Coordinated Attacks Kill 6 UN Workers as U.S. Troops Suffer Deadliest Month of 8-Year Afghan War

The attacks come one day after eight US soldiers were killed in two separate bombing in southern Afghanistan, making October the deadliest month for the US in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.

The violence in Afghanistan is occurring as President Obama deliberates on whether to send as many as 40,000 more U.S. troops to fight.

According to a report published in today’s New York Times, the debate in the White House is no longer over whether to send more troops, but over how many more will be needed.
The Times reports Obama is focusing on a strategy for Afghanistan aimed at protecting about 10 top population centers. But advocates for a larger surge say such a plan would essentially give Taliban free rein across large parts of the nation.

Later today President Obama will a sign a defense bill that contains a new provision that would allow U.S. commanders to start paying Taliban fighters who renounce the insurgency. A similar program was used in Iraq with Sunni militants.

The debate over whether to escalate the war comes as Afghanistan is preparing to hold a run-off election on November 7th between president Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, a former top official in the Northern Alliance.
Karzai is expected to soon face a new round of questions about his brother Ahmed Wali Karzai. The New York Times reveals today that Ahmed has been on the CIA’s payroll for much of the past eight years.

The agency reportedly pays Ahmed Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar. Ahmed is also suspected of being a major player in Afghanistan’s booming illegal opium trade.

In a moment we will be joined here at the Firehouse by Malalai Joya, one of Afghanistan’s leading democracy activists. But first we go to Kabul to speak with investigative journalist Pratap Chatterjee. He was staying at the Serena Hotel last night when the hotel came under attack.

Pratap Chatterjee, investigative journalist and former head of Corpwatch. He was staying at the Serena Hotel last night when the hotel came under attack.