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'Thirty dead' as bus hits mine in Afghanistan
by Nasrat Shoaib – Tue Sep 29, 8:56 am ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – At least 30 civilians were killed when a bus hit a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday in an attack blamed on the Taliban, the interior ministry said.
Taliban attacks on roadways spread path of fear
By Lori Hinnant, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – Taliban militants are sowing fear along Afghanistan's highways with stepped-up checkpoints, hijackings and bombs — including one Tuesday that killed at least 30 bus passengers in the south.
High stakes in Afghan vote recount
By Lyse Doucet BBC News Monday, 28 September 2009
The logo for Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) turned out to be fitting.
Two Perspectives On Resolving The Afghan Postelection Crisis
September 28, 2009 By Zarghona Mangal, Abubakar Siddique Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
What's the best way forward for Afghanistan?
It's a question that has returned with pressing urgency as Afghanistan finds itself plunged into a postelection crisis that, if unresolved, threatens to weaken the new Afghan government's popular mandate.
NATO official: Afghanistan fight is 'team effort'
By Jennifer Loven, Ap White House Correspondent – 1 hr 8 mins ago
WASHINGTON – NATO's secretary-general said Tuesday President Barack Obama is right to decide strategy first and then resources for Afghanistan and said he's confident that U.S. and allied troops will remain "as long as it takes."
Obama: Afghanistan not 'American battle' but NATO mission
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama said Tuesday the war in Afghanistan was not purely an "American battle" but was a broader NATO mission, as he met the western alliance's chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
UN envoy dismisses "simplistic" Afghanistan plans
AP via Yahoo! News - Sep 29 9:04 AM
UNITED NATIONS – The top U.N. official in Afghanistan is cautioning against "simplistic" efforts to split the Taliban insurgency by buying off rank-and-file rebels while militarily confronting hardcore elements.
With Obama Wavering, Congress Seeks to Chart a Course on Afghanistan
By Jay Newton-Small / Washington time.com Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2009
President Barack Obama is taking out a blank sheet of paper this week as he weighs his options in Afghanistan, and Congress stands more than willing to fill it in. The Senate on Sept. 29 is expected to debate amendments to the 2010
Afghan Minister: 'We Agree with McChrystal Assessment'
By Margaret Besheer VOA News United Nations 29 September 2009
Afghanistan's foreign minister told the United Nations General Assembly that his government welcomes the assessment from the U.S. and NATO commander in his country that more troops are needed to fight the Taliban.
Afghans Cool to Prospect of More U.S. Troops
Many in Afghanistan Say the Country Needs More Afghan Forces, Not U.S. Soldiers
By NICK SCHIFRIN, ALEEM AGHA, and MATTHEW McGARRY ABC News KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept. 29, 2009
In the Helmand River Valley, where more American troops have shed their blood this year than anywhere else, the police chief has a simple message to the Obama administration as it debates whether to send more troops to Afghanistan.
Bin Laden, Omar in Kandahar, minister says
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Taliban leader Mullah Omar and al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden are hiding in Kandahar, Afghanistan, the Pakistani interior minister said.
U.S. Says Taliban Has A New Haven in Pakistan
By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- As American troops move deeper into southern Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents, U.S. officials are expressing new concerns about the role of fugitive Taliban leader Mohammad Omar
NATO Secretary-General Defends Alliance's Afghanistan Contributions
By Michael Bowman VOA News Washington 29 September 2009
NATO's new secretary-general says the alliance remains committed to the fight in Afghanistan, despite greater violence in the country and a rising death toll among U.S. and NATO troops.
In Building Afghan Army, It's Back to Basics
By Walter Pincus The Washington Post Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Building up Afghanistan's army, which has become a top priority in the Obama administration's strategy, will not be simple, no matter how many more U.S. troops are going to be provided Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.
McKay stands behind tongue lashing of Afghan villagers
Canwest News Service September 29, 2009
Defence Minister Peter MacKay says he stands behind his top general in Afghanistan, who warned Afghans on Monday that Canada is going to halt development unless he starts getting information from the locals
Afghan gov't says safety of civilians priority
KABUL, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Safety and security of civilians should always be a priority as military buildup and using of resources to combat Taliban-led insurgency have been a part of new strategy of the U.S. in Afghanistan
US 'bomb plot' man denies charges
Tuesday, 29 September 2009 BBC News
An Afghan-born man charged with plotting to carry out bomb attacks on the US has pleaded not guilty in a New York court.
