A Pivotal Period for Afghanistan: Interview with Larry Sampler, assistant to the USAID Administrator for Afghanistan and Pakistan

In advance of the Afghan Presidential election run-off scheduled for June 14, Larry Sampler, assistant to the USAID Administrator for Afghanistan and Pakistan join me on The Business of Government to explore how USAID has sought to promote stability and order in Afghanistan and what is USAID’s three-fold transition strategy. The following is an excerptRead… Read more »

Afghan Air Force Receives 2 Lockheed Hercules Transport Aircraft

The Afghan Air Force received two new Lockheed Martin Hercules transport Aircraft on October 9 at Kabul International Airport. The planes will initially be operated with assistance from NATO advisors and the two new plane will be joined by two more at a later date. Afghan literacy rates, a lack of maintenance space, and aRead… Read more »

Four Elements That Promote Effective Coordination

The successes and failures of U.S civil-military. reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan serve as the basis for lessons learned in creating effective interagency coordination. “Interagency coordination is an essential element of effective public leadership,” writes Dr. Andrea Strimling Yodsampa in a new report for the IBM Center on effective practices for interagency coordination, using U.S. civil-militaryRead… Read more »

Robert Hale: Pentagon Stops War Budget Shift

The Defense Department has stopped moving funds from its overseas contingency operations budget covering the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to its base budget. Robert Hale, Pentagon comptroller, told Defense News the department stopped the shifts because of uncertainties such as sequestration cuts surrounding the budget. Hale said the Pentagon included $88.5 billion in OCORead… Read more »

Charles Davis: Air Force Pilots to Fly, Train Less Under Sequestration

The Air Force has had to reduce the amount of hours pilots have to train due to sequestration’s impacts on the branch’s fiscal year 2013 and 2014 budgets and future years, a combat aviation official told House lawmakers Wednesdsay. Lt. Gen. Charles Davis, the branch’s military deputy for the office of the assistant secretary forRead… Read more »

Accountability Update: Is Anybody Listening?

Our recent blog post about accountability had some good discussions on the GS-1102 LinkedIn group (closed group) about who actually is responsible for accountability. Should it rest squarely on government? What responsibility does the contractor have when the government is asleep at the switch? A recent issue seems to have blurred that line, prompting theRead… Read more »

Pashto/Dari to English Translators wanted for an urgent fill

Veritiss LLC is currently hiring highly qualified and professional Pashto/Dari translators for OEF-A (Operation Enduring freedom in Afghanistan). At Veritiss LLC, we firmly believe and follow the core values of integrity, professionalism and responsibility, and thus retaining the persistency of the values has earned us the title of the top company in 2011/12. We alsoRead… Read more »

Daily Dose: Defense Department releases bi-yearly report on progress in Afghanistan

The Defense Department Friday released its bi-yearly report entitled “Report on Progress Toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan,” which provides insight as to how well Afghan national security efforts are going. The report offers also covers progress in rule of law, economics, and road conditions. It states that the situation is improving in Afghanistan, thoughRead… Read more »

Is Iran Stirring The Pot?

www.homelandsecuritynet.com US counter-terrorism officials say as the anticipation of a confrontation with Tehran over their nuclear program appears to be looming they believe that Iran is now providing “weapons and money” to various groups in an effort “to start as many bush fires as possible” with the goal of distracting the US and other regionalRead… Read more »

Baby-Faced Bombers

http://www.homelandsecuritynet.com/HSN/2012/02/baby-faced-bombers/ Afghan police recently arrested four suspected insurgents in the process of smuggling 41 children to Pakistan from eastern Afghanistan’s Kunar province. According an Interior Ministry spokesperson, the insurgents were planning on using the children said to be between 6 and 11 years of age, as suicide bombers, saying: “We strongly believe that the childrenRead… Read more »

Posts Tagged: Afghanistan