Afghanistan News October 2, 2003

October 2, 2003

Karzai to run for re-election
Wednesday, 1 October, 2003, 19:40 GMT 20:40 UK BBC News
Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has told the BBC that he will stand in next year's presidential election, and says he has begun setting up a political movement.
Mr Karzai made the announcement in an interview with BBC News Online's Talking Point Live programme.

He also said Afghanistan would ban political parties from having their own militias, and prevent members of the army from engaging in political activity.

His announcement came hours after he told the UK's governing Labour party conference that the creation of civil society in Afghanistan will "take years to complete".

And he appealed to the international community to show the patience to continue supporting his reform programme.

He warned delegates that the hardline Islamic Taleban movement - deposed by US-led forces nearly two years ago - was still a threat.

Responding later to readers' questions in the Talking Point interview, Mr Karzai said he was pleased with the international support he was getting.

He also urged his neighbours, particularly Pakistan, to take measures to stop anti-Afghan attacks in the name of Islam.

Female education

President Karzai said there had been huge progress in his country since the fall of the Taleban.

"Today we have 4.2 million children going to school," he said.

Forty per cent of those involved in education are women, he said - a reference to the Taleban's ban on women and children in schools.

In our part of the world terrorism is a consequence of extremism and is used as an instrument of policy

President Hamid Karzai
"We are rebuilding national institutions," he told delegates, to warm applause. And he pointed to progress in the establishment of a national army and the creation of a new national currency.

But he warned of grave problems. He said of extremists: "They still lurk around... terrorism is still challenging our lives."

US-led forces have sustained a number of casualties in operations against the Taleban in south-eastern Afghanistan in recent weeks. The Taleban have vowed to regain power.

Mr Karzai also stressed that the rule of law applies to "not even 45%" of Afghanistan. "We still have armed gangs," he said.

But he expressed confidence that the Afghan people could overcome their problems.

And he also restated his support for the US and UK war to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.

Taleban plea

Mr Karzai told BBC News Online's Talking Point that his government was not trying to eliminate the Taleban.

He said only a small minority of the Taleban were involved in terrorism and that many had simply gone back to their villages.

"Nobody wants to eliminate the Taleban," Mr Karzai said. "They are part of our country."

Funding will feature in Armitage's talks with Karzai
The president said he was only against terrorism and not peaceful Taleban members. "I would like them to come back to be part of Afghanistan too."

Mr Karzai again suggested the roots of recent terrorist attacks came from outside Afghanistan's borders.

He said if extremism had any place in Afghanistan, the Taleban regime would not have been thrown out in a month at the end of 2001.

"The people chased them out," he said.

When Mr Karzai returns to Afghanistan he will receive visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage on Friday.

The two men will discuss the security situation and US pledges of funding.

US President George W Bush has asked Congress for another $1.2bn for Afghanistan, mainly to fund the new Afghan national army and for infrastructure projects such as roads, hospitals and schools.

Mr Karzai said on Talking Point he was pleased with the "double assurance" he had received in visits to New York and London that Afghanistan would not be forgotten.

Afghan president praises liberation by west
By Christopher Adams, Financial Times Political Correspondent October 1 2003
Hamid Karzai, president of Afghanistan, gave Tony Blair a powerful boost in his efforts to keep the party united over his foreign policy, saying that taking the war against terrorism to the central Asian country was an international triumph.

Voicing strong support for the war in Iraq, Mr Karzai said of the military action in Afghanistan: "The result of that co-operation today for Afghanistan is that we have now a government for two years. We are liberated. We have political freedom."

But he warned that lawlessness was still rife, with criminal gangs, looting and drug running among the biggest problems facing the country.

He told delegates at the Labour conference in Bournemouth that the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the US had woken the world to the seriousness of the situation in Afghanistan.

"A poor, deeply believing Muslim country, a traditional country, was receiving help from the rest of the world, from a different religion, different values.

"The Afghan people joined hands with them to free themselves, and by that the rest of humanity, from the tyranny of terrorism.

"This was for me the co-operation of mankind together for the sake of humanity."

Mr Karzai told the conference that more than 2m refugees had returned to Afghanistan and 4.2m children now went to school, 40 per cent of them girls.

But he admitted that "the rule of law was not applied entirely". It would take time to bring order to the country and eradicate the drugs problem.

Afghanistan supplies much of the illegal drugs sold in Britain and he urged the two countries to co-operate in fighting the industry.

"Terrorism and extremism is still challenging our life," he said. However, he added: "The end result of the co-operation of civilisations for Afghanistan will be democracy, prosperity, peace and dignity for our people and, by extension, for the region and, by extension, peace for the rest of the world."

