 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
Afghanistan's Karzai will reappoint most of his Cabinet
By Thomas L. Day, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Thu Dec 17, 5:24 pm ET
KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai will reappoint a number of key Cabinet members for his second five-year term, multiple members of the Afghan parliament said Thursday.
Afghan officials: Karzai to keep half his Cabinet
By Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants to retain a half-dozen key Cabinet officials who have been embraced by the international community as he begins his second term and will replace two ministry heads linked to corruption, three officials in the Afghan government said Friday.
Afghan cabinet: some old, some new, some reshuffled
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai is expected to retain some key figures when he submits his choices for ministerial posts to parliament for approval on Saturday, an official said Friday.
Ex-UN Afghan deputy denies conspiracy
By Robert H. Reid And Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writers – Thu Dec 17, 5:49 pm ET
KABUL – The former deputy U.N. chief in Afghanistan said Thursday that he had proposed replacing the Afghan president with an interim government to avert a constitutional crisis if a fraud-marred
McCaskill calls for increased oversight of contract work in Afghanistan
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 18, 2009; A04
The chairman of a Senate investigative subcommittee called Thursday for stepped-up government oversight of contract work in Afghanistan, saying Pentagon auditors have already challenged nearly $1 billion in charges by military contractors.
U.S. spends $23 billion on Afghan contracts so far
WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The United States has spent over $23 billion on reconstruction and development contracts in Afghanistan since 2002, and auditors say about $1 billion of this is waste, a U.S. senator said on Thursday.
French troops lead Afghan attack on Taliban
Thu Dec 17, 5:41 pm ET
PARIS – Some 800 French Legionnaires backed by 200 U.S. special forces and Afghan soldiers have gone on an offensive in a valley in Afghanistan where the Taliban killed 10 French soldiers last year, the French military said Thursday.
Marines prep for key Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan
By Gordon Lubold – The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News - Dec 17 11:15 AM
Nawa, Afghanistan – Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson is prepping his Marines to launch a major offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan – in what could be a game-changer in the operations here.
In Afghanistan, NATO is fighting for its life
What has happened to the great alliance of democracies that won the cold war? NATO has yet to fully mobilize and exhibits no sense of urgency concerning the extremist threat in Afghanistan.
By David M. Abshire December 17, 2009 at 11:51 am EST The Christian Science Monitor
Washington — Many European leaders praised President Obama’s plan to send 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan to turn the tide against the Taliban insurgency. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Spain to send 511 more troops to Afghanistan
AP via Yahoo! News - Thu Dec 17, 2:58 pm ET
MADRID – Spain's defense minister has announced plans to send 511 more soldiers to Afghanistan in response to President Barack Obama's request for more allied help to fight the Taliban.
Question time for Afghan district governor
Friday, 18 December 2009 BBC News
Security concerns are thwarting efforts to rebuild in the Afghan province of Uruzgan. The region has been badly scarred by years of unrest. BBC Pashto's Ahmad Omid Khpalwak travelled there after a recent drop in violence.
NATO kills 3 civilians, wounds 4 others in air strike in S. Afghanistan: gov't
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- A NATO helicopter killed three civilians and wounded four others during an air strike in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, provincial government said Friday.
General: U.S. Troops To Hit Taliban Hard In 2010
December 17, 2009 NPR
U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan plan to carry out a major operation next year to clear one of the largest remaining Taliban strongholds in the violent Helmand province.
My hardest decision: Saying no to Afghanistan war
By Jason Chaffetz, Special to CNN December 17, 2009
Editor's note: Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican, represents the 3rd District of Utah in Congress and is appearing in CNN.com's "Freshman Year" series, along with Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado.
British soldiers died stopping suicide bombers in Afghan market
Two soldiers manning checkpoint sacrificed their lives preventing Taliban attack in Helmand markeplace, says commanding officer
Press Association guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 December 2009
Two British soldiers sacrificed their lives to stop Taliban suicide bombers detonating their devices in a packed marketplace, their commanding officer said today.
Interview - U.S. spotlights rebuilding Afghan agriculture
By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The United States hopes its focus on rebuilding agriculture in Afghanistan will pay off over the next two or so years and be the stimulus to draw recruits away from the Taliban, a senior U.S. official said.
Corruption at heart of Afghan state
As Hamid Karzai launches an anti-corruption conference, western aid donors need to put their houses in order too
Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 December 2009 16.30 GMT
Zemarai Bashary, spokesman of the Afghan interior ministry, sits in a large chair in his top-floor meeting room in Kabul and dispenses sticky cakes and tea to his guests. Bashary wears a sharp suit and a winning smile.
Afghan Army Questions Police Competence
General says military doing its best to bolster security in north, but police are hampering efforts.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Ahmad Kawosh in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 348, 16-Dec-09)
An Afghan National Army, ANA, commander says efforts to combat the growing insurgency in the previously stable north are being frustrated by police failings
Warlords Re-emerging in North
Revival of militia activity in Balkh linked to looming political power struggle.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By IWPR-trained reporters in Balkh (ARR No. 348, 17-Dec-09)
Baz Mohammad, a shopkeeper in the Charbolak district of Balkh province, is a worried man. Security in this formerly stable province is becoming increasingly fragile, and he is concerned that fighting could break out.
The Drug Courier Children of Herat
Traffickers target homeless kids from families who’ve fled violence in neighbouring provinces.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Fawad Ahmadi in Herat (ARR No. 348, 17-Dec-09)
Thousands of street children in Herat, Afghanistan’s third largest city, are being used as drug couriers, with the authorities seemingly overwhelmed by the scale of the problem.
Tajikistan Opens Border So Afghan Shepherds Can Go Home
December 18, 2009 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
DUSHANBE -- A Tajik border official has said 25 Afghan shepherds and thousands of sheep stranded for nine days by a snowstorm crossed through the Vakhon Mountains to return to Afghanistan, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports.
Back to Top
Afghanistan's Karzai will reappoint most of his Cabinet
By Thomas L. Day, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Thu Dec 17, 5:24 pm ET
KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai will reappoint a number of key Cabinet members for his second five-year term, multiple members of the Afghan parliament said Thursday.
The lawmakers told McClatchy that Abdul Rahim Wardak , the minister of defense; Hanif Atmar , the minister of the interior; Amrullah Saleh , the head of the national intelligence directorate; Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatemi , the minister of health; Faruq Wardak , the minister of education; Col. Gen. Khodaidad, the minister of counter-narcotics; and Asif Rahimi , the minister of agriculture, all will be reappointed.
The list of Cabinet appointments will be sent to the Afghan parliament Saturday, but Karzai notified the parliament of his choices informally early Thursday evening.
His selections are widely considered a key indicator of whether he's serious about tackling the widespread corruption in the Afghan government, which is crucial to the Obama administration's efforts to maintain congressional and public support for its decision to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan .
Reaction to Karzai's choices, which came at the end of a three-day anti-corruption conference he hosted in Kabul , was mixed.
"I think it's a mixed bag," Daoud Sultanzoy, a member of parliament, said of the reappointments. "Most of them seem politically motivated" to please foreign governments.
"The international community wanted these guys to stay on these jobs," Sultanzoy added.
When he was asked why so many officials will be reappointed, Mirwais Yaseeny, the first deputy speaker of the parliament and a two-time Karzai presidential opponent, said that Karzai "does not know other Afghans."
During a meeting earlier Thursday with international diplomats and Afghan citizens, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry signaled that the U.S. intends to maintain a strong military presence in Afghanistan long after July 2011 , when President Barack Obama plans to end his troop buildup.
Eikenberry warned, however, that, "After eight years of assistance to Afghanistan , many Americans and many members of Congress are impatient to see results."
"This is not a deadline, despite what some people in the United States and Afghanistan have said," Eikenberry said. He added that an American withdrawal in 18 months is "entirely based on the conditions that exist at that time."