US-Afghan team kills 30 Taliban troops
Attack follows rebel ambushes on truckers
Associated Press By Rahim Faiez September 29, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan - A US team working with Afghan soldiers swooped in on a militant stronghold in the country's west, killing at least 30 Taliban fighters, US and Afghan officials said yesterday.
Taliban commander killed in N Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- A Taliban commander was killed in Kunduz province north of Afghanistan as he came in contact with police, Inspector General of police in the province said Tuesday.
Unknown armed men set on fire a bank branch in Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Unknown armed men set ablaze a branch building of the Bangladeshi bank BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) in Kapisa province, 80 km north of Afghan capital Kabul,
Info on Mula Omar’s presence in Quetta ‘incorrect’: Rehman
The News International (Pakistan) / September 28, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that the information relating to the presence of Taliban leader Mullah Omar in Quetta is incorrect and baseless, urging that he is in Kandahar.
Musharraf: Afghan debate shows U.S. weak
Ex-president says Pakistan's intelligence agency not aiding Taliban
The Washington Times By Sara A. Carter 29 Sept 2009
Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Monday that the U.S. would make a "disastrous" mistake if it withdrew from Afghanistan and warned that a delay in sending more troops would be seen as a sign of weakness.
Third man pleads guilty in Toronto terror plot
OTTAWA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A third man has pleaded guilty in the 2006 terror plot to bomb Canada's landmarks in its largest city Toronto.
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'Thirty dead' as bus hits mine in Afghanistan
by Nasrat Shoaib – Tue Sep 29, 8:56 am ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) – At least 30 civilians were killed when a bus hit a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday in an attack blamed on the Taliban, the interior ministry said.
The dead included 10 children and seven women, the ministry said, revising an earlier toll from the local governor's office.
"Thirty people were killed," the ministry said in a statement, adding that 39 others were wounded.
The governor's office said the bus was travelling from the western city of Herat to Kandahar when it hit an improvised mine in Maywand district, the Taliban's weapon of choice which has claimed hundreds of lives.
"The mine was placed by enemies of the country," an expression used to refer to Islamic insurgents, the governor's office said.
Kandahar is a Taliban stronghold and has seen some of the worst violence in the militants' battle against Western troops and the internationally-backed Afghan government.
Afghan and international troops arrived at the scene of the explosion, around 40 kilometres (around 25 miles) west of Kandahar city, the regional capital, and ferried the wounded to military bases for treatment.
On Monday, three civilians, including a woman were killed when their car hit a bomb in the road in the same area. Two others were also wounded.
NATO issues almost daily reports on deaths from improvised explosive devices (IEDs), principally in the southern Taliban strongholds but also increasingly in previously peaceful provinces.
In the first eight months of the year, 40 percent of the civilian fatalities in Afghanistan were caused by IEDs or suicide attacks, more than 600 people, according to the United Nations.
Western governments spending billions to support the Afghan government have highlighted IEDs as the biggest challenge facing troops deployed to Taliban hotspots, especially in southern Helmand and Kandahar.
Experts say the devices are cheap and easy to put together, are rigged to timers or remote controls, can be detonated when vehicles drive over pressure plates or linked into a chain of bombs to cause maximum damage.
The attack came with a Taliban insurgency at its deadliest since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the group's hardline regime and with Afghanistan facing political turmoil following a fraud-tainted presidential election last month.
The militants have stepped up their insurgency aiming to bring down the Western-backed government and force out the more than 100,000 foreign troops stationed in the war-torn nation.
The insurgency has paralysed the Western-backed reconstruction drive, killed thousands of people and bogged NATO and US troops down in the conflict.
US President Barack Obama is conducting a wide-ranging review of strategy in the country and is contemplating whether to send more troops.
The top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan earlier this month warned Obama in a confidential report that the war against the Taliban could be lost within a year without more soldiers.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, beleaguered by accusations of fraud in last month's presidential election, has said he will launch peace talks with Taliban leaders if he wins another five years in the country's top job.
