance of the stability, the governance. Here’s the way ahead; let’s come to table and start talking.”

The US military is flying and driving District Governor Karim Jahn all over the district so he can do the talking. He’s holding meetings with important local leaders – called “shuras” in villages controlled by the Taliban until just a few weeks ago.

Karim Jahn recently traveled by helicopter to a tiny US Army outpost near one such village, called Sapah Hay, for a Shura.

Around sixty elders, young men and boys were there to greet him. The group sat on olive US army cots, under the shade of a camouflage net.
One of the elders said a brief prayer, and then Karim Jahn launched into a half hour speech:

“May god make our country better. As much as we want. After that we pray to god that there’s no more fighting between us. We pray for peace in our country – first with the help of God, and second, by the help of you, the people.”

Meeting local villagers (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

And he said he could bring more money – for schools, roads, development projects; but only if the villagers provided security.

For a long time, the group of men was silent, listening.

Then, one man rose and asked, “how can I help you? if the Taliban plants a bomb in my field, and I tell them to not put it there, they will kill me,” he said. “Or they will kill my children and family. Tell me what to do and I will do it!”

A young man in the audience answered him: “if the Taliban is coming and firing from your compound, if you can stop him, stop him. If you can’t stop him, then share the information with the government.”

The meeting lasted an hour. The US deputy brigade commander for the area, Lt. Colonel Joe Krebs says the last young man was important.

“For a man of 28 to say that in a public forum – that’s pretty large. That’s core audience of the guys who make up the Taliban – fighting age males. That’s pretty neat thing.”

Krebs said it was “significant” that so many young men showed up – not just village elders. He also said the fact that the Americans hadn’t said anything was key – the whole point is to empower the Afghans to solve these problems on their own.

Still, didn’t’ he think that flying the Kareem Jahn down here might make the district governor look like an American stooge?

Krebs said no. “These people been living through 30 years of war.. they understand the Americans are enabling the district governor to do his job, but in long term do they see increased Afghan national army and afghan national police and lessening of coalition forces present? Certainly that is the goal – that’s how we win – increasingly, they’re in charge.”

But there’s still a long way to go.

Karim Jahn is still the only real official in his office. The district isn’t safe enough for the education, health and other ministry officials to come to work. The people don’t even feel safe coming to these shuras.

As the elders shuffled out of the US-controlled base after the shura, one man, named Haji Layla, said the area is still not safe.

“Really, I’m afraid of the Taliban when I come to this meeting. Maybe they sent some spies? They are watching us, and maybe they will tell the Taliban.”

Haji Layla, like many farmers here, said he feels trapped between the Taliban on one side, and the US and Afghan forces on the other.

With the new American and Afghan base here, he seemed optimistic that security could improve. But there aren’t enough troops to secure every town, and the Americans say the Afghan villagers here need to help secure themselves. It’s a tough request to make in an area where it’s hard enough for the Afghan forces and Americans to protect themselves.

A day after the shura, a Taliban suicide bomber killed two US soldiers at the entrance to their heavily fortified base located in Sanjaray, Kareem Jahn’s hometown.
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Soldiers of the 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne in Zhari District, Afghanistan (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

Ben Gilbert on The World:
• The war in Afghanistan, nine years on
• Stabilizing Afghanistan
• More coverage by Ben Gilbert

(Photo: Ben Gilbert)

US troops in Afghanistan, and their NATO allies, have had their sights on Kandahar for months. The idea is to defeat the Taliban on what the insurgents consider to be their home turf. The US Army’s 101st Airborne has been pushing into areas that the Taliban once controlled. That’s meant moving troops through very dangerous territory, often booby trapped by the rebels. Reporter Ben Gilbert is embedded with the 101st Airborne, and sent us this report.Download MP3

(Photo: Ben Gilbert)

Ben Gilbert on The World:
• The war in Afghanistan, nine years on
• Stabilizing Afghanistan
• More coverage by Ben Gilbert

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. US troops in Afghanistan, and their NATO allies, have had their sights set on Kandahar for months now. The idea is to defeat the Taliban on their home turf. Well today, a NATO helicopter attack killed 20 insurgents. Meanwhile, the US Army’s 101st Airborne has been pushing into areas that the Taliban once controlled. That’s meant moving troops through territory booby trapped by the rebels. Reporter Ben Gilbert is embedded with the 101st Airborne.

