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Gates Says U.S. Could Withhold Aid if Afghanistan Cannot Curb Corruption
By ELISABETH BUMILLER November 20, 2009
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday that the United States could start holding Afghanistan’s government accountable for corruption by withholding money for projects “where we control the flow of dollars.”
McCain predicts success in Afghanistan in 12-18 months
Fri Nov 20, 4:48 pm ET
HALIFAX, Canada (AFP) – US Senator John McCain predicted an allied win in Afghanistan in one year to 18 months if sufficient troops are sent, as the White House mulls sending tens of thousands of reinforcements.
23 Taliban killed in Afghanistan clashes: police
Sat Nov 21, 7:11 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghan and foreign troops killed 23 Taliban militants in separate operations a day after the president pledged to take responsibility for security in his new five-year term, police said Saturday.
Rocket hits outside luxury hotel in Afghan capital
By AMIR SHAH and ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press Writers
KABUL (AP) - A rocket hit outside the luxury Serena Hotel in Afghanistan's capital late Saturday, wounding two people, the Interior Ministry said.
Afghan police are weak link in security force
By Elena Becatoros, Associated Press Writer – Sat Nov 21, 3:32 am ET
KABUL – Underpaid, under-equipped and under-trained, Afghanistan's 93,000-member police force is the weak link in an ambitious security strategy to hand over defense of the country to Afghans so American and other foreign troops can go home.
Afghanistan: Taliban claim blast near NATO base in capital
Kabul, 13 Nov. (AKI) - The Taliban has claimed a car bombing close to a NATO base in the Afghan capital Kabul which injured foreign soldiers, civilian contractors and Afghan civilians, according to Afghan officials.
Afghanistan troop surge could be a slow rollout
Any surge of US troops to Afghanistan is likely to be tougher than it was in Iraq, because of the dearth of good roads and airfields, say defense officials.
By Gordon Lubold | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the November 20, 2009 edition
Washington - When it comes to deploying additional forces to Afghanistan, the Pentagon confronts an infrastructural problem summed up by one senior military official: "Iraq is stuck in 1950, Afghanistan is stuck in 1310."
Karzai an 'unworthy partner': top US Democrat
Fri Nov 20, 7:29 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Calling Afghan President Hamid Karzai an "unworthy partner," a key Democratic leader warned Friday that Congress cannot fund an expanded military mission without a reliable ally in Kabul.
Pakistan says it fears fallout from any surge next door
By Kim Gamel Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan expressed fear yesterday that a big increase in the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan could push extremists across the border into its territory and called on the United States to consider that concern as it crafts a new war strategy.
Finding decent cabinet is Karzai's big challenge
The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is sworn in for a second term as the world watches to see if he can deliver on his pledges to clean up his government.
Telegraph.co.uk By Lynne O'Donnell 20 Nov 2009
Kabul - Karzai won plaudits for his inauguration speech on Thursday from Western officials including the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who said it was an "important new starting point" as the US-led war stretches into its ninth year.
NATO takes command of Afghan army, police training
Sat Nov 21, 2009 By Jonathon Burch
KABUL, Nov 21 (Reuters) - NATO took command of the training of the Afghan army and police on Saturday to consolidate efforts on building an effective security force, a vital precondition for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
U.S. Afghanistan debate curbs Gates on Canada visit
Defense Secretary Robert Gates attends a conference but, with the Obama administration wrestling over its Afghan strategy, isn't in a position to push Canada to reconsider a troop withdrawal plan.
Los Angeles Times By Julian E. Barnes November 21, 2009
Reporting from Halifax, Canada - As the Obama administration wrestles over its new Afghanistan strategy, the domestic debate is having far-reaching implications for the United States' ties with its allies in the war.
Afghan government would fall if NATO withdraws: UK minister
Sat Nov 21, 2009
LONDON (Reuters) - The Afghan government would quickly be overthrown if NATO troops pulled out of the country now, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Friday.
New diplomat to be installed in Kabul
The Sydney Morning Herald - Technology November 21, 2009
The Federal Government is sending a new ambassador to Afghanistan to observe the Karzai Government's promised crackdown on corruption.
Nearly 600 detainees may have been turned over to Afghan security forces
By David Pugliese, The Ottawa CitizenNovember 21, 2009
Canadian soldiers may have turned over as many as 580 detainees to Afghan security forces in the first 18 months of operations in Kandahar.
Pentagon vows to examine own role in Afghan corruption
Associated Press Lolita C. Baldor November 21. 2009
Halifax, Nova Scotia -- The United States will do its part to reduce corruption in Afghanistan by examining its own contracts and projects, even as it is demanding the same from the Afghan government, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.
A way to get around Karzai in Afghanistan
There is a way to circumvent the Karzai problem in Afghanistan, writes Trudy Rubin. It's a bottom-up strategy that deals more directly with effective governors and ministry officials in troubled provinces. Smarter diplomacy might even bring President Haqmid Karzai on board.
Seattle Times By Trudy Rubin 21 Nov 2009
MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan - Is there any way to get around Afghan President Hamid Karzai?
Despite U.S. pressures, Pakistan continues to follow its own road
By Saeed Shah, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Fri Nov 20, 5:12 pm ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani government has some advice the Obama administration may not want to hear as it contemplates sending additional U.S. troops to neighboring Afghanistan : Negotiate with Taliban leaders and restrain India.
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Gates Says U.S. Could Withhold Aid if Afghanistan Cannot Curb Corruption
By ELISABETH BUMILLER November 20, 2009
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Friday that the United States could start holding Afghanistan’s government accountable for corruption by withholding money for projects “where we control the flow of dollars.”
At a news conference here at a 200-year-old military base with Peter G. MacKay, the Canadian defense minister, Mr. Gates echoed a warning that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered privately to President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan in Kabul earlier this week: That future civilian aid from the United States to Afghanistan would depend in part on how he tackled corruption and curbed cronyism.
“The reality is that the international presence in Afghanistan has provided a significant influx of assistance dollars and contracts and so on,” Mr. Gates said. “So it seems to me that the place for us to start is to deal with corruption that may be associated with contracts we’re letting, or work that we are having done and development projects that we are undertaking in partnership with others, including with the Afghans.”
In short, he said, “the place to start is the place where we have the greatest leverage, and that’s where we’re writing the checks.”
Mr. Gates made his comments shortly after the House speaker, Representative Nancy Pelosi, told National Public Radio that Mr. Karzai was an “unworthy partner” who did not deserve more American troops and aid. In the same interview, Ms. Pelosi said there was not strong support among Democrats in Congress for “any big ramp-up of troops.”
The White House said that President Obama would announce a decision on sending more troops to Afghanistan after Thanksgiving.