Preliminary results from the poll show Karzai leading with 54.6 percent of the vote, against 27.8 percent for his main rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
However, final results will not be announced until complaints of irregularities have been investigated and a partial recount conducted.
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Taliban attacks on roadways spread path of fear
By Lori Hinnant, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – Taliban militants are sowing fear along Afghanistan's highways with stepped-up checkpoints, hijackings and bombs — including one Tuesday that killed at least 30 bus passengers in the south.
Afghan authorities say the attacks, often carried out by only a handful of militants, are part of a psychological campaign to convince civilians that Taliban control is spreading.
"It is quite possible for a group of three to five insurgents to come out on the highway and attack a convoy," said the Interior Ministry spokesman, Zemarai Bashary. "Maybe thousands of people will travel that day and they are watching that convoy burning."
Militants are planting more roadside bombs than ever, killing far more Afghan civilians than Afghan or coalition soldiers. The bombings — and ambushes with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades — are increasingly taking place on main roads against trucks and buses.
Some attacks are in areas where Taliban have long held sway, such as Kandahar, the group's spiritual birthplace, but others are in regions where militant activity has risen only recently, such as in the north.
Earlier this week, militants at a checkpoint in eastern Afghanistan ambushed a convoy loaded with construction materials, killed six drivers, kidnapped one and left their trucks burning by the roadside. The same day, a crowded van hit a roadside bomb in northern Faryab province, killing six people.
The bomb on Tuesday struck the crowded bus as it was traveling from the western province of Nimroz to Kandahar city, a trip that winds through some of the country's most dangerous districts in Helmand and Kandahar provinces.
The attack, on the outskirts of Kandahar city, killed 30 people and wounded 39 others, said Sardar Mohammad Zazai, Kandahar's provincial police chief. Officials said the bus driver came upon a NATO team clearing mines and pulled off onto a parallel unpaved road where the bomb was hidden.
"An explosion hit the bus. I don't know what happened. When I came to, I got out of the bus and saw that the bus was totally wrecked," Lal Jan, a survivor, said at Kandahar's hospital.
An elderly woman named Zulaikha Bibi wept over the death of her daughter-in-law. Two of her nephews were wounded.
U.S. and NATO troops have long come under criticism for civilian deaths as a result of airstrikes. But U.S. military officials say they believe the Taliban will also face a popular backlash for the civilian deaths caused by roadside bombs.
A U.N. report issued Saturday said August was the deadliest month of the year for civilians because of violence from the insurgency. A total of 1,500 civilians died in Afghanistan from January through August, up from 1,145 for the same period of 2008. About 68 percent of the deaths were due to the insurgents, the report said.
"The enemies of Afghanistan are planting mines on the main highway and killing innocent women and children," Zazai said.
Bashary said the Taliban are trying to carry out attacks "that have a psychological impact, rather than an economic and security impact."
"I see a change of militant strategy," said Gen. Khaliullah Zaiyi, police chief of Kunar, the province where the convoy ambush took place on Sunday. "They know it is very easy for them to come out on the road and attack civilian convoys by burning their trucks, killing innocent people."
He said the attacks give the militants a presence and make the government appear impotent, even in areas that have been relatively secure.
"Everyone will say this road is dangerous because the Taliban came last week," he said. "They don't have the ability to fight our forces directly. But by conducting guerrilla attacks directly against civilians, not security forces, they can kill people, burn down trucks, and they can block the road."
Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies who advised U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal in Kabul this summer, said Taliban attacks against civilians have been rising sharply since 2003 and have spread in recent months to parts of the north and west.
"It's been a very very sharp geometric increase," Cordesman said. "The Taliban has learned as have other movements how to exploit violence but they've also learned how to exploit presence."
In Baghlan and Kunduz provinces, north of Kabul, militants have periodically grabbed control of stretches of highway outside the provincial capital.
"They will not attack NATO convoys, only poor innocent Afghans," said Amhad Jawid, a 43-year-old car dealer. His companions at the car lot said Taliban checkpoints went up in the late afternoon — only in places where they could be assured of no police.
Sometimes the fear even reaches security forces themselves.
After a recent interview, the deputy police commander of Baghlan asked an American Associated Press reporter and an Afghan colleague where they planned to travel next.