BEN GILBERT:  What’s called the “heart of darkness” in Zhari District west of Kandahar City has long been a thorn in the side of the US-led international coalition here. Taliban insurgents held much of the area for the last nine years and US troops who ventured there were attacked regularly, sometimes stuck in firefights for hours. When troops from the 101st Airborne pushed into Zhari earlier this month as part of the Kandahar campaign, they figured the area would be heavily mined. So instead of risking their own vehicles or bodies, they decided to use bulldozers and bombs to remove the threat…over and over…and over. Army engineers attached to the 1st battalion, 75th cavalry regiment used sticks of C-4 explosive to blow up farm buildings, houses, and in at least one case, a school. US troops say all were abandoned or used as Taliban fighting positions. The Army shot rockets with ropes of explosives attached, called MICLICs, to clear paths through the fields. Engineers followed with bulldozers. First sergeant Larry Breland of Chaos Company is a 17-year veteran of the army with two tours in Iraq under his belt. He says he’s never seen so many explosives used as when company commander Mike Gold was moving his men during the operation.

LARRY BRELAND:  This company has fired in one day, definitely in the 10,000 dollar range for one MICLIC, we fired 16 of them. Captain Gold, when he clears a road he clears a road, it’s clear.

GILBERT: Journalists were prevented from entering the areas at the beginning of the operation. The cavalry squadron here said they didn’t want images of houses being blown up or bulldozed in the news, even though the army says it’s only taken down buildings that were uninhabited, used by the Taliban or presented a clear ambush danger to US troops. Captain Ryan Kort blew up a compound he and his platoon used as a patrol base.  He said it was abandoned.

RYAN KORT: We had evidence that it was possibly an enemy fighting position. We also had a lot of stuff we just couldn’t take with us, so we just had to bury that in the remnants of the building. We also fortified it so I wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t be used against us or the government again.

GILBERT: Does it worry you that destroying some of these places could be counterproductive toward the counterinsurgency strategy?

KORT: Yes, possibly, it could be. But I think the key point is that we try to make amends if we do have to go in and destroy this building. We’ve never kicked out any families, we’ve never taken over any building that has had furniture in it or signs of occupancy.

GILBERT: When Kort says “making amends,” he means that soldier’s have been promising compensation to the owners of damaged or destroyed property. The US military issues them “claims cards.” Captain Kort says he didn’t issue one for the compound he blew, because no one came to him in the week that his platoon was staying there. But bulldozers clearing a path from that base to another compound drew the anger of local villagers. The machines moved straight through farmers’ newly plowed fields. A frail, weathered Afghan farmer with a white beard named Hajji Jilal stood among a group of Afghans and watched the American soldiers walk by.

SPEAKING PASHTO

GILBERT: “They bulldozed some of our compounds,” said Hajji Jilal. “They bulldozed the trees, which are blocking the canal. Now we can’t get water to the orchard,” he said. “We need the water for our fields. If the Americans want to help us, get the trees out of our canals.” US troops say they knock down the trees and walls next to canals because Taliban fighters use them as cover to move through the area. The Afghans may be angry, but Captain Kort says the destruction is in some ways a positive thing. He says Afghans will now be forced to get in contact with their local government, which is the overall goal of the operation.

KORT:  Now, the key thing is they’ve to go to the district center to make a case with us. So in the end, it’s a win because the Afghan government is giving them compensation. It’s not the US, per se, it’s the Afghan government and a district governor signing off on this compensation.

GILBERT: But in Zhari, the District governor’s office is tiny, understaffed and, with the reputation of the Afghan government these days, not exactly the most trusted institution. To mitigate all that, Americans are providing a lot of oversight.

TODD CLARK: Do you have any ownership papers for your house? Any tax documents, or a letter from the shura members or village elders?

GILBERT: Today at the Zhari District Center, US Army Major Todd Clark asked an Afghan farmer named Fayzullah to prove his ownership of a house and some trees the farmer says were destroyed by an American bulldozer last week. The line for claims at the Zhari District Center is pretty long these days, and the claims process complicated. There are few property deeds in this region, so Afghans need to get verification of ownership from neighbors or village elders. This opens the door to corruption, or to taking a cut of the compensation. Fayzullah got about $1300 in cash for his destroyed property. He said later he was satisfied with the payment. US troops here hope this process won’t last much longer. They’re now in the final phase of the clearing operation in Zhari. Now, they say, comes the much harder part, trying to protect the locals from the Taliban and win them over to the side of the Afghan government. They hope the destruction they’ve caused, pushing the Taliban out, won’t make that job more difficult. For the World, I’m Ben Gilbert with the 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne in Zhari District, Afghanistan.