The issue of corruption in the government seems unlikely to go away. Earlier this week at the anti-corruption conference, Karzai defended Kabul Mayor Abdul Ahad Sayebi, who was convicted last week and sentenced to four years in prison for corruption-related charges.
"I know the mayor," said Karzai, who'd appointed Sayebi. "He is a clean person."
Sayebi, after posting bail, attended the conference.
U.S. Ambassador Eikenberry declined to comment on Sayebi's conviction and Karzai's response to it, saying only that he'd "let the justice system proceed and determine the results."
The Cabinet selections had been delayed for about a week. The legislature had been waiting for the selections before going on winter recess, which is expected to last about six weeks.
(Day reports for The Telegraph of Macon, Ga. )
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan officials: Karzai to keep half his Cabinet
By Amir Shah, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants to retain a half-dozen key Cabinet officials who have been embraced by the international community as he begins his second term and will replace two ministry heads linked to corruption, three officials in the Afghan government said Friday.
He also plans to keep on board a legendary warlord who holds political sway in the west, the officials said.
Karzai has been working on his new Cabinet since even before he was sworn in Nov. 19 for another five years. The long-awaited list is seen as the first test of his willingness to assemble a team of reformists to respond to the international community's demand that he cleanse the government of corruption.
Karzai's decision to keep a handful of key ministers in their posts appears to be a nod to the U.S. and other nations sending troops and financial aid to the war-worn, impoverished nation.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the list will not be formally announced until Saturday, said Karzai wants 12 of the 25 current ministers to stay on their jobs for now.
They include the ministers of defense, interior, foreign affairs, finance, public health and agriculture — all who have received kudos from the international community. While Karzai wants to dismiss half his current Cabinet, most of the new faces come with strong education credentials or government experience and are not likely to provoke criticism by the West.
Karzai's new Cabinet list, however, retains Ismail Khan, the current minister of Water and Energy. Khan, who is a powerful political figure in the Herat region of western Afghanistan, has been accused by Human Rights Watch of perpetrating war crimes during Afghanistan's past quarter-century of conflict.
Karzai has chosen to replace Muhammad Ibrahim Adel, the current minister of mines. Earlier this month, two U.S. officials in Washington said that Adel allegedly took a $20 million bribe to steer a $3 billion copper mining project to a Chinese company. The minister denied taking any bribes, saying the agreement was approved by the Cabinet and Karzai was also aware of it.
He also wants to replace Sediq Chakari, who heads the Ministry of Hajj and Mosque. Allegations surfaced recently that money was pocketed at the ministry. Chakari, who has denied involvement, said two of his employees were being investigated in connection with missing money paid to the government to organize travel and accommodation for this year's annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
Karzai's picks for his new Cabinet must be approved by the Afghan parliament.
In addition to Khan, the officials said Karzai wants to keep:
_Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak
_Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta
_Interior Minister Hanif Atmar
_Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal
_Public Health Minister Dr. Mohammad Amin Fatemi
_Agriculture Minister Muhammad Asif Rahimi
_Justice Minister Mohammad Sarwar Danish
_Education Minister Ghulam Farooq Wardak
_Women's Affairs Husn Bano Ghazanfar
_Communications Minister Amirzai Sangeen
_Counternarcotics Minister Gen. Khodaidad, who uses one name
Also Friday, the Kandahar regional governor's office said three civilians were killed in an attack by a helicopter gunship used by international forces.
NATO said it was investigating the reported casualties in the Thursday night incident in the Shah Wali Kot district. It said initial operational reports indicated that the helicopter fired on men who were placing an explosive device along a road.
In Khakhrez, another district of Kandahar, seven civilians were killed Thursday when a roadside mine blast hit their vehicle, the governor's office said.
___
Associated Press Writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan cabinet: some old, some new, some reshuffled
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai is expected to retain some key figures when he submits his choices for ministerial posts to parliament for approval on Saturday, an official said Friday.
The list is Karzai's first real test after August's fraud-tainted election because who is in and who is out will be seen as a gauge of how serious he is about creating a clean and accountable government.
Nominees are expected to include the current ministers of defence, interior, finance, health and education -- all of whom have the seal of approval from Karzai's Western supporters, said an official in Karzai's office.
Karzai's choices for 24 of the 25 posts are expected to be presented to parliament on Saturday, said the official on condition of anonymity, with the foreign minister yet to be decided.
The list, seen by AFP, includes new faces that have not served in high public office before.
The energy and urban development portfolios have been given to two men regarded as warlords -- Ismail Khan and Gul Agha Shairzai respectively -- whose support Karzai has relied on throughout his tenure.
The most notorious warlords, however, Abdul Rashid Dostum and Mohammad Mohaqiq -- leaders of two minority ethnic groups who supported Karzai in the election and were expected to be rewarded with high office -- have not been nominated to ministerial posts, according to the list.
The official said Karzai had nominated 11 current ministers to remain in their jobs, including Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Agriculture Minister Mohammad Asif Rahimi and Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, all of whom are highly regarded by the international community.
Also staying put are Public Health Minister Sayed Mohammad Amin Fatimi and Farooq Wardak, the Education Minister, who have also won plaudits from American, British and other officials as competent and clean technocrats.
Four ministers are either being reshuffled or are returning to the cabinet after serving in other senior government posts, while eight are new, the official said.
The list includes one woman, Women's Affairs Minister Husn Banu Ghazanfar, who retains her post, and sees the recall of the current ambassador to India, Makhdom Raheen, to return to the information and culture ministry.
Karzai has come under intense pressure since winning a second five-year term in elections that were marred by massive fraud, with around a quarter of all ballots deemed fake, most of them in his favour.
Leaders of the US, Britain and NATO countries that have more than 100,000 troops in the country fighting a Taliban-led insurgency made it clear their continued support depended on Karzai showing commitment to eradicating the corruption that infects every level of Afghan life.
His ministerial nominees must win the approval of parliamentarians in an arduous process that will begin tomorrow.
The nominees must each make a speech justifying their nomination and face questions from parliamentarians on how they intend to do their job.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Ex-UN Afghan deputy denies conspiracy
By Robert H. Reid And Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Writers – Thu Dec 17, 5:49 pm ET
KABUL – The former deputy U.N. chief in Afghanistan said Thursday that he had proposed replacing the Afghan president with an interim government to avert a constitutional crisis if a fraud-marred election could not be resolved in time. He denied the suggestion that it was a plot against President Hamid Karzai.
Peter Galbraith, the highest-ranking American in the U.N. mission in Afghanistan at the time of the election last summer, disputed a report in the New York Times that he wanted to enlist the White House to force out Karzai. The newspaper said Karzai, who was under criticism for his leadership and for allegedly tolerating corruption, was enraged when he learned of the plan.
The Associated Press telephoned members of Karzai's staff for comment but none answered the phone. Karzai has complained that allegations of electoral fraud were overblown.
Galbraith told the AP that the interim government proposal went nowhere because the head of the U.N. mission, Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide, rejected it. Galbraith left the country four days after making the proposal and was fired by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Sept. 30. He has started U.N. proceedings to challenge his termination.
He disputed any suggestion that he had gone to the U.S. Embassy staff with a proposal to get rid of Karzai. "It didn't happen," he said.
Galbraith, who served as the first U.S. ambassador to Croatia, has been an active voice in foreign policy debates in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan since the 1990s and loudly sounded an alarm about electoral cheating while serving in Kabul.
He said he believes he was forced out because of his allegations that Eide was not aggressive enough in exposing fraud committed during the Aug. 20 ballot on behalf of Karzai. The Afghan leader was declared the winner after his last remaining challenger dropped out a few days before a scheduled November runoff.
In a telephone interview, Galbraith said there "was no plot" to oust Karzai unconstitutionally. Instead, Galbraith characterized the plan as a recommendation to avoid a constitutional crisis, which he believed would have developed had the election process dragged on into the coming year.
Karzai's term was to have ended on May 21 but was extended by the Afghan Supreme Court after the election commission postponed the vote from last spring until August, citing organizational problems.