Afghan Disarmament to Start Soon, May Take 2 Years
Wed Oct 1, 8:32 AM ET By Angie Ramos
KABUL (Reuters) - An ambitious plan to disarm about 100,000 fighters from Afghanistan's unruly regional militias is likely to start this month, but could take up to two years, the U.N.-backed body responsible said on Wednesday.

The Afghan New Beginnings Program (ANBP) said the plan, which has suffered repeated delays, would be far from complete by elections due next June, with only a few pilot areas covered.

Speaking at a demonstration of mobile disarmament units in Kabul, Paul Cruickshank, the ANBP's operations manager, said the ANBP expected to start the $200 million Japanese-led plan in the northern province of Kunduz on October 25.

"We're now looking at 18 months, possibly 24 months, to complete the disarmament and demobilization part," he said.

Critics say the process is fraught with problems, not least in convincing warlords to co-operate when confidence in the central government is low, or convincing individual fighters to lay down arms when security is poor and alternative jobs scarce.

The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think-tank, said disarmament was critical to the success of the whole process of political reform, and the elections.

In a new report, it called for an expanded NATO peacekeeping force to assist the ANBP, saying the plan needed independent supervision to be credible given dominance of the defense ministry by the ethnic Tajik Northern Alliance faction.

"Without a more robust verification mechanism...there is a serious risk that the process will be used by powerful figures either to strengthen patronage networks or to demobilize only their opponents," it said.

NATO CONSIDERS EXPANSION
News of plans to launch the disarmament drive comes after diplomats said NATO was considering sending thousands more troops to Afghanistan and linking special teams in the troubled provinces to its 5,500 strong peacekeeping force in Kabul.

One diplomat said suggestions had ranged from about 2,000 to 10,000 extra troops.

The disarmament process, which the ANBP says is voluntary, starts with bar-coding of weapons and ends with a ceremony where ex-combatants receive a medal and a certificate.

A package of incentives will include a $200 voucher, clothing and food allowances and skills training.

Cruickshank said after Kunduz, mobile teams would go to the southeastern province of Gardez and to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif to disarm about 1,000 fighters in each area.

Cruickshank said the ANBP expected to complete a pilot phase including Kabul, Bamiyan and Kandahar by next spring then launch the main phase involving a further 94,000 fighters next summer.

Fighting that erupted at the weekend between rival pro-government factions in provinces around Mazar underscored the difficulties that could be faced.

But ANBP head Sultan Aziz said both of the rival commanders whose forces were involved had pledged to go along with the process and Cruickshank expressed confidence it would succeed.

"There are a lot of people out there who are willing and very eager to enter this program, surrender their weapons, return to their families and start a new life as a civilian," he said.

The initial phase will not cover areas where U.S.-led forces, helped by local militia forces, are most active pursuing remnants of the former Taliban regime and allied Islamic militants.

But Aziz said last week such forces might be targeted once they were no longer needed for the U.S.-led "war on terror."

After Two Years, U.S. Bullish on Afghan Progress
Wed Oct 1, 5:51 AM ET By David Brunnstrom
KABUL (Reuters) - Nearly two years after the start of the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, the American military gave a bullish progress report Wednesday, saying it had suffered only 31 combat deaths and enemy forces were "desperate."

U.S. military spokesman Colonel Rodney Davis said Taliban, al Qaeda and other Islamic militants opposing the 11,500-strong U.S.-led force had only three options: "Leave, die or change."

Davis said the United States had suffered 31 combat deaths in Afghanistan since operations began on October 7, 2001, including one killed Monday in a firefight near the Pakistani border, a fraction of those killed in most past wars.

"We've been fairly careful about the use of combat force in Afghanistan and we have been relatively successful in protecting our soldiers," Davis said.

"That being said, we continue to engage in combat operations to the degree necessary to kill, capture and deny sanctuary to anti-coalition forces. We think things are progressing, we think anti-coalition forces are desperate."

Davis said opposing forces had been obliged to resort to hit-and-run tactics using small groups of five to 10 men. "Wherever the mass...we kill them," he said.

Davis said that while there were areas, mainly in the south and east, where security was a concern, guerrillas had failed to destabilize the central government or cause the international community to give up on Afghanistan.

"So the only way we are going to lose this is if we quit," he said. "And we are not going to quit, so we're not going to lose it. So they are going to have to leave or they are going to die."

He said U.S.-led forces had stuck to their program of establishing civilian-military provincial reconstruction teams around the country to boost security and aid work.

TRAINING TAKES TIME
Asked about slow progress in building a new national army to replace unruly regional militias and eventually foreign forces, Davis said it took time to train capable soldiers.

"You want good soldiers, not paper soldiers, or toy soldiers," he said, adding that the national army was expected to double in size from its current 6,000 by this time next year.

Davis's bullish comments came despite the bloodiest two-month period in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, in which about 300 people have been killed, among them civilians, aid workers, police, militiamen and many guerrillas.

Four U.S. soldiers have been killed since late August.

