Marines Use Biometrics in Police Recruitment Drive
22 May 2008
David Axe, 'Marines Land in Afghanistan ? With Biometrics', Wired.com, 22 May 2008
EXCERPT: "A year ago this June, Taliban fighters streamed into the remote town of Chora in southern Afghanistan expecting an easy victory over impoverished villagers. Instead, they met heavy resistance from scores of uniformed Afghan men. Those so-called Afghan National Auxiliary Police (ANAP), all formerly in the service of local warlords, had received...
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Senate Approves $168 Billion For Afghanistan, Iraq Conflicts
22 May 2008
John T. Bennett, 'Senate OKs $168 billion for war operations', Army Times, 22 May 2008
EXCERPT: "The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a supplemental war funding bill that would provide $168 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, extend veterans benefits and provide billions for a host of domestic projects, while also killing a provision that called for the withdrawal of American forces from Iraq. When coupled, the price...
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'Significant Increase' in Attacks in Eastern Afghanistan
22 May 2008
Kim Barker, 'Eastern Afghanistan now a hotter zone for U.S. troops,' Chicago Tribune, 22 May 2008
EXCERPT: "The number of attacks on U.S. troops in eastern Afghanistan has increased significantly in April and May, causing many here to worry that local peace deals with militants in neighboring Pakistan are allowing them to regroup and focus on fighting across the border in Afghanistan. Officials with the NATO-led International Security...
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U.S. Religious Freedom Commission Places Afghanistan on 'Watch List'
22 May 2008
'Annual Report on International Religious Freedom 2008', United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), 2 May 2008
EXCERPT: The Commission has "established a Watch List of countries... which require close monitoring due to the nature and extent of violations of religious freedom engaged in or tolerated by the governments. Countries on the Commission's Watch List for 2008 are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cuba,...
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'Corruption and Incompetence Are Rampant' in Afghanistan
22 May 2008
"", The Economist, 22 May 2008
EXCERPT: "The NATO forces in Afghanistan are too small, but that is not the chief threat to the West's purposes there. The weakness and corruption of Afghanistan's elected government matter more. This weakness, moreover, is not the inevitable product of Afghanistan's poverty and backwardness, even though these things play a part. It is the result of a failure of political...
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