Afghanistan News June 22, 2005

June 22, 2005

Thirty-two suspected Taliban rebels killed in Afghanistan
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - Some 32 suspected Taliban rebels were killed when Afghan troops backed by US warplanes launched an operation against militants in southern Kandahar province, an Afghan official said.

Eleven rebels were killed on Tuesday morning while 21 died later when the planes struck their hideout in a garden in Mian Nisheen district, said General Mohammad Salem, the security commander of Kandahar who led the operation.

"So far we've killed some 32 Taliban," Salem said referring to the hardline Islamic militia who were toppled from power by a US-led invasion in late 2001.

Around 400 Afghan police were involved in the swoop, with Afghan ground forces reinforced by US warplanes and attack helicopters, Salem said. Fifteen rebels were also detained.

"Only coalition air forces are helping us in the operation," he told AFP, adding that there were no US troops on the ground.

The US military confirmed an operation was underway in the troubled district, which was the scene of a daring raid by suspected Taliban rebels on a government headquarters last week, but declined to give details.

"There is an ongoing operation but I cannot discuss the details because of the security concerns for Afghan and coalition forces," US military spokeswoman Lieutenant Cindy Moore told AFP.

Mian Nisheen, some 85 kilometers (52 miles) northwest of the southern city was captured by Taliban guerrillas on Wednesday and insurgents took 31 hostages, eight of whom, including the district police chief, were executed.

"Their bodies have not been found," Salem said adding that 23 hostages the Taliban rebels said they had released on Monday were still missing.

Salem said the rebels had been pushed back from the district headquarters in the operation Tuesday but police found "everything burnt down".

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi, speaking by satellite phone from an undisclosed location, told AFP Monday that the 23 hostages had been freed "after they were found not guilty by a Taliban court".

Hakimi earlier said that Nanay Agha, the district police chief, was tried and executed along with seven other captives for cooperating with US troops.

Despite the presence of an 18,000-strong US-led force, remnants of the Taliban have stepped up attacks on US and government targets in recent weeks in the restive south and east of the country.

Meanwhile, suspected Taliban rebels attacked a vehicle in another district of Kandahar province on Tuesday, killing the husband of a woman working on the country's upcoming legislative polls, and injuring the driver.

The incident in Maiwand district was the second fatal attack this month linked to September's parliamentary vote. The hardline Islamic rebels have vowed to disrupt the election.

Pakistani president assures Afghan counterpart of cooperation in fighting terrorism
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - (AP) Pakistan's president assured his Afghan counterpart, Hamid Karzai, of his support in fighting terrorism in a telephone call Tuesday, shortly after a spokesman for Karzai said Pakistan wasn't doing enough to fight terror.

Gen. Pervez Musharraf promised "Pakistan's continued support and cooperation in the fight against terrorism," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The conversation between Musharraf and Karzai, two close U.S. allies in the war against terrorism, came the same day that Karzai's spokesman, Jawed Ludin, said Islamabad wasn't doing enough to fight the militants, and said there would never be peace in Afghanistan until the two nations "join hands together to fight terrorism."

The discussion came a day after Afghan officials said three Pakistanis were arrested in Afghanistan for allegedly plotting to kill U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad.

Pakistan has denied any official involvement in the alleged plot. Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told The Associated Press that Musharraf and Karzai "talked about the different statements that are coming these days."

He did not give further details. In Kabul, a senior Afghan official said that Musharraf and Karzai spoke for more than 50 minutes, and that the conversation centered on security. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Musharraf gave Karzai assurances that Pakistan would do everything it could to cooperate in the fight against terrorism.

Karzai appreciated Pakistan's role in the war against terrorism and emphasized the need for continued and further co-operation in ensuring security and fighting the menace of terrorism, Karzai's office said in a statement.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry statement said in the conversation between Musharraf and Karzai "there was a complete satisfaction on both sides at the steady growth in bilateral relations,"

The statement did not specifically say whether the two leaders discussed allegations by Afghan officials that some members of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban militia are taking shelter in Pakistan or they whether the leaders discussed the arrest of the three Pakistanis.

The three Pakistanis, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles, were captured Sunday in Afghanistan's northeastern Laghman province, near the Pakistani border, just 50 meters (150 feet) from where Khalilzad had planned to inaugurate a road with Afghanistan's interior minister.

Musharraf also spoke with U.S. President George W. Bush on Tuesday. In Washington, White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Bush and Musharraf talked about the war on terrorism and efforts to address problems at the United Nations.

Bush and Musharraf's telephone discussion, which lasted about 15 minutes, also covered the troubled relations between India and Pakistan and U.S.-led efforts to promote democracy in Afghanistan, he said.

It was not clear which leader initiated the call.

Rashid denies Pak interference in Afghanistan's matters Musharraf, Karzai hold telephonic talk
ISLAMABAD, June 22 (Pak Tribune): Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Sheikh Rashid Ahmad denouncing the allegations of the Afghan Spokesman said that Pakistan was not interfering in the Afghan matters adding that Pakistan government wants progress and prosperity of Afghan People.

Responding to query Information Minister said that no interference from Pakistanis side in the affairs of Afghanistan was conducted adding Pakistani government was not part of any matter related to disintegration or dispersion in Afghanistan.

He further said that interference in the internal matters of Afghanistan was individual act that has no link with Pakistan while Afghan government as per law has the jurisdiction to take action against those individuals. He stressed that involving Pakistan in such affairs was a transgression.