And despite two years of fighting, U.S.-led forces have failed to capture Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, or Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

U.S. and Afghan officials have said they believe both men may be hiding out in the rugged tribal belt between Afghanistan and Pakistan and have been frustrated by the ability of guerrilla forces to slip back and forth across the border.

Taliban officials claimed this week they were in control of Barmal, a border district that encompasses the U.S. base at Shkin near where the American soldier was killed Monday.

Davis rejected this, but the government commander in Barmal, Daud Khan, said 500 extra Afghan troops were being sent there to purge it of Taliban fighters, who were equipped "with the latest weapons."

Taliban spokesman Hamid Agha said the guerrillas also continued to control two districts in Zabul province and were present in Dai Chopan, where U.S. forces say they have killed more than 100 Taliban fighters in fighting since August.

French troops in Afghanistan form 'joker' in diplomatic game with US
Thursday October 2, 11:22 AM AFP
Deployment of French Special Forces troops in Afghanistan is a "token of good will" from France towards the United States, which is leading the fight against Taliban remnants, according to a Western diplomat.

The very discreet presence of around 150 elite French troops near Spin Boldak, in a sensitive area on the southern border with Pakistan, is a "joker" in the diplomatic game played by President Jacques Chirac with Washington, said the diplomat who wished to remain anonymous.

French army staff maintain an official silence on the subject, which according to sources in Kabul, was directly managed by the president's office.

The decision to deploy French Special Forces in Afghanistan was officially announced by the French president's office in June, during the G8 summit in Evian which US President George W. Bush also attended.

Since that brief statement by the Elysee Palace, the defence ministry has refused to reveal the nature of the French soldiers' mission, their exact number or where they would be deployed.

The French military had already taken part in the war in Afghanistan against the Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies, but this is the first time troops have been directly engaged in ground operations.

Some French Special Forces were briefly deployed at the end of 2001 in the main northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and Kabul where, however, they did not take part in any offensive operations. During 2002, French Mirage 2000 jets carried out raids against al-Qaeda targets, at the request of the United States.

Around 150 French elite troops have been installed since August in southern Kandahar province, in the border district of Spin Boldak, an AFP correspondent observed.

Other French soldiers could have been deployed in the Tora Bora mountains on the border with Pakistan in eastern Nangarhar province but this could not be independently confirmed.

Under the command of French army staff, the troops are part of the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom, launched two years ago and which currently has around 12,500 soldiers, mostly American, hunting Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants in Afghanistan.

Officially, the French army's discretion is "to protect the personnel, who are engaged in a dangerous mission."

"This policy is also motivated by an agreement signed with the US army," a French army staff officer explained.

In addition, France does not want to appear in the eyes of Afghans and the international community to be too involved in offensive actions on Afghan soil alongside US troops, the diplomatic source said.

In addition to the Special Forces troops, around 550 French soldiers are currently serving with the International Security Assistance Force helping with security in Kabul and helping to train the new Afghan National Army.

Karzai accuses Pakistan over terrorism
Scotsman.com GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT
HAMID Karzai, the Afghan president, yesterday accused Pakistan of harbouring terrorists and undermining his country’s chances of a peaceful future.

In a lecture at the Parliament Hall at St Andrews University, Mr Karzai claimed it was impossible to prevent terrorists returning to Afghanistan unless Pakistan co-operated sincerely with the Afghan government.

And he said governments of countries in the region had to stop using extremism as instruments of policy.

"The co-operation in the anti-terrorist campaign has to be between nation states," he said. "I don’t think that Afghanistan can do much on its own to prevent the resurgence of, the regrouping, the reorganisation, the re-equipment and refinancing of the Taleban without co-operation in the region, and to be more specific, I don’t think we can deter terrorism or stop it rising up again unless Pakistan co-operates with us, sincerely and effectively."

He said there were religious schools in Pakistan, known as madrasas, where pupils were being schooled in the art of terrorism.

"There are places disguised as madrasas that are teaching explosives, how to use a Kalashnikov, how to plant a bomb, how to be hateful to people, how to spread hatred, how to pass hurt. I have told the Pakistani president that we cannot do without their help and, of course, without the help of the rest of the world.

"On a larger scale it is a regional problem, that governments must stop using extremism as instruments of policy."

As the United States revealed that one of its soldiers had been killed and two others injured in heavy fighting in southern Afghanistan, Mr Karzai said that terrorism had been foisted on Afghanistan by outside influences, and he accused the rest of the world of ignoring the country’s plight until the events of 11 September, 2001.

"We knew that extremism there, that terrorism there, would reach far beyond Afghanistan. We felt the menace of it and we warned the rest of the world," he said.

"It was a brutality unheard of, it was menace unheard of and it was bound to have consequences, as we saw in the twin towers in America, as we saw in the Pentagon, as we saw in Bali, as we saw in the rest of the world.