Nearly three weeks after the election, the Karzai-appointed election commission announced that Karzai had won with 54 percent of the votes — enough to avoid a runoff with his top challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.
However, Karzai's victory proclamation was withheld because of the allegations of massive fraud. Galbraith said U.N.-backed auditors reported it would take them several months to review the disputed ballots, potentially forcing the runoff to April or May of next year after the winter snows had melted.
"This raised the question as to who would be president of Afghanistan until then," Galbraith said. "His continuation until May 2010 ... would have been deeply divisive and unconstitutional."
Galbraith said he raised the issue on Sept. 9 with Eide. Galbraith said his notes from that meeting showed Eide saying that "Karzai's continuation in office is not desirable." He said several U.N. staff members confirmed that Eide proposed replacing Karzai.
Eide rejected the interim government plan the following day, and Galbraith said, "I accepted the decision." He said he left the country four days later so Eide "could handle the elections as he saw fit."
In Norway, Eide told the AP that he never considered an interim government as a temporary solution and defended his role in the elections.
"The end result of the situation was not ideal. But we managed to detect the fraud, and it forced the electoral process into the second round," he said. "A solution was found. It was not ideal. But we have a situation in Afghanistan now which is stable."
Three U.S. officials said that to the best of their knowledge, Galbraith's proposal never had any support from the Obama administration. They said Galbraith mentioned it at a meeting attended by Deputy Ambassador Frank Ricciardone but that it was rejected as antidemocratic. They said Galbraith was not a U.S. government employee and was not reflecting U.S. policy.
Galbraith said he had no clear recollection of the meeting. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to reveal such conversations.
___
Reid reported from Kabul, Lederer from the United Nations. Matthew Lee in Washington and Ian MacDougall in Oslo, Norway also contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Back to Top
McCaskill calls for increased oversight of contract work in Afghanistan
By Walter Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 18, 2009; A04
The chairman of a Senate investigative subcommittee called Thursday for stepped-up government oversight of contract work in Afghanistan, saying Pentagon auditors have already challenged nearly $1 billion in charges by military contractors.
"What additional controls and government oversight are needed to make sure that these contracts don't result in the waste, fraud and abuse we saw in Iraq?" Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) asked a panel of witnesses from the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Defense Department.
Pentagon auditors had examined $5.9 billion worth of contracts and found about $950 million in "questioned and unsupported costs," she said. "Because auditors have only looked at a fraction of contracts," she said, "the real amount of waste is likely to be much higher."
There are conflicting estimates about the total value of U.S. contracts in operation in Afghanistan. McCaskill sought a single figure and a way to keep track of it -- saying she was "trying to find out who was responsible for putting out this money" -- but the assembled group could not give her a total.
Significant funding has gone to the Pentagon's Commanders Emergency Response Program ($1.3 billion this year), logistics ($1.8 billion), USAID projects (more than $2 billion), equipment for Afghan security forces ($1 billion), the State Department's anti-drug and rule-of-law programs ($900 million) and the Army Corps of Engineers' construction projects (more than $1 billion).
All the witnesses described their agencies' plans to step up oversight and provide additional training for individuals responsible for the initial contracting. USAID, which currently has 180 staff members in Afghanistan, is planning to nearly double that figure in early 2010, according to Charles North, senior deputy director of the agency's Afghanistan-Pakistan Task Force.
Daniel Feldman, a deputy to Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration's special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said his group has representatives from all government agencies involved and is coordinating and managing the increase in financial analysts and contracting personnel to keep closer track of contractor performance.
Also at the hearing, Edward M. Harrington, deputy assistant secretary of the Army, said DynCorp International, the prime contractor to supply $600 million worth of logistical assistance to troops in southern Afghanistan, had dropped its main subcontractor because the Kuwait-based company was recently indicted on fraud charges in connection with a separate Pentagon contract.
Late Thursday, the indicted firm, Public Warehousing Co. KSC, also known as Agility, issued a statement that confirmed the action but added that it was "a violation of its contract terms."
Agility will continue to do work for a contract, valued at several hundreds of millions of dollars, to supply food and materials through 2011 to U.S. troops in Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan.
Under government rules, Agility has been barred from bidding on new contracts but can keep acting on those it already has while the court case is pending. Agility officials are scheduled to appear for in federal court in Atlanta on Tuesday.
Back to Top
Back to Top
U.S. spends $23 billion on Afghan contracts so far
WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The United States has spent over $23 billion on reconstruction and development contracts in Afghanistan since 2002, and auditors say about $1 billion of this is waste, a U.S. senator said on Thursday.
The contract spending is expected to rise with President Barack Obama's planned surge of 30,000 U.S. forces into Afghanistan in the coming months, Senator Claire McCaskill said at a subcommitee hearing.
"Currently there is a great deal we do not know about contracting in Afghanistan. We do know, however, that the president's new strategy in Afghanistan will bring a massive increase in the number and value of contracts and contractors in Afghanistan," the Democratic senator said.
The money has gone to projects ranging from road-building and power generation to agricultural and urban development and water sanitation, McCaskill's staff said in a memorandum prepared for the hearing of the Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, which she chairs.
The panel is part of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
The $23 billion contract spending estimate was made by the Federal Procurement Data System, a central depository of information on U.S. government contracting, the subcommittee memorandum said.
McCaskill said the waste identifed by auditors amounted to nearly one in six dollars spent on Afghan contracts so far. She worried that the waste and fraud that had been seen in some contracting in Iraq would be repeated in Afghanistan.
Jeffrey Parsons, director of the Army Contracting Command, testified before the subcommittee that the Army is training contracting officers being sent to Afghanistan so they can better identify bad business practices.
Over 100,000 contractors are working for the U.S. government in Afghanistan, and that number could reach 160,000 next year, McCaskill said, citing estimates by the Congressional Research Service.
Some two-thirds of the current contractors are Afghans, she said.
The Congressional Research Service recently said the United States has spent nearly $230 billion on the war in Afghanistan. That amount will jump to $300 billion once Congress has approved a military spending bill for fiscal 2010. The House has approved it and the Senate is expected to act on the bill this week.
For more humanitarian news and analysis, please visit www.alertnet.org
Back to Top
Back to Top
French troops lead Afghan attack on Taliban
Thu Dec 17, 5:41 pm ET
PARIS – Some 800 French Legionnaires backed by 200 U.S. special forces and Afghan soldiers have gone on an offensive in a valley in Afghanistan where the Taliban killed 10 French soldiers last year, the French military said Thursday.
Spokesman Rear Adm. Christophe Prazuck said several American soldiers were wounded in the operation in the Uzbin Valley east of Kabul. He had no information on the number of wounded, but said the American special forces were posted on a crest of the valley and were targeted from a neighboring valley.
Prazuck called the operation that began Wednesday night a success.
"The objective was to go into a place where nobody has ever been before," Prazuck said by telephone. The operation aimed "to show these insurgents that we can go where we want when we want," Prazuck said.
Coalition forces were withdrawing Thursday night. "The goal was achieved," he said.
Up to 75 percent of the zone has been under coalition control, he said, but one corner of the Uzbin valley was in the hands of insurgents.
The last joint operation of this size dated to June when coalition forces established an outpost in the middle of the Uzbin Valley.
France has more than 3,000 soldiers in Afghanistan. In August 2008 10 French soldiers were killed and 21 wounded in a Taliban ambush in the Uzbin Valley.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Marines prep for key Taliban offensive in southern Afghanistan
By Gordon Lubold – The Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo! News - Dec 17 11:15 AM
Nawa, Afghanistan – Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson is prepping his Marines to launch a major offensive against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan – in what could be a game-changer in the operations here.
Nicholson, the senior Marine commander in Afghanistan, will in the coming weeks receive hundreds of reinforcements, the first wave of forces to deploy as part of President Obama’s surge. That will allow Nicholson to pierce the Taliban stronghold of Marjeh – a 100-square-mile region that must, in the words of another senior Marine officer, be “cracked open.”
