Slovakia to Add 250 NATO Troops
18 November 2009
'', The Associated Press, 18 November 2009
EXCERPT: "Slovakia pledged about 250 extra soldiers Tuesday to the NATO-led force in Afghanistan, the first of what British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said would be a series of international reinforcements. The central European country will double the size of its 246-strong contingent in Afghanistan, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said in a joint...
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The Taliban Biography
18 November 2009
'The Taliban Biography: The Structure and Leadership of the Taliban 1996-2002', The National Security Archive, 13 November 2009
EXCERPT: "Three years before al Qaeda's attacks on the United States on 9/11, U.S. officials detected an alarming shift in the ideological stance of Taliban leader Mullah Omar toward pan-Islamism ? a change that portended a burgeoning alliance between the Afghan regime and Osama bin Laden. The report...
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Germany Approves Extension of Bundeswehr Missions
18 November 2009
'German Cabinet Approves Extension of Bundeswehr Missions', Deutsche Welle, 18 November 2009
EXCERPT: "German cabinet ministers announced plans to extend three missions by Bundeswehr soldiers at the start of the second day of a meeting at the Meseberg Palace near Berlin. But the government also expressed it's a 'visible' withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan within the current parliament, which will end in 2013. ...
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Poverty and Unemployment Fuel Afghan Conflict
18 November 2009
'' [pdf], Oxfam International, 18 November 2009
EXCERPT: "To better understand how Afghans have experienced and understand the conflict, eight nongovernmental organizations operating in Afghanistan conducted research in 14 provinces across the country. This research focused on individual experiences of the past thirty years of conflict, perceptions of the current conflict...
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