"We told the rest of the world that is not Afghanistan, that what you see in Afghanistan, the extremism there, the terrorism there, the violence there is not home-grown, it is imported, so please come and free us."

But he said their pleas were ignored: "Because we were poor, because we were underdeveloped, because we probably at the time did not have known resources that could be used by the economy of the world, we were not cared about until 11 September occurred."

He went on: "The responsibility for what happened in Afghanistan lies really with the international community and primarily with the countries around that part of the world. It was money and encouragement and political desire that brought that about.

"Unfortunately in our part of the world, terrorism is the consequence of extremism used as an instrument of policy.

"But the neglect of it is also not good. Countries in the West cannot absolve themselves of responsibility.

"They should have been foresighted enough to know what the consequences of inactivity would have been."

Mr Karzai said that terrorism was now being sustained by the cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan, and he called for help in ending the trade.

"The heroin that people buy in the streets of London, the money that the British people pay for that will eventually end up in the pockets of the terrorists, will eventually sustain terrorism," he said.

Iran, Russia to create "security belt" around Afghanistan
Itar-Tass 10/01/2003
TEHERAN - Iran and Russia take common positions in the joint fight with drug trafficking and export of drugs from Afghanistan to other countries. It is envisioned in a protocol signed in Teheran on Wednesday after the talks with a delegation of the Russian State Commission on Control for the Turnover of Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances headed by commission deputy chairman Alexander Fedorov on a visit in the Iranian capital.

This is the first visit abroad of the recently created Russian commission. The head of the Russian delegation told Russian journalists that Iran was chosen not by chance as both countries have common problems in this field and moreover it is common knowledge that Iran focuses attention on the fight with drug trafficking. Moscow and Teheran seek to create "the belt of security" around Afghanistan in order to seal off the channels of drug export from this country, Fedorov emphasised. Russia enjoys Iran's support in this issue and hopes that other countries bordering Afghanistan will respond positively to this call.

Afghan Minister Paints Grim Picture of Police Force, Emphasizes Reforms
VOA 10/01/2003
Afghanistan's interior minister says reform of his country's corrupt police force is his number-one priority.

Afghan Interior Minister Ali Jalali says his country has a police problem.

Corruption plagues the ranks of law enforcement around the country, he says, with some officers perpetrating robberies and extortion. Some police are part of the private militias of local strongmen.

As a result, Mr. Jalali says, the nation lacks law and order, despite the relatively large number of policemen.

"The numbers are not going to help here, because what matters is the quality of the police officers," said Mr. Jalali. "Now, we have probably about 70,000 on the books, policemen across the country. However most of them are untrained, poorly trained, poorly paid … police officers who are mostly loyal to their local leaders."

He says even some bodyguards serving Afghanistan's highest-ranking officials are committing criminal activities when off-duty.

Mr. Jalali's solution is to rebuild Afghanistan's police from the ground up.

His ministry is creating a new national law enforcement cadre that will replace the current police, many of whom were drawn from militia fighters after the end of the 2001 war that ousted the former Taleban regime. The new force receives academy training, thanks in part to foreign aid for the project.

Mr. Jalali hopes to eventually create a national police force of 50,000 regular officers and 12,000 border police. Right now, the new force has only 2,000 officers or less than two percent of the interior minister's target.

Yet even this small number is already making its presence felt.

On Tuesday, the national police made its first arrest of Afghan gangsters since the fall of the Taleban.

Sources close to the police say the gang members in question had powerful connections in the capital Kabul. This, they say, seems to indicate that the new police force is dedicated to its duty and is not afraid to arrest criminals close to powerful figures.

Pakistan to help Kabul in taxation system
By Mubarak Zeb Khan (Dawn)
ISLAMABAD, Oct 1: Pakistan will provide technical assistance as well as a plan for introduction of an effective taxation system in Afghanistan.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Wednesday that a three-member customs officials would leave for Kabul on Thursday to identify areas where necessary assistance would be provided.

The World Bank would provide funds for the project particularly for setting up an effective customs administrative system in that country, the sources said.

To control Afghan transit trade, Pakistan had already prepared customs tariff plan for Afghanistan, the sources said. But, according to the source, the earlier Rabbani government did not respond favourably to the effort of Pakistan government.

Besides, Pakistan had also prepared the customs tariff in Dari language, which the sources said could be used as a source of information for making an effective system.

The sources said the customs officials, during their stay, would meet Afghan Deputy Minister of Customs and Revenue, Mr. Popal, the representatives of USAID and customs adviser.

They would also visit Kabul Custom House and Kabul airport to identify areas for technical and any other support.

According to the sources, training would be provided for the human resource development of their tax-men along with helping Kabul in drafting customs procedures.