The Taliban has been operating in the district of Marjeh since being pushed out of other areas of Helmand Province. There are reportedly opium stockpiles in Marjeh.
“We’re going to go in big,” Nicholson said with panache Thursday, standing on a remote base in Nawa with Marines, Afghan officials, and a gaggle of reporters around him. “We’re going to put the enemy on the horns of a dilemma – again,” he says.
Nicholson’s rhetorical swagger may be nothing more than posturing. But he has reason to be confident, pointing to other areas in Helmand where the population, forced to choose sides, has gone against the Taliban.
One of those areas is the village of Nawa. On Thursday, Nicholson escorted Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on a walk through Nawa's market to demonstrate how quickly things can change. Just five months ago, this area was under daily attack, and Afghans didn’t frequent the market.
Wearing no body armor, Nicholson took Mullen through a rough opening in a cement wall to a thriving marketplace. Dozens of shops sell everything from produce to plastic pails. Children jockey for the colored pencils that the marines hand out and try to snooker passersby into giving away their sunglasses.
There's a weekly livestock bazaar, and development officials even have plans to build a stage for poetry readings.
Measuring success can be difficult in a counterinsurgency, where “winning” can be far more nuanced. But Nicholson points to the families who are returning to the area as proof that the clear-hold-and-build strategy is working.
In defending Mr. Obama’s strategy here, American officials have pointed out that the mission was chronically underresourced. Now, with the infusion of more troops, such operations have a greater likelihood of success.
Nicholson’s plans for Marjeh call to mind the battles of Fallujah in Iraq in 2004. Those block-by-block street fights left many dead or wounded, but they ultimately sent a strong message to Sunni insurgents. Many military officials expect casualties to mount in the opening salvo of the strategy in Marjeh. But the operation may not be nearly as “kinetic” (a big battle characterized by combat operations), says Nicholson, unless it has to be. And it will cover a much wider area.
He is mum on the details, saying only that going in with more forces is better than going in with too few. Both military experts and independent analysts expect that the Taliban, cornered, may fight harder than in other areas of Helmand, where the Marines have met relatively light resistance.
Mullen, on a week-long tour of the region, has been selling Obama’s war plans to the troops here. “I’m proud of you. You’ve made a big difference, and you’ll continue to do that,” he told the Marines at Nawa. “A lot of us are continuing to count on the work you are doing.”
Back to Top
Back to Top
In Afghanistan, NATO is fighting for its life
What has happened to the great alliance of democracies that won the cold war? NATO has yet to fully mobilize and exhibits no sense of urgency concerning the extremist threat in Afghanistan.
By David M. Abshire December 17, 2009 at 11:51 am EST The Christian Science Monitor
Washington — Many European leaders praised President Obama’s plan to send 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan to turn the tide against the Taliban insurgency. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has announced that 25 countries appear ready to pledge around 7,000 new troops.
Despite these moderate increases, most European leaders have not begun to tap the impressive resource base of the NATO alliance, which includes over 2 million non-US troops. Of the 28 countries in NATO, only the US, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Poland, Romania, and the Netherlands provide sizable forces that are not handicapped by restrictive “combat caveats,” which prevent forces from participating in the full range of counterinsurgency operations. Furthermore, Canada and the Netherlands have not reversed their plans to withdraw by 2011.
No wonder that, when asked recently if NATO was not working well in Afghanistan, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner responded “It’s not working at all.”
What has happened to the great alliance of democracies that won the cold war? NATO has yet to fully mobilize and exhibits no sense of urgency concerning the extremist threat.
NATO is fighting for its life – it had better start acting like it.
In his speech to the cadets at West Point (my alma mater, a constituency already fully committed to the Afghan campaign), the president presented to the American people the reasons for reinforcing the Afghan mission.
During his “Lincolnesque” Nobel Prize acceptance speech last week, Mr. Obama recognized the important legacy of nonviolence. However, he also brilliantly acknowledged the role of “just war” in ensuring global peace, thereby offering a strong defense of NATO’s participation in Afghanistan to the European public.
Neither speech provided a needed explicit call for our NATO allies to do more.
Six stumbling blocks
Additional resources are desperately needed to ensure both success in Afghanistan as well as the alliance’s future credibility, yet NATO’s efforts in Afghanistan are crippled by six debilitating disconnects between NATO’s goals and its methods:
1. Caveats. New reinforcements must be freed of any caveats that prevent them from engaging in combat. European leaders and parliamentarians must be convinced of the need to remove these caveats.
2. Inadequate training and investment in Afghan security forces. NATO members must send desperately needed police and military training teams. This is a necessary element of any sustainable transition strategy.
3. The absence of a regional focus. NATO has focused almost exclusively on Afghanistan even though the Taliban and Al Qaeda leadership are located in Pakistan, in close proximity to nuclear weapons.
While NATO can’t send troops to Pakistan, it must recognize its centrality to the crisis. The 28 members of the alliance and the 14 non-NATO members of the International Security Assistance Force should coordinate their military and civilian aid in a way that boosts Pakistani efforts to combat extremists. This should include training efforts that can occur outside the country in a NATO framework similar to NATO Training Mission–Iraq.
4. Failure to understand the greater strategic threat. NATO oversees operations in Afghanistan, while the European Union (EU) loosely coordinates national justice ministries and law enforcement agencies focusing exclusively on domestic counterterrorism efforts. Despite the clear links between terrorist activity in Europe and NATO efforts in Afghanistan, Europe refuses to integrate NATO and EU efforts. NATO has no authority to do an overall threat assessment of the destabilizing effect extremists are having on Pakistan, India, and Central Asia, and how that instability threatens European interests. This failure to understand the overall threat contributes to decreasing European public support for the Afghan mission.
5. A debilitating adherence to consensus decisionmaking procedures. This laborious process requires unanimity of the alliance’s 28 members. NATO continues to follow this inefficient procedure when it comes to making decisions regarding Afghanistan. General John Craddock, the former supreme allied commander for Europe, has stated that because of this policy it took NATO over a year to adopt a coherent counter-narcotics strategy. This policy tragically undermines NATO’s ability to fight a war.
6. A reform effort disconnected from the current political reality. Many are complacently looking to the “strategic concept” exercise led by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to address NATO’s problems. This important restructuring will redefine NATO’s future role and missions. However it won’t report until 2011, which means its time clock is completely disconnected from the fast-ticking political time clock on Afghanistan. Alliance members must understand that the future envisioned by the strategic concept will never come into being if there is a breakdown over Afghanistan.
European allies must step up
In the United States, there is a growing perception that our European allies are becoming security consumers and not security providers. Waiting for the release of the strategic concept will undermine any immediate reform. Failure in Afghanistan will break the transatlantic alliance, hastening the rise of “the Pacific century” and the inevitable shift of US attention toward Asia.
Along with his European counterparts, Obama must call an emergency NATO heads-of-government meeting aimed at addressing these disconnects and building public support for the mission. Mr. Rasmussen appears to be a willing partner in such an endeavor. Only heads of government, not NATO bureaucrats, can mobilize NATO to overcome these debilitating disconnects.
David M. Abshire was the US ambassador to NATO from 1983-1987 and co-founder of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He is the president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Spain to send 511 more troops to Afghanistan
AP via Yahoo! News - Thu Dec 17, 2:58 pm ET
MADRID – Spain's defense minister has announced plans to send 511 more soldiers to Afghanistan in response to President Barack Obama's request for more allied help to fight the Taliban.
Carme Chacon says most of the soldiers will train Afghan soldiers so the Kabul government can eventually fend for itself.
The deployment needs approval from Spain's Parliament. It would raise the Spanish troop presence in Afghanistan to more than 1,500.
Chacon told a parliamentary panel Thursday that details of the deployment would be announced at a conference on Afghanistan next month in London.
