International human rights officials toured the new US detention facility in Parwan, Afghanistan, at the edge of Bagram Air Base Nov. 15. The new facility, which has room for 1,400 detainees, is part of the Obama administration's wider efforts to improve its Afghan detainee system and will eventually be controlled by the Afghan government. In a US Embassy press release, officials promised greater transparency based on a case management system, which will allow detainees to be informed of the charges against them and provide them with the right to challenge government witnesses. Amnesty International and other human rights groups called on the Obama administration to make sure its detention policy conforms to international law.

More than 350 Taliban inmates began a hunger strike Nov. 8 at the Sarposa prison in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. The protest is in response to harsh conditions, including abuse by guards. The Afghan Ministry of Justice has sent a delegation to the prison to investigate. The Justice Ministry fears a potential prison break attempt, after authorities reportedly learned that trucks loaded with explosives were instructed to destroy the prison walls. Millions of dollars have been spent in the last year in an effort to bolster security at the prison. The Afghan government has also increased the armed presence at the facility in recent days.

Two Czech commanders from the elite Fourth Brigade of the Rapid Reaction Forces who have just returned from Afghanistan wore the shield designs of Nazi SS brigades and divisions on their helmets for almost their entire tour of duty in Logar province, according to a Nov. 9 report in the Prague daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD). The report notes that these same commanders were decorated days earlier in a ceremony in Žatec for their model fulfillment of the Afghan mission by Czech Defense Minister Martin Barták and Chief of General Staff Vlastimil Picek. MfD reports there is no evidence that Barták and Picek were aware of the two elite soldiers' Nazi sympathies. The helmets of company lieutenant Jan Čermák and warrant officer Hynek Matonoha were "decorated" with the shields of the SS Hohenstaufen and Dirlewanger brigades.

9-11 suspect Said Bahaji, whose German passport was reportedly found by Pakistani military forces in a mud hut in Sherwangai village, South Waziristan Oct. 25 has not been in touch with his family for two years, his mother told the New York Times by telephone. Bahaji, a German citizen whose father is Moroccan, is said to have been the main logistics supporter of the 9-11 attackers, paying their rent and telephone bills. He is named as the leader of their Hamburg cell.

The Pakistani media have quoted Taliban and al-Qaeda sources denying responsibility for the car bomb that ripped through a market in Peshawar Oct. 28, killing 105 people, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived on a visit to Pakistan. The same day saw a dawn attack in Kabul, in which six UN employees and three guards were killed in a gunfight that also left three assailants dead. Islamist denials of a hand in the attacks have sparked a frenzy of conspiracy-theorizing in the Pakistani press.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a suspected player in the country's booming opium trade, has received regular payments from the CIA for much of the past eight years, according to a front-page New York Times account Oct. 28. The report claims the agency pays Karzai for "a variety of services," including helping to recruit a CIA-directed paramilitary group called the Kandahar Strike Force.

The US embassy in Pakistan rejected Oct. 23 claims that an Islamabad warehouse in the possession of a subcontractor to Xe Worldwide, formerly Blackwater, was used to store heavy arms and ammunition for the company. Said the statement: "Kestral Logistics is a private logistics company that handles the import of equipment and supplies provided by the US to the government of Pakistan. All of the equipment and supplies are imported at the request of the Pakistan government, which also certifies the shipments." It also said that the media outlets that published the story did not contact the embassy for comment. (Daily Times, Islamabad, Oct. 24)

The US military is providing intelligence and surveillance video from drones to assist the Pakistani army in its anti-Taliban offensive in South Waziristan, the Los Angeles Times reports, citing unnamed Washington officials. "We are coordinating with the Pakistanis," one official said. "And we do provide Predator support when requested." (LAT, Oct. 23)