Since there was no check post on the Afghan boarders to stop the smuggling of goods and narcotics into that country and its smuggling back into the neighbouring countries, the tax authorities would also prepare anti-narcotics and anti-smuggling laws for that country, the sources said. Moreover, a data bank would be established within the taxation system for the compilation of the data related to exports and imports of the country.

As Afghanistan is a land-locked country, therefore, the tax officials would work out the requirements for the establishment of dry ports along with personnel to be employed there to carry out the work.

Justifying the immediate need for the establishment of dry ports in Afghanistan, the sources said, it would facilitate imports and exports of that country with neighbouring countries.

Presently, as there was no proper system of taxation in that country, the immediate arrangement for the effective system would be necessary to support the re-construction activities of that country.

Balochistan products export to Kabul sought
By Saleem Shahid Dawn (Pakistan) October 1, 2003 issue
QUETTA, Sept 30: The FPCCI has demanded of the government to include products manufacturing in Balochistan for export to Afghanistan to encourage industries in the province.

Talking to Dawn on Tuesday, Pakistan Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industries vice-president Sardar Mohammad Ali Jogezai said at present Pakistan was exporting various items to Afghanistan, including edible oil, vegetable ghee, rice, electric goods, cement, fertilizer and many items, which were being purchased from Punjab, Sindh and NWFP industries ignoring Balochistan's products.

"Balochistan is also producing vegetable ghee, edible oil, rice, cement and other exportable items as many industries in Quetta, Hub and Winder are working round-the-clock," he said and added that for encouraging industrial sector in the province the Ministry of Commerce should include Balochistan's products in the export list.

Mr Jogezai said different industries were exporting their products directly to Afghanistan ignoring their dealers and sole agents in Balochistan who have played very important role in introducing these products, especially edible items.

The FPCCI vice-president suggested that these industries should export their products through these dealers. "It would discourage smuggling and export of these products would increase many fold," Mr Jogezai said.

Meanwhile the newly-elected president of Balochistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), Haji Ghulam Sarwar urged the federal government to extend maximum incentives and facilities to the industrial units set up in Balochistan.

He said that another important issue was non-availability of storing facilities at both the entering and exiting border points - Chamman and Taftan. "There is no warehouses and storing facilities at Taftan and Chamman for exporters," Haji Sarwar said and added that due to non-availability of this facility exporters were facing great problems. He urged of the government to provide this facility at both the points.

Haji Sarwar said that a BCCI delegation would visit Islamabad to discuss important issues of Balochistan with the Ministry of Commerce and other authorities concerned.

Serb troops "welcome" in Afghanistan
B92, Yugoslavia 10/01/2003
BRUSSELS – A serious offer to deploy special Serbian troops in Afghanistan operations would be welcomed by the US and its NATO allies, a senior official of the Western alliance said in Brussels today.

The NATO official told media that Belgrade and Washington were discussing sending Serbian special police to the Kandahar area, but that this had not been serious discussed within NATO.

Meanwhile, Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic has categorically denied that police troops would be sent.

US weekly news magazine Time quotes sources in Washington as saying that preparations for sending 250 officers, special police and troops to the Kandahar region.
Time's source claims that the contingent – which would be under US command – would not only be involved in peacekeeping operations but would also have to be prepared for combat action.

Justice Minister Vladan Batic told B92 today that he had no information about any possible involvement in international missions, but added that there was no question of soldiers and police from Montenegro being deployed in combat.

However British military political analyst Paul Beaver told B92 that there was no option for a peacekeeping contingent avoiding combat situations.

"This is basically a peace operation but it does involve the use of weapons in certain situations. Such is the situation in Afghanistan and cannot just say 'sorry, but we don't want to sheet here or interfere in the war'.

"That is why I think the US source is right when it says that forces from Serbia-Montenegro would have to be engaged in combat operations as well," said Beaver.

A source from Serbian security forces quoted by Time claims that police general Goran Radosavljevic is insisting on commanding the Afghanistan battalion , which would raise an additional problem for any possible deployment.

Radosavljevic's involvement in the Kosovo war and a possible indictment pending against him in a New York court for the murder of the three US citizens of Albanian descent in southern Serbian in 1999.

The Hague Tribunal has not mentioned any possibility of Radosavljevic being indicted, but lobby groups claim he commanded units which committed crimes in Kosovo in 1999.

Paul Beaver doesn't see this as an obstacle.

"If the NGOs say that the possible commander of the unit is a war criminal, why haven't they sent evidence to The Hague? Until an indictment is brought he is a free man," he told B92.

Radosavljevic himself told B92 that no decision had yet been made on the participation of local troops in international operations.

In any case, he said, he was not permitted to comment to media on the issue.

US Senate Opens Debate on Funding Request for Iraq, Afghanistan
Deborah Tate 01 Oct 2003, 21:34 UTC
The U.S. Senate has opened formal debate on President Bush's 87 billion funding request for Iraq and Afghanistan. The House is to take up the measure next week, with both chambers to vote on it later this month.
Republicans, including Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, are calling for swift passage of the package. "It is an emergency supplemental bill, which should be acted upon without delay," he said.