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Afghan Police at a checkpoint in Kandahar City (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

Afghanistan’s president said it again this week. Hamid Karzai promised to close foreign private security companies by the end of the year. International officials are urging Karzai to reverse his decree. They warn that aid workers can’t rely on Afghan Police to protect them. As it turns out, US forces in Afghanistan have been trying for some time to improve the performance of the local police forces. Progress has been erratic. Ben Gilbert was embedded with the 504th Military Police Battalion in Kandahar City when he sent this report on the training of the Afghan police. Download MP3

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Ben Gilbert on The World:
• The war in Afghanistan, nine years on
• Stabilizing Afghanistan
• More coverage by Ben Gilbert

Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. Afghanistan’s president said it again this week. Hamid Karzai promised to close foreign private security companies by the end of the year. International officials are urging Karzai to reverse his decree. They warn that aid workers in Afghanistan cannot rely on Afghan police to protect them. As it turns out, US forces in Afghanistan have been trying for some time now to improve the performance of the local police forces. Progress has been erratic. Ben Gilbert was embedded with the 504^th Military Police Battalion in Kandahar City when he sent this report on the training of the Afghan police.

BEN GILBERT:  A year ago, the Afghan National Police in Kandahar City were famously corrupt.  Afghan civilians and US troops described them as little more than illiterate, drug abusing, bribe-taking thugs who stood at checkpoints, only occasionally in uniform. Back then, one hundred American military police were in the city to train the police. Now, there are 500 US Army MPs here. They’re living at the police stations and they’re standing at the checkpoints with the Afghans. Lt. Colonel John Vorhees is the commander of the 504th Military Police Battalion.

JOHN VORHEES:  And I think we’ve certainly made a difference. I mean there’s less reports of them out there on the checkpoints collecting money from the people. Some of that is we’re simply with them all the time. But I think we show them what right looks like, it kind of takes off from there, so it takes a minute, that’s for sure.

GILBERT: The police are the most commonly seen face of the Afghan state here in Kandahar. And having them behave like hooligans wasn’t helping the US-led coalition to empower the Afghan government here. Afghans’ opinion of the police was so low, that some preferred the Taliban because, the reasoning went, they might be vicious but at least they’re honest. So, part of this summer and fall’s Kandahar offensive has focused on improving the quality of the police.

NICKOLAS ZAPPONE: We have a training schedule that I published up there..,

GILBERT: American MPs, like Lt. Nickolas Zappone are now living with the Afghan police in all of Kandahar’s police substations. Zappone commands nineteen MPs who just arrived to station number five early this month. They’re still getting settled and getting to know the Afghan police. 202nd Military Police Company commander Andrea Acosta says so far it’s gone well.

ANDREA ACOSTA: They’re eager to learn, but I think they’re also eager for a little bit of stability, and I think we’re bringing that to them. It’s not every day a different group of coalition forces coming in, it’s the same group of soldiers that they’re going to work with. And now that they see that we’re 100% dedicated in the station, and all over Kandahar City, it’s made an impact. They’re like wow, these people, they’re really here, and they’re going to hold us accountable. So I have not seen any traces of corruption. I have not seen any of that myself. I mean I think for the most part, I’ve just seen a lot of eager ANP who want to learn, who have a vested interest in what we’re trying to provide them.

GILBERT: But the rosy assessment is best taken with a grain of salt. No matter how good the police may be, there’s still the tricky problem of cultural gaps. At one point, an Afghan policeman named Ali Ahmed stood on the roof of his police station and watched as two women walked by. One had her face uncovered.

SPEAKING PASHTO

GILBERT: “Cover your bleeping face,” Ali Ahmed yelled. I asked an interpreter standing with him why he said it.

SPEAKING PASHTO

GILBERT: “It’s not our duty, but you know, it’s bad,” Ahmed said. “We have sisters and mothers. We men can’t look at women or girls who are not our relatives.” Lt. Zappone says it may not sound nice, but he’s not here to tell the Afghans how to act in their culture. He says he’s here to train them to be police.

ZAPPONE: I try to stay away from how their culture influences the way they think. As long as I don’t see them, or my guys don’t see them beating women, treating them with just blatant disrespect in public, I can’t tell them how their culture should run. It’s just not our place to say.

GILBERT: A few hours after the incident, the Afghan police crudely shaved the head of a man detained for smoking hashish. Then they made him clean their toilets, before releasing him without charge. Not exactly the best way to win hearts and minds. Bill Harris is a senior US official on the team that oversees Kandahar’s reconstruction and government development programs. He says the police were pretty much ignored for much of the last eight years.

BILL HARRIS: When we began to train a security force here in Afghanistan we focused on the Afghan National Army. There were good reasons for doing that. But I think it’s fair to say that the police were neglected, and police training was sub par, equipping even worse. And we’re paying the piper for some of that today.