In November, Spain sent an additional 200 troops.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Question time for Afghan district governor
Friday, 18 December 2009 BBC News
Security concerns are thwarting efforts to rebuild in the Afghan province of Uruzgan. The region has been badly scarred by years of unrest. BBC Pashto's Ahmad Omid Khpalwak travelled there after a recent drop in violence.
It took me five long hours to travel just 65 km (40 miles) on a bone-jarring unpaved roads to get from Tirin Kot to Dehrawad.
High up in the mountains on the banks of the Helmand river, it is one of the three main settlements in Afghanistan's remote, beautiful but dangerous Uruzgan province.
The reason for my gruelling trip was to meet the district's local governor, Saeed Osman Sadaat, and to record a special Question Time programme with him and local people for the BBC's Pashto service.
It is not very often that the BBC hears from this part of Afghanistan, a lot of which was run by the Taliban until last year, when they were largely driven out by Dutch troops with the help of local people.
But sporadic acts of violence still occur and serve as a reminder that the Taliban have not completely gone away.
On the day of President Karzai's inauguration last month a suicide bomber blew himself up in the town bazaar, killing 10 people and injuring 30.
Despite this, the area is more peaceful and people want to see real change.
Crowds gathered in a local bazaar for the BBC recording with the governor.
Stalls were piled high with fruit and vegetables. Young men in sparkly skull caps, old men in turbans, and children giggled at the unusual sight of a BBC reporter with a big microphone standing in their midst.
The debate
For most people this was the first time they had seen their governor face to face, let alone got a chance to try and get some answers from him.
During the programme the governor was inundated with questions, not about security, but about the lack of development.
"Why has a proper road still not been built to link Dehrawad to the provincial capital Tirin Kot despite government promises?" someone asked.
Governor Sadaat said construction work had been held up by the recent presidential elections.
The crowd seemed unconvinced by the answer, but it does highlight a serious dilemma in Afghanistan.
Although this region is more stable, the security situation remains volatile and it is simply too dangerous to deploy people to do the job.
Mohammad Aslam, a student, wanted to know why there were "so few good teachers at local schools".
The governor said he recognised it was a problem. "Teachers from other parts of the country were not willing to come and work in this dangerous and out-of-the-way area," he said.
Shortages
Then a softly-spoken bearded man asked "what the authorities were planning to do to improve irrigation in Dehrawad, and will they be building a much needed dam?"
"You are in charge here," the man added.
"I am asking you to work on our irrigation problem. Who else can I ask?"
This area relies on agriculture for much of its income and a lack of water poses huge problems.
But the governor was blunt. "There is no money," he said flatly.
At this point a local tailor intervened to raise another concern. The cost of electricity, he said, "is too high".
Governor Sadaat explained that things would be much worse if a local businessman was not paying for the diesel to keep the generator running.
"Nobody [else] is helping us with diesel costs. Not the government, not the NGOs, no-one," he admitted.
No hope
The people who took part in the programme represent just a fraction of the overall population.
But their questions will be familiar to many and they get right to the heart of the problem in Afghanistan.
People in Dehrawad survive on next to nothing, and they are desperate for change.
But it is not happening because of a lack of security which seriously hampers development.
There are also few proper channels through which to spend aid money effectively.
People have paid a heavy price in this region which was once at the frontline of the fighting between the Taliban and US-led coalition forces.
Many are anxious not to return to the violence of the past.
But the longer people wait for change that does not come, the more they lose hope.
As hope fades and they begin to look elsewhere for solutions, the prospects for the Taliban begin to look a little brighter.
Back to Top
Back to Top
NATO kills 3 civilians, wounds 4 others in air strike in S. Afghanistan: gov't
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- A NATO helicopter killed three civilians and wounded four others during an air strike in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, provincial government said Friday.
The helicopter stroke a minibus on the Kandahar-Oruzgan highway in Shawali Kot district of Kandahar province at about 11 p.m. Thursday, killing three men and wounding one woman and three children, according to a press release issued by the provincial governor house Friday.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement it was sending a team to investigate reports of civilian casualties in the operation.
"Initial operational reports indicate that men were placing an IED next to the road," ISAF said in the statement. "After firingon the men from a helicopter, ISAF forces discovered civilians in a car adjacent to the IED site."
Civilian casualties have increased in Afghanistan in 2009. Bothmilitants and troops are held responsible for harming non-combatants in Afghanistan.
On Dec. 8, hundreds of Afghans protested in eastern Laghman province over a NATO operation in which the Afghan government said six civilians were killed. ISAF rejected the claim, saying all those killed were militants.
Back to Top
Back to Top
General: U.S. Troops To Hit Taliban Hard In 2010
December 17, 2009 NPR
U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan plan to carry out a major operation next year to clear one of the largest remaining Taliban strongholds in the violent Helmand province.
Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson tells NPR's All Things Considered that the 10,000 or so additional Marines being sent as part of the Obama administration's surge plan will enable an all-out assault on Marja, where Taliban forces have been digging in.
"We have one area that we know the enemy considers a sanctuary and has sort of arrived in significant numbers and built up his defenses," Nicholson tells NPR's Robert Siegel in a telephone interview Thursday from Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province. "I think there is an inevitability, a little bit of a collision, if you will, here sometime in the new year."
Helmand has been the site of a series of fierce pitched battles in the past six months as Nicholson's Marines have ousted Taliban forces from a number of towns that had previously been effectively off-limits to NATO forces.
In an effort to demonstrate how much progress has been made, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, toured one of those towns, called Nawa, on Thursday surrounded by a significant security detail but without wearing a flak jacket.
Mullen said increasing the participation of Afghan security forces in taking and holding territory is an essential part of the U.S. strategy.
"It's critical that we continue to focus on them and they take the lead and essentially become responsible for their own security, which actually is a more exciting proposition than what's occurring right now," Mullen said.
Toward that goal, Nicholson says training programs for Afghan security forces have been accelerated and, if everything goes according to plan, there will be about the same number of Afghan soldiers and police officers as U.S. Marines participating in the upcoming Marja operation.
"What we're here to do probably for Marja is probably break open those [improvised explosive device] lanes, pour through, but at the end of the day this has got to be their victory," Nicholson says. "We're going to work very hard to make sure they are involved in every facet of it, to include the planning of it."
But he warns that the Marja assault, when it comes, is likely to be a very tough fight.
Taliban insurgents, who have been laying down fields of IEDs and mines, are expected to fight hard to defend one of the few remaining significantly populated portions of Helmand that they still control.
"We believe that there is a formidable enemy there. We believe we have an enemy that will fight and hold that ground," Nicholson says. "Where's he going to go after this? Will he try to sneak back into the areas we have cleared and are prospering? I don't think there will be a lot of appetite from the locals to welcome them back."
One factor that should help, he adds, is that about 80 percent of the Taliban fighters still operating in Helmand are "local guys who will frankly just go home." The remaining 20 percent or so are seen as committed ideologues who won't give up easily.
Beyond the immediate goal of driving the Taliban out of Marja, Nicholson says he is focused on the broader picture, including President Obama's stated intention of beginning to draw down troops in Afghanistan starting in July 2011.
"I can't tell you where we're going to be in July of 2011, but I can tell you that we understand what the commander-in-chief has said, and that's when he wants to draw down, and we are sprinting," Nicholson says. "The message to our Marines every day is that the clock is running and the world is watching."
Back to Top
Back to Top
My hardest decision: Saying no to Afghanistan war
By Jason Chaffetz, Special to CNN December 17, 2009
Editor's note: Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican, represents the 3rd District of Utah in Congress and is appearing in CNN.com's "Freshman Year" series, along with Rep. Jared Polis, a Democrat from Colorado.
Washington, D.C. (CNN) -- Calling for a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan may have been one of the most difficult decisions I made during my freshman year.
Breaking with my party on the issue of Afghanistan was unexpected, but in the end, I felt it was the right thing to do.
After visiting the war zones earlier this year, I had serious reservations about the nation-building side of our Afghanistan strategy, which I wrote about for CNN in April.