Amid concern over the growing costs of the occupation of Iraq in terms of U.S. casualties and the financial burden on taxpayers, Democrats are seeking guarantees that the funds will be used effectively. Senator Daschle said "we have serious misgivings about providing the funds requested until we have confidence that they will be used in service to a plan that will successfully our objectives in Iraq."

There is growing bipartisan support for having future Iraqi oil revenues used to reimburse U.S. taxpayers for part of the package, $20.3 billion to be used to rebuild Iraq.

U.S. Says New al-Qaida Chief in Gulf
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN The Associated Press Wednesday, October 1, 2003; 8:06 PM
WASHINGTON - U.S. officials believe they have identified a young former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden as al-Qaida's new chief of terror operations in the Persian Gulf.

Abu Hazim al-Sha'ir, a 29-year-old Yemeni now believed to be living in Saudi Arabia, is one of a new crop of al-Qaida operatives who are trying to fill the roles of senior bin Laden lieutenants who have been captured or killed since Sept. 11, according to U.S. officials.

"Capable replacements appear to be emerging, many of whom have demonstrated their ability to see previously planned operations through to fruition," according to one U.S. intelligence report.

Abu Hazim is just one of the top al-Qaida leaders now at large, according to officials from U.S. counterterrorism agencies, who discussed intelligence on the terror network on the condition of anonymity.

Officials acknowledge there may be other emerging leaders they don't know about or leaders participating in terrorist planning they are unaware of. The CIA and FBI, for example, did not learn that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks until well after they took place.

Abu Hazim appears to be taking the place of Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a key organizer of the USS Cole bombing and the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings, officials say. Al-Nashiri was detained in the United Arab Emirates in late 2002.

Abu Hazim is on Saudi Arabia's list of 19 most-wanted al-Qaida operatives, listed under his real name of Khalid Ali Bin Ali Al-Hajj. He is believed to have trained in al-Qaida's Afghan camps in 1999 and later to have served in bin Laden's bodyguard. Before Sept. 11, he traveled frequently to the Arabian peninsula, to southeast Asia and to Afghanistan.

U.S. counterterrorism officials also tie him to the May 12 bombings of residential complexes in Riyadh and possibly to some Saudi-based planning of operations targeting the United States directly.

There isn't hard evidence tying him to ongoing attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, however.

Abu Hazim's emergence as a senior figure comes as al-Qaida is struggling to deal with the losses of many of its pre-Sept. 11 operational commanders, including Mohammed Atef, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah. Atef was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan in November 2001, and Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah later were captured separately in Pakistan.

The international hunt for such senior leaders is a key component of the U.S.-led war against al-Qaida. For all the thousands of people who trained at bin Laden's camps, only such senior leaders are thought to have the connections, financing and savvy to pull off major terrorist attacks.

"The loss of so many senior operational coordinators represents the elimination of a decade worth of terrorism planning experience. These individuals were, in large part, the guiding force behind the success of al-Qaida's attacks," the U.S. intelligence report says.

Yet, officials acknowledge there may be other, emerging leaders they haven't identified. And several from al-Qaida's old guard remain at large. They include Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's chief deputy, and Abu Musab Zarqawi, an associate of bin Laden who is now thought to be in charge of al-Qaida operations inside Iraq.

U.S. officials believe two more, Saif al-Adel and Abu Mohamed al-Masri, are in Iran. But it is unclear if they are in some kind of Iranian custody or able to move and communicate at will.

Abu Hazim's presence in the Saudi kingdom is telling, said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief.

"The whole locus of al-Qaida, in terms of its power and its strength, has moved to Saudi Arabia," he said.

Other members of the organization are believed to be in Pakistani cities, and many of the arrests of key al-Qaida operatives have taken place in those areas. Still others, including bin Laden himself and al-Zawahri, are thought to be in the remote region along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The U.S. intelligence report also notes the Saudi kingdom's importance to al-Qaida.

"Saudi Arabia has always been al-Qaida's primary base of popular and religious support and funding," the report says. "While not as permissive an operating environment as Afghanistan was, the kingdom offered enough acquiescence for al-Qaida to actively recruit, obtain and store explosives and weapons, plan terrorist attacks, and fund raise."

U.S. officials say the Saudis have made significant strides in battling al-Qaida within the country since the May 12 bombing.

Powell deputy to visit Pakistan, Afghanistan, CAsia for anti-terrorism talks
Wednesday October 1, 10:02 AM
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage will visit Pakistan, Afghanistan and other central Asian nations this week to discuss their cooperation in the US-led war on terrorism, the State Department said.