GILBERT: Due to what Harris says was a focus on quantity over quality, few of Kandahar’s police officers have ever gone through the police academy to train in courses like this one on riot control. Now, all Afghan national police must graduate from the six week basic training course. It includes two hours a day of literacy training for a police force with around a 10% literacy rate. The police also get target practice. For some of the officers, it’s the first time firing their weapons. They get two days on the shooting range, and get to fire 60 rounds each time. The Canadian police trainers say they fired well over 1,000 rounds during their training. The Afghan police lack lots of other things as well, equipment for one. But US officials say things are on the right track. The State Department’s Bill Harris says since the MPs arrived, public opinion about the police has started to change. But it is a race against the clock. It takes time to improve the quality of a police force that’s been left to stew in its own mediocrity for the past eight years. For the World, I’m Ben Gilbert in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

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• BBC video: Karzai on cash payments
• Cash and keeping friendly relations in Afghanistan
• Foreign forces in Afghanistan

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World. Afghan President Hamid Karzai today confirmed that, once or twice a year, his office receives bags of cash, containing close to a million dollars, from Iran. His tone in addressing the matter seemed to say, “What’s all the fuss about?”

HAMID KARZAI:  This is transparent and this is nothing hidden. We are grateful for the Iranian help in this regard. The United States is doing the same thing. They are providing cash to some of our offices.

MULLINS:  The BBC’s Quentin Summerville is in Kabul and he listened to the Afghan president earlier today.

QUENTIN SUMMERVILLE: What the president was getting at was cash is king here in Afghanistan and many countries, not just Iran, in fact even the United States, regularly make cash payments. Big bundles of hard currency handed over to President Karzai’s government to help run the presidential office or other government departments. And indeed we’ve even had allegations that the security services, the CIA included, have been paying regular payments to members of President Karzai’s government. Now, the reason President Karzai says this takes place is because Afghanistan isn’t a normal country like many other countries. It doesn’t have a modern banking system and you have to give cold hard cash if you want to make sure that that money’s going to get to the right places.

MULLINS: If it’s true, and tell me if we know for sure that it’s true, that many countries are giving money, I mean cold hard cash, in this way to Karzai’s office, is it legitimate? Is it different when Iran does it versus when Washington does it?

SUMMERVILLE: This is worrying for a number of reasons. Or at least some of President Karzai’s foreign allies will find this worrying for a number of reasons. One, it’s Iran and certainly Western allies believe that Iran has an agenda here which isn’t helpful and which isn’t peaceful and which isn’t in line with their interests. The other thing is that President Karzai’s government has a terrible reputation when it comes to corruption. And the last thing you want is big bags of cash floating around freely without receipts, without documentation, and so forth, when you suspect that corruption is endemic in a government. And the final thing is where does all this money go to? Because huge amounts of aid have come into this country over the past nine years and Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world. So, this is an explanation that foreign donors want, but not just that, also the Afghan people would like to know what happened to this money. Did every single cent of it or every single Euro make it into the Ministry of Finance and how’s it been properly accounted for? We don’t have answers on that. The reason we might not have heard from those foreign donors, we haven’t heard from the US embassy here in Kabul, we haven’t heard from the British embassy in Kabul, we’re getting a firm “no comment,” is because we suspect that other countries do similar activities.

MULLINS: They do similar activities in order to provide a slush fund for Hamid Karzai, for the president’s office? What would be the end result?

SUMMERVILLE: Slush funds are certainly not how President Karzai described it. One of the things that’s worth remembering here is that they aren’t money laundering laws. This kind of thing happening here in Afghanistan isn’t illegal under Afghan law. And you might remember that a few months ago we heard that billions of dollars had left this country over the space of a few years, going through Kabul International Airport, it had also left in cash, and the reason we know it left because it was declared. The people taking this money out, this hard currency out, simply wrote out a form at customs and the Ministry of Finance kept a log. When I spoke to Dr. Zakhilwal, the finance minister, and asked him how can you allow this to happen, he said because we don’t have money laundering laws. If we started putting those laws in place, foreign donors would run a mile. We wouldn’t get any kind of investment here in Afghanistan. So there is a huge amount of money sloshing around in Afghanistan, much of it undocumented, and frankly President Karzai’s admission of that isn’t surprising.

MULLINS: Alright. Thanks very much. The BBC’s Quentin Summerville speaking to us from Kabul, Afghanistan. Thanks again.

SUMMERVILLE: Thanks very much. You’re welcome.

MULLINS:  Pam Constable is the former Kabul bureau chief for the Washington Post and she’s now a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC. Pam, is Iran doing anything that the US hasn’t done in one mode or another?