Meanwhile, President General Pervez Musharraf late Tuesday telephoned his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai and discussed with him Afghanistan latest situation and overall Islamabad-Kabul relations.

Foreign Office sources while quoting President Musharraf as saying to Afghan President Karzai said, "Pakistan is neither interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs nor the former is involved in any terrorism related incidents."

"Islamabad has always been condemning terrorism in all its forms and manifestations and we have extended full cooperation to Afghan government in flushing out terrorism and this cooperation will go on," Musharraf was quoted as saying to his Afghan counterpart.

However, Musharraf informed his interlocutor that some anti-social elements were trying to vitiate cordial Islamabad-Kabul relations.

Hamid Karzai while lauding Pakistan role to banish terrorism and militancy said that his government was working with Pakistan in this regard.

In addition to these, sources said both the leaderships discussed Afghanistan reconstruction and a range of other issues.

Taliban say free 23 after killing 8 in Afghan south
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, June 20 (Reuters) - The Taliban said on Monday they had freed 23 people from a group of 31 they captured in a district of the southern Afghan province of Kandahar last week, having executed eight of the captives.

Taliban spokesman Abdul Latif Hakimi said the 23 -- a district chief and 22 police officers -- were freed as they had been found not guilty of supporting the U.S.-backed government.

Hakimi said at the weekend that the guerrillas had executed a district police chief and seven other policemen from the group, who were captured in raids on Mian Nishin district of Kandahar last week.

Afghan government officials said they could not immediately confirm that the group had been freed.

Hakimi said the guerrillas still had control of the main government building in Mian Nishin, capital of the district of the same name.

The district is in the north of Kandahar province, about 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Kabul, and was the scene of operations by Afghan and U.S.-led forces last week in which government officials said nine guerrillas were killed.

Sherpao says Osama, Omar not in Pakistan
Dawn (Pakistan) / June 21, 2005 issue
ISLAMABAD, June 20: Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao on Monday rejected a claim of former United States Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad that Mulla Omar and some other Taliban leaders were in Pakistan. “If Mr Khalilzad had information that top Taliban leaders were hiding in Pakistan then why did he not share it with the Pakistan government at that time,” the minister said while talking to journalists after inaugurating an anti-polio campaign.

He said Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Mulla Omar were not in Pakistan.

He said efforts were being made to shatter any remaining parts of the Al Qaeda network in the country.

Mr Sherpao said Pakistan had protested against the statement of Mr Khalilzad through diplomatic channels.

“Such statements can damage Pakistan’s efforts in the war on terror,” he said.

In reply to a question, the minister said leaders of his Pakistan People’s Party had asked Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz that their interests should also be safeguarded in the local bodies’ elections.

Denmark Okays US$110 MLN For Afghanistan's Reconstruction Effort
Wednesday June 22, 11:25 AM Asia Pulse
KABUL, June 22 Asia Pulse - Denmark has approved a donation of US$110 million for Afghanistan's reconstruction effort, the government announced on Tuesday.

Ahmad Khaleeq, a spokesman for the presidential office in Kabul, said the Danish parliament passed on June 15 a bill paving the ground for the rebuilding aid.

In a statement issued here, Khaleeq added the Afghan government would expend the money on reconstruction projects.

He did not specifically mention the schemes benefiting from the donation.

"The Danish minister for development cooperation told parliament positive democratic changes taking place in Afghanistan over the last three years are important to Denmark," the statement continued.

The Danish government has inked several agreements with Afghanistan on projects including human rights, primary education and improvement of the public sector, rural development and refugee support.
(Pajhwok Afghan News)

US 'impatience' in Bin Laden hunt - By Gordon Corera
BBC security correspondent 6/20/05
Nearly four years after the 11 September attacks, there are signs that the US is beginning to grow impatient at the lack of progress in the hunt for Osama Bin Laden - and particularly over the sensitive issue of Pakistan's co-operation in the search for the al-Qaeda leader.

Last week the outgoing US ambassador to Kabul, Zalmay Khalilzad, said he believed that neither Taleban leader Mullah Omar nor Bin Laden were in Afghanistan. Although he was careful not to say explicitly that he thought they were in Pakistan, he came as close to saying it as is possible without offending diplomatic sensibilities.

In a later interview with an Afghan TV station Mr Khalilzad asked how it was possible for a Pakistani TV crew to find and interview a top Taleban commander when the Pakistani intelligence services did not know where he was.

Pakistan reacted angrily to the suggestion it was not doing enough and called Mr Khalilzad "irresponsible". Now in an interview with Time magazine, CIA director Porter Goss has added to the debate. He said he has "an excellent idea" of where Bin Laden is, but that "weak links" in the war on terror and "sanctuaries in sovereign states" were hampering the hunt.

Mr Goss's carefully worded comments again avoid naming any countries, but could also be interpreted as a suggestion that dealing with Pakistan over Osama Bin Laden has become a sensitive issue for the US.

One man who has seen that relationship from the inside is former CIA officer Gary Schroen. He led the hunt for Bin Laden between 1997 and 1999 and then again after the attacks on 11 September.

In a BBC interview Mr Schroen recalls how the CIA's counter-terrorism chief told him one of his jobs was "to find Bin Laden and his lieutenants, kill them and bring back Bin Laden's head to the United States in a cardboard box on dry ice".