Upon hearing it was the next town up the road — outside the capital Pol-i-Kumri — he smiled. If they went there, he said, they would need an escort of multiple police trucks, equipped with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. Then he stopped smiling.
"Please don't go," he said.
The pair turned back to Kabul.
__
Associated Press Writer Noor Khan contributed to this report from Kandahar
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High stakes in Afghan vote recount
By Lyse Doucet BBC News Monday, 28 September 2009
The logo for Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) turned out to be fitting.
Two hands cup a ballot box. Are they guarding the sanctity of the ballots?
Or is someone trying to get their hands on the vote?
More than a month after millions of Afghans cast their ballots, a controversial election is going down to the wire, to the last institution on this chequered political landscape.
The ECC, the only electoral body which still has both foreign and Afghan officials, must now rule on a contentious vote mired in allegations of widespread, significant fraud.
After a series of meetings, a formula for a recount was agreed with the Independent Election Commission which carried out the preliminary tally giving 54.6% to Hamid Karzai in the presidential ballot.
ECC officials speak of a "scientifically drawn sample" from 10% of suspicious polling stations. They also believe it provides the most practical way forward in the midst of growing concern over this protracted political uncertainty.
"It's fair," affirms the Canadian head of the ECC, Grant Kippen, whose official pronouncements give little hint of the pressures now resting on his team.
The ECC is also working into the night, trying to sort through hundreds of complaints and is said to be "closer to the end than the beginning".
This technical body now shoulders the weight of political anxiety and expectation.
"We must follow the process," is now the mantra of foreign envoys and Afghans who have invested energy and hope in an exercise that was meant to move this country forward at a time of major challenges on every front.
'No win situation'
But behind the determined language, intended to show continuing faith in this election, there is intense discussion about what many call "a mess".
One diplomat called it a "no win situation".
"If Hamid Karzai emerges with more than 50%, there will be accusations of official bias. If he emerges with less than 50%, there will be charges of foreign interference."
Afghanistan watchers in many capitals are providing a blitz of options to salvage some credibility: a second round of voting no matter what emerges from the official count; a traditional loya jirga to ease political tensions; the formation of a transitional council or a national unity government.
Many of these scenarios throw up other political and logistical problems, as well as the danger of more violence and another equally tainted process.
And some have little chance of being accepted at the presidential palace where many in Hamid Karzai's team believe it is just a matter of time before victory is declared.
"There is no need to derive legitimacy from some other process," insisted one of President Karzai's aides. He said they were waiting, like everyone else, for the ruling which emerges from the recount.
Some observers, who have done their own audits, firmly believe no presidential candidate scored above 50% to win in the first round.
Uncertainty within the international community over how to handle this politically charged situation was exposed in the publicised row between UN envoy Kai Eide, and his deputy Peter Galbraith.
"Rules have been established," said Kai Eide in a telephone interview from Kabul. He emphasised the importance of "avoiding any impression of foreign interference" and insisted the process was now "back on track" with the agreement on a recount.
Sources say Mr Galbraith's harsh complaint about the IEC, whose independence is questioned by many, caused upset among Afghan election officials and President Karzai.
So did the announcement by the EU observer mission that one in three ballots were suspect.
One Western diplomat called it a "tightrope". Foreign envoys have been trying to keep this crucial process, as well as their relationship with Afghan authorities, on an even keel.
When the US special representative, Richard Holbrooke, first raised the possibility of a second round, as early as the day after voting, it provoked an angry reaction from Hamid Karzai.
It took some arduous diplomacy of late to convince Afghan authorities ballots had to be printed for a second round, just in case.
Foreign 'interference'
But this prolonged process has again provoked debate over the difficult relationship between Afghanistan and its allies. "We are not against investigation of fraud, we are against foreign interference," says MP Shukria Barakzai.
"The loser will be democracy and that's a bonus for the Taliban," she said.
MP Daoud Sultanzoy disagrees. "Moments like this teach nations that the rule of law means something. What would we say to a British mother who lost her son in the war - that we have foregone the rule of law?"
Beyond the high walls of heavily fortified foreign missions and official buildings, many Afghans are more preoccupied with the hardship and insecurity that weighs most heavily in their daily lives.