On Thursday, Mr. Gates appeared to reject the idea of linking the sending of additional American troops to Afghanistan to Mr. Karzai’s progress in tackling corruption. When asked at a Pentagon news conference if there was merit in asking Mr. Karzai to clean up his government and then holding up troops until he met specific goals, Mr. Gates replied that “my view on all of this is that improvements in governance in Afghanistan will be evolutionary.”
He added: “We are not going to go from a situation where we have a fair amount of dissatisfaction now to believing that these problems have been solved in two weeks or a month, or on the basis of a single speech.”
In Halifax on Friday, Mr. Gates said that the United States and other nations with troops in Afghanistan “look for the day when we can turn over that responsibility and begin bringing our troops home,” but he offered no hint of an end date and pledged to help Afghanistan develop its government and economy “over the long term.”
Referring to what he has long said was the lack of American interest in the country after the Russians ended their occupation there two decades ago, he also said, “We are not going to do what we did in 1989 and turn our backs on Afghanistan.”
Mr. Gates was in Halifax to attend a security conference organized by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. In a speech to the group, he praised Canada for its 2,800 troops currently deployed in Afghanistan and said that, since all Canadian forces are scheduled to withdraw in 2011, “we call on our other allies and friends to do what they can on behalf of this noble and necessary campaign.”
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McCain predicts success in Afghanistan in 12-18 months
Fri Nov 20, 4:48 pm ET
HALIFAX, Canada (AFP) – US Senator John McCain predicted an allied win in Afghanistan in one year to 18 months if sufficient troops are sent, as the White House mulls sending tens of thousands of reinforcements.
But he said that timeline is threatened by US President Barack Obama's delay in rolling out a new Afghanistan strategy.
"I am absolutely convinced and totally confident that with sufficient resources we can turn the situation around," McCain told reporters at an international defense summit in easternmost Canada.
"I even am bold enough to predict that in a year to 18 months you will see success if the effort is sufficiently resourced and there is a commitment to get the job done before setting a date to leave the region," he said.
But he added that many US lawmakers are "impatient with the delay in the decision-making process," which is fuelling allies' ambivalence about the mission.
The Obama administration has been deliberating since August on a new plan to overcome a growing Taliban insurgency and help Afghans rebuild their war-torn nation.
The top US military commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal has requested 40,000 more US troops for a broad counter-insurgency strategy to stabilize the country.
The president has been under sustained attack from Republican foes who charge his "dithering" has put the mission and currently deployed troops at risk.
His spokesman Robert Gibbs said earlier Friday Obama would wait until after Americans mark Thanksgiving on November 26 to announce plans.
"I am confident that the president will make the right decision," McCain said.
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23 Taliban killed in Afghanistan clashes: police
Sat Nov 21, 7:11 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghan and foreign troops killed 23 Taliban militants in separate operations a day after the president pledged to take responsibility for security in his new five-year term, police said Saturday.
The militants were killed on Friday in clashes with Afghan and foreign forces in southern and eastern Afghanistan, the police said.
Eleven Taliban died during an operation in Zahri district in southern Kandahar province, deputy provincial police chief Fazal Ahmad Shirzad told AFP, adding the Taliban bodies were left at the scene.
In the Sanzari area of the same district, eight Taliban were killed, he said.
In eastern Kunar province Taliban claimed casualties among foreign troops after clashes in the Manogai district, but ISAF said only four militants were killed.
"Four Taliban were killed when ISAF soldiers returned fire, and there were no casualties among the troops," Sabawon Hotak, an ISAF interpreter told AFP.
The Taliban are waging a bloody insurgency against the government of President Hamid Karzai, with Afghan forces backed by more than 100,000 troops under US and NATO command.
Karzai was sworn in Thursday for a second term, pledging in his inauguration speech to bring peace to the nation and take over security in five years.
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Rocket hits outside luxury hotel in Afghan capital
By AMIR SHAH and ELENA BECATOROS Associated Press Writers
KABUL (AP) - A rocket hit outside the luxury Serena Hotel in Afghanistan's capital late Saturday, wounding two people, the Interior Ministry said.
The heavily guarded Serena regularly houses visiting diplomats, officials and international workers. It has been the target of attacks before, most recently in late October when a rocket slammed into a courtyard.
In Saturday's attack, a rocket hit low on the outside of a compound wall that rings the hotel, just behind a guardhouse, according to an Associated Press reporter who saw the impact spot. Rubble surrounded the area, but there was no large crater.
Dozens of police and army officers worked to secure the site as ambulance sirens wailed.
The rocket wounded two people, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said. He did not say how serious their injuries were.
Janagha Duragat, a shopkeeper who was waiting outside the hotel to load his merchandise into a car, said he saw the rocket strike the wall. He said it appeared to have been fired from a nearby footbridge.
Duragat said he saw at least one policeman wounded in the attack.
In January 2008, militants wearing suicide vests stormed the hotel in a coordinated assault, killing seven people - a strike that demonstrated how militants could launch deadly attacks on even high-security targets in the capital.
No one was hurt in the October rocket attack.
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Afghan police are weak link in security force
By Elena Becatoros, Associated Press Writer – Sat Nov 21, 3:32 am ET
KABUL – Underpaid, under-equipped and under-trained, Afghanistan's 93,000-member police force is the weak link in an ambitious security strategy to hand over defense of the country to Afghans so American and other foreign troops can go home.
A strong, unified national police force has long eluded Afghanistan, a country torn by occupation and warfare for hundreds of years. But with the West now attempting to help turn the country from a failed state into at least a functioning one, the police will play a crucial role in making cities safe places to live.
That's needed to win the loyalty of ordinary Afghans, many of whom note that under the repressive rule of the Taliban, at least crime was low.
President Hamid Karzai brought the issue into sharp focus during his inaugural address Thursday, when he said he wanted Afghan security forces to take the lead in securing the nation within five years.
But some analysts estimate it could take a decade before cities can be secured by a police force that is riddled with corruption, unprofessionalism and illiteracy.
"You really do not have anything like the level of support or training for the police you have for the army," said military analyst Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The leadership within the police is much weaker, much less well trained, and far more corrupt." They often have contacts with "power brokers, criminals, drug lords and the Taliban," he said.
If the situation is not remedied, said Cordesman, Afghanistan "risks losing the war."
Defense Minister Gen. Abdul Rahim Wardak, speaking Saturday during a ceremony establishing a new NATO headquarters to oversee higher-level training and mentoring for Afghan forces, described the police as "a very decisive factor and the most important element in our public security and law enforcement."
Police on the street and manning checkpoints often find themselves on the front line of a virulent insurgency, making them three times more likely to be killed than Afghan soldiers. From January 2007 to July this year, 1,973 police were killed, compared with 735 Afghan troops.
"We are expected to fight insurgents, not just criminals," said Khan Mohammed Zazai, police chief in the violent southern province of Kandahar. He said his force faced shortages of assault rifles, machine guns, pistols, ammunition and four-wheel drive vehicles.
