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Tag: Afghanistan

On The Media

Combatants and "Combatants"

Friday, June 01, 2012

According to an article in The New York Times last week, the Obama administration treats “all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants”. Brooke talks to Chris Woods, reporter for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, who has been working with reporters on the ground to confirm and put names to civilian casualties of drone strikes, about the discrepancies between his reporting and the reports of the US government.

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It's A Free Country ®

Rubio Burnishes Foreign Policy Cred Before NYC Crowd

Thursday, May 31, 2012

The freshman senator took direct aim at the parts of the Republican Party that eschew foreign interventions or global coalitions.

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WNYC News

U.S. Military Mission: Pushing Afghans To Take Lead

Saturday, May 12, 2012

The U.S. strategy for leaving Afghanistan calls for U.S. troops to hand off responsibility for security to Afghan forces. The target date is two years away. It's been a slow process so far, with Afghan troops sometimes unwilling, or unable, to assume leadership.

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WNYC News Blog

Potential Torture Testimony Could Rattle Sept. 11 Case

Friday, May 04, 2012

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has admitted to masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks, but he and his alleged co-conspirators could plead not guilty in a military courtroom Saturday. That could mean a public airing of how he was treated in U.S. custody — details the government would rather not talk about.
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The Leonard Lopate Show

The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Peter Bergen gives an account of the decade-long hunt for the world's most wanted man. In Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden—from 9/11 to Abbottabad, he gives new details of bin Laden’s flight after the defeat of the Taliban. As the only journalist to gain access to bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound before the Pakistani government demolished it, Bergen paints a vivid picture of bin Laden’s life in hiding and his struggle to maintain control of al-Qaeda.

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The Brian Lehrer Show

David Sanger on Afghanistan, France, Egypt, and China

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times and WNYC contributor David Sanger, discusses the situation in Afghanistan, the elections in France and Egypt, and the latest on the situation in China with activist Chen Guangcheng.

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The Takeaway

'Manhunt' Examines the Decade-Long Search for Bin Laden

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Just over 15 years ago, Peter Arnett and Peter Bergen traveled to an isolated mud hut in the mountains of Eastern Afghanistan to interview the most notorious terrorist of all time, Osama bin Laden. Bergen, who produced the interview for CNN, has marked the anniversary with a new book that examines the ten-year search for the world’s most wanted man. Peter Bergen is the author of "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden, from Nine-Eleven to Abbottabad."

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WNYC News

Bin Laden Documents Go Online, Show Frustration With Followers

Thursday, May 03, 2012

West Point's Combating Terrorism Center says the "most compelling story" from the documents is the frustration shown by the al-Qaida leader with the terrorist network's affiliates.

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The Takeaway

Obama's Surprise Visit to Afghanistan

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

In a move that marks the beginning of the end of our war in Afghanistan, President Obama made a surprise visit to Kabul on Tuesday to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. We talk with Michael Semple, fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights at the Kennedy School of Government, about the political and foreign policy implications of the agreement.

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The Takeaway

President Obama Addresses Americans from Afghanistan

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

It was a moment perfectly staged for an American audience: In a speech that neatly coincided with the one-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden’s death, President Obama addressed the country from Bagram Air Base after secretly traveling to Afghanistan. Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich breaks down the President's address.

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WNYC News

Obama in Afghanistan, Sees 'Light of New Day'

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

On a swift, secretive trip to the war zone, President Barack Obama declared Tuesday night that after years of sacrifice the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan is winding down just as it has already ended in Iraq. "We can see the light of a new day on the horizon," he said on the anniversary of Osama bin Laden's death and in the midst of his own re-election campaign.

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WNYC News

After Bin Laden, Al-Qaida Still Present As Movement

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

A year after the Navy SEAL operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that killed Osama bin Laden, the CIA is stepping up drone attacks in Yemen and has broadened its targeting of al-Qaida's arm there. It is clear that al-Qaida isn't dead yet, and counterterrorism officials say the group is diminished. But its ideology, a kind of al-Qaida-ism, will take longer to die.

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WNYC News

VA Struggles To Provide Vets With Mental Health Care

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

The Department of Veterans Affairs says any veteran who seeks mental health services gets help within days. But a new investigation by the agency's inspector general says the statistics are skewed to make wait times appear shorter. The VA will have a chance at a Senate hearing Wednesday to explain how it's going to do better.

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The Brian Lehrer Show

Saima Wahab: Translating Afghanistan

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Saima Wahab, Afghan-American wartime translator and now author of In My Father's Country: An Afghan Woman Defies Her Fate, talks about her work in Afghanistan as a wartime translator and adviser with the U.S. Army, and how she seeks to straddle the cultural divide between the United States and Afghanistan. 

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The Leonard Lopate Show

The Inside Story of the Chaotic Struggle for Afghanistan

Monday, April 23, 2012

Journalist and documentary-maker Ben Anderson discusses the war in Afghanistan, and his experience reporting on front lines in Helmand province. His book No Worse Enemy: The Inside Story of the Chaotic Struggle for Afghanistan is based on five years of unrivalled access to the US Marines and UK Forces, often for months at a time and amidst the worst violence the conflict has seen. It details the daily struggles facing U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and raises urgent questions about our strategies in there.

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The Takeaway

US, Afghanistan Reach Strategic Partnership Agreement

Monday, April 23, 2012

After months of on and off negotiations, the U.S. and Afghanistan have announced a strategic partnership agreement that ensures an American presence in Afghanistan until at least 2024 – a full decade after U.S. combat troops are scheduled to withdraw from the country in 2014. But the agreement, whose text was not released, does not include many specifics at all. We're joined by Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, Chair of Islamic Studies at American University.

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WNYC

'A Chance To Start Over': Wounded Vets Ride Again

Saturday, April 21, 2012

An annual four-day bike ride organized by the Wounded Warrior Project is being held across the country this week. One Marine says the ride gives them back the camaraderie they had in the military. "You look back and you got guys missing legs, missing arms — it doesn't matter. We're just all riding together."

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The Takeaway

U.S.-Afghan Relations Continue to Fray

Thursday, April 19, 2012

The war in Afghanistan is now 11 years old, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier for America to achieve a graceful departure from the region. Yesterday the LA Times posted 18 photos online of soldiers posing with the body parts of Afghan insurgents, another entry to a long series of errors that may undermine American plans for full troop withdrawal by 2014. Daoud Sultanzoy is an Afghan Parliament member, Sean Easter is an Afghan War Veteran.

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The Takeaway

Graphic Photos Surface of US Troops with Afghan Bodies

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The Los Angeles Times has published graphic photos showing U.S. military personnel posing with the dead bodies of Afghan insurgents. The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan wasted little time condemning the actions in the pictures, saying in a statement that "the incident depicted in the LA Times' photographs represents a serious error in judgment by several soldiers who have acted out of ignorance and unfamiliarity with U.S. Army values." Joining us is Peter Galbraith, former UN Deputy Special Representative for Afghanistan.

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The Takeaway

Is Afghanistan Ready for a Withdrawal of US Troops?

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

There has been a lot of bad news from Afghanistan in the past few months: the killing of civilians by a U.S. soldier, the Koran burnings, this week's attacks in Kabul, and the killing of American soldiers by their Afghan counterparts. These events are all adding to calls in the U.S. for troops to come home. NATO – whose defense and foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels – says the war is still on track, that Afghans will soon be able to take the lead in their country's security. But as Quentin Sommerville from our partner the BBC reports, such hopes may be optimistic.

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