Afghan voters went to the polls this weekend to cast their ballot in parliamentary elections. More than 2,500 candidates ran for 249 seats. According to reports from Afghanistan, many candidates tried to buy the election by paying voters for their ballots and busing crowds of people into polling stations. Meanwhile, election day quickly turned violent in some locations, with dozens of rocket attacks and violence at polling stations. The New York Times reported that more than 12 people were killed in election-related violence. Due to security concerns, some polling stations remained closed or had very little voter turnout.

Recent reports from Afghanistan indicate that the country is at an economic and political turning point. The New York Times reports that $1 trillion in mineral resources lies beneath the surface of Afghanistan. The mineral wealth is so vast that it may drastically change Afghanistan's economy and alter the course of the war. 

To illuminate what all of this wealth means for Afghanistan and the U.S., we turn to Christine Fair, political scientist with Georgetown University, and a former political officer to the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan in Kabul. We also speak with lithium market expert Robert Baylis and Afghanistan's Minister of Mines, Ibrahim Adel.

 

U.S. and Pakistani intelligence forces, working together, have captured a leading Taliban figure. The apprehension of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar may cause a significant disruption to Taliban operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and raises questions of whether ties are warming between Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI, and the CIA. Baradar is reportedly being interrogated by both American and Pakistani operatives. Georgetown Prof. Christine Fair, who focuses on Pakistan and Afghanistan, joins us for analysis.

Earlier this week we made a comparison between the Vietnam War and the current U.S. war in Afghanistan. One of our listeners responded with a rebuttal. Jonaid Sharif said we were

"comparing the Taliban — vicious and medieval — to the Viet Cong, who were fighting for progress and national liberation ... The Viet Cong were supported by half of the world ... I have yet to come across anyone who openly endorses the Taliban."

Today we look at Afghanistan from an Afghan perspective. Jonaid Sharif is a professor at Paine College in Augusta, Ga., where he teaches Pashto language. He is himself Afghan-American. We're also joined by Christine Fair, a professor at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University; and Lyse Doucet, BBC Correspondent in Kabul.

After weeks of international pressure, Afghanistan announced that it will now hold a run-off presidential election. But the November 7 date gives the country less than three weeks to organize the nationwide vote. We look at the challenges the country will face to hold another election in such a short time, and what it will mean for incumbent President Hamid Karzai and his rival Abdullah Abdullah, with Christine Fair, professor at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University. Fair is also a former election monitor in Afghanistan. We also talk to Emal Pasarly, deputy head of the Pashtu Service at the BBC; and from Afghanistan, Daoud Sultanzoy, an Independent Member of Parliament for Ghazni Province, in Eastern Afghanistan.

A message from the Taliban is being heard almost everywhere across Afghanistan. It's from a militant denouncing the evils of the Afghan government and its corrupt officials. The message says that if the Afghan people want justice, only the Taliban can deliver it. For more we go live to Afghanistan, to Martin Patience, Kabul correspondent for our partner, the BBC. We also speak to Christine Fair, from the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University; and Spc. Marco Reininger, spokesperson for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Preliminary tallies in the second-ever Afghan presidential election show incumbent President Hamid Karzai leading in the polls with 55% of the votes. But the cloud of suspicions about the election is not going away; yesterday, European Union monitors estimated that one third of the votes for Hamid Karzai are suspect. The Karzai campaign dismissed the EU findings, and the latest official results show that he has enough votes to win without a run-off — if the disputed votes are included. Rand Corporation's Christine Fair was an election monitor in Afghanistan and she joins us with a look at how the United States will respond to the mounting evidence of electoral fraud.

A raid by commandoes in Afghanistan has freed captured New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell. As is standard practice, the Times did not announce that the reporter had been kidnapped until after his release. Eric Schmitt, terrorism correspondent for the Times, gives us the details of the rescue as well as the back story.

We also speak to Christine Fair, professor at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, who has just returned from monitoring the presidential election in Afghanistan. Members of Afghanistan's election commission say they have clear evidence of fraud in the election; they’ve ordered a partial recount.

Today, preliminary results come in from last week's hotly-contested presidential election in Afghanistan. Both leading candidates, current President Hamid Karzai and leading challenger Abdullah Abdullah, have claimed victory by margins large enough to avoid a run-off election.  For a look at the potential impact the early results could have both there and in the U.S., we talk to Christine Fair, professor at the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, who is just back from Afghanistan as an election monitor; and Martin Patience, BBC correspondent in Kabul, Afghanistan.

 

With Pakistan’s public education in shambles, many families struggle to find decent schools for their children. One option is the local madrassa, or religious school. Some Westerners see these schools as incubators of Islamic extremists, or so-called “weapons of mass instruction.” Our next guest argues that the problem is not one of religious education but of law enforcement, and that U.S. money would be better spent on revamping the more globally-minded private school system. Christine Fair is a senior political scientist at the RAND corporation and an expert in Pakistan security issues. She co-wrote an article about madrassas in this month's Foreign Policy.

The LA Times reported this week that the U.S. and Pakistan are beginning a new joint operation that allows Pakistan to get substantial control over U.S. drone targets, flight routes, and air strikes. The U.S. military disputed many of those claims but conceded that for the first time, it's providing Pakistan with a broad array of surveillance information collected by American drones flying along Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Is this a new era of military cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistan? Will it last? To help answer these questions, The Takeaway is joined byChristine Fair, senior political scientist for the RAND Corporation.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari have plans to visit Washington this week to engage in some tri-party talks about the region. And with the Taliban possibly threatening Pakistan's nuclear arms arsenal, stability the region is of the utmost importance. As part of the strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan that President Obama unveiled last month, he requested that Congress approve billions in additional military and civilian assistance for the volatile nations. In these challenging economic times, is financial aid the only way to stabilize the countries? Before she testifies before the House Foreign Affairs committee, Christine Fair, a senior political scientist for the Rand Corporation, stops by The Takeaway to discuss Pakistan, the Taliban, and the need for U.S. aid.

In an attempt to quell the fighting with Taliban militants, the government in Pakistan's embattled Swat Valley has agreed to allow the extremely conservative Sharia religious law to become the law of the land. When former Army Supply Sergeant Kristen L. Rouse heard that news she was very concerned. As someone who had served along the Afghan border and seen the brutality of the Taliban against people, even children, who violate the religious strictures she decided to speak out and write a letter to the New York Times. She joins us now as does Christine Fair, a senior political scientist at The Rand Corporation and an expert in Pakistan security issues, to discuss the latest developments in the Swat Valley.

Read Kristen L. Rouse's Op-Ed piece, The Children of Asadabad in today's New York Times.