"There would be no need for more sophisticated weapons if we did not need to fight an insurgency. But we are fighting an insurgency as well. If we don't get better equipment, we will lose."
It is not just weapons they lack.
Standing in Kabul's chaotic Mandae Market beside banana and sunglasses vendors, Maj. Ahmed Farid Hotak of the 101 Asmey Zone National Police, which is in charge of security in the city center, pointed to one of his young subordinates, the man's shoulders hunched against the chill of a November evening.
"See, it's winter and he still has a spring uniform," Hotak said, adding that he bought himself a warm winter uniform with his own money.
Currently it's just the desperate who sign up for the job — and even then, many leave, often taking their equipment with them. That puts more strain on a recruitment drive that has to sign up thousands just to maintain the current numbers, let alone increase the force to the recommended 160,000 by 2013. In a country where 72 percent of the population is illiterate, those who can read rarely have problems finding better-paid jobs.
Only "illiterate people will accept the salary that we pay the police," said Brig. Gen. Khudadad Agah, who is in charge of training. He said a policeman's starting salary is 6,000 afghani ($120) a month, except in Kandahar where Zazai said it is 9,000 afghani ($184) because that is a hotbed of Taliban attacks.
"An educated person will not work for 6,000 afghanis a month," Agah said.
To make things worse for the beat cop, his superior often skims 30 percent off the top of his meager salary, according to police on the street.
If current rates of attrition continue, a quarter of Afghanistan's police force will have quit by the end of next year. Thousands more will be dead or wounded.
Hotak, who has lost more than half his men, is so desperate to bolster his unit's numbers that he is ready to take anyone who passes a basic background check — even untrained. Of the 642 in his unit, 370 couldn't make ends meet in the capital and returned home to the provinces.
"We told our colleagues `We need recruits. I need people. If they pass a background check, put them into my unit, and afterward send them to training,"' he said.
Another big worry is how many insurgents have infiltrated the police.
Earlier this month, a rogue policeman in Helmand province shot and killed five British soldiers. Although the gunman's motive was unclear, the attack risks damaging the trust between Afghan police who work side-by-side with their foreign mentors.
"It is certainly an indicator that, largely, loyalties are fickle," said Mark Moyar of the Marine Corps University, a counterinsurgency analyst who recently wrote a book on the subject.
Bringing the police up to speed will be a huge challenge even with more international help in training and equipping the national security forces.
"It's not going to be anything that can be solved in a year or two," Moyar said. "To develop the kind of leadership where the Afghans can do it largely on their own is probably 10 years out."
He said success will lie in developing a competent leadership free of corruption and a sense of professionalism throughout the force — from top commanders to beat policemen, many of whom currently shake down street vendors for bribes.
Agah, the police training general, insisted corruption was worst among high-level police authorities. He said low-ranking policemen can't be held responsible for demanding small bribes.
"That is all done on the orders of their commanders," he said. "I cannot blame the policeman over what we should blame their commanders and bosses for."
But it is petty corruption which most affects ordinary Afghans and strengthens the insurgency. The Taliban promise accountability and had a reputation while in power of not tolerating corruption — they would often paint the face of an accused man black to humiliate him before firing him.
Shoe salesman Golam Azat said he and other cart owners pay police a weekly fee to be allowed to sell their goods at Kabul's central market.
"It's illegal to sell on the street," he said. "If I don't pay, then they will kick me out."
The going rate is about 100 afghanis per day, or about $2. That's a princely sum for Azat who makes only 200 Afghanis ($4) a day.
"I have no money. How can I feed my children? Business is not good, so how can I pay?" he asked. "In the Taliban times, they didn't do this."
___
Associated Press writer Kathy Gannon in Kandahar contributed to this story.
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Afghanistan: Taliban claim blast near NATO base in capital
Kabul, 13 Nov. (AKI) - The Taliban has claimed a car bombing close to a NATO base in the Afghan capital Kabul which injured foreign soldiers, civilian contractors and Afghan civilians, according to Afghan officials. The suicide bomber targeted a coalition vehicle near Camp Phoenix, where Afghan forces are trained, the officials said.
Reports say Friday's blast on the Kabul-Jalalabad road was followed by a gunfight. The area was sealed off by Western and Afghan forces.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the group claimed responsibility for the attack. Security experts in Kabul have warned that the Taliban could be planning attacks ahead of Karzai's inauguration, scheduled for next Thursday.
Militants have been mounting an increasing number of brazen attacks on military and government targets in recent months amid an increasingly violent insurgency.
The attacks have highlighted the dangers faced by the over 100,000 NATO and US-led troops stationed in the country as well as by Afghan civilians and security forces.
Kabul has witnesses a string of bombings in the past few months. In late September, a massive suicide car bombing killed six Italian soldiers and wounded three others in the heart of Kabul.
The attack was the deadliest against Italian military personnel since Al-Qaeda's assault on an Italian military base in Nassiriya, southern Iraq in 2003, which killed 19 people.
At least two people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack outside a NATO military base at Kabul's international airport on 8 September.
Britain's prime minister Gordon Brown said on Friday he was willing to send another 500 soldiers to join the 9,000 British troops serving in Afghanistan but only if others provide their "fair share".
Britain wants to gradually hand over control of areas of the country to Afghan forces to pave the way for an eventual withdrawal of western forces.
US president Barack Obama is currently weighing requests to boost US force levels by between 10,000 and 40,000 extra troops.
The top military commander in Afghanistan, US general Stanley McChrystal wants more than 40,000 additional US troops over the next year. Without them the NATO mission to defeat the Taliban-led insurgency is likely to fail, he has warned.
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Afghanistan troop surge could be a slow rollout
Any surge of US troops to Afghanistan is likely to be tougher than it was in Iraq, because of the dearth of good roads and airfields, say defense officials.
By Gordon Lubold | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the November 20, 2009 edition
Washington - When it comes to deploying additional forces to Afghanistan, the Pentagon confronts an infrastructural problem summed up by one senior military official: "Iraq is stuck in 1950, Afghanistan is stuck in 1310."
President Obama's decision on deploying more troops to Afghanistan is still a week or so away. But operating under the assumption that more forces may be headed there in the coming months, Pentagon planners have been trying to figure out how fast they can get troops and equipment on the ground.
The bottom line: Afghanistan's terrible infrastructure means that any surge of troops there could be more like a slow roll, compared with Iraq.
"I anticipate that as soon as the president makes a decision, we can probably begin flowing some forces pretty quickly after that," Mr. Gates told reporters Thursday. "But it is a bigger challenge than certainly was the case in Iraq."
After President Bush decided to surge forces into Iraq, it took roughly five months for about 30,000 forces to hit the ground – about a brigade per month plus supporting forces.
Afghanistan, however, is a landlocked country with few serviceable roads, making air transport of personnel and equipment the only practical choice. But the country only has two airfields – in Kandahar in the south and Bagram in the northeast. That limits the rate at which forces and their equipment can be deployed.