In the ensuing months, I have become more and more convinced that our troop-intensive strategy of nation building is unsustainable.
Attending the memorial services at Fort Hood reinforced for me what a difficult decision we faced. If we're going to put lives on the line, we need to be committed to winning. Otherwise, we need to bring our troops home.
At the time I announced my position, I didn't know how committed the president was to winning this war. He hadn't yet announced his plans. But I wanted to make my views known. Because I didn't want my position to be seen as reactionary to the president's position, I made my recommendations on Afghanistan the day before his speech.
For me, it wasn't about opposing President Obama or the Democrats. It was about doing the right thing for our country, our troops and our national security.
I am proud of our troops. There is no question in my mind that they can accomplish any mission, provided they have the resources and support to see it through.
But in modern warfare, the nature of defending and protecting the United States of America has changed. What does victory look like in Afghanistan? There's no peace treaty to sign. No one will surrender.
Prevention is victory. We still have to track down terrorists across the globe. But they aren't limiting themselves to Afghanistan.
According to Gen. James Jones, Obama's national security adviser, fewer than 100 al Qaeda remain in Afghanistan, and those few have no bases or means by which to attack.
We don't need 100,000 troops to track down 100 or even 1,000 al Qaeda. We need those troops only if we hope, in the words of National Review's Andy McCarthy, to "turn Kabul into Kansas." That's a mission I don't believe is in our interest to support.
I recognize that many people, particularly within my own party, disagree with my views. That's OK. Terrorism is a complex issue. It's hard to capture on a bumper sticker.
Unlike many domestic issues, it's not black and white. With the death tax, you're either for it or against it. Likewise, with the government takeover of health care, you either support it or you don't.
But everybody wants to fight terrorism and win. Everybody wants to protect and defend our country from legitimate threats. That's what makes the issue so complicated.
Nevertheless, these are the types of discussions we should be having. With so much at stake, Americans need to talk about and consider what we're willing to support and pay for.
After giving the speech, I got a lot of questions from the audience. Some were skeptical. Others were exuberant. It seems I'm not the only conservative in America who has doubts about the necessity of a nation-building war strategy.
I got a sweet letter from a mother whose son was killed in Afghanistan. She let me know she appreciated my stance on the war. I don't regret taking the risk of announcing what could have been a politically unpopular position.
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Jason Chaffetz.
Back to Top
Back to Top
British soldiers died stopping suicide bombers in Afghan market
Two soldiers manning checkpoint sacrificed their lives preventing Taliban attack in Helmand markeplace, says commanding officer
Press Association guardian.co.uk, Thursday 17 December 2009
Two British soldiers sacrificed their lives to stop Taliban suicide bombers detonating their devices in a packed marketplace, their commanding officer said today.
Lance Corporal David Kirkness, 24, and Rifleman James Brown, 18, both of 3rd Battalion The Rifles, were killed while manning a vehicle checkpoint near Sangin in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, on Tuesday.
Two Afghan soldiers were also killed in the attack.
Kirkness, from Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and Brown, from Farnborough, Hampshire, were taking part in a joint security operation with Afghan forces on a route into central Sangin.
Lieutenant Colonel Nick Kitson, commanding officer of 3 Rifles Battle Group, said their comrades took comfort and pride from the fact that they averted a "much larger tragedy".
He said: "Their sacrifice prevented two suicide bombers from reaching their intended target, the bustling and ever more prosperous Sangin bazaar, packed with local Afghans going about their daily business."
Bob Ainsworth, the defence secretary, paid tribute to the two soldiers in a speech to the Royal United Services Institute in London today.
He said: "Their deaths harden our resolve, but this will be a very difficult time for their families as they come to terms with their loss."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Interview - U.S. spotlights rebuilding Afghan agriculture
By Sue Pleming
WASHINGTON, Dec 17 (Reuters) - The United States hopes its focus on rebuilding agriculture in Afghanistan will pay off over the next two or so years and be the stimulus to draw recruits away from the Taliban, a senior U.S. official said.
Otto Gonzalez, senior agriculture adviser in the office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, is optimistic a focus on diversifying into high-value crops such as pomegranates, grapes and pistachios will convince farmers to switch from opium poppy.
"We know that basically 8 out of 10 people rely on agriculture for their income, their jobs and their livelihood. If we think about the most direct way to reach the people of Afghanistan, it is through agriculture," Gonzalez said in an interview with Reuters late on Wednesday.
"If we are going to be able to build confidence in them that their future does not have to be dominated by extremists, then it will be one based on agriculture," he added.
Rebuilding Afghanistan's agriculture is one component of President Barack Obama's strategy for defeating the resurgent Taliban, along with the deployment of an additional 30,000 U.S. troops.
The challenges on agriculture in Afghanistan are immense, said Gonzalez, a U.S. Department of Agriculture official whose office is now based in the State Department.
Aside from the obvious one of war, other obstacles include getting goods to market in an insecure environment and convincing farmers to adopt more modern methods.
Another stumbling block is negotiations between Afghanistan and Pakistan for a transit-trade agreement. This is essential if Afghanistan is able to get goods via road to trading partner India, which requires going through Pakistan, whose relations with New Delhi are notoriously fractured.
HOPEFUL FOR TRADE ARRANGEMENT
The hope is to have this resolved by year-end, said Gonzalez, though officials and diplomats involved in those talks say there are still some issues to be ironed out.
"There are going to be some bumps but it really has been moving along," Gonzalez said of the trade negotiations.
Meanwhile the Obama administration is ramping up its staff in Afghanistan, hoping to have nearly 90 agriculture experts in place by mid-January, about double the number now, Gonzalez said.
The State Department's 2009 budget for Afghan agriculture is about $315 million and projected spending for 2010 will be about $425 million, a modest amount that does not include funds drawn from an account run by military commanders.
A U.S. strategy plan for agriculture released in Kabul last week also focuses on increasing wheat yields, the staple in Afghanistan, as well as rehabilitating crumbling watersheds and modernizing storage and food reprocessing facilities.
Other projects are an agricultural credit program that is in its infancy and making government-run agricultural offices run more efficiently.
Job creation is a key goal although the State Department and the National Security Council are still discussing "metrics" to use before the program can be judged a success.
"My own personal estimation is that it will probably take close to two years to really see the kind of impact that we are hoping for," Gonzalez said. "Sometimes it takes a couple of crop seasons to really build that confidence," he added.
The Bush administration approach homed in on poppy eradication in Afghanistan but the Obama White House has abandoned that strategy, saying all it did was alienate local farmers without offering alternatives to growing illicit crops.
"Farmers have shown that when conditions are there, they will switch," Gonzalez said, adding that when wheat prices recently rose, many farmers in the east and west of the country switched from poppy -- for which there was a glut -- to wheat.
"They don't have to be convinced, but we have to have solid opportunities."
Opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the world's biggest supplier of the source material for heroin, has decreased by 22 percent so far in 2009, compared with last year, according to United Nations estimates.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Corruption at heart of Afghan state
As Hamid Karzai launches an anti-corruption conference, western aid donors need to put their houses in order too
Simon Tisdall guardian.co.uk, Friday 18 December 2009 16.30 GMT
Zemarai Bashary, spokesman of the Afghan interior ministry, sits in a large chair in his top-floor meeting room in Kabul and dispenses sticky cakes and tea to his guests. Bashary wears a sharp suit and a winning smile. Along with narcotics, corruption is the main political issue facing Afghanistan, he says, and there can be no doubt that the battle against graft is being won.
Bashary cites two recent, high-profile examples of justice visited upon the venal. One concerns an Afghan army colonel in Kandahar who was jailed for 20 years for drug trafficking. The other investigation, even more sensational, netted a police general who is accused of stealing salaries and compensation payments due to the families of officers killed in the line of duty.
In days gone by such abuses would not have been exposed, let alone prosecuted, Bashary says. Now no one is immune; if warranted, the most senior ministers and officials face scrutiny from the new major crime taskforce. Even his own ministry, led by interior minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, could in theory be investigated. Luckily there is no need for this, he says, because there is no corruption there.
