Must Reads: A 'Red Era' museum, Obama and mothers of the missing

From attacks in Afghanistan to the missing in Mexico, here are five stories you shouldn't miss from the past week in global news:

China museum builder lets history speak

Obama faces new Mideast challenges in his second term

As 'insider attacks' grow, so does U.S.-Afghanistan divide

Mothers from Central America search for missing kin in Mexico

Britain's crackdown on Web comments sparks free-speech debate

-- Emily Alpert in Los Angeles

Photo: Marta Elena Perez of from Nicaragua attends Mass at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City on Oct. 28, 2012, with a photograph of her daughter, Karla Patricia Perez, who went missing in 2005. Credit: Marco Ugarte / Associated Press

Attacks in Afghanistan leave at least 20 people dead

KABUL, Afghanistan — Bombings killed at least 20 people in Afghanistan on Thursday as insurgents targeted Afghan security forces but left a number of civilians dead.

The deadliest incident was in southern Helmand province when a van struck a roadside bomb, killing 10 people, including five women and a child, said Helmand government spokesman Abdul Zeki.

Two teenage boys died when a bomb exploded in Zabul province as police tried to defuse it, said police spokesman Assadullah Shirza. Three police officers were wounded in the blast, he added. The boys had been scavenging for items in a trash pile when the explosion occurred, Shirza added.

The bombing elicited a strong condemnation from the NATO-led military coalition in Afghanistan. “These attacks are the most recent examples of how insurgents intentionally target, kill and injure those who want a brighter future for Afghanistan,” said Gen. John R. Allen, the force’s commander.

Meat cutters of Kabul hack at carcasses and praise Obama

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The late Illinois poet Carl Sandburg once called President Obama’s town, Chicago, the “hog butcher of the world.” Here in Kabul, the former Midwest capital of slaughterhouses has a kindred spirit in Butcher Street, a small road lined with lamb and cow carcasses and blood-splattered walls.

Here the thick-armed butchers, clad in smocks and hands wet from raw meat, offer praise to Obama in between hacking up ribs on huge tree stumps that serve as butcher blocks. They have quartered chickens, sheep and cattle for years on Butcher Street.

They frown at the mention of the Taliban and other fighters who have floated through their lives over the last three decades. They remember how the Taliban would buy meat one day and then haul someone away to detention the next. In the early 1990s, the Tajik and Uzbek mujahedin would have shootouts on the adjoining avenue.

But the mention of the American president brings smiles to their face and turns the older men to softies as they forget the stink of rotting chicken and the giant cow hooves on tables. Somehow, despite Afghanistan’s woes and all the literal blood and guts of the animals they cut apart, Obama makes them hopeful.

Pakistanis expect ties with U.S. to remain tense after Obama win

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Like the rest of the world, Pakistan watched keenly the electrifying finish to the U.S. presidential election that culminated in President Obama’s victory. But for most Pakistanis, the enthusiasm stops there.

Any change in Pakistan’s caustic relationship with the U.S. in the next four years is likely to be viewed through the prism of Afghanistan and Pakistan’s tribal region -- two war-ravaged places where Washington and Islamabad desperately want lasting stability but disagree sharply about how to achieve it.

Both Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney touted similar Afghanistan-Pakistan game plans that involve commitments to a U.S. troop pullout from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 and a continued reliance on drone missile strikes to cripple Al Qaeda and other Islamic militant groups ensconced in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Pakistanis remain deeply skeptical of Washington’s withdrawal strategy in Afghanistan. They worry the U.S. will maintain a strong presence in Afghanistan long after 2014, principally as a perch from which to ensure extremist groups do not gain access to Pakistan’s nuclear weapons arsenal. And a continuation, at least for now, of the drone campaign — seen by most Pakistanis as a blatant encroachment of their country’s sovereignty — will perpetuate the intense animosity many Pakistanis have for Washington’s policies.

“The perception here is that U.S. policy is not going to undergo a major change, in terms of the Af-Pak region,” said Raza Rumi, an analyst with the Jinnah Institute, an Islamabad think tank. “U.S. troops will withdraw in 2014. ... But the security establishment—the military, intelligence agencies, defense analysts—feels the U.S. won’t disappear from the region. It will be watching Pakistan closely. More importantly, it will keep Pakistan’s nuclear assets under scrutiny.