Michael O'Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, saw these limits first hand last week. He sat in a C-17 military jet on the Kandahar airfield tarmac for an hour and a half before the jet could be off-loaded. And that was at 4 a.m.
This year has already seen a tremendous growth in the number of American forces on the ground in Afghanistan. The US added about 22,000 troops between January and June, pushing force strength to 58,000 in July. More troops have been added since the summer, and there are now about 68,000 troops there.
The more forces Mr. Obama sends, the harder it will be to deploy them quickly. But Mr. O'Hanlon says it can happen.
"There is a complexity here, there are reasons that it can get harder and slower, but the basic proposition of getting 30,000 to 40,000 more forces there is a job we can basically get done in six months," O'Hanlon says. "We've already done it before."
There are also as many as 2,800 "enabling forces" in Afghanistan already operating in supporting roles – security and construction, for example, that will ease the blow of deploying more forces in the coming months, according to the Pentagon.
"We've worked the potential Afghanistan challenge for weeks, and we think we have a way ahead," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday.
The Pentagon will need a decision from Obama soon if it is to get forces on the ground during the winter months in preparation for spring, when combat operations heighten. Asked if that decision could come as soon as next week, Gates smiled.
"We'll have the decision when we have it," he said.
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Karzai an 'unworthy partner': top US Democrat
Fri Nov 20, 7:29 pm ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – Calling Afghan President Hamid Karzai an "unworthy partner," a key Democratic leader warned Friday that Congress cannot fund an expanded military mission without a reliable ally in Kabul.
Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said moreover she did not think there was political support for sending more US troops to Afghanistan, as President Barack Obama is contemplating.
"How can we ask the American people to pay a big price in lives and limbs, and also in dollars, if we don't have a connection to a reliable partner?" said in an interview with National Public Radio.
"So, you know, the whole thing is let's not just talk about troops. Let's talk about what is the strategy and what are the resources that are needed in that regard?"
Her comments reflected the deep discomfort among Obama's Democrats over calls by US military commanders for a major buildup in troops to stem a growing Taliban insurgency.
The White House said a decision on whether to send more troops would not come until after the Thanksgiving holiday on November 26.
Currently, there are some 68,000 US troops in Afghanistan, but the options under consideration are reported to range to up to more than 40,000 additional troops.
Pelosi and other Democrats opposed a similar surge in US troops to Iraq two years ago, arguing at the time that more troops were needed in Afghanistan, the main front against Al-Qaeda.
Pelosi acknowleged that since then the conflict in Afghanistan has become more pervasive, reaching parts of the country that before were relatively free of violence.
"That says one of two things: Either we need many more troops so that we -- this doesn't continue to happen, which I don't think there's any support for. Or we need to reevaluate what our approach has been for the past eight years," she said.
"But we see also, over the course of that time, the president of Afghanistan has proven to be an unworthy partner," she said, referring to Karzai, who was sworn in this week to a second five year term.
"We cannot fund a mission where we don't have a reliable partner and where whatever civilian investments we want to make -- which are so necessary -- will be diverted for a corrupt purpose," she said.
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Pakistan says it fears fallout from any surge next door
By Kim Gamel Associated Press
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan expressed fear yesterday that a big increase in the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan could push extremists across the border into its territory and called on the United States to consider that concern as it crafts a new war strategy.
The issue, raised by Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani during a meeting with visiting CIA Director Leon E. Panetta, could pose another headache for President Obama as he weighs military proposals to send 10,000 to 40,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year.
Gilani said the United States must fully share its plans for Afghanistan with Pakistan so that it can contribute to them, according to a statement from his office.
The U.S. Embassy declined to comment on the CIA director's visit to the country. American security and government leaders have frequently visited Pakistan in recent weeks to urge it to do more against extremists on its side of the border blamed for violence inside Afghanistan.
Pakistani officials had expressed similar fears when Obama ordered 21,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan in the summer, but that surge did not lead to a flow of extremists into Pakistan.
New U.S. plans to close military outposts near the border and instead focus on larger population centers in Afghanistan also have sparked fears that extremists will find it easier to move between the two countries.
Pakistan's government is under domestic pressure not to be seen as simply taking orders from the United States and wants to give the impression that it has a say in any new Afghan policy. So Gilani's statement could have been directed at a local audience as much as to the Americans.
Pakistan's army launched an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan in mid-October - an effort welcomed by Washington.
It has retaken many towns in the lawless region, but many extremists are believed to have fled north and have retaliated with deadly bombings and clashes.
Four Pakistani soldiers, including a captain, were killed yesterday when extremists ambushed their convoy in the Shawal area of North Waziristan, local intelligence officials said.
Earlier in the day, two police officers were killed and four wounded when a remote-controlled bomb destroyed their vehicle in Peshawar, the city police chief, Liaquat Ali Khan, said. That attack occurred hours after a suicide bomber killed 19 people in the city, which is the gateway to the al-Qaeda and Taliban-inhabited border region.
Some fault Pakistani officials for flagging the offensive in South Waziristan several months before actually beginning it, which allowed the extremists to flee to safety and plan the wave of terror.
Also yesterday, a suspected U.S. missile strike killed eight extremists in northwestern Pakistan, officials said, the second such attack this week in an area believed to harbor insurgents who fled from an army offensive elsewhere in the Afghan border region. American officials generally do not acknowledge the attacks, which are resented by many Pakistanis.
The drone fired two missiles at a compound being used by suspected Taliban fighters in a village near Mir Ali in North Waziristan, according to two intelligence officials.
The compound was destroyed and eight bodies and two wounded extremists were pulled from the rubble, two other intelligence officials said, adding that Taliban fighters were frequently seen at the targeted building.
The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
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Finding decent cabinet is Karzai's big challenge
The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, is sworn in for a second term as the world watches to see if he can deliver on his pledges to clean up his government.
Telegraph.co.uk By Lynne O'Donnell 20 Nov 2009
Kabul - Karzai won plaudits for his inauguration speech on Thursday from Western officials including the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who said it was an "important new starting point" as the US-led war stretches into its ninth year.
But he will face his first hurdle within weeks, with the international community and disillusioned Afghans keenly awaiting his cabinet line-up as a sign of his commitment to change.
His Western backers, frustrated after pouring more than 100,000 troops and billions of dollars of aid into Afghanistan with little in return, have demanded strong action from Karzai, whose reputation has been tarnished by his fraud-ridden re-election and rampant corruption and mismanagement.
"My feeling is that President Karzai is sincerely committed to implementing his pledges," said Ettore Sequi, the European Union's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"The future will tell us but I believe we are going in the right direction.
"The president has expressed what is his programme, what is his vision and analysis of the realities and what he believes are the priorities."
"We should encourage him in implementing his programme."
