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AFGHANISTAN

Norway data helps target US drones: spy chief

Data collected by Norway's intelligence services in Afghanistan is used by US and Nato forces to target controversial drone attacks, the organisation's head has revealed.

Norway data helps target US drones: spy chief
The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator drone - US Air Force photo/Lt Col Leslie Pratt
Lieutenant General Kjell Grandhagen told Aftenposten newspaper that the data Norway's E-Service handed over to the US's National Security Agency was "part of an overall information base used for operations". 
 
"Such operations may include the use of drones or other legal weapons platforms," he confirmed. 
 
When Norway's Dagbladet newspaper reported in November that the US's National Security Agency collected 33m pieces of phone data  from Norway over just one month, Grandhagen claimed that this was not data from Norwegians' phone calls as Dagbladet reported,. 
 
Instead, he said, the 33m referred to data collected outside the country by Norway's intelligence services, particularly in Afghanistan. 
 
Grandhagen specifies told Aftenposten that countries receiving intelligence from Norway's E-Service could only use it for purposed agreed in advance. 
 
"The information is disclosed only for intelligence purposes, and cannot therefore be used by the recipient for any other purposes, unless we have previously agreed to it," he told the newspaper. "Disclosure takes place in the Norwegian interest and under Norwegian control." 
 
Gerald Folkvord, at the Norwegian arm of Amnesty International, the human rights group, told Aftenposten that there was no way that Norway could know that its intelligence was properly used, and called on the E-Service to pressure the US to make more efforts to reduce the number of civilian casualties of drone warfare. 
 
"Norway must be clear that if the US does not clean up its act, we may be totally unable to cooperate," he said.
 
He points to the fact that the United States should have killed civilians, both in Afghanistan and other countries, with its drone attacks.
 
This month 17 people were killed in Yemen when a wedding was accidentally hit by a drone.
 

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AFGHANISTAN

Spain starts evacuating Afghan employees via Pakistan

Spain was on Monday evacuating via Pakistan Afghan helpers left behind when western forces quit Kabul, a government source confirmed on condition of anonymity.

A group of Afghan nationals stand on the tarmac after disembarking from the last Spanish evacuation flight at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid in August. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)
A group of Afghan nationals stand on the tarmac after disembarking from the last Spanish evacuation flight at the Torrejon de Ardoz air base near Madrid in August. Photo: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / AFP)

The government source declined to give any details of the move, citing security concerns.

But Spanish media, including daily El País and National Radio, reported that Madrid would bring close to 250 Afghan citizens, who had already crossed into Pakistan and would be flown out on military transport planes.

The first flight was expected to arrive on Monday evening.

Spain’s evacuations have been weeks in the making, with Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares visiting Pakistan and Qatar in early September to lay the groundwork.

Madrid evacuated over 2,000 people, most of them Afghans who had worked for Spain and their families, during the western withdrawal as the Taliban seized power in Kabul in August.

But the flights had to stop once the final American troops that had been protecting the Afghan capital’s airport left.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in August that Spain would not “lose interest in the Afghans who had remained” in their country but wanted to leave.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, on Friday urged the bloc’s member states to host a “minimum” of between 10,000 and 20,000 more Afghan refugees.

“To welcome them, we have to evacuate them, and we’re getting down to it, but it’s not easy,” he said in Madrid.

The EU has said a demand by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to take in 42,500 Afghan refugees over five years can be achieved — although any decision lies with member states.

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