Mr Schroen believes the real opportunity to capture Bin Laden came in December 2001 at the Tora Bora caves in eastern Afghanistan. "Once Bin Laden slipped over the border into Pakistan... he was effectively out of our reach because the Pakistani government has taken such a strong position that US military personnel will not enter Pakistan," he told the BBC. "We really had to come back to depend on the Pakistanis."

Mr Schroen, who served with the CIA in Islamabad on two separate occasions, says that he is disappointed but not surprised the al-Qaeda leader hasn't been caught yet. "The Pakistani government still is very reluctant to actually try to deal with Bin Laden because the uproar in their country will be tremendous if they are actually seen as facilitating his capture or his death."
Mr Schroen also argues that Pakistan does have a general idea of where Bin Laden might be: "I think they know as well as I do that if he's hiding anywhere in the country he's hiding north of Peshawar in the tribal areas along the border."

He acknowledges that the Pakistani government faces a tough battle if it sends troops into those areas but that if they were willing to conduct aggressive military operations, it would probably force Bin Laden to move and once that happens it would become easier to find him. "But it all comes down to the big if - will Pakistan step up to this task?"

US relations with Pakistan over counter-terrorism have also been frayed by the arrest of a number of Pakistani men in California. Interrogators say one of the men confessed to training in an al-Qaeda camp inside Pakistan.

In 2002, Pakistan banned a number of militant groups which had been involved in Kashmir, with the support of Pakistan's military, but which also had links to al-Qaeda. Experts fear that these groups have simply moved underground and the arrests have raised concerns that they could be directing activities against the US. Publicly, the US has always been careful to praise Pakistan's co-operation and acknowledge the risks it has taken and the lives it has lost in hunting al-Qaeda with more than 700 arrests.

President Musharraf has also been personally targeted for assassination by militants and so the suggestion that the country is not doing enough is one that generates serious anger in Islamabad and there's no doubt that President Musharraf has taken great political and personal risks in allying with the United States.

So far, there are only hints that the US may be beginning to lose patience with its ally's contribution but if those hints become anything stronger, there could be stormy times ahead in the most critical of relationships in America's war on terror.

Dutch troops may be deployed in Afghanistan
Radio Netherlands by RN Security and Defence editor Hans de Vreij, 21 June 2005
The Netherlands intends to dispatch a new and sizeable force to Afghanistan next year. Government sources told Radio Netherlands that plans are currently being drafted for the establishment of a NATO-led ‘Provincial Reconstruction Team’ of up to a thousand troops in the south east of the country. It would be the largest Dutch troop deployment abroad since the Netherlands ended its mission in Iraq in March of this year.

New mission conceivable

Dutch Defence Minister Henk Kamp has indeed confirmed that the Netherlands is considering a new peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan in 2006. On Sunday, he told national television it is “conceivable” that the Netherlands will contribute to a NATO mission in the south of Afghanistan. He added that the Netherlands hopes to make it a joint operation with British and Canadian forces.

At present, the Dutch contribution to the NATO-led ‘International Security Assistance Force’ (ISAF) consists of four F-16 fighter aircraft and a small Provincial Reconstruction Team of 150 personnel in the northern province of Baghlan. In addition, a battalion from the Royal Netherlands Marine Corps will depart for Afghanistan by the end of next month. They are to be based near the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, in order to assist in securing a stable environment in the run-up to national elections due to be held in September.

Operation Enduring Freedom

Apart from its contribution to ISAF, the Netherlands is also participating in the US-led ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ in which coalition troops are combatting remnants of the former Taliban regime, al-Qaeda supporters and militias who have so far refused to co-operate with the government in Kabul.

Some 185 Dutch army and marine corps commandos are presently assisting US troops in an unspecified area in the south east of the country. As is customary, little has been said about the activities of these Dutch Special Operations Forces, other than that they are engaged in reconnaissance and intelligence gathering missions.

Still in an early phase

A new Dutch peacekeeping operation in the south of Afghanistan - possibly in co-operation with the UK, Canada and other countries - would only take place once the situation in the area has been stabilised, if responsibility is transferred to NATO and if the Afghan government asks for assistance, as well. But, while planning is still in an early phase, experts agree that a large mission in Afghanistan’s south could involve more dangers than the deployment in Iraq, where Dutch troops were based in the relatively quiet southern province of al-Muthanna.

Pakistani oil tanker torched in Kandahar
By Aziz Zahid & Saeed Zabuli
KABUL, June 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): A Pakistani oil tanker was set on fire on the Spin Boldak Highway in the southern Kandahar province Monday night, officials said.

General Mohammad Ayub Salangi, Kandahar police chief, told Pajhwok Afghan News it was yet to be ascertained whether the vehicle was supplying fuel to the US forces stationed in the area.

Abdul Wase, a security commander of the Spin Boldak district, said the oil tanker broke down on the Spin Boldak-Kandahar road. The driver and his assistant went to bring a mechanic, but when they returned, the vehicle was aflame.

Earlier, suspected Taliban had torched several vehicles supplying fuel and food items to the US forces. A Pakistani driver and his assistant were also killed in an attack in the Spin Boldak area a few days back.