It's probably fair to say this is a minority view. According to the independent anti-corruption watchdog, Integrity Watch Afghanistan, the ministries of interior, justice and public works have been notorious in the past as centres of corruption. It's not just bureaucrats who are on the take. Everyone, from top politicians close to President Hamid Karzai to ill-paid, drug-addicted police recruits manning rural checkpoints, is vulnerable to often well-founded accusations of graft.
What the US, Britain and other western countries involved in Afghanistan since 2001 have failed to realise is that corruption goes to the heart of what comprises the Afghan "state", said an influential Afghan analyst who asked not to be identified. It was not simply a marginal problem, to be rooted out and eliminated; rather, corruption was an existential issue, he said.Overcoming it may require a societal revolution greater than that which toppled the Taliban in 2001, he said.
"I think corruption is a far more nefarious problem than most people recognise and unless it is tackled urgently and aggressively, there is no hope of turning things around in Afghanistan. It has cut into foreign aid, undermined the government's legitimacy, enriched the warlords, empowered the insurgents, and generally affected the whole society," the analyst said.
"Karzai is not serious about fighting corruption and anyone who believes he is going to get rid of it is deluding himself … Let me give you an example: if you want to get a job as a small town teacher, you have to bribe the local education department head even if you have a letter of appointment from the minister of education. The minister is too far removed from the provinces and powerless to influence what goes on.
"The government is too weak and ineffective to control and fight corruption. It's a vicious cycle. Corruption has undercut the government's legitimacy and rule of law and the lack of rule of law in turn has undercut the government's ability to fight corruption."
Western leaders, including Gordon Brown, have been bombarding Karzai's government with "advice" on tackling the problem since the recent fraudulent presidential election threatened to eviscerate their Afghan policy. New official bodies are proliferating. In addition to the High Office of Oversight and Anti-Corruption set up last year, the Major Crime Taskforce was promulgated last month, backed by the FBI, Scotland Yard, and EUPOL (the EU's police training mission). On Tuesday, Karzai opened a three-day anti-corruption conference in Kabul.
Western diplomats are pinning their hopes on Karzai's pledge in his inauguration speech last month to prosecute those who spread corruption. "Corruption is a very dangerous enemy of the state," he said. But Lorenzo Delesgues, director of Integrity Watch, said the task was enormous – and that western aid donors needed to put their own houses in order, too.
"The Taliban are seen as corrupt by only 9% of the population while Karzai's government is seen by the majority as the most corrupt in 40 years," Delesgues said. "There is clear evidence of corruption in the public services and ministries but the corruption commission has not taken action despite our urgings. Karzai is not acting to end impunity."
The election fiasco apart, corrupt land grabs, infrastructure project kickbacks, and bribes demanded by the police (which disproportionately impacted poorer people) were particularly damaging to public confidence, he said. But aid donors had to be much more careful how their money was disbursed, too, a point accepted last week by US defence secretary Robert Gates.
It has been estimated that 50 cents in every $1 in foreign aid is lost to corrupt or fraudulent practices; that figure had risen to 90 cents for some USAid programmes, Delesgues said. US accounting was improving and Britain had been more successful than most in keeping track of its cash, he said, by moving it through trust funds.
"This is a key moment for Afghanistan. They [the west] are only just waking up to the problem [of corruption]. It can get better, but not in 18 months," Delesgues said, referring to Barack Obama's surge timeline. "This should be a lesson for any future conflict – that corruption is one of the main things you must deal with when you make an intervention. If you don't, you fail."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan Army Questions Police Competence
General says military doing its best to bolster security in north, but police are hampering efforts.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Ahmad Kawosh in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 348, 16-Dec-09)
An Afghan National Army, ANA, commander says efforts to combat the growing insurgency in the previously stable north are being frustrated by police failings
General Abdul Rahman Rahmani, commander of the 209 Shahin Army Corps, based in Mazar-e-Sharif, says over the past year the ANA has launched operations in four northern provinces to drive out Taleben and other militant groups, but the police have been unable to hold territory once the army has moved on, allowing the insurgents to regroup.
“Kunduz, Baghlan, Faryab and Balkh provinces have been cleared of [insurgent] groups several times,” Rahmani said. “But the achievements have not been protected. After a short time, the insurgents are able to retake the territory. So the army conducts another operation. This leads to rising casualties and low morale. Army soldiers leave; they stop fighting.”
Mohammad Ali Rezayi, deputy commander of the 303 Pamir Zone Corps, which polices the north and northeast of the country, insisted that his officers take their responsibilities seriously, but lacked manpower to control areas after military operations.
“It is very difficult to control the vast areas of the north and the northeast without more police,”
he said, adding that the 303 Pamir Zone Corps had asked central government to increase the number of officers.
“We have only 60 policemen in Baghlan-e-Markazi district, which has more than 3,000 inhabitants,” he said. “Other districts also face shortages. With the current force level, we cannot maintain permanent control.”
Rahmani, though, questions not only the competence of the police, but also claims that they are cooperating with the insurgents, making deals and even fighting with the Taleban against the ANA.
In addition, Rahmani said police collect local tithes, known as ushr, from the population jointly with the insurgents.
“Police in Baghlan and Kunduz surrendered their weapons to the Taleban. The police and the [insurgents] are from the same area, they collude with each other. They could not do this in other provinces,” he said.
“I am only talking about what I have seen with my own eyes. The police, along with the Taleban, were collecting tithe from people in Faryab province. When the army arrived, the police started fighting against the army jointly with the Taleban.”
Rahmani suggested that policemen be deployed outside their home provinces, in order to prevent them making deals with insurgents.
“Police from Balkh should be sent to Baghlan, and those from Baghlan should go to Faryab or some other province. This would make it more difficult for them to establish ties with [insurgents],” he said.
Rezayi, meanwhile, defends his force, saying Rahmani’s allegations are baseless and irresponsible.
“The police are committed to national security,” he said. “We have taken more casualties than any other security organisation. This shows that the police do not deal with [insurgents].”
And Sayed Asghar Asghari, operations manager for the 303 Pamir Zone Corps, dismissed Rahmani’s police deployment proposal. “Police serve where they are recruited,” he said. “They would never agree to go to other provinces.”
Rahmani also accused some provincial governors of incompetence, saying their failure to respond to the needs of the people had made it possible for the Taleban to gain a foothold in the north.
Residents of Baghlan say insurgents exploit local disaffection with the authorities caused by pledges not being delivered.
“Promises are made, but they are not fulfilled,” said Mohammad Sarwar, a resident of Dand district in Baghlan. “This makes the [insurgents] powerful, because the people do not trust the government. The Taleban take advantage of this, telling the people to support them, instead of the government.”
Baghlan governor Mohammad Akbar Barakzai, however, defends his record.
“I promised the residents of Dand district that I would build them a road as soon as possible,” he said. “I have sent the proposal to the ministry of public works, which has put out a tender for construction companies. The winner will begin work very soon.”
Residents, meanwhile, claim that delays in the project have prompted the Taleban to prepare a new anti-government offensive, despite appeals from local elders.
“At the moment, hundreds of Taleban from Kunduz and other northern and northeastern provinces have gathered in our district,” local resident Mohammad Karim said. “They say that Barakzai has deceived all the local elders; therefore, the local people should not try and stop the Taleban from mounting an operation.”
Ahmad Kawosh is an IWPR-trained reporter in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Warlords Re-emerging in North
Revival of militia activity in Balkh linked to looming political power struggle.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By IWPR-trained reporters in Balkh (ARR No. 348, 17-Dec-09)
Baz Mohammad, a shopkeeper in the Charbolak district of Balkh province, is a worried man. Security in this formerly stable province is becoming increasingly fragile, and he is concerned that fighting could break out.
But he does not blame the Taleban or other insurgent groups for the problems. Instead, he is afraid that former militia commanders from the area are jostling for power because they sense the provincial governor’s position is up for grabs.