PAM CONSTABLE: The short answer is no. I mean there have been times when the United States has covertly given up cash to all sorts of leaders and insurgents including former anti-Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan during the war. But it’s very, very different to have a sitting government that’s supported by the United States and Western allies to be accepting large amounts of cash from another government that is, in many ways, anathema to the West and whose interests in Afghanistan could be said to be extremely suspect.

MULLINS: So, for those who would say look, what’s happening right now with Iran giving cash to the Karzai government, I mean directly to the president’s office, basically describes what the US has been doing vigorously, are you saying there is a significant difference?

CONSTABLE: I am. I’m saying there’s a big difference. I’m saying that this is an elected civilian government that is embroiled in a war with Islamic insurgents that has been receiving millions, if not billions, of dollars in aid from a number of countries, from Japan to Canada to the United States, all of which, if not certainly most of which, has been channeled through international aid organizations and private organizations because there’s a huge problem with corruption in the Afghan administration and bureaucracy. So as far as I’m aware no one has been handing bags full of cash to the Karzai administration from the West. In fact, I would almost say the opposite. They’ve really felt they had to channel a lot of the aid through non-governmental organizations.

MULLINS: Interesting that Hamid Karzai, his office anyway, says just the opposite. That this is what has been happening on a regular basis with many countries and that there’s nothing wrong with it.

CONSTABLE: Certainly, I mean, I have no inside knowledge and it’s easy to say from afar that this is a terrible thing and that it’s completely unique. During the early days of the conflict, it’s absolutely true that cash was being given to warlords in Afghanistan because they were going to fight the Taliban. So they’re never completely clean hands in a conflict, but I do think there is a difference between what goes on in the time of an on-the-ground conflict and what goes on between elected democratic sitting government.

MULLINS: So, is the United States, in the voice of P.J. Crowley among other today from the State Department, legitimate in finding fault with Iran’s delivering cash to the Karzai government and what is it fearing?

CONSTABLE: Well, many things. Iran, as you know, has a very hostile relationship with the American government. Its interests in Afghanistan are very unclear. It appears to have been associating with insurgent groups. There are leaders of some of the anti-government insurgent groups in Afghanistan who were very closely tied to Iran whose leaders have been in Iran and established really close relationships with them. That’s why this picture is so complicated because it is not at all clear what Iran’s intentions are towards Afghanistan and as many people have said this week, they appear to be playing many sides of the fence at once. It’s a very tricky fence to be sitting on, but I would say that this is not at all a positive or, as you suggest, a normal occurrence.

MULLINS:  And so in terms of Western influence, the Obama administration, what options does it have if these allegations do prove to be true, that Iran is supplying bags of cash directly to the president of Afghanistan?

CONSTABLE: It’s a very tough question. I mean this is far from the first thing that the Karzai government has done that’s angered or alienated Washington and the West. I mean he said many, many extremely critical things about the American government even as it’s been supporting his government with a great deal of money and is officially the invited guest of his administration in being there to combat the Taliban. So, it’s been a difficult and prickly and increasingly hostile relationship for well over the past year. So this development is not that far out of line with what’s been going on in this past year and basically the United States has been sort of resigned to saying look, this is still the elected government, we still have to deal with it, it’s still the fact. And so the United States has had to accept a lot of unhappy things about the relationship with Karzai of which this is simply the latest.

MULLINS: Alright. Thank you very much. Pam Constable, who’s a fellow now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and former Kabul bureau chief for the Washington Post. Thanks a lot.

CONSTABLE: You’re welcome.

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US Marine on patrol in Southern Afghanistan (Photo: Ben Gilbert)

Operations around the southern Afghan city of Kandahar have stepped up a notch recently. The fighting has escalated without a great deal of fanfare but a lot of firepower has been deployed and international forces say they are killing a lot of bad guys. The World’s Ben Gilbert is at an outpost in Zari district from Kandahar City. Download MP3

Ben Gilbert on The World:
• The war in Afghanistan, nine years on
• Stabilizing Afghanistan
• More coverage by Ben Gilbert

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LISA MULLINS: The US continues to fund, big time, the war in Afghanistan. In fact, military operations around the southern city of Kandahar have been stepped up during the past three weeks. Thousands of troops are scouring the countryside west of Kandahar for insurgents, and targets are being hit with 2,000 pound bombs. The World’s Ben Gilbert is at a US military outpost in the area of operations, in Zhari district. He says this is where the Taliban movement was born.

BEN GILBERT:  The area that troops are clearing right now has been called the “heart of darkness” for several years now. And when I was here about a year ago with US troops, and there were only about a thousand here then, now there are five thousand troops in this same area in Zhari district. When I was here then basically US troops couldn’t go south of their base, where I’m standing right now, and now they’re pushing into these areas where there have never, ever been coalition troops present.