“So the Pakistani state is slightly edgy as to what the U.S. wants once Afghanistan is over,” Rumi added. “How will the U.S. observe Pakistan, and what steps will it take?”

Afghan commission sets presidential election for April 2014

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Afghan government announced Wednesday that presidential and provincial elections will be held in April 2014 -- a critical step demanded by an international community eager for signs of stability in Afghanistan.

The date, April 5, 2014, was hailed as proof Afghanistan was committed to a democratic path and would avoid a slide into civil war as international troops leave the country by the end of that year. The declaration by Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission went a long way toward dispelling fears that Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is not allowed to run for a third term, might attempt to postpone elections indefinitely.

U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James B. Cunningham applauded the announcement, calling it “symbolic of the aspiration of Afghans for elections which will be crucial for Afghanistan’s future stability.”

The commission said the date provides enough time to ensure the “transparency and integrity of the electoral process.”

Two international soldiers killed by Afghan in uniform

This post has been updated. See the note below for details.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two international soldiers were slain in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday by a gunman in an Afghan police uniform, the NATO-led military coalition said.

The attack had the hallmarks of a series of insider attacks, in which Afghan security forces have turned their guns on their international partners. At least 53 troops have been slain in such attacks this year, according to the NATO-led alliance.

Tuesday's attack was still under investigation and the slain soldiers’ nationalities were not immediately disclosed.  But Afghan officials and the Taliban said the attack occurred in Helmand province, a front line in the war between the Afghan government and the Taliban-led Pashtun insurgency.

[Updated at 12:40 p.m. Oct. 30: The two slain soldiers were later identified by the British Defense Ministry as members of the Royal Gurkha Rifles regiment. A spokesman declined to disclose whether the soldiers were British or Nepalese nationals. The regiment is staffed by Nepalese and commanded by British officers.]

The Taliban described the fighter in a statement as “an infiltrating soldier” who opened fire on British troops in Helmand province. The militants put the number of dead at three.

Suicide bomber kills 40 at Afghanistan mosque

A suicide bomber killed at least 40 people in northern Afghanistan as he attacked prayer goers leaving mosque on one of the holiest days in the Muslim calendar, according to a security official.

The attack on Eid al-Adha in Maimana, the capital of Faryab province,  highlighted the volatile security situation in the country as the U.S.-led NATO forces shrink ahead of their scheduled departure at the end of 2014. 

 “A suicide bomber on foot detonated his explosives among the people as they were coming out of the Eid prayer,” said Lal Mohammed Ahmadzai, a police spokesman in northern Afghanistan.  “The people were wishing Eid prayer messages to each other.”

At least 40 people were killed, most of them civilians, and 25 were wounded, Ahmadzai added.  Eid al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice, is a day of prayer and celebration across the Muslim world.

There was no immediate claim for the attack, but it played into fears that the country’s Pashtun insurgency in the south and east could gradually overwhelm the government in Kabul, with the absence of strong international backing.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force denounced the attack. "I condemn this heinous act, which is an affront to human life, to religious devotion and to the peaceful aspirations of the Afghan people," said General John R. Allen, ISAF’s commander.  “This violence undertaken at a place of worship, and during Eid, once again shows the insurgency's callous hypocrisy and disregard for religion and faith."

RELATED:

Two U.S. soldiers slain by gunman in Afghan uniform

Review: 'The Black Tulip' shows Afghanistan's triumphs, tragedies

Farewell to Afghanistan, with sadness and affection

-- Ned Parker
 

Photo: Relatives grieve beside the bodies of victims after a suicide bomb attack at a mosque in Maimana, Afghanistan. Credit: EPA / Stringer  

Two U.S. soldiers slain by gunman in Afghan uniform

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Two U.S. soldiers were killed on patrol Thursday in southern Afghanistan when a man in an Afghan national police uniform opened fire on them, a spokesman for the NATO-led force said.

The shooter escaped and the military was not sure if he was a member of the Afghan security forces or an insurgent in disguise. “It’s under investigation,” Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, said of the attack in Oruzgan province.

