Afstan roundup/Pakistan a key

1) NATO to take command in east on Oct. 5.

2) Pakistan's President Musharraf concedes retired (?) officers of Pakistani intelligence (ISID) may be still be helping the Taliban.

3) A comprehensive NY Times story on the recent major fighting near Kandahar. How to take advantage of the military victory?

4) An American who has lived in Kandahar for nearly five years argues that the war cannot be won if the Afghan government continues along its current, corrupt course. She also highlights the role of the Pakistan sanctuary for the Taliban. She certainly does not want Canadian troops out--listen up Jack:

We, the residents of southern Afghanistan, are deeply grateful for the presence, the courage, and the sacrifice of the Canadian troops. They are protecting us from the invading Taliban. Without them, it is clear, I could not return to Kandahar in November. But the Canadian presence is not sufficient. Unless the Afghan government cracks down on its own corruption and brutality, placing itself truly at the service of its people, villagers will keep making room for Taliban...

5) A documentary on PBS tonight also highlights the Pak sanctuary (full text not officially online).

Frontline: Return of the Taliban (PBS, 9 p.m.) is not about Canada's role in Afghanistan. But Canadian troops do feature in this startling and unsettling documentary report...

Correspondent Martin Smith went to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and found that the Taliban thrives. It grows stronger, thanks to support from inside Pakistan...

A good deal of the program, and perhaps its most useful element, is the picture it paints of Pakistan and the extremely delicate position of President Pervez Musharraf. The president, so recently in Canada and making remarks that upset many people here, is wily, and determined to keep his grip on Pakistan. But to do that he cannot truly follow through on orders from the U.S. to help wipe out the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in those remote areas where the local tribes essentially ignore the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Musharraf, who appears in the documentary to answer pointed questions, essentially acknowledges that he cannot afford to alienate his own military and intelligence services. Those services nurtured and supported the Taliban for years...

...We are told about the Quetta area of Pakistan. That is where many people believe Mullah Omar, the supreme leader of the Taliban, is based. The area also holds a large "madrassa"-- technically, a learning centre. According to Frontline, the locals call it "the factory" because it regularly turns out hundreds of Taliban fighters...