G-8 foreign ministers to discuss Afghanistan, Mideast Thurs.
Wednesday June 22, 1:54 PM
(Kyodo) _ Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight major nations will hold talks Thursday in London with the political process in Afghanistan and peace in the Middle East high on the agenda, G-8 officials said.
Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura and his counterparts from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia and the United States will meet prior to the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, on July 6-8.

Discussions about how the international community can help Afghanistan hold general elections in September and Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip planned for August are expected to take up a good part of the one-day talks, the officials said.

The planned parliamentary elections in Afghanistan will be a key milestone in the country's reconstruction process endorsed at an international conference in 2001 in Bonn, following the first presidential election in October last year.

But the G-8 countries still see the need to solve lingering problems there such as unstable security, poverty and production of opium and are expected to discuss these issues, the G-8 officials said.

On the Middle East, the G-8 foreign ministers are likely to explore ways to ensure Israel will follow up on its promise to pull out of the Gaza Strip and help Israelis and Palestinians proceed with a 2003 road map for peace creation, they said.

The participants in the G-8 gathering are also expected to talk about nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea, as well as disputes over reform of the U.N. Security Council, they said.

Machimura is likely to call on his G-8 peers to help resolve the North Korean nuclear issue and its abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s for espionage activities, both of which are topics of concern in Japan.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will chair the meeting.

Among the participants will be five ministers making their debuts at G-8 foreign ministerial talks, namely Machimura, Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Other participants will include German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union in the first half of this year.

The participants plan to give a joint press conference after the discussions with Straw issuing a statement summarizing the outcome of the G-8 talks, the G-8 officials said.

Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and James Wolfensohn who serves as special U.S. envoy for Gaza disengagement are likely to join the foreign ministerial talks, the G-8 officials indicated.

Machimura is also expected to stress the need to expand the U.N. Security Council as a key pillar of reform of the world body and ask for cooperation from the other G-8 foreign ministers, Japanese government officials said.

Japan and Germany are among four countries which are seeking to expand the Security Council with six new permanent members and four new nonpermanent members. The other members of the so-called Group of Four are India and Brazil.

But the chances of the G-8 ministers finding common ground over the issue appear slim as differences among the G-8 remain too big, one of the Japanese officials suggested.

The United States only backs two or so countries winning permanent Security Council seats and two or three nonpermanent members.

France has expressed an intention to cosponsor a draft U.N. resolution jointly compiled by the G-4.

Machimura and Rice will discuss bilaterally the issue of U.N. Security Council reform Thursday on the sidelines of the G-8 foreign ministerial talks, the Japanese officials said.

The Japanese officials also said Machimura and Fischer plan to join a meeting with Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim and Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh in Brussels on Wednesday for a last round of consultations about when to present the G-4's draft resolution on Security Council reform to the U.N. General Assembly.

The G-4 foreign ministers plan to meet on the sidelines of a one-day international conference on the continued assistance to Iraq in the Belgian capital, shortly before Machimura and Fischer head for London.

Consolidation of refugee camps in Pakistan accelerates
Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees By Jack Redden / UNHCR Pakistan
QUETTA, Pakistan, June 21 (UNHCR) – The process of consolidating Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan is accelerating, with the government and the UN refugee agency announcing that two camps in Balochistan province will close in addition to those in the troubled tribal belt already scheduled for closure.

The decision to close Jungle Pir Alizai by July 31 and Girdi Jungle by August 31 – with residents given the choice of returning under the UN voluntary repatriation programme or relocating to another existing camp elsewhere in Pakistan – is the latest in a series of moves prompted by more than three years of repatriation to Afghanistan.

The process is focusing first on closing camps where security problems have obstructed access and delivery of services. The government announced earlier this month that all refugee camps in North Waziristan, a tribal area on the Afghan border where the army is battling militants, would close by the end of June.

In all, the camp closures could affect some 110,000 Afghan refugees in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area.

The closing of camps in Pakistan has continued in parallel with the repatriation operation that began in 2002 and has helped 2.4 million Afghans to reach home, the largest such UNHCR programme anywhere in the world. Some 400,000 are expected to return from Pakistan this year.

Elders from the two Balochistan camps, where there have been ongoing security problems and growing government concerns about criminal activity, were told by government officials of the decision to close the camps and end UNHCR assistance at meetings in Quetta last Wednesday.

The Chief Commissioner for Afghan Refugees, Jahangir Khan, said they could either return to Afghanistan with UNHCR assistance or be moved to Mohammed Kheil, an existing refugee camp near Quetta. The 63,000 residents, as counted in this year's census, will not be permitted to remain in the current camps.

Those moving to Mohammed Kheil will continue to get the same UNHCR assistance as other residents of refugee camps in Pakistan, receiving basic medical care, primary education, water and sanitation services. The government has not yet announced the alternative camp where refugees in North Waziristan can be relocated and continue to receive assistance.

Those repatriating will receive the same help as the 125,000 Afghans who have already returned from Pakistan this year: a travel grant of $3 to $30 per person depending on the distance to the destination and a $12 per head grant to help them re-establish themselves in Afghanistan.

The decision by the government to close the camps has been supported by UNHCR because security problems had obstructed the provision of humanitarian assistance and Afghans have the choice of repatriating or moving to another existing camp in Pakistan that has space available.

North Waziristan Agency is located in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, a tribal belt between North West Frontier Province and Afghanistan where for the past year the government has been battling militants accused of staging attacks against the current government of Afghanistan.