“I have never seen the Taleban in this district,” he said. “But I do see the former warlords walking around with their weapons.”
According to Baz Mohammad, the situation in Balkh has been declining steadily since the provincial governor, Atta Mohammad Noor, broke with President Hamed Karzai.
Atta supported Karzai’s chief rival, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, in the presidential election held in August. Atta and Abdullah are both identified with ethnic Tajik political forces in the north.
“If these two do not mend relations, things will get even worse,” Baz Mohammad said. “The police and security forces cannot even patrol in our district at night any more.”
Balkh has become more and more unstable since the results of the elections were announced in October. Karzai was declared the winner, and Atta’s position has come under question.
There are strong rumours that Karzai will try and replace him, and residents are worried that this could precipitate violence if the powerful governor makes a bid to hold on to his seat.
Over the past six weeks, more than 20 people have been killed in the province, including police. Attacks on foreign forces have also increased. This is a new phenomenon for Balkh, which had been fairly calm in recent years.
Local residents like Baz Mohammad say that the violence is not the work of the Taleban; instead, they point to groups associated with former warlords becoming more visible and aggressive.
General Murad Ali Murad, commander of the Afghan army’s 209th Corps which is headquartered in Balkh, confirmed that armed groups not linked to the insurgency have become active in the region over the past few weeks.
“We will eliminate these groups, no matter to whom they belong,” he said. “We will not let them destabilise Balkh.”
When IWPR interviewed the general, he refused to speculate as to who was behind these groups, saying only that it was too soon to start mentioning names.
But in an interview with the Wall Street Journal in early November, Murad said he was seeing evidence that Atta was arming men in anticipation of a showdown with Karzai.
Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai, spokesman for the police force in the north, commented, “In many districts, those who made their living at the barrel of a gun are trying to do so again.” But he insisted that his men – part of the national police force – were fully capable of dealing with the threat.
Atta’s spokesman, Munir Ahmad Farhad, confirmed there were armed groups not linked with the Taleban, but denied they had any connection with the governor.
For his part, Atta has publicly accused the interior and defence ministries of sending weapons to the north to arm various groups, allegations that have been strongly denied in Kabul.
Balkh, in the north of Afghanistan bordering Uzbekistan, is one of Afghanistan’s key provinces. Hairatan, a port on the Amu Darya river, brings in more than 100 million US dollars per year in customs revenues, according to government sources.
Atta is not unopposed in the area. Three Karzai allies have power bases in Balkh or surrounding provinces. The Uzbek general Abdul Rashid Dostum, leader of the Junbesh movement, has almost total control in Jowzjan and is a bitter foe of Atta; the Pashtun Juma Khan Hamdard, although currently the governor of Paktia in the south, also has deep roots in Balkh and has reportedly been working against Atta. Finally, Mohammad Mohaqeq, leader of the Hazara group Wahdat-e Islami, is fairly strong in Balkh too, and has made no secret of his opposition to Atta.
Spokesmen for Dostum, Hamdard and Mohaqeq have denied that their groups control any armed men in Balkh. Nonetheless, there is speculation that each of the three is vying to put one of his own men in as governor of Balkh.
All three plus Atta led armed factions that took part in the brutal civil war of the early Nineties, as rival forces battled for control of Afghanistan following the collapse of the Soviet-backed government.
Many of Balkh’s residents are worried that their province may once again become a battleground.
Back to Top
Back to Top
The Drug Courier Children of Herat
Traffickers target homeless kids from families who’ve fled violence in neighbouring provinces.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Fawad Ahmadi in Herat (ARR No. 348, 17-Dec-09)
Thousands of street children in Herat, Afghanistan’s third largest city, are being used as drug couriers, with the authorities seemingly overwhelmed by the scale of the problem.
Abdullah, aged 13 and the son of a drug addict, was working as a courier for a drug dealer. Now he has ended up in a children’s reform and discipline centre in Herat.
He says it started when he was sleeping in the city’s Shahr-e Naw park and a man came up and offered him 500 afghani (ten US dollars) to carry a package of narcotics to a friend’s house.
The boy says the man introduced himself as Naser and made an excuse for not wanting to deliver it in person. They went together to the friend’s neighbourhood, Abdullah knocked on the door and gave the package to an old man.
“I did this several times. One day Naser took me to his house and sexually abused me and gave me 1,000 afghani,” he said.
“I did not say anything about the sexual abuse to my parents, because there was nothing they could do about it.”
Finally, when he was carrying narcotics to a client, the police caught him and brought him to the children’s reform and discipline centre.
Gholam Jilani Daqiq, director of counter-narcotics in Herat, confirms that children are used as couriers by drug smugglers. He said that statistics provided by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime show there are 50,000 drug addicts in Herat – a city of 400,000.
The director of the human rights commission in Herat, Abdol Qader Rahimi, says it has received reports that the child smugglers were also being sexually abused.
Mohammad Sediq, the local head of the UK-based charity War Child, says most of the street children are from the families of internally displaced people, IDPs, fleeing conflict in neighbouring provinces.
“There are 10,000 street children in Herat right now, but their number is increasing on a daily basis because of insecurity, poverty and a lack of official attention to the living condition of IDPs,” he said.
Security officials say they have arrested 20 children over the past year who were involved in the couriering of narcotics and broke up two smuggling rings that were using youngsters.
Major Mohammad Idris, the administration and logistics director of the police in Herat, says there are plans to better coordinate the work of agencies trying to help children caught up in the drugs trade, but would not give further details.
Sediq said the current network of support centres was inadequate to deal with the problem.
Rahimi warned that unless it was addressed in the near future, the drug courier children will form gangs, which the security forces will find very difficult to control.
Engineer Wasi, a children’s rights activist in Herat, said there are already indications that the latter is happening.
“Evidence shows that there are criminal gangs of mostly children active in Herat. They are involved in picking pockets, stealing goods, smuggling narcotics and even prostitution,” he said.
He called on the security services to arrest the ringleaders of gangs smuggling narcotics to stop their flow into Herat city.
“Arresting children will not solve the problem. They have to get to the root of it,” he said.
Twelve-year-old Abbas, who also lives in the reform and discipline centre, says he was arrested by the police a month ago in the Gowalayan area of Herat city. He said he has not smuggled narcotics, but was arrested for buying opium for his addict father from a dealer.
His father had gone to Iran for work but when he came back after two years, he was addicted to opium. Now, his father stays at home and cannot do anything.
“I would buy opium for my father with the money I earned by begging and would take it home. Then one day the police arrested me and brought me here,” he said.
He said his mother washed and cooked for people in their homes to pay the family’s costs and rent.
“I know I should go to school and I like school. I want to become a teacher and have a better future. I am begging because I have to. It is not my fault if my father is an addict,” he said.
Fawad Ahmadi is an IWPR trainee reporter in Herat.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Tajikistan Opens Border So Afghan Shepherds Can Go Home
December 18, 2009 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
DUSHANBE -- A Tajik border official has said 25 Afghan shepherds and thousands of sheep stranded for nine days by a snowstorm crossed through the Vakhon Mountains to return to Afghanistan, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports.
Border official Firdavs Davlatov told RFE/RL that the shepherds and some 3,500 sheep crossed into Afghanistan's Khargushi region on December 16 after being trapped in the Langhar region.
Davlatov said the decision to open the border for the shepherds and their flocks was made following a request by the Afghan Consulate in Khorugh, the administrative center of Badakhshan Province.
He said the shepherds had to travel some 80 kilometers on Tajik territory.
Zabehullah Naseeri, the second secretary of the Afghan Consulate in Badakhshan, told RFE/RL that crossing through Tajikistan was the only safe path for the shepherds and expressed his gratitude to Tajik officials for their understanding.
Davlatov said the shepherds were provided with medical and veterinary assistance when they entered Tajikistan.
Tajikistan shares a 1,400 kilometer border with Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).