MULLINS:  So why are they making the move specifically right now?

GILBERT: The overall focus is to secure the second largest city, Kandahar City. And these areas to the west are seen as kind of transportation lines, ways for the Taliban to get in and out of the city, to harass people, to make it insecure. And this is kind of seen as what the military calls their [INDISCERNIBLE] locations, which basically means their hideouts, areas they control, command and control areas, areas where they make bombs, and areas where they can set up checkpoints and basically have a free reign. So that’s the purpose is to kind of get the Taliban in there homeland, in their historical area where they’ve never actually been challenged and to kill those who won’t put down their weapons and to convince those who will put down their weapons to join the government or to cooperate with the Afghan government which the coalition forces back.

MULLINS: So how successful were those aims?

GILBERT: Well, that’s difficult to tell at this point because the media has been blocked out of several weeks of operations, on purpose or not on purpose, it’s difficult to tell at this point. The embedded journalists who were scheduled to go with the US military in the Arghandab District for the last two weeks, their embeds were cancelled. Apparently there’s a new batch of journalists who were supposed to go back in to the Arghandab the second half of this month. Several of their embeds were cancelled. So, there’s been a lot of information that these operations are being successful, but it’s hard to judge since there are no real independent observers on the ground there.

MULLINS: And Ben, what do we know about the amount of people who have been detained, Afghans have been detained, or are killed?

GILBERT: What I heard from a source of mine is that several dozen Taliban fighters have been detained and we do know of at least one, in kind of another strange turn to all of this, what the military calls a high-value target, who was killed on Saturday night. The news came out yesterday that he was killed Saturday night and it was quite mysterious. There was a press release put out by the military that he had died in his jail cell at a US military base in the Arghandab District. Today, it appears that President Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, has said that he was possibly, and it appears probably, killed by US troops. It’s unknown exactly what happened, but it appears that something not very good happened in the Arghandab District.

MULLINS: Well, we should say, since the President Hamid Karzai is talking about this and the military’s responding that whenever a death in detention like this happens, it’s extremely controversial and gets much notice in Afghanistan.

GILBERT: Yes, absolutely. I mean that’s why I say allegedly the president’s office is still being very careful to say may have been killed by US troops or coalition troops, so obviously treading very lightly on that. But this obviously would not be a good thing for the US military or the other international coalition members here at this time.

MULLINS:  Alright. The World’s Ben Gilbert speaking to us from Zhari district, which is a rural area just west of Kandahar City in Afghanistan. Ben, thanks.

GILBERT: Thank you, Lisa.

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MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. The US commander of international forces in Afghanistan thinks progress is being made there. General David Petraeus today delivered a mostly positive assessment of the war at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

DAVID PATRAEUS:  No one should have any allusions about how difficult the fight will continue to be as we and our Afghan partners strive to bring peace to a nation that has suffered through more than 30 years of continuous war. Still, I believe that we now have the right strategy in place.

WERMAN:  General Petraeus confirmed that part of that strategy involves allowing some Taliban leaders to hold talks with the Afghan government. He also said that major security gains had been made in Afghanistan in recent months, and that the country had changed for the better over the last nine years of war.

PATRAEUS: Since the Taliban fell, for example, school enrollment has jumped from less than a million to more than six million. And more than a third of those students are females.

WERMAN: And Petraeus noted that despite recurring violence, the Afghan capital, Kabul, has also changed for the better.

PATRAEUS: In 2001, there were reportedly less than a million people in the capital region. Today, there are more than five million, nearly one-sixth of the entire population of Afghanistan, living in relative security.

WERMAN: Michael Codner is director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute and attended today’s talk by General Petraeus. Mr. Codner, was Petraeus’ assessment realistic, or a bit too rosy?

MICHAEL CODNER: I think his military assessment was pretty realistic. He made the point, as we’ve just heard, there’s quite large parts of Afghanistan are relatively secure. The questions are more on the extent to which development is being taken forward and to what extent in the longer term the Afghan security forces really will be developed to a sufficiently high level to take over when the international forces at least draw down. I think leave is the wrong word, because there will be some presence into the longer term.

WERMAN: And what was the general mood in the room as the general spoke about this upbeat kind of summary of what’s going on in Afghanistan? Surprise?

CODNER: No, I think in the United Kingdom we’ve heard from our own military [INDISCERNIBLE] and things have more recently started to improve quite substantially. But, of course, as General Petraeus himself said, this is no done deed. There’s a long way to go here.

WERMAN:  One of the other parts of the talk that caught out attention was when General Petraeus confirmed that NATO troops have been helping facilitate talks between the Afghan government and high-ranking members of the Taliban. What’s changed in that respect, because the last time Petraeus was speaking in London, he said the Taliban were not interested in talking?