Armitage will visit Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and the United Kingdom from Wednesday through October 8, spokesman Richard Boucher said.

Armitage told lawmakers earlier he would be visiting the southern Afghan city of Kandahar and Kabul during his stop in Afghanistan, where a US soldier was killed Tuesday and two others wounded in a gun battle in the southeastern part of the country amid an upswing in violence against coalition troops.

He said he planned to discuss the security situation there as well as additional US assistance to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government now being requested from Congress.

Earlier this month, US President George W. Bush requested an additional 1.2 billion dollars in assistance for Afghanistan and named a new ambassador to the country.

But just 800 million dollars of the new funds are coming from Bush's massive 87-billion-dollar request to Congress for postwar Iraq and Afghanistan in fiscal year 2004.

The other nearly 400 million dollars will be reallocated from the existing 2003 budget to boost the package.

A third of the total will go towards training and support for the new Afghan National Army and police force while another 300 million dollars is to be spent on infrastructure, including roads, schools and health clinics, officials said.

The Pakistani foreign ministry announced Monday that Armitage, accompanied by Christina Rocca, the State Department's top envoy for South Asia, would arrive Thursday in Islamabad.

They are to visit Afghanistan Friday and return the next day to the Pakistani capital, the foreign ministry said.

In Pakistan, Armitage said he would be following up on a meeting last week between Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and discussing the growing problem of former Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents crossing the border into Afghanistan.

Armitage said he had confidence that Musharraf was sincere in wanting to help stop the flow from Pakistan's largely lawless tribal areas but could not say the same for others in the country's security services.

"I personally believe that President Musharraf is genuine when he assists us in the tribal areas and he has from his side of the border," he told lawmakers.

"But I do not think that that affection for working with us extends up and down the rank-and-file of the Pakistani security community."

Boucher said Armitage would press Musharraf on that point.

"You address this by raising it at the highest levels and talking about it directly with the leadership of Pakistan, which is in charge of making sure that their national policy is followed throughout their government," he said.

The upswing in violence has forced the suspension of aid work across huge swathes of southeastern Afghanistan, undermining the war-shattered country's chances of recovering from 23 years of war and drought.

Afghan officials charge the hardline militia are finding sympathy and regrouping over the border in Pakistan's mountainous tribal districts.

The Pashtun tribes on both sides of the border share the Taliban's ethnicity and their fury at the perceived sidelining of Pashtuns from the new administration.

Some 12,500 US-led coalition troops are currently hunting Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants, mostly along the rugged and porous Afghan-Pakistan border.

In Islamabad, Armitage will also raise US concerns about the shaky state of a five-month-old peace initiative with nuclear rival India, Boucher said, adding, however, that the deputy secretary would not be going to New Delhi.

In Kazakhstan, Armitage is to attend the opening of a new embassy branch office in the capital of Astana, Boucher said.

In a related development, the State Department renewed a terrorism alert for Uzbekistan, one of the countries Armitage is to visit, warning US citizens that extreme Islamic "terrorists" may be plotting attacks on hotels used by Westerners and other "soft targets" there.

U.S. Denies Taliban Making a Comeback
By DANIEL COONEY The Associated Press Wednesday, October 1, 2003; 2:29 PM
KABUL, Afghanistan - The U.S. military said Wednesday that rebels were not making a comeback in Afghanistan, nearly two years after U.S.-led forces began efforts to oust the Taliban, despite the deaths of five U.S. soldiers in the past six weeks.

"Whenever they (the Taliban) manifest themselves in Afghanistan, we kill them," military spokesman Col. Rodney Davis told a news conference in the capital, Kabul.

He said the toll of U.S. soldiers killed in fighting since the war began on Oct. 7, 2001, was low. According to U.S. military figures, 36 have died in combat. The latest was Pfc. Evan O'Neill, who was killed Monday.

"If you were to compare that to other conflicts, Vietnam, World War I, World War II ... I think you would have to come to the conclusion that we've been fairly careful about the use of combat force in Afghanistan and we've been relatively successful in protecting our soldiers," he said.

Assaults by Taliban militants and al-Qaida forces - aimed mostly at Western targets, aid workers and Afghanistan's U.S.-backed government - have grown increasingly audacious. At least six Afghan aid workers were killed in September.

Taliban rebels waged a fierce battle in late August and early September in the mountains of southern Zabul province in which an American special operations soldier died. U.S. and Afghan military officials say well over 100 Taliban were also killed in that battle.

Khan Mohammed, a senior Afghan commander in the southern city of Kandahar, the area where much of the violence has occurred, told The Associated Press on Tuesday: "There is no doubt that the situation is getting worse."

He said the Taliban had regrouped and warned that it would be hard for U.S.-led forces to root out the guerrillas, who are believed to be hiding in the mountains on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Davis said reports of a Taliban resurgence were wrong.