The government has said it intends to quickly follow the closure of the North Waziristan camps, which house about 30,000 people, with the closing of all remaining refugee camps in FATA. The other FATA camps have about 80,000 residents.

The North Waziristan camps will close at the end of June, with residents also offered a choice of repatriation or relocation to another existing camp. Repatriation from the camps, now the choice of 85 percent of the population, began last Wednesday and will be completed by June 30.

Extra UNHCR staffing to assist repatriation from the two camps in Balochistan will be provided starting in Jungle Pir Alizai from July 15 and at a later date in Girdi Jungle. Afghans from the camps who wish to repatriate before those dates can follow normal procedures, returning to Afghanistan after passing through the UNHCR repatriation centre in Quetta.

The consolidation process began in 2003 when UNHCR closed an unofficial camp on the border between Balochistan and Afghanistan at Chaman where 20,000 people had been stranded in a waterless area of waste land since late 2001.

Last year, with more Afghans drawn home by improving conditions, all the "new" camps in Pakistan established to shelter Afghans fleeing the 2001 war in Afghanistan were closed.

At the start of this year, there were nearly 150 refugee camps in Pakistan with some 1.1 million residents. Just over three million Afghans lived in Pakistan, including camps. More than 580,000 Afghans have gone home from camps since the voluntary repatriation programme began in 2002.

Spain mulls more troops in Afghanistan to guard elections
MADRID, Jun 21, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Spanish government plans to send a new contingent of 500 troops to Afghanistan to reinforce security in the country's September parliamentary elections, Defense Minister Jose Bono said Tuesday.

Bono told reporters that he will request Congress on Wednesday to assess the possibility of sending more troops.

Spain has already deployed 540 soldiers in Afghanistan. As part of the NATO troops in the Asian country, the Spanish forces are in Herat and Qala-i-Naw, both in western Afghanistan.

In regard to the personal differences between Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and US President George W. Bush, Bono said the military relations between the two NATO allies are at their best.

The US-Spanish relationship soured after Socialist Zapatero took office in April 2004 and withdrew 1,300 Spanish troops from Iraq soon afterwards.

Zapatero's attitude toward the Iraq issue was in sharp contrast to that of his predecessor, Jose Maria Aznar, who, together with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was the staunchest ally of Bush.

Nevertheless, officials of the two countries have decided after a series of talks to strengthen cooperation in the combat against terrorism and other international crimes.

General Abizaid calls on Karzai
By Waheed Rahmani & Najeeb Khilwatgar
KABUL, June 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): General John Abizaid, US Central Command chief, Tuesday called on President Hamid Karzai.

During his parleys with President Karzai, General Abizaid warned militants might disrupt the upcoming parliamentary elections in Afghanistan.

The Afghan president asked for cooperation from the coalition forces and neighboring countries in restoring lasting peace to Afghanistan.

Nangarhar border police gets new chief
By Ezatullah Zawab
JALALABAD, June 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Colonel Ghulam Sakhi, also known as Rogh Lewanai, was appointed as new chief of the Nangarhar border police on Tuesday.

He was previously working as deputy commissioner of Torkham. After taking charge of office, Rogh Lewanai was introduced by Colonel Mohammad Nasim Safi to other staff members at a meeting.

Haji Abdul Zahir Qadir, Nangarhar border brigade commander, told Pajhwok Afghan News the former chief of staff was a hardworking man, who had been transferred as border brigade commander to the Herat province.

Commenting on his new assignment, Rogh Lewanai promised he would try to measure up to the expectations of his superiors and the public at large.

He urged all government officials to discharge their duties in an efficient manner and provide better services to their countrymen.

Pakistan's lethal exports
By Kaushik Kapisthalam - ASIA TIMES
From Australia to Europe to North America, a spate of arrests, trials and convictions has brought to the world's attention the growing threat posed by jihadis from Pakistan.

On June 5, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested a pair of Pakistani-Americans from the sleepy little farming town of Lodi, California. Hamid Hayat, 23, and his father, Umer Hayat, 47, were later charged with lying to the authorities regarding their connection with jihadi training camps. But the formal FBI affidavit contained the bombshell piece of information that the training camps in question were in Pakistan, not in the notorious tribal areas, but right outside the city of Rawalpindi, which also hosts the Pakistan army headquarters.

While the FBI later put out an amended affidavit, the original statement released to the media named the person running the Rawalpindi terror camp as "Maulana Fazlur Rehman". This was confusing because two prominent people share that name in Pakistan. The first one is the secretary general of Pakistan's opposition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Islamic alliance and the head of a pro-Taliban group called Jamiat-Ulema-e-Islam. Experts say, however, that the affidavit likely describes another person, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a notorious terrorist leader.

Khalil is the chief patron of a group called Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), which was the first Pakistani jihadi group to be banned by the US in 1997, when it was known as Harkat-ul-Ansar. While HuM is supposedly focused on fighting Pakistan's covert war against India in the Kashmir region, it gained prominence in 1998 when Khalil became the first Pakistani leader to sign the fatwa issued by Osama bin Laden calling for attacks on US and Western interests.

In 2003, the US government declassified 32 documents relating to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. These included secret memos from the State Department and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). One of the DIA documents noted, "[Osama] bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was able to expand under the safe sanctuary extended by Taliban following Pakistan directives. If there is any doubt on that issue, consider the location of bin Laden's camp targeted by US cruise missiles, Zahawa. Positioned on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, it was built by Pakistani contractors, funded by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence [ISI] directorate ... If this was later to become bin Laden's base, then serious questions are raised by the early relationship between bin Laden and Pakistan's ISI."