For all the talk of democracy, the international community invested few resources in recent years to prepare Afghans for an election the UN called the most complicated in the world.
Nader Nadery, who chairs Afghanistan's Free and Fair Election Foundation, insisted fraud must be properly addressed, lest "a sense of impunity and immunity hijack the democratic nature of future elections".
How much rigging?
No one doubts fraud marred this second presidential race since 2001, and the first contest run by Afghans, with international support. How much rigging is the issue.
The ECC said it was "clear and convincing" in some areas.
Some observers describe it as "industrial scale". The main challenger in the presidential race, Dr Abdullah Abdullah, declared in an interview it was "massive, state engineered". Hamid Karzai admitted in a news conference some government officials had been "partial". But he insisted "if there was fraud, it was small".
Election sources are warning that results from the provincial council elections, held on the same day, are even more troubling.
If Hamid Karzai's victory is confirmed, efforts are certain to be stepped up to convince Dr Abdullah to join some kind of governing arrangement. For the moment, that looks unlikely given deep personal animosities which go back years. "Absolutely not. No. N-o!" Dr Abdullah replied when asked.
If no first round winner emerges, there is another set of major challenges - to hold a run-off before the end of October when winter starts closing in. A second round in the spring would create a dangerous political vacuum.
Time is running out on all fronts. Eight years on, the Taliban is holding sway in more and more areas, exploiting Afghan disappointment. And countries with troops on the ground are under pressure at home to show this is a war worth fighting.
Long after this recount, many will still wonder who really won in this election.
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Two Perspectives On Resolving The Afghan Postelection Crisis
September 28, 2009 By Zarghona Mangal, Abubakar Siddique Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
What's the best way forward for Afghanistan?
It's a question that has returned with pressing urgency as Afghanistan finds itself plunged into a postelection crisis that, if unresolved, threatens to weaken the new Afghan government's popular mandate.
That urgency is only heightend by the military resurgence of the Taliban. Many in and out of Afganistan counted on the August 20 presidential election to help turn the tide against the fundamentalist militia. But President Hamid Karzai's seeming victory, according to the preliminary count, has been clouded by allegations of electoral fraud.
In exclusive interviews with RFE/RL, Zalmay Khalilzad, a former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and Iraq, and former Spanish diplomat and peacemaker Francesc Vendrell share their perspectives on how to resolve the complicated crisis in Afghanistan.
Khalilzad Klatsch
Afghan-born Khalilzad became the Bush administration's point man for Afghanistan soon after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001.
The next seven years saw him involved in Afghan affairs at the National Security Council 2001. Later that year, he became special presidential envoy for Afghanistan and remained in that position until November 2003, when he was appointed the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. Khalilzad held that position until June 2005.
Khalilzad tells RFE/RL that he has some straightforward advice for Karzai if his election win is certified by the Afghan electoral complaints commission.
"He needs to listen to the reasonable complaints of the international community regarding the situation in Afghanistan -- for example, the complaints about corruption, about how to implement things, about improved implementation of plans and delivering improved governance while implementing laws [and regulations]," Khalilzad says. "And for moving forward the economic prospects of the country, serious measures should be taken."
Khalilzad suggests that the international community made certain mistakes in Afghanistan. He cites in particular initial plans for creating only a small Afghan military and failure to do away with extremist sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan.
But he says that the mistakes Karzai made undermined his relations with the United States. Kalilzad claims mutual relations soured particularly after Karzai ignored what he considers reasonable U.S. advice to address significant problems.
Khalilzad, however, is optimistic that the international community can overcome the current divisions regarding the best way forward. He says that will happen once the Afghan election commission shows it is dealing with the voting complaints surrounding the current election and thus delivers a credible final result.
He even sees the international community and the incoming Afghan government working together better in the future.
"The international disappointment with Afghanistan is growing because people do not see progress, which leads them to think that the strategy they have in Afghanistan is not successful -- that's why they are debating about what to do next," Khalilzad says. "The decisions taken by the new government would not only be vital for internal political dynamics, they will be very important for attracting international assistance and shaping international policies [toward Afghanistan]."
Vendrell's View
Spanish former diplomat Francesc Vendrell won Afghan friends and praise for his wise demeanor during his service as a special envoy for Afghanistan for the United Nations (2000-02) and later the European Union (2002-08).
