Bush to Meet With Afghan President

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050523/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_afghanistan

WASHINGTON - President Bush holds up Afghanistan as a model emerging democracy, but Monday's sit-down with President Hamid Karzai comes amid deadly protests, attacks and kidnappings in a country still struggling to emerge from decades of war and repression.


Deadly anti-American protests across Afghanistan have killed at least 15 people and threatened a security crisis for Karzai's feeble central government.

The White House blamed a Newsweek report — later retracted by the magazine — for igniting the violence. The May 9 story said Pentagon investigators had found evidence that interrogators at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, placed copies of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, in washrooms to unsettle suspects and flushed one down a toilet.

But Karzai blamed opponents of his ties with the United States and of his reconciliation efforts with the ousted fundamentalist Taliban regime. Afghanistan is moving toward September parliamentary elections, the next landmark in its path toward democracy.

Karzai began a four-day U.S. visit on Sunday by sharply denying a reported State Department cable that said he has not worked strongly enough to curtail production of opium, the raw material for heroin.

[maddezmom]

1. AP: Karzai to Express Many Concerns to Bush

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
16 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - President Bush held up Afghanistan as a model of emerging democracy and anti-terror partner, but President Hamid Karzai came to their meeting Monday waving a long list of grievances associated with U.S. involvement in his country's struggle to recover from decades of instability.

At Karzai's Oval Office session with Bush, the centerpiece of a four-day U.S. visit and the two leaders' first such get-together since September, the Afghan leader hoped to win a commitment for a long-term — perhaps permanent — U.S. military presence in his country. But Karzai also said in advance of the meeting at the White House that he wants greater control over American military operations there.

Approximately 20,000 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, and there is no end in sight to their mission — including the still unfruitful search for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. That is in addition to about 8,200 troops from NATO countries in Kabul and elsewhere. But there has been little U.S. receptiveness to the idea of a rigid, permanent arrangement there.

Karzai also said that he wants to take over custody of the hundreds of Afghans detained in military jails in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during and after the 2001 U.S. invasion that ousted the repressive Taliban regime.

~snip~
more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050523/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_afghanistan

Wonder how the after meeting press conference will go? :shrug:

[leftchick]

3. CNNI actually used the "p" word regarding Karzai

They said he was coming here with grievances partly to assure the Afghan people he isn't a puppet of the US Guvmint. :eyes:

[gratuitous]

2. I can write the press release right now

"President Bush and President Karzai had a good discussion and a frank exchange of views."

[KansDem]

5. "Both agree 'it's hard' fighting terrorism..."

Thought I'd add that snippet of late-breaking news...

[maddezmom]

6. I was going to count how many times * said freedom

but was distracted by all his wiggling and giggling. :D

[realFedUp]

4. Giving him a little more hush money?

what a morass.