The nature of his election win - with almost a million fake votes "cast" in his favour - highlighted astounding levels of graft in Afghanistan, now billed by Transparency International as the world's second most corrupt country - second after Somalia.
That in turn led to questions in the United States, Britain and other Nato countries involved in the war against the Taliban, about the value and wisdom of continuing support.
As polls indicated popular support for the war falling, leaders including the US president, Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Nato's secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, began browbeating Karzai to prove his worth.
Washington has increasingly expressed concern about Karzai's reliability as a US ally and effective head of state, but with Thursday's speech, he seems to have passed the first test.
Pledges to do better included eradicating corruption, putting the country's security in Afghan hands in five years, and creating jobs for unemployed youth - fertile ground for Taliban recruitment.
He promised to deal with opium production - 90 per cent of the world total - which also feeds corruption and the insurgency, and to hold a "loya jirga", or inclusive national conference, on forging peace.
Going some way towards healing the wounds that have festered in recent months, he said Kabul would host a conference "to open a new chapter in cooperation and assistance between Afghanistan and the international community".
With foreign troop deaths approaching 500 for this year alone, the United States is bearing the major burden of the war, and is keen to switch emphasis from battle to training the Afghans.
But the US defense secretary, Robert Gates, said on Thursday it was too soon to set a timeline to transfer security duties from Nato-led troops to Afghan forces, as proposed by Britain.
Western officials have given Karzai six to eight months to show solid progress before donors seriously consider pulling the plug.
Clinton made it clear that Karzai's past cabinets - including warlords, drug dealers, accused rights abusers - have "raised questions" about his "commitment to not only fight corruption but to actually deliver results".
"I have made it clear, as have others, that we would far prefer that the president have people in the cabinet with professional skills, with experience and expertise who can actually do the work that is required," Clinton said.
Producing an acceptable cabinet will not be easy, a European diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
"He has to reward the people who delivered votes to him, but he is under enormous pressure from the international community to put the people they want into positions of power," he said.
"It's a delicate balance. But he has made promises to too many people, so that is his protection - there have to be losers."
For Washington, Karzai has transformed himself into a man the administration believes it can work with - but one it intends to keep an eye on.
"The commitment that we heard today from President Karzai gives us all a very strong base on which to measure the actions taken by his government," Clinton told reporters.
"We're going to, along with the people of Afghanistan, watch very carefully as to how that's implemented."
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NATO takes command of Afghan army, police training
Sat Nov 21, 2009 By Jonathon Burch
KABUL, Nov 21 (Reuters) - NATO took command of the training of the Afghan army and police on Saturday to consolidate efforts on building an effective security force, a vital precondition for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
The existing U.S. training mission, CSTC-A, until now responsible for most of the training, is to merge with the new "NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan" (NTM-A), under a single NATO command, commanders said on Saturday at a ceremony in Kabul.
Deputy Commander of the new NATO mission Major General Michael Ward said he believed the move would encourage more NATO training personnel to be sent to Afghanistan, helping to speed the expansion of local forces.
"I'm very optimistic. We've identified what our needs are and we're bringing those back to NATO to get nations to contribute and we've already seen in this run-up, a significant number of people coming in with exactly the right skills," Ward told Reuters.
There are some 110,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, including 68,000 Americans, fighting the Taliban that has spread its insurgency from the south and east of the country into previously peaceful areas.
At present there are about 95,000 Afghan soldiers and about 93,000 police.
In his assessment of the war, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Army General Stanley McChrystal, has recommended local security forces be eventually raised to a total of 400,000 soldiers and police.
Ward said the immediate aim was to increase the army to 134,000 and the police force to 96,800 by Oct. 2010.
U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to send up a further 40,000 soldiers to Afghanistan, which McChrystal, says he needs.
Military commanders believe the foreign troops can ultimately only buy time before the Afghan army and police force are expanded. Only when they are able to provide security for themselves will foreign troops be able to leave. (Editing by Matthew Jones) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)
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U.S. Afghanistan debate curbs Gates on Canada visit
Defense Secretary Robert Gates attends a conference but, with the Obama administration wrestling over its Afghan strategy, isn't in a position to push Canada to reconsider a troop withdrawal plan.
Los Angeles Times By Julian E. Barnes November 21, 2009
Reporting from Halifax, Canada - As the Obama administration wrestles over its new Afghanistan strategy, the domestic debate is having far-reaching implications for the United States' ties with its allies in the war.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was in Canada on Friday as part of an effort to strengthen the alliance with a partner considered vital to the war effort.
But with the U.S. strategy still undecided, Gates was hardly in a position to ask Canada to reconsider or modify its decision to withdraw its 2,800 troops by 2011. Instead, the trip to Halifax, in the Maritime province of Nova Scotia, was billed by officials as more an effort to build goodwill over the long term.
Gates arrived in the midst of a national furor over the conduct of Canadian troops in Afghanistan. A senior Canadian diplomat has charged that the country's troops handed military prisoners over to Afghanistan's intelligence service, under which they faced a high likelihood of torture.
The outcome of the debate over those charges could help determine Canada's decision on its troops, who are concentrated in Kandahar province. Southern Afghanistan is the birthplace of the Taliban movement, and Kandahar, the region's main city, is a key strategic target of the insurgency. In the short term, it is Canada that is looking for reinforcements for its mission.
Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay said more allied forces were needed to help secure Kandahar, but did not specify U.S. troops.
"It is fair to say there is an expectation that all NATO countries will up their game," MacKay said at a news conference with Gates. "There are a number of ways they can contribute, but what is needed right now is combat soldiers."
Because of Kandahar's importance to the Taliban, Canadian forces have seen fierce fighting. Canada has lost more than 130 troops, proportionately one of the highest fatality tolls of any allied nation.
"In Afghanistan, the Canadian military has more than distinguished itself in battle in some of the most dangerous parts of the country," Gates said Friday in a speech to the Halifax International Security Forum, an international conference.
Public sentiment in Canada has turned against the Afghanistan mission. Still, U.S. officials believe that with improvements in Kandahar and the surrounding area in the next year, Canada might be more open to extending its stay.
U.S. officials consider continued allied participation to be key to the war effort, particularly if the White House does not approve a military request for 40,000 additional troops.
Gates said at the news conference with MacKay that the war effort was sustainable even with the scheduled Dutch withdrawal next year and Canada's planned exit. But in his speech at the security conference, Gates sought new support from allies.
"We call on our other allies and friends to do what they can on behalf of this noble and necessary campaign," Gates said, calling it "an effort that will . . . require more commitment, more sacrifice and more patience from the community of free nations."
Slovakia announced this week that it would double its small contingent of troops in Afghanistan to about 500.
Within the larger strategy debate, U.S. officials have been debating ways of helping secure Kandahar.