Separately, a third soldier from the international coalition was killed and three others wounded by insurgents in western Afghanistan’s Farah province, the NATO-led force said in a statement. The force  provided no further information, but the Italian Defense Ministry later reported that the slain soldier was one of theirs.

The deaths in Oruzgan were almost certain to heighten tensions among the U.S. and Afghan forces, whose relationship has been tested this year by the wave of killings of Western soldiers by their Afghan colleagues. The NATO-led force has counted 53 deaths of coalition members this year at the hands of Afghan army or police counterparts.

U.S. military commanders are still seeking to understand the reason for the epidemic. While the Taliban has claimed many of the deaths, the killings also reflect real resentment and anger on the part of Afghans toward their Western allies.

Western troops are meant to train and mentor the Afghan forces so they can take over the country’s security by the end of 2014, when international forces will largely leave Afghanistan.

Such shootings make it harder to plan the seamless transition sought by the United States. They also complicate the diplomatic relationship between Western nations and Afghanistan as the international community focuses on ensuring the Afghans’ next presidential election in 2014 is seen as free and fair.

ALSO:

London's historic Admiralty Arch will become a hotel

Syrian government agrees to temporary cease-fire

Greek Orthodox priest abducted in Syria is found dead

-- Ned Parker

Guantanamo terrorism convictions proving vulnerable on appeal

Salim Hamdan has been home in his native Yemen for nearly four years since completing his sentence at Guantanamo Bay for providing "material support to terrorism" -- six years of domestic service to Osama bin Laden as gardener, bodyguard and driver.

One of only seven Guantanamo captives to be sentenced for alleged war crimes by the Pentagon's military commissions, Hamdan had his conviction vacated this week by a unanimous federal appeals court panel on grounds that the assistance he provided the late Al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan wasn't defined as a war crime until five years after his 2001 capture.

Hamdan is already at liberty and moving on with his life, his pro bono attorney reported Thursday after informing his client by telephone that his appeal was successful. The 40-year-old taxi driver with a fourth-grade education was pleased to be cleansed of the "war criminal" label but doesn't plan to pursue an uphill battle for compensation, said the attorney, Harry Schneider of Seattle.

Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman, said the government was still reviewing the ruling and would have no comment.

The ruling will serve as binding precedent in the appeals of other Guantanamo detainees convicted for war crimes ex post facto, Schneider predicted. The next likely beneficiary of the tribunal's overreaching prosecutions, defense attorneys say, could be defiant Al Qaeda propagandist Ali Hamza Bahlul, who is serving a life sentence at the U.S. military prison in southern Cuba.

Within hours of the decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Australian convict David Hicks' lawyer announced that he would seek to have his client's guilty plea revoked and conditions of his release to Australia stricken. Attorney Stephen Kenny also said in an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Co. that he would pursue compensation for Hicks and an investigation of whether the Canberra government aided and abetted his wrongful imprisonment.

A kangaroo skinner who trained at an Al Qaeda base in Afghanistan before fleeing the October 2001 U.S.-led invasion, Hicks was arrested trying to cross into Pakistan and held at Guantanamo for six years. He was released to his homeland as part of his plea deal, which prohibits him from appealing his case or disclosing details of his experience for monetary gain.

Bahlul, a Yemeni like Hamdan, also was convicted at his uncontested 2008 trial of solicitation of murder in a recruiting video he produced for Al Qaeda. David Glazier, an international law professor at Loyola Law School, said legal scholars began speculating that the solicitation charge might be ruled beyond the commissions' jurisdiction after the same Washington appeals court that threw out material support as a legal charge canceled oral arguments in the Bahlul appeal just before it issued the Hamdan decision.

"There's been some discussion in the blogosphere about whether or not this means the end of conspiracy as well," said Glazier, who was a career Navy surface warfare officer before earning his law degree.

Only one of the seven Guantanamo convictions has involved crimes recognized as a violation of the international law of war: the murder, attempted murder and spying charges against Canadian Omar Ahmed Khadr, who was recently transferred to Canadian custody to serve out the six years left on his term.

Prosecutors at the military commissions have relied on material support and conspiracy to get convictions or plea bargains in the few completed cases, but Glazier argues that those "inchoate offenses" aren't considered war crimes under international law. Only after Congress passed the 2006 Military Commissions Act did the Guantanamo tribunal have jurisdiction to try suspects for those crimes, said the appeals court panel, which is made up entirely of Republican appointees.