In 1998, US warships in the Arabian Sea launched cruise missiles on "al-Qaeda" training camps in Afghanistan. However, at least one of the targeted camps was a HuM facility, run in conjunction with Pakistani military and intelligence officials. According to the US 9-11 Commission, many HuM volunteers and a few Pakistani intelligence personnel were killed during the missile attack. Soon after the strike, Khalil called a press conference in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad and threatened the US that his men would attack Americans in their homes, just like the Americans attacked them (HuM) in their own backyard. HuM continued to operate training camps in eastern Afghanistan until US air strikes destroyed them during the fall of 2001. In 2003, HuM began using the name Jamiat ul-Ansar.

Not the first time
The Lodi case is not the first time people suspected of links to al-Qaeda-linked Pakistani jihadi groups have been arrested. Just a couple of weeks before the Lodi arrests, American authorities deported a Pakistani man named Khamal Muhammad. Muhammad, who was arrested in San Francisco for immigration violations, later revealed that he had trained in a HuM camp and learned to use pistols, rifles and grenades.

In 2003, American authorities broke up a terrorist cell in the state of Virginia. During the subsequent trial, six men pleaded guilty, while three more were convicted of terrorism-related charges. The men, belonging to various ethnic backgrounds, admitted to being members of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the notorious Pakistani Salafist group that is also active in Indian Kashmir. The US government released their indictment, which laid out the dates and periods when they went to Pakistan to train in LeT's camps.

The "Virginia Jihad" indictment also pointed out that LeT's own website, which keeps changing its address, said that the group had four facilities for training mujahideen from around the world, including camps named "Taiba", "Aqsa", "Um-al-Qur'a" and "Abdullah bin Masud". The trained LeT fighters, the website claimed, participated in jihad in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bosnia, Chechnya, Kosovo and the Philippines. The website also prominently displayed a banner portraying Lashkar-e-Taiba's dagger penetrating the national flags of the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, India and Israel. In April 2005, American authorities secured the conviction of a Salafist cleric named Ali al-Timimi, who was said to be the mastermind behind the Virginia Jihad terror cell.

European links
Meanwhile, another Pakistani jihadi connection turned up in Europe. On June 16, Pakistan-born British citizen Ghulam Rama, 67, was convicted of the crime of "terrorist conspiracy" in Paris. Rama was tied to Richard Reid, the British Islamic jihadi close to al-Qaeda who tried to blow up a Paris-Miami flight in December 2001 before being arrested. Interestingly, Reid is also tied to another shadowy Pakistani jihadi group called Jamaat-ul-Fuqra. Rama himself admitted to being an activist of Lashkar-e-Taiba.

LeT has many other links to Europe, France in particular. A French convert to Islam named Willie Brigitte has been in the custody of anti-terrorism authorities in France since 2003. Brigitte, who also went by the nom-de-guerre "Salahuddin", was caught in Sydney, Australia, when he was allegedly in the midst of planning a terrorist attack. Australian journalist Ben English obtained the transcripts of Brigitte's secret trial in France.

During the trial, Brigitte told the French judge in charge that in 2002 he trained along with many Pakistanis, European Muslim converts and American and European nationals of Pakistani origin. Brigitte claimed that the training, which included the use of explosives, small arms and terrorism tactics was conducted in a sophisticated three-tiered mountain complex near Pakistan's border with India. Brigitte also noted that the training was done with the protection of the Pakistani army. The LeT itself was filled with Pakistani army personnel and much of the weaponry and logistical supplies for the training camp were provided by Pakistani soldiers, he noted.

Interestingly, Brigitte's statements were independently corroborated by Yong-ki Kwon, a Korean-American convert to Islam who was one of the people convicted in the Virginia Jihad case in the US. Kwon also noted that the foreign LeT volunteers were accommodated at the sprawling 190 acre headquarters in the Pakistani town of Muridke, near Lahore. Interestingly, despite its known terrorist training facilities, Pakistani authorities have not shut down the LeT's Muridke facility.

Pakistani jihadis have also been tied to successful terror attacks in Europe. Abu Dahdah, chief of the Spanish-based al-Qaeda cell that helped finance and organize the September 11 attacks, had links with Ali al-Timimi. One of Dahdah's proteges, Jamal Zougam, is now under arrest in Spain in connection with the March 11, 2004, train bombings in Madrid. In September 2004, Spanish authorities cracked what they claimed to have been a cell of Pakistanis who were funding al-Qaeda activities in Spain. The Pakistani cell was tied to al-Qaeda's September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, as well as the jihadi group Jaish-e-Mohammed, which also is a Pakistani group active in Kashmir.

Terror down under
Of all places, anti-terror experts have been surprised and alarmed by the Pakistani jihad connection in Australia. As explained above, French terror suspect Willie Brigitte was arrested in Australia. But before Brigitte, Australians were shocked to find that one of their compatriots named David Hicks was arrested by US authorities when he was fighting alongside the Taliban forces, and was later found to have been trained at an LeT training camp in Pakistan. Hicks also claimed that he was fighting alongside Pakistani soldiers in Kashmir.

