Nearly 500 prisonors escape from Kandahar prison.

[steve s]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...andahar-prison/2011/04/24/AFBQx4eE_story.html

Nearly 500 prisoners escaped through a 1000-tunnel at a prison in Kandahar. Apparently the tunnel was dug from a house outside the prison. It seems they never heard of ground-penetrating radar in Afghanistan.

From the article...

Accounts of the extraordinary prison break, carried out in the dead of night, suggest collusion with prison guards, officials or both.

Ya think?

ETA: Sorry for the typo in the title.

Steve

 

[rjh01]

You do not need ground penetrating radar. Just put some microphones a few feet underground aimed at anything deeper. The technology dates back to WW1.

 

[GrouchoMarxist]

General Burkhalter is going to send someone to the Russian front over this.

 

[Mycroft]

"...It also highlights the spirit and resourcefulness of the Taliban despite months of battlefield setbacks."

The writer seems like a fan.

 

[egslim]

"...It also highlights the spirit and resourcefulness of the Taliban despite months of battlefield setbacks."

The writer seems like a fan.

Because he recognises the Taliban's strengths? It would be stupid not to, Sun Tzu already wrote you should know your enemy.

Fact is the Taliban achieved a successful coup with dedication and resourcefulness, while the government's forces proved incompetent or unreliable to prevent it.

Any successful strategy in Afghanistan will have to take those facts into account.

 

[Mycroft]

Because he recognises the Taliban's strengths? It would be stupid not to, Sun Tzu already wrote you should know your enemy.

Fact is the Taliban achieved a successful coup with dedication and resourcefulness, while the government's forces proved incompetent or unreliable to prevent it.

Any successful strategy in Afghanistan will have to take those facts into account.

Or just make sure you have guards who are not distributing keys to the prisoners and looking away while they dig their tunnels.

 

[egslim]

Or just make sure you have guards who are not distributing keys to the prisoners and looking away while they dig their tunnels.

Apparently finding such guards is either a lot harder than it sounds, or the people in charge are incompetent/unreliable.

Either way, it needs to be taken into account.

 

[geni]

Or just make sure you have guards who are not distributing keys to the prisoners and looking away while they dig their tunnels.

Been tried. Unfortunatly those guards were killed in the previous break out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarposa_Prison_attack_of_2008

If being a mildly competent guard gets you killed there is an obvious incentive be be incompetent

 

[egslim]

Which alltogether begs the question: How will the Afghans manage to run their country, if they can't even run a prison?

Unless of course the Taliban take charge, since they seem to be the only ones who can get something done.

 

[Polaris]

Hmm, guess we should start taking Taliban prisoners out of Afghanistan to some island somewhere...oh wait, that's too mean.

Meh, could always stop taking prisoners altogether.

 

[steve s]

You do not need ground penetrating radar. Just put some microphones a few feet underground aimed at anything deeper. The technology dates back to WW1.

Good point.

 

[egslim]

Hmm, guess we should start taking Taliban prisoners out of Afghanistan to some island somewhere...oh wait, that's too mean.

Meh, could always stop taking prisoners altogether.

Nice little dilemma, isn't it?

On the one hand your stated goal in Afghanistan is to build a stable democracy. On the other hand the methods you need to stabilize the country are incompatible with a democratic state.

 

[Darth Rotor]

How do you pronounce Sergeant Shultz in Pashtun?

 

[Virus]

I think Afghan culture is too pathetic and stupid to build a civilized society, which they have never had in history.

 

[angrysoba]

Afghanistan always seems to have very porous jails.

 

[angrysoba]

I think Afghan culture is too pathetic and stupid to build a civilized society, which they gave never had in history.

This is Afghanistan in the Sixties:

Have a look at the photos here:

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/05/27/once_upon_a_time_in_afghanistan

 

[egslim]

I think Afghan culture is too pathetic and stupid to build a civilized society, which they gave never had in history.

What does that make us, for trying to build it there?

 

[geni]

Which alltogether begs the question: How will the Afghans manage to run their country, if they can't even run a prison?

The IRA staged a few prison breakouts over the years.

Unless of course the Taliban take charge, since they seem to be the only ones who can get something done.

I'm not sure they can at this point. A lot of the warlords would be unlikely to back them this time around.

 

[geni]

I think

Citation needed

Afghan culture

Not that clear it really exists. There is pashtun culture but the other tibal groups differ.

 

[geni]

Hmm, guess we should start taking Taliban prisoners out of Afghanistan to some island somewhere...oh wait, that's too mean.

In practice it would probably be enough to move them to a non-pashtun area of the country.