CODNER: He was quite specific in saying that this was not negotiations. This was the beginning of discussions. He’s very clear in that respect. I think the wide view amongst analysts is this until there was some negotiation with the reconcilable elements of the Taliban, that is conservative [INDISCERNIBLE] who have been associated with the Taliban, that there will not be any long term progress. This has to happen at some stage. And he’s indicated that we are having now these discussions, but they are not negotiations and he laid down some criteria for negotiations which were pretty firm.

WERMAN: And what were those criteria?

CODNER: The important ones were that the Taliban would give up their arms and those were the negotiations, of course, with the British and Northern Ireland, with the provisional IRA and [INDISCERNIBLE]. The other important one was they would disassociate themselves from extreme groups, particularly transnational extreme groups. So we’re saying cut themselves from al-Qaeda and other organizations of that sort.

WERMAN: Do you think negotiations, whenever and however, they might happen is the way to wrap things up in Afghanistan?

CODNER: The pattern of successful counterinsurgency has always been this. Eventually there have to be negotiations. It doesn’t mean giving up. It doesn’t mean surrender. It doesn’t mean failure.

WERMAN: Michael Codner with the Royal United Services Institute in London. Thanks very much for your time.

CODNER: You’re welcome.

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• BBC Profile: General David Petraeus
• The Taliban conflict
• some other website

Chester Thompson, known as 'Sgt. T' (photo: Ben Gilbert)

In October 2001, the US military began its operations in Afghanistan – nine years later, there are more US troops in Afghanistan than ever. And yet the situation on the ground remains extremely difficult. Parts of the country remain under the sway of the Taliban, especially in the south and east. The country’s second-largest city, Kandahar, remains a hotbed of Taliban support. Lisa Mullins talks with The World’s Ben Gilbert in Kandahar. Download MP3

Ben Gilbert on The World:
• Ben Gilbert’s photos from Afghanistan
• Field support in Afghanistan
• Stabilizing Afghanistan
• More Afghanistan coverage

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is the World. On this date nine years ago the Afghan war was about to begin. It was on October 7^th 2001, that US military operations in Afghanistan got underway.

GEORGE W. BUSH:  On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against al-Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. These carefully targeted actions are designed …

MULLINS:  Nine years later, there are more US troops in Afghanistan than ever. 95,000 today. And yet the situation on the ground remains extremely difficult. Parts of Afghanistan remain under the sway of the Taliban, especially in the south and east. The country’s second-largest city is Kandahar and it remains a hotbed of Taliban support. The World’s Ben Gilbert is in Kandahar right now. He’s embedded with the American Military Police. Who does control this important city of Kandahar today?

BEN GILBERT: Well Lisa, nine years later that’s hard to say. I was just speaking with the military police commander here and he says that security has improved over the last few months. There are five times more military police in the city than there were when I was last here three months ago, but still it is a struggle to say who controls the city. It is still very insecure here.

MULLINS: Well, in terms of the insecurity, where do you see it? Where is it visible? And also I want you to talk about the stability and what does function there.

GILBERT: The basic services are still very much in need there. There’s a shortage of electricity and water, but also there are periods when the city is very quiet and there are also periods, like the last couple days, where it can be extremely violent. There were two assassinations in the last three days. There was a deputy mayor who was killed as he left his office in a very, what’s assumed to be, a secure part of the city or more secure part of the city. There was a former district leader who was killed in the northern part of the province just outside the city earlier this week also. Then there were two IEDs that killed 12 people the last two nights. And those were complicated attacks where an IED was set and it blew up on a security forces vehicle and then as first responders arrived, ambulance or people who arrived to help out, another bomb would go off, kind of Baghdad style and we haven’t seen a whole lot of that here.

MULLINS: So, can you just describe what you’re seeing around you right now, what it looks like and feels like to be there?

GILBERT: This is one of the problems with – the problem with where I am right now is that I’m on an American base in the middle of Kandahar City and very much looks like maybe a boy scout camp would in the desert southwest. There are a lot of trailers. There are a lot of military vehicles. There’s a big gravel parking lot in front of me and very basic facilities here for eating, sleeping, but it’s also very isolated. I mean we’re surrounded by tall walls and guard posts. And you can walk out into the city, but it’s also very dangerous to walk out. And the soldiers and most of the state department people and other civilian government officials who work here don’t leave unless they are in a big military vehicle which kind of resembles driving in a submarine through, to quote a friend, driving a submarine through Afghanistan. So, this has been one of the issues in that there have been too few resources devoted to this mission in the past and in a lot of ways, not enough people to necessarily secure it so that the work that needed to be done, could be done. And now we’ll see how this edition of resources and troops works out.