In April 2004, Australian authorities arrested a Pakistani man named Faheem Khalid Lodhi in conjunction with the Brigitte case. Lodhi, who is now being described by authorities as a LeT kingpin, was allegedly planning an attack along with Brigitte aimed at high-value targets in Australia, including a nuclear power plant outside Sydney. Lodhi had also allegedly recruited another Pakistani man named Izhar ul-Haque as part of his operation. Lodhi is currently undergoing trial and faces a life sentence if convicted.

Australia, of course, faced their own version of September 11 when dozens of its citizens were killed in the 2002 bomb blast on the island of Bali, Indonesia - a popular tourist destination for Australians. The Bali attack was reportedly masterminded by a man called Hambali, who belongs to the Indonesian jihadi group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). JI had made it clear that it regards Australia as one of its terror targets.

It is interesting to note that the better-trained JI members were instructed not in Indonesia, but in Pakistan, in camps run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. While Hambali was caught soon after the Bali attacks, his brother, who goes by the name Gunawan, was arrested in Pakistan at the Abu Bakar University in Karachi, which is affiliated with the LeT. Interestingly, Gunawan was on a scholarship provided by the Pakistani government under a fake name "Abdul Hadi". During interrogation, Gunawan revealed that he, along with Brigitte, worked to transport some 200 Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai men to and from LeT terror camps in Pakistan. Despite this, the LeT facilities in Karachi remain open to date.

Missiles fired at Sarabagh airbase in Khost City
KHOST CITY, June 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): In a fresh attack on foreign forces in Afghanistan, four missiles were fired at the Sarabagh airbase of coalition military units in wee hours of Tuesday.

Officials confirmed the attack, saying the missiles were fired at 4.00 am from an undisclosed location. There was no damage to life or property, they added.

Sadiq Tarakhail, intelligence chief of the Khost province, told Pajhwok Afghan News the missiles missed their target and landed close to the airbase.

"Nothing can be said about the exact location from where the attack was mounted as the missiles might have been fired from a car or nearby mountains," Tarakhail argued, calling it an act of terrorism by the enemies of the country.

He described the attack a routine affair, saying the missiles often hit residential areas instead of military installations as perpetrators fired them from distant locations.

Noor Wali (23), a resident of Sarabagh district, said the bang broke the dawn silence – "it felt as if the missiles had slammed into residential houses." Coalition forces remained tight-lipped about the attack.

Nangarhar border police gets new chief
JALALABAD, June 21 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Colonel Ghulam Sakhi, also known as Rogh Lewanai, was appointed as new chief of the Nangarhar border police on Tuesday.

He was previously working as deputy commissioner of Torkham. After taking charge of office, Rogh Lewanai was introduced by Colonel Mohammad Nasim Safi to other staff members at a meeting.

Haji Abdul Zahir Qadir, Nangarhar border brigade commander, told Pajhwok Afghan News the former chief of staff was a hardworking man, who had been transferred as border brigade commander to the Herat province.

Commenting on his new assignment, Rogh Lewanai promised he would try to measure up to the expectations of his superiors and the public at large.

He urged all government officials to discharge their duties in an efficient manner and provide better services to their countrymen.

Osama: "Got him! (sort of)"
Asia Times 06/21/2005 By B Raman
The exasperation of Porter Goss, the director of the US's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), with Pakistan's role in the hunt for Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda members is evident from his remarks on bin Laden during an interview with Time magazine, which was carried this week.

The interview comes in the wake of the arrest of one Hamid Hayat, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, his father and some others by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) earlier this month. They belonged to a 2,500-strong Pakistani community living in Lodi, near Sacramento in California. Hamid and his father have been charged by the FBI with covering up from the law enforcement agency the fact that he attended a six-month jihadi training course at a camp near Rawalpindi during a visit to Pakistan in 2003-04.

Hamid was reported to have told the FBI that the camp was being run by al-Qaeda, but the indications are that it was actually run by the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM - which now calls itself the Jamiat-ul-Ansar), a virulently anti-US Pakistani jihadi organization that is a member of bin Laden's International Islamic Front for Jihad against the Crusaders and the Jewish People formed in 1998. Its then amir, Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, who was released by Pakistani authorities after being detained for some months last year without being prosecuted, was a co-signatory of bin Laden's first fatwa of 1998 against the US.

Pakistani authorities have sought to ridicule the FBI's charge against Hamid by pointing out that it was inconceivable that a jihadi training camp attended by hundreds of trainees, as claimed by him, could be located in or near Rawalpindi, where the Pakistan army's general headquarters are located.

Coincidentally, Yasin Malik, the head of the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), one of the jihadi organizations in India's Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) state, during a recent visit to Pakistan, revealed that hundreds of members of his organization had been trained in the late 1980s in a camp at the very same place, which was then run by Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, a Kashmiri, who used to be a member of the government of Nawaz Sharif and is now the minister for information in the cabinet headed by Shaukat Aziz.

Among the members of the present cabinet, Malik is considered very close to President General Pervez Musharraf. He has a long history of association with the HuM and Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, and obtained for the HuM a large plot of land near Rawalpindi for starting a jihadi training camp.

Embarrassed by the disclosure of Malik, Sheikh Rashid strongly denied running any such camp and maintained that he was only running a humanitarian camp for refugees from J&K. Malik also subsequently retracted his statement and accused the media of misreporting him. He asserted that what he had said was that Sheikh Rashid was looking after the refugees. He denied having said anything about jihadi training organized by Sheikh Rashid.