J. Wells Dixon, senior attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has provided legal representation to hundreds of the nearly 800 men detained at Guantanamo since 2002, predicted that "conspiracy is the next military commissions charge on the chopping block."

"The Hamdan decision is significant because it is an illustration of the inherent problems in creating a second-rate system of justice that we make up as we go along," he said of the commissions, the original version of which was declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2006, prompting a hurried redo, the Military Commissions Act, three months later.

Five "high-value detainees" facing death penalty trials for the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks have been in the Guantanamo courtroom this week, bringing pretrial motions and theatrics to the forum.

In the first prosecution on charges widely accepted as war crimes, Army Col. James Pohl, the presiding judge, has been inundated with peripheral considerations, such as whether self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed should be allowed to wear a camouflage hunter's vest in the courtroom to project a warrior image.

Pohl has also had to rule on whether mold and rodent infestation at the defense attorneys work space on the remote base compromises their ability to prepare for trial, and whether any mention of mistreatment during CIA interrogations risks revealing national security secrets.

"Regardless of the underlying conduct and the quality of evidence the government presents at trial, there is no certainty that those convictions will stand" federal civilian court review, Dixon said. "For the Obama administration to continue to pursue military commissions charges is a real gamble."

ALSO:

Activists: Airstrike on Syrian city kills at least 30 civilians

Iran nuclear threat: More Americans want 'firm stand,' poll says

Striking Egyptian doctors begin nationwide resignation campaign

Follow Carol J. Williams at www.twitter.com/cjwilliamslat

Photo: Artist's sketch shows alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, right, speaking with a member of his legal team during a hearing at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Credit: Janet Hamlin

 

Iran nuclear threat: More Americans want 'firm stand,' poll says

WASHINGTON -- As international efforts to curb Iran's nuclear development program continue, a growing share of Americans say they want firm action to end the threat of the Tehran regime building a nuclear bomb, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

Fifty-six percent of respondents said they favor Washington taking a "firm stand" with Iran, while 41% said it is "more important to avoid military conflict," the poll found. The share saying they advocate firm action has increased from 50% since January.

The poll, taken of 1,511 adults October 4-7, didn't define "firm stand."

The Obama administration has argued that a combined effort of international economic sanctions and diplomacy can persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions, and says time remains before policymakers need to decide whether to launch airstrikes and/or other military action against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Western nations believe that Iran is developing the capacity to build nuclear weapons; Iran says its nuclear program is meant for civilian purposes only.

The poll also found some disillusionment with the popular revolts that rocked much of the Middle East last year in the "Arab Spring," and a growing desire for Washington to support stable Middle Eastern governments, even if they are undemocratic. The results also pointed to a desire for the United States to scale back involvement in the turbulent region.

The results suggest some gulf between the public and political leaders in Washington. President Obama and GOP challenger Mitt Romney both advocate continued deep engagement in the region and active efforts to foster democratic governments.

The survey found 57% of respondents said they don't believe the uprisings that ousted governments in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya will lead to lasting improvements for their citizens.That's up sharply from 43% in April 2011, three months into the upheaval.

It also found that 54% said they believe it is more important to have stable governments in the Middle East, even if there is less democracy. In contrast, 36% said it is more important to have democratic governments. Sixty-three percent said they think the United States should be less involved with changes of leadership in the Middle East, while 23% said it should be more involved. 

The poll also indicated that most Americans say they want an accelerated withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The U.S. currently has about 68,000 troops in that country, and the Obama administration plans to withdraw them by the end of 2014, although the pace of the pullout remains unclear. 

Fifty-eight percent of independent respondents and 70% of Democrats said they want American troops removed as quickly as possible. Republicans were evenly split, with 48% saying they want immediate withdrawal and 48% saying they want the troops to stay "until the situation is stabilized."

ALSO:

Activists: Airstrike on Syrian city kills at least 30 civilians

U.S. soldiers arrive in Israel for largest-ever military exercise

Striking Egyptian doctors begin nationwide resignation campaign

-- Paul Richter