A key part of the plan for more troops advanced by Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the U.S. and allied commander, is bolstering the forces in and around the city, according to American officials. The plan could echo recent U.S. strategy in Iraq, where commanders positioned forces in belts around Baghdad to stem the flow of weapons and munitions into the capital.
In Kandahar, a version of that plan could position allied forces in rural areas to reduce Taliban influence in the countryside as well.
Alternatives being discussed by the White House would be to refrain from moving forces into areas around Kandahar that the allies do not already hold. Those plans would concentrate allied forces in the city itself and use airstrikes to try to disrupt Taliban forces in rural areas.
Gates avoided questions about how long the international military presence will last in Afghanistan. He said he hoped that in "a reasonable amount of time," Afghan forces could assume more responsibility for the country's security.
Gates also addressed efforts to reform the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, saying the U.S. could use its influence to reduce corruption associated with contracts it approves.
"The place to start is the place we have the greatest leverage, and that is where we are writing the check," Gates said.
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Afghan government would fall if NATO withdraws: UK minister
Sat Nov 21, 2009
LONDON (Reuters) - The Afghan government would quickly be overthrown if NATO troops pulled out of the country now, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Friday.
"If international forces leave, you can choose a time -- five minutes, 24 hours or seven days -- but the insurgent forces will overrun those forces that are prepared to put up resistance and we would be back to square one," he told the Guardian newspaper.
At the end of a visit to Kabul for the inauguration of President Hamid Karzai, Miliband said Afghans were "sad that they need anyone, but they are passionate that my goodness they do, because if we weren't here their country would be rolled over."
More than 230 British troops have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001, and British public opposition has grown to involvement in the international coalition fighting the Taliban.
"What we have to do is explain to people that the costs of staying are real but they are less than the costs of leaving," Miliband said.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted British troops are in Afghanistan to protect Britain from terrorism. He said earlier this month that Britain and its allies must not walk away, but expand training of Afghan security forces so they can eventually take over responsibilities from foreign forces.
Miliband said western involvement in Afghanistan would need to continue until the transition to Afghan control was complete.
"My argument is we stay for a purpose, for a period, for progress," he said. "The goal is hard, but the goal is clear."
(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan; editing by Andrew Roche)
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New diplomat to be installed in Kabul
The Sydney Morning Herald - Technology November 21, 2009
The Federal Government is sending a new ambassador to Afghanistan to observe the Karzai Government's promised crackdown on corruption.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith on Saturday announced that former East Timor ambassador Paul Foley would replace the current ambassador to Afghanistan Martin Quinn, who will end his 21-month term next month.
Mr Smith reiterated that Australia, which has 1550 troops in Afghanistan, was committed to the country "for the long haul".
He said the appointment of Mr Foley was timed to follow the inauguration of Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan's president on Thursday.
In his inaugural speech, Mr Karzai promised to tackle corruption and oversee a "professional cabinet", while setting a five-year goal for the Afghan military to take over from international forces.
Mr Smith said Australia joined other contributors to the UN-mandated International Security Assistance Force in hoping for improvements in Afghanistan's administration.
"Australia and the international community look to the new Karzai Government to make substantial progress on corruption, governance, on provision of services to the people of Afghanistan and on anti-narcotics work," he told reporters in Perth.
"(We also look to it) taking a greater responsibility and burden so far as the security of Afghanistan is concerned."
He said Mr Foley is an experienced career diplomat currently seconded to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
He has served as Assistant Secretary for Counter Terrorism and Assistant Secretary, Middle East and Africa Branch, and from 2002 to 2004 was Australian Ambassador to East Timor.
He served as an adviser to the East Timor Stabilisation Force commander during the 2006 intervention and has also served overseas in Baghdad and Riyadh.
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Nearly 600 detainees may have been turned over to Afghan security forces
By David Pugliese, The Ottawa CitizenNovember 21, 2009
Canadian soldiers may have turned over as many as 580 detainees to Afghan security forces in the first 18 months of operations in Kandahar.
The Department of National Defence has refused to provide information on the number of Afghans taken into custody by Canadian troops, claiming that releasing such details would aid the Taliban.
However, the British government doesn't see a need for such secrecy and has informed its parliament that in the period from the beginning of 2006 to the summer of 2007 its soldiers took into custody 97 Afghans. The detainees were briefly held before being transferred to Afghan authorities.
The release of the British numbers and the testimony of a Canadian diplomat involved in the Afghan mission gives for the first time an indication of how extensive Canadian efforts were in detaining Afghans.
Foreign Affairs official Richard Colvin testified at a Canadian House of Commons committee on Thursday that as of May 2007, Canada had transferred to Afghan authorities six times as many detainees as the British.
Colvin noted that the British military had twice the number of troops in the field and they were involved in just as much intense fighting as Canadians were.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay acknowledged that Canada detains more Afghans than other nations but said that "is a tribute to the good work being done by the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan today."
Many of the Afghans detained by Canadian soldiers were of little or no value in providing information about insurgent activities, said Colvin, who dealt with detainee and intelligence issues in Afghanistan. He is now the deputy head of the intelligence liaison office at the Canadian Embassy in Washington.
"Some of these Afghans may have been footsoldiers or day fighters, but many were just local people, farmers, truck drivers, tailors, peasants, random human beings in the wrong place at the wrong time, young men in their fields and villages, who were completely innocent, but were nevertheless rounded up," Colvin testified.
He alleges that he repeatedly warned senior Canadian officials in Ottawa that detainees were being tortured by Afghan authorities.
For the second straight day, the Conservative government continued with its attacks on the public servant, questioning his credibility and how he did his job in Afghanistan.
Echoing claims by MacKay and Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MP Cheryl Gallant, Transport Minister and Ottawa West-Nepean MP John Baird suggested Friday that Colvin had been duped by the Taliban. Baird said Colvin never saw the torture of prisoners first-hand so his reports aren't credible.
Opposition MPs have countered with questions about why Colvin was promoted to his Washington job if his reports from the field were not credible.
MacKay has also acknowledged that Colvin's concerns about prisoner abuse did lead to changes being made that improved how detainees were being treated.
Neither the Canadian government nor military has provided a full explanation on why the militaries of some other countries, such as Britain, release details about the number of detainees being captured. As of this month, the British military notes it has detained more than 480 Afghans.
Retired Gen. Rick Hillier and Brig.-Gen. Peter Atkinson have claimed that releasing such numbers would provide valuable information to the insurgents.
But Stephen Henthorne, a NATO senior adviser, said the Taliban are quickly informed by the local population about international military activities so he questioned the secrecy on the actual number of detainees taken into custody over the years.
Some Canadian military officers privately acknowledge that without specific details about the locations and dates that Afghans were taken prisoner, the number of detainees is of little use to insurgents. They suggest the issue is more about the military taking steps to avoid any kind of controversy for the government.