"We heard about a spring offensive. We didn't see it. We heard about a fall offensive. Where is it? We are waiting for this. We haven't seen it because they can't do it," he added.

"They are going to have to leave or they are going to die. It's as simple as that. ... Leave or die or change."

There are about 11,500 U.S.-led coalition troops in Afghanistan focused on hunting down the Taliban and remnants of al-Qaida. Some 5,500 NATO-led peacekeepers are also here, but they are restricted to Kabul.

Davis also said that two U.S. troops who were wounded in fighting Monday were not in a "life-threatening" condition.

NATO Wants More Troops for Afghanistan
Associated Press Wednesday October 1, 10:48 AM
Plans to expand the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan could further strain thinly stretched allied forces, officials cautioned Tuesday.

NATO's military experts have presented a range of military options for extending the force of 5,500, which operates under a U.N. mandate and currently is restricted to operations in and around Kabul.

Although the plans remained confidential, officials at NATO headquarters said they could involve sending an additional 2,000-10,000 peacekeepers into major provincial cities.

Although diplomats said there was broad political support for the dispersal, officials wondered how allied nations would find additional troops given existing commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

Germany's ambassador to the U.N., Gunter Pleuger, said Monday the expanded force could operate in eight key regional cities to help stabilize Afghanistan ahead of elections next year. NATO officials said more cities could be included later.

The United Nations and the Afghan government have long sought an expansion of the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, into provinces now often under the sway of local warlords.

Ambassadors from the 19 NATO nations were set to debate the military plans Wednesday, and officials said a decision to expand ISAF could come soon.

However, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, Nicholas Burns, said he did not expect a decision in the coming days. Both the United Nations and NATO have to approve the force's wider mandate.

NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson has asked governments ahead of an October meeting of defense ministers in Colorado to examine the states of their deployable forces.

The 19 NATO nations have 4.4 million troops, but only a fraction of them are effectively equipped and trained for such far-flung missions.

Alliance officials acknowledged difficulties in expanding the current ISAF force, which NATO took responsibility for in August. They fear another recruitment drive for the force could reveal more weaknesses.

"Do we have enough strategic airlift to get European soldiers to Afghanistan? The answer is 'no,'" Burns told reporters.

France may be able to provide most of the troops.

NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Gen. James L. Jones told Newsweek magazine this week that France "has probably the most expeditionary army in Europe" and was "good at peacekeeping."

Germany and Canada contribute almost 2,000 soldiers each to ISAF and France about 900 soldiers. France also has taken a lead role in training the fledgling Afghan armed forces.

Germany is pushing to extend the mandate for an extra 230-450 soldiers to support reconstruction efforts in the northern city of Kunduz.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai warned last week that unless the world increases its reconstruction aid and sends more troops, Islamic radicals could regain control in Afghanistan.

The NATO mission in Kabul is separate from the 11,500-strong U.S.-led combat force fighting the Taliban and al-Qaida remnants in Afghanistan.

Pakistan says US has agreed to refurbish its F-16 fleet
via spacewar.com
ISLAMABAD (AFP) Oct 01, 2003 The United States has agreed to modernise Pakistan's fleet of F-16 fighter jets and provide fresh military hardware to help in the pursuit of Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives, Pakistan's top defence bureaucrat was quoted saying Wednesday.

"In addition to providing us modern equipment, the US would also modernize and refurbish our existing fleet of F-16 aircraft," defence secretary Hamid Nawaz Khan said according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

However the US made no promise to sell additional F-16s to its key war on terror ally, a move Pakistan has been seeking ever since the lifting of military sanctions which had prevented the handover of 28 F-16s it purchased in the late 1980s.

Khan was speaking on the outcome of September 15 to 18 talks between Pakistan and US defence officials in Washington, at which Pakistan presented a list of military equipment needed to curb alleged Taliban infiltrators on its western border with Afghanistan.

"Pakistan has handed over a list of modern equipment required by our three forces including, army, navy and air force," he said, without specifying the equipment.

"They agreed to our list except for two to three items, which need approval from the US Congress."

Pakistan has been accused by Afghanistan of not doing enough to block infiltrations by resurgent Taliban fighters allegedly regrouping in western Pakistani tribal regions.

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage on Tuesday challenged the commitment of Pakistan's military to blocking the regrouped Taliban, saying in Washington: "I do not think affection for working with us extends up and down the rank-and-file of the Pakistani security community."

Pakistan says its forces are underequipped to effectively patrol and seal the porous 2,450 kilometer (1,500 mile) border.

Khan said Pakistan needs from the US "proper surveillance system and financial resources to check any illegal activity along its border with Afghanistan."

"Whatever our requirements are in the sector these have to be provided by the US in their own interests."

The Pentagon said in an official statement late September that it agreed to prioritise helping Pakistan improve its ability to operate against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, particularly in its tribal areas.