He tells RFE/RL that Karzai bears some responsibility for what went wrong in Afghanistan but so does the international community.
Vendrell argues that the "key flaw" in Afghanistan has been the empowerment of rapacious anti-Taliban warlords "who brought misrule to the country."
"The most crucial mistake was to continue to consort with the warlords and commanders who had brought ruin to Afghanistan in the 1990s and to continue to favor them," Vendrell says, "and also to do nothing to ensure that the government of Afghanistan -- the government in Kabul -- had a monopoly on the use of force. I think that has been the key flaw of the whole exercise."
Vendrell suggests that the current crisis in Afghanistan should be resolved in a manner that provides legitimacy to whatever government emerges "in consonance with the wishes of the Afghan people."
He even sees the current acrimony between Karzai and Western leaders dissipating if Karzai's reelection grants him legitimacy.
But he says that also depends considerably on "if we, the international community, had the feeling that President Karzai had been legitimately elected, that the election had been credible, and that the president was pursuing the same objectives that Afghanistan has committed itself [to] at various international meetings and agreements."
Vendrell does not consider himself pessimistic about Afghanistan. He says he believes it will be transformed into a stable peaceful country if its national institutions -- particularly civilian institutions such as the judiciary and the civil service -- are built up along with its police and army.
"We need to have means of fighting the egregious corruption, [and] we need, of course, to continue addressing the security problem," Vendrell says. "But we need -- and I think [U.S.] General [Stanley] McChrystal had made it quite clear -- we need to ensure that our military presence in Afghanistan is seen as a source of security for the Afghan people and not as an occupying force."
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NATO official: Afghanistan fight is 'team effort'
By Jennifer Loven, Ap White House Correspondent – 1 hr 8 mins ago
WASHINGTON – NATO's secretary-general said Tuesday President Barack Obama is right to decide strategy first and then resources for Afghanistan and said he's confident that U.S. and allied troops will remain "as long as it takes."
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Obama met in the White House, addressing reporters afterward. Fogh Rasmussen said European leaders are examining an on-the-ground assessment from the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal. That report, among other things, calls for more combat troops.
But Fogh Rasmussen said that Obama and other leaders have an obligation to think about more than just that. "The first thing is not numbers," he said.
Said Obama: "We both agree that it is absolutely critical that we are successful in dismantling, disrupting and destroying the al-Qaida network."
They did not take questions. Also, neither man mentioned Iran.
Amid dwindling public support for the 8-year-old war, Obama currently is debating whether to shift course in Afghanistan. He is torn between ramping up military strength there to try to prevent the Taliban and other extremists from again making the nation a haven for terrorists or turning to a new strategy of focusing mostly on rooting out al-Qaida elements in neighboring Pakistan. The latter option would involve mostly unmanned spy planes and special forces units.
Obama is not expected to make that call for some time.
But he is engaging on the topic in earnest this week, holding talks on Wednesday with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and others. Those high-level players are meeting without Obama on Tuesday to prepare for Wednesday's discussion.
McChrystal and his boss, U.S. Central Commander Gen. David Petraeus, were invited to take part in both meetings, either by secure videoconference or in person. It was unclear if either was doing so.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs called this week's deliberations "the beginning of a process" and said Obama's decision is "a number of weeks away."
"We're going through the process of assessing where we are, what's changed, what needs to happen, where we need to go," Gibbs said. "This isn't going to be finished in one meeting."
McChrystal was in Germany on Friday, hand-delivering copies of his troop request document to Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, U.S. Central Commander Gen. David Petraeus and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Adm. James Stavridis, said a senior military official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Gibbs said McChrystal's resource request won't even be forwarded to the White House until Gates and Obama feel a consensus has been reached on how to move forward strategically. The military official said that would be at least two weeks.
Obama didn't discuss McChrystal or any specifics about his Afghanistan dilemma. But Fogh Rasmussen endorsed the process he is following.
"I agree with President Obama in his approach: strategy first, then resources," he said. "And don't make any mistake: the normal discussion on the right approach should not be misinterpreted as lack of resolve. This alliance will stand united and we will stay in Afghanistan as long as it takes to finish our job."
Fogh Rasmussen said Afghanistan "is not America's responsibility or burden alone. It is and it will remain a team effort."