In his testimony, Colvin also said the secrecy around the detainee numbers made little sense. "If we go into a village and take away three Afghans, everyone in the village knows exactly who we have taken," he explained. "In practice, the information was being concealed not from the Taliban, but from NATO, the Red Cross and the Canadian public."
Canada's detainee policies have alienated Canadian troops from the local population and strengthened the insurgency, he added.
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Pentagon vows to examine own role in Afghan corruption
Associated Press Lolita C. Baldor November 21. 2009
Halifax, Nova Scotia -- The United States will do its part to reduce corruption in Afghanistan by examining its own contracts and projects, even as it is demanding the same from the Afghan government, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday.
He said the U.S. can exert the most leverage when it is signing the checks.
"The place for us to start is to deal with corruption that may be associated with contracts we're letting or work that we're having done and development projects that we are undertaking in partnership with others including with the Afghans," Gates said.
Gates spoke to reporters at the historic military fort carved into Halifax's Citadel Hill, just prior to the start of the first Halifax International Security Forum, which is exploring a broad range of issues from Afghanistan and China to Arctic and port security.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has promised to do more to head off corruption that outside analysts say is rampant. But the newly re-elected leader has also chafed under international criticism of corruption in his government. He has pointed out that the flood of development cash into his country over the past eight years has promoted some of the graft.
Standing with Canadian Defense Minister Peter MacKay, Gates said the U.S. military is planning for the eventual withdrawal of Canadian and Dutch troops, set for 2011 and 2010 respectively.
"I think it is sustainable," he said, adding that the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal "is planning appropriately."
President Barack Obama is expected to announce an increase of thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in the coming weeks. And U.S. leaders have stressed the need for other nations to up their commitments as well.
But NATO and some allies, including Germany, have said they will wait to make any decisions until after the U.S. has made its announcement.
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A way to get around Karzai in Afghanistan
There is a way to circumvent the Karzai problem in Afghanistan, writes Trudy Rubin. It's a bottom-up strategy that deals more directly with effective governors and ministry officials in troubled provinces. Smarter diplomacy might even bring President Haqmid Karzai on board.
Seattle Times By Trudy Rubin 21 Nov 2009
MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan - Is there any way to get around Afghan President Hamid Karzai?
This question dominates the U.S. debate as President Obama prepares to announce his long-delayed Afghan strategy. A leaked memo to the White House from the U.S. ambassador to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, opposes any troop increase until Karzai tackles corruption. Many think Karzai's flaws will undermine the entire NATO effort.
But there is a way to circumvent the Karzai problem: a bottom-up strategy that deals more directly with effective governors and ministry officials in troubled provinces. Smarter diplomacy might even bring Karzai on board.
I spent two days in Wardak, a strategically important province west of Kabul, where a substantial Taliban presence was pushed back by more U.S. troops working with an effective governor, Halim Fidai. What I saw in Wardak proves progress can be made despite problematic leadership in Kabul.
A year ago, the Taliban was rocketing Wardak's capital city, Maidan Shahr, and controlled key roads and many districts within the province. On this trip I drove with Gov. Fidai, along the Jalrez valley road, lined with apple and apricot orchards below snowcapped mountains. Roadside bazaars teemed with people, who said the Taliban no longer were a presence.
What changed?
More U.S. forces. A crucial infusion of additional U.S. troops helped clear Taliban from many districts of Wardak, although roadside explosives remain a serious problem. Fidai has a good, cooperative relationship with Col. Michael Gabel, who commands the forward operating base across the road from the governor's modest, two-story office.
Governance. The hold-and-build part of any effort to push back insurgents depends on the ability of government to connect with the people. Fidai, who worked for 14 years with international NGOs and speaks fluent English, is constantly in motion, listening to local grievances in his office, traveling to outlying districts, attending a shura of 500 elders in Kabul on the problem of Afghan prisoners held at Bagram airfield.
Fidai brought electricity to Maidan Shahr (most of the province is still without); this in turn encouraged local merchants to invest in rows of three- and four-story shops near his office, with sidewalks, built with small U.S. grants, that enable shoppers to avoid wallowing through mud.
With the help of some forward-looking Afghan officials in Kabul and U.S. aid funds, Fidai has introduced indirectly elected district councils to his province. As I sit in his office, two council members are trying to mediate a land dispute among a dozen local residents; typically, the dispute has dragged on for a dozen years in Afghanistan's weak court system. "If I don't find a way to resolve these cases, they will go to the Taliban," Fidai says.
Message: It's crucial for villagers to feel that government officials respond to their problems. That can help reverse Taliban gains.
Economic progress feeds security and vice versa. We head out along a newly paved stretch of road (Italian funds, Chinese contractor). The road was delayed for two years for security reasons; when construction restarted, tribal elders demanded that the Taliban — who are behind the mountains on one side of the valley — not interfere with the road workers. Once villagers were given an economic benefit, they wanted to protect it.
New roadside bazaars have sprung up along the road and almost every house — small, concrete or mud-brick boxes — sports a satellite dish. Clearly, villagers no longer fear the Taliban, who would destroy the dishes were they there.
The "build" piece should be local. USAID has two staffers at the U.S. military base in Maidan Shahr, and they have good ideas about water projects and helping Wardak farmers market their apples. But delivery of promised U.S. civilian aid is still too slow, which creates mistrust, and that aid is still too dependent on high-cost international contractors. "The United States should send technical assistance directly to governors," says Fidai, to help them improve staff skills in administration, security and development.
Message: The biggest, fastest bang for the development buck will come from helping Afghans help themselves. More U.S. aid should go to effective governors and ministries that have the best provincial outreach, such as Agriculture and Rural Reconstruction and Development. This change is supposedly on the way, but it should be sped up.
Local security helps keep the peace. At intervals along the newly paved "Chinese road" stand armed local home guards. They are the controversial Afghan Public Protection force, known as the AP3, who are recruited by local elders, paid by the Afghan Interior Ministry, and trained (briefly) by U.S. forces. They are a transitional force meant to watch for outsiders. I was skeptical about their usefulness when I visited Wardak in May. But Fidai, who promoted the AP3, says that "where there are AP3 there are no IEDs," because locals are more willing to give intelligence tips to homeboys. So the AP3 should be retained until the Afghan national police can be expanded sufficiently to man remote areas of Wardak.
Message: Local security emerges once an area is cleared and villagers have something to protect.
In sum, an effective governor can be the pivot point for Gen. Stanley McChrystal's strategy of "clear, hold and build." But governors are appointed by Karzai. So this bottom-up strategy requires persuading the Afghan president to appoint good governors and ministers, rather than warlords to whom he's politically indebted.
"Make clear to Karzai that this is a benefit to him," says Fidai, "and that it will reflect well on him, by helping deliver services to the people. Don't approach this as a criticism of Karzai, but emphasize that these governors will be part of a team that he heads."