The outspoken Sheikh Rashid, who has many enemies in Pakistan because of his proximity to Musharraf and his habit of frequently dropping the name of Musharraf, found himself contradicted not only by Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), during whose government the jihadi training camp was started, but also by General (retired) Mirza Aslam Beg, who was the chief of the army staff at that time; Brigadier (retired) Nasurullah Babar, who was the interior minister in Benazir Bhutto's cabinet; a former officer of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Khalid Khawaja; and Hashim Quereshi, a co-founder of the JKLF, who hijacked an Indian Airlines aircraft to Lahore in Pakistan in 1971.

While all of them asserted it was correct that Sheikh Rashid ran a jihadi training camp, the PPP revealed that the ISI, without clearance from Benazir, had hundreds of acres of land in the suburban areas of Islamabad transferred for starting the camp. Hashim Quereshi, who corroborated the allegations against Sheikh Rashid during a media interview, was asked whether any other member of the present cabinet had been associated with jihadi terrorism. He replied, "It would be easier to answer who are the members of the present cabinet who were not associated with terrorism?"

From a study of the various statements emanating from these persons, it is clear that the camp at which Hamid attended a jihadi training course was probably the one run by Sheikh Rashid on behalf of the HuM on a large plot of land transferred to him by the ISI. However, the name of the camp as given by Hamid in his statement to the FBI slightly differs from the name given by critics of Sheikh Rashid. According to the FBI, Hamid gave the name as Tamal, whereas the critics of Sheikh Rashid have given the name as Tarnol.

While the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon have been very generous in their praise of the cooperation received from Musharraf and the Pakistani military-intelligence establishment in the "war against terrorism", their positive perception of the Pakistani army's role is not shared by their officers at the field level - either by American army officers deployed in Afghan territory across the Pakistani border, or by US diplomats in Kabul, or by US intelligence officers posted in Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan.

American army officers have been particularly outspoken in giving expression to their dissatisfaction over the effectiveness of the combing operations conducted by the Pakistani security forces in the Waziristan area of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. The Pakistan army's claim that the security forces had fought vigorously against foreign terrorists who had taken shelter in this area, losing during their operations nearly 230 officers, has not been satisfactorily corroborated. There are grounds to suspect the casualty figures given by the Pakistan army.

During the past few months, the Pakistan army has practically suspended its combing operations in the area, claiming that most of the foreign terrorists operating from this area have been killed or captured or driven into Afghanistan. This claim is not accepted by US army officers, who demand that the combing operations be resumed.

The Pakistan army has also not taken any action to arrest Mullah Omar, the amir of the Taliban, and other Taliban leaders who are suspected of operating from the Pashtun areas of Balochistan province in Pakistan. Since the end of winter, these remnants, with the help of the survivors of al-Qaeda operating from the Waziristan area, have stepped up their acts of violence in Afghanistan. There have also been one or two acts of suicide terrorism, involving Arabs, suspected to be al-Qaeda.

The differences between the US officials in Afghanistan and their Pakistani counterparts came to a head last week when Geo TV, a private TV channel of Pakistan, interviewed a leader of the Taliban, who assured viewers that both Mullah Omar and bin Laden were alive and well. In an interview to an Afghan TV station, Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador to Afghanistan who is under orders of transfer to Iraq, asserted that Mullah Omar and other Taliban leaders were operating from Pakistan. He asked: "If a TV station can get in touch with them, how can the intelligence service of a country which has nuclear bombs and a lot of security and military forces not find them?" The Pakistan Foreign Office strongly protested against Khalilzad's TV interview and described his remarks as irresponsible.

It is against this background that one has to see the comments of Porter Goss, which apparently reflect the exasperation of his own officers in the field. India has always said that Musharraf has not taken any action to dismantle the training infrastructure of pro-al-Qaeda Pakistani jihadi organizations in Pakistani territory. While this was not disputed by the US, it did not exercise adequate pressure on Musharraf to dismantle these camps because the US apparently felt that these were being used only to train jihadis to operate in J&K. The reported revelation by Hamid that these camps were also used to train jihadis from the Pakistani community in the US to operate in US territory has come as a shock to US agencies.

In his interview to Time, Goss made the following points: It is unlikely bin Laden will be brought to justice until "we strengthen all the links" in the chain in the US-led hunt for terror suspects. "In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links . When you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play. We have to find a way to work in a conventional world in unconventional ways that are acceptable to the international community." Asked if he had a good idea where bin Laden was, he said, "I have an excellent idea of where he is."

He did not mention Pakistan by name, but it was apparent that he was talking of that country. On the Afghan side of the border, 16,000 US troops have the responsibility to hunt for bin Laden. If he was in Afghan territory, there would be no reason for Goss to talk of sanctuaries in sovereign states, weak links, etc. If bin Laden was in Iranian territory, there would be no reason not to name Iran, since US relations with Tehran are already at rock-bottom.

His reference to the need to work in unconventional ways in a conventional world is intriguing. Is he talking of the need for US special forces operating clandestinely on their own in Pakistani territory in order to kill or capture bin Laden, with or without the concurrence of Musharraf? Is the State Department refusing to agree to this? If he has such an excellent idea of where bin Laden is, why is the CIA not using Predator aircraft to kill him?