Among the recent developments that have scrambled the administration's thinking on Afghanistan are the Aug. 20 elections there, marred by claims of ballot stuffing and voter coercion. Preliminary results show Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai winning with 54.6 percent of the vote. But if enough ballots are found to be fraudulent, Karzai could dip below the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff with chief challenger Abdullah Abdullah.
The problems have caused administration officials to wonder if Karzai, or any Afghan election, can be a partner the U.S. can work with.
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Asssociated Press Writer Lara Jakes contributed to this report.
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Obama: Afghanistan not 'American battle' but NATO mission
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama said Tuesday the war in Afghanistan was not purely an "American battle" but was a broader NATO mission, as he met the western alliance's chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
"This is not a American battle, this is a NATO mission," Obama told reporters after the Oval Office meeting, which comes as he launches a series of intense talks on whether to send more US soldiers to the Afghan war.
"We are working actively and diligently to consult with NATO at every step of the way," Obama said.
NATO Secretary-General Rasmussen put on a united front with Obama, arguing that "our operation in Afghanistan is not America's responsibility or burden alone, it is and it will remain a team effort."
"I agree with President Obama in his approach: strategy first, then resources," Rasmussen said, adding that all NATO members were studying a grim report on the war by US commander General Stanley McChrystal.
"This alliance will stay united and we will stay in Afghanistan as long as it takes to finish our job."
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UN envoy dismisses "simplistic" Afghanistan plans
AP via Yahoo! News - Sep 29 9:04 AM
UNITED NATIONS – The top U.N. official in Afghanistan is cautioning against "simplistic" efforts to split the Taliban insurgency by buying off rank-and-file rebels while militarily confronting hardcore elements.
Special representative Kai Eide acknowledged on Tuesday that some Taliban fighters are motivated merely by financial reasons while others are irreconcilable. But he told the Security Council that many have joined the insurgency because they feel alienated from a weak, graft-ridden central government in Kabul.
Several top western commanders and politicians have proposed emulating the success of U.S. forces in Iraq, who succeeded in pacifying the Sunni-led rebellion by integrating insurgents into the security forces. But efforts to achieve the same effect in Afghanistan so far have been unsuccessful.
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With Obama Wavering, Congress Seeks to Chart a Course on Afghanistan
By Jay Newton-Small / Washington time.com Tuesday, Sep. 29, 2009
President Barack Obama is taking out a blank sheet of paper this week as he weighs his options in Afghanistan, and Congress stands more than willing to fill it in. The Senate on Sept. 29 is expected to debate amendments to the 2010 defense appropriations bill that are likely to include everything from timelines for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan to proposals to send upwards of 40,000 more. But, unlike health-care reform, this isn't a decision Obama can leave in the hands of the Legislative Branch — however undecided he remains today.
Six months ago Obama called for a new strategy in Afghanistan, but the President now appears to be wavering in the wake of a report by his top commander there, General Stanley McChrystal, that says 10,000 to 40,000 more troops are needed or the mission "will likely result in failure." With his advisers split between advocating a full-scale counterinsurgency, which some Democrats say amounts to nation-building, and a more limited counterterrorism approach against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, Obama will now hold five more meetings of the National Security Council on the issue before making up his mind, National Security Adviser James Jones told the Washington Post. Jones emphasized there's no set deadline and that the President will "encourage freewheeling discussion" and "nothing is off the table."
The Administration spent much of last week distancing itself from McChrystal's recommendation. "There are other assessments from very expert military analysts that have worked on counterinsurgencies that are the exact opposite," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told PBS's NewsHour. But with Centcom commander General David Petraeus and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen lining up behind McChrystal, some Republicans are accusing the President of risking the lives of the nearly 68,000 troops already in Afghanistan by "dithering," as the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, Kit Bond, put it on Fox News Sunday. And there are inherent political dangers for Obama if he chooses to buck the advice of his military commanders. Fox News Sunday's host, Chris Wallace, went so far as to ask his guests if Obama could follow the Harry Truman mold that led to the firing of General Douglas MacArthur. "A half measure does not do justice," Senator John McCain said on ABC's This Week. "And time is important, because there's 68,000 Americans already there. And casualties will go up."