Afghanistan

Phil Goff broke suppression orders and nothing is going to be done about it unless someone lays a complaint with the Police.

Phil Goff has breached suppression orders in releasing secret Army documents. I hope the Police and Solicitor-General take as much interest in prosecuting Phil Goff as they did in prosecuting me.

Labour MP Phil Goff appears to have broken the law by releasing pages from a suppressed Court of Inquiry report into the death of a Kiwi soldier in Afghanistan.

Mr Goff has released part of the report into the death of Corporal Doug Hughes which he says reveals “critical deficiencies in the training and deployment of Kiwi troops”.

In February, Coroner Gordon Matenga released his report into Cpl Hughes’ death in April 2011, ruling it was a suicide, and an inquest was not necessary.

All other details of the report were suppressed, “including the report of the Court of Inquiry, in the interests of justice and on the basis of personal privacy”.  Read more »

Amazing footage of a 747 Cargo plane looks to have climbed too fast and lost lift crashing and killing all 7 Americans onboard at Bagram, Afghanistan.

In the video, the plane ascends before veering off course. Eventually the fuselage becomes nearly perpendicular to the ground and quickly plummets into the airfield. The crash claimed the lives of seven crew members, according to a spokesperson for the plane’s carrier, National Air Cargo. It remains unclear how, exactly, the plane crashed. According to an updated press release on the carrier’s website, the plane was transporting several vehicles to Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  Read more »

Apache helicopter crash in Sharana, Afghanistan. No one on the ground was killed and both pilots survived.

Our NZDF boys and girls have completed their mission in Bamiyan and are returning home.

Photo: NZDF

The New Zealand flag has been lowered for the final time at Kiwibase in Bamiyan marking the official close of the Provincial Reconstruction Team and this country’s 10-year involvement with it.

The United States and Malaysian flag, representing other nations in the PRT, were also lowered leaving the Afghan flag flying alone.  Read more »

The left likes to exclaim that nothing has changed in Afghanistan.

Foreign Policy magazine has a photo essay on women in Afghanistan that disproves that….but it is all at risk if the Taliban return:

Afghan girls attend class at a camp for the displaced in Kabul in October 2011.

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, Afghan women have gained the rights to vote, work, and pursue an education. They’re running for president, they’ve claimed seats in parliament, and they’ve even competed in the Olympics. But international troops are due to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, and the Taliban threatens to step into the vacuum they’ll leave behind. Already, writes Amie Ferris-Rotman in an FP dispatch from Kabul, many of the women who’ve come so far — journalists, politicians, and rights workers, among others — have begun to retreat from public life out of fear for their safety. “Once the Americans go we’ll have to sit at home again, bored,” First Lieutenant Zakiya Mohammadi tells Ferris-Rotman.

The “last decade produced a league of knowledgeable, determined young women for whom the Taliban’s return is anathema,” Ferris-Rotman writes. Here’s a look at women across post-Taliban Afghanistan — from the campaign trail to the basketball court to the operating room.

NSFW (Language)

reposted:

I have had a few emails from regular readers, subscribers and commenters who are in the military.

They all relate to their ability to get either via RSS or email (which is powered by RSS) the full text of each post.

For those on deployment, especially on ships or in Afghanistan and other regions, I’m told they have email access but little or no ability to browse.

I have now found a solution for you all.

If you are in our armed forces, or operate from a remote location where email or RSS the only way to enjoy Whale Oil Beef Hooked then please email me with your details so I can add you to the subscriber list. You can then commence to receive all my pearls of wisdom direct in your inbox, or the full RSS feed.

At this stage this facility is only available for those in the services. A short explanation of your current service/rank will suffice. Special exceptions will be made for those outside the services, but the explanation really does need to be exceptional.

I have had a few emails from regular readers, subscribers and commenters who are in the military.

They all relate to their ability to get either via RSS or email (which is powered by RSS) the full text of each post.

For those on deployment, especially on ships or in Afghanistan and other regions, I’m they have email access but little or no ability to browse.

I have now found a solution for you all.

If you are in our armed forces, or operate from a remote location where email ro RSS the only way to enjoy Whale Oil Beef Hooked then please email me with your details so I can add you to the subscriber list so that you can commence to receive all my pearls of wisdom direct in your inbox.

At this stage this facility is only available for those in the services. A short explanation will suffice

This morning David Fisher had an article about a “leaked” report from Defense that “blasted army training”.

A leaked report has strongly criticised the training given to an army contingent sent to Afghanistan which lost five of its members in combat.

The Defence Force has admitted the group left New Zealand with gaps in their training.

The report was written by a sergeant in military intelligence who reviewed the group’s preparation in Hawkes Bay, where the troops performed exercises simulating situations they were likely to encounter in Bamiyan province.

The only problem with Fisher’s assertions is that they are wrong. The Defense Force has not admitted anything of the sort (only one sergeant, and in a stolen leaked report)…in fact they have issued a press release saying that Fisher’s article is wrong.

Statement from the Vice Chief of Defence Force, Major General Tim Keating  Read more »