This may be the hardest part of a bottom-up strategy, requiring deft private diplomacy. Yet the effort is essential. As I saw in Wardak, when a good provincial government offers a better alternative, Afghans reject the Taliban.
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Despite U.S. pressures, Pakistan continues to follow its own road
By Saeed Shah, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Fri Nov 20, 5:12 pm ET
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The Pakistani government has some advice the Obama administration may not want to hear as it contemplates sending additional U.S. troops to neighboring Afghanistan : Negotiate with Taliban leaders and restrain India .
Pakistan embraces U.S. efforts to stabilize the region and worries that a hasty U.S. withdrawal would create chaos, but Pakistani officials worry that thousands of additional American soldiers and Marines would send Taliban forces retreating into Pakistan , where they're not welcome.
Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani's office said Friday that he told visiting CIA Director Leon Panetta of " Pakistan's concerns relating to the possible surge of the U.S. and ISAF forces in Afghanistan which may entail negative implications for the situation in Baluchistan," the Pakistani province that borders Afghanistan to the south.
The Pakistanis' advice is almost diametrically opposed the strategy outlined by Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal , the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan : Don't send additional forces to protect Afghan cities, but send them to outposts along the Pakistani border — where McChrystal has withdrawn troops.
It's just one example of how Pakistan , a critical U.S. ally in the struggle against Islamist extremists and a major recipient of American military aid, continues to deal differently with the violence that threatens not only the U.S.-backed government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai , but also impoverished, nuclear-armed Pakistan .
The two countries' divergent views of the threat posed by Islamist extremists, and the Obama administration's efforts to press Pakistan to move against groups that menace Afghanistan have produced strains between the two countries and between Pakistan's civilian government and its powerful military and Inter Services Intelligence agency — and a growing drumbeat of Pakistani allegations about alleged nefarious CIA activities in Pakistan .
"The Pakistanis say some things in public — often for reasons related to internal politics, it seems — that they don't focus on in private," said a senior U.S. intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because intelligence matters are classified. "That's not to say that we see eye-to-eye on everything behind closed doors, but both sides realize that — whatever the disagreements of the moment might be — the long-term partnership is essential. After all, Pakistani contributions to counterterrorism since 9/11 have been decisive, and our government recognizes that."
Instead of escalating the war in Afghanistan , however, top Pakistani officials are pressing the administration to try to negotiate a political settlement with top Taliban commanders that would allow the U.S. to exit Afghanistan .
Pakistani officials argue that that such a negotiating strategy can't work unless the rebel leadership is involved, right up to Jalaluddin Haqqani , the head of the most dangerous insurgent faction, and Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed founder of the Afghan Taliban and Osama bin Laden's ally and host.
Because Pakistan is a longtime patron of the Taliban and of the Haqqani network, Pakistani officials think they could broker a deal to reduce Afghan President Hamid Karzai to a figurehead leader and divide power between the Pashtun Taliban and Afghanistan's Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara minorities.
U.S. and some Pakistani officials, however, are skeptical, arguing that the Taliban have little incentive to negotiate when their strength and sway in Afghanistan is growing and public and international support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan is waning.
Najmuddin Shaikh , formerly the top bureaucrat in the Pakistani Foreign Ministry , said the Taliban could be brought to the negotiating table if they saw a greater American military commitment and more investments in the Afghan countryside.
"It's a little premature for talks (with the Taliban )," Shaikh said. "There has to be a change in the ground situation, things happening in the next six to eight months that shows the 'ink spots' strategy (McChrystal's idea of protecting Afghan population centers) is taking hold, that some foot soldiers are being weaned away, then talks become possible."
Nevertheless, behind the scenes talks with mid-level Taliban officials already have begun, and Pakistani officials think they could rapidly accelerate now that Karzai has begun his second term.
"We've already been talking to them (the Taliban )," said a senior Pakistani official in Islamabad , who couldn't be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. "If the U.S. helps the process, some arrangements can be worked out for political reconciliation. I'm not for a moment suggesting that it's an easy task, but otherwise you will be fighting these people for the next hundred years."
The United States and other NATO forces also favor talking to some Taliban , but they focus on "non-ideological" insurgents who can be peeled away, partly through bribery. Retired British general Graeme Lamb was appointed for this task in August, but so far the effort has produced little success.
"The Americans have wasted a lot of time over this 'moderate Taliban ' idea. It is never going to pan out. It misunderstands the Taliban phenomenon," said Simbal Khan, an analyst at Institute of Strategic Studies , a policy institute funded by the Pakistani government. "If you try to break off elements with cash, they'll take your money and still fight you."
The Pakistani military and ISI still consider archrival India , not militant Islam, the main threat, and unlike U.S. officials, Pakistani officials distinguish between the Taliban and other militant groups whose target is Afghanistan and groups that are seeking to impose their extreme brand of Islam on Pakistan .
Pakistan has for eight years declined to mount any serious pursuit of bin Laden and the other top al Qaida leaders who sought shelter in Pakistan after the 2001 U.S. invasion drove them out of Afghanistan .
Pakistan also has quietly tolerated the presence of Mullah Omar, who U.S. officials said is based near the Baluchistan city of Quetta and shuttling between there and Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and a key financial and logistics center for Islamic militants. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because intelligence on terrorist groups is classified. Officially, Pakistan denies that bin Laden and Omar are in the country.
Pakistan's laissez-faire attitude toward al Qaida , Omar and Afghan militants such as Haqqani doesn't appear likely to change in the face of stepped-up American pressure.
U.S. national security adviser James Jones last week delivered a message to Gilani and other Pakistani officials from President Barack Obama , who urged Pakistan to take action against Afghan militant groups operating from Pakistani soil.
The Pakistanis politely told Jones that Pakistan is doing all it can, and that it must concentrate on groups that are attacking Pakistan , rather than those that are a threat in Afghanistan . Gilani's office said he told Jones that Pakistan's "forces were over-stretched because of continuous tension on the eastern border" with India .
Gilani's office said Friday that, "The new Afghan policy of the U.S. government should not disturb the regional balance in South Asia ."
Pakistani officials say that relations with India remain dangerously strained, requiring military resources on Pakistan's eastern border. Pakistan is also concerned about India's growing influence in Afghanistan , which Islamabad fears is part of a move to encircle Pakistan .
With Pakistani forces already fighting the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan , the country fears opening too many battlefronts and furiously rejects Washington's constant mantra of "do more."
U.S. officials say the Pakistani military is obsessed with the Indian border, where they say there's no active threat, and reluctant to address the threats that are a product of Pakistan's refusal to quash the insurgency on Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan .
"When we get into the position of stabilizing, then we can help the other side (the U.S.)," said a senior Pakistani military officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the issue publicly. "There are limits of our power. You cannot be expected to use your force against all (militant) groups because then your power will be diluted. That's exactly what's happening on the other side (to the U.S. in Afghanistan ), they're all over the place and virtually in control of nothing."
(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent.)
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