MULLINS: Just one other quick thing. We are hearing today about talks between the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai and the Taliban. What are you hearing about that and what’s the US military’s take on it?

GILBERT: The guys here down at this low of a level are pretty busy. That’s a pretty high level discussion taking place among the highest officials in the government. Internationally, Saudi Arabia’s been involved and… But I know that General Petraeus said today that he sees it as a positive step if this is true that the Taliban are speaking with the Afghan government. He has implemented the counterinsurgency strategy here and counterinsurgency strategy is focused on not necessarily killing your enemy, but convincing your enemy to put down his weapons and come to the table and talk. And then you can kill the people who don’t want to put down their weapons. So, I think they see this as a positive development if it turns out to be the case.

MULLINS:  Alright, well it’s good to talk to you from Kandahar, Afghanistan. The World’s Ben Gilbert, thank you.

GILBERT: Thanks, Lisa.

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• BBC coverage: eve-of-poll kidnappings
• On The World: Female candidates risk all for Afghan elections

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This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. Afghanistan holds a parliamentary election tomorrow. And, to paraphrase a top UN official there, Afghanistan is probably one of the worst places to hold an election right now. Taliban insurgents are threatening attacks to disrupt the vote tomorrow. US and other international military forces are on high alert. And today, Afghan officials said one candidate was kidnapped and 18 election workers went missing yesterday. The vote is being seen as a key test of Afghanistan’s stability. And President Hamid Karzai is calling on Afghan voters to defy the threats.

HAMID KARZAI: We should try to do our best under the current circumstances and make the election a success as things are today. Therefore, it’s very important that the Afghan people come out and vote and have trust their vote.

WERMAN: Jean Mackenzie is in Kabul. She’s a correspondent for GlobalPost.com. Jean, President Karzai stressing the importance of Afghan voting. Why do these parliamentary elections matter?

JEAN MACKENZIE:  I think that the elections have taken on such significance because in the wake of last year’s presidential elections, which as we all know were marred by widespread fraud, people are hoping that this time round the elections will be cleaner, freer, fairer and will make the case that Afghanistan actually is progressing along the road to democracy.

WERMAN:  And why do candidates run when there’s all this intimidation and threats going on?

MACKENZIE: Well, obviously an enormous number of people have decided to run. In Kabul alone, there are 659 candidates competing for 33 seats. So, the lure of power and the privileges that are associated with it I think have tempted many people to put their names on the docket. There are those who are more idealistic and are calling Afghans to a new future and new dignity, but it seems very likely that the biggest attraction of a parliamentary seat is the power that goes with it.

WERMAN: I mean there are some candidates, though, who are dropping out. A few weeks ago, though, I spoke with Fawzia Kofi who’s running for the parliament and she seemed to be very resolute about her candidacy, even writing a letter to her daughter saying if I get killed, carry on the fight for democracy and women’s rights without me. What do you think makes a difference between those who stay in the race and those who bow out?

MACKENZIE: Out of the 68 women in parliament, only 3 have opted not to run this time. And I spoke with one of those women a few days ago and it seems to be more of a disillusionment with what parliament actually represents. Over the past five years since the first parliamentary election I think we’ve seen a steady devolution of power of parliament. They have lost almost every major battle they’ve had with the executive and I think that there’s a certain amount of frustration among those who had hoped that the parliament would be an effective organ.

WERMAN: Now we are already hearing how security is a major factor this weekend. Is security to let people vote freely and fairly going to be the key this weekend for this parliamentary vote?

MACKENZIE: In many places of the country it is going to be the major factor I think in the turnout. We have seen increasing insecurity, even since last year’s presidential election. There are more and more areas of the country that see an increasing Taliban presence and a growing insecurity. And in those areas, people are going to be very reluctant I think to come out for an election that ultimately will mean very little to them personally.

WERMAN: And you mentioned this earlier, but what about fraud? I mean these parliamentary seats aren’t as high-powered as the executive obviously, so are these seats seen by those who’d want to snatch them as worth the trouble?

MACKENZIE: As we say in the United States, all politics is local. I think that there is going to be more of a push for fraud in these elections because they are many fewer observers and monitors this year than there were last year during the presidential elections. And also there seems to be a much lower will among the international community. We are seeing a push to say that these elections are a major step on Afghanistan’s road to democracy and I’ve spoken to many, many people, many election experts over the past couple of days that say that the international community is going to be more than willing to turn a blind eye to fraud should it occur.

WERMAN:  Jean Mackenzie with Global Post in Kabul. Thank you very much, Jean.

MACKENZIE: You’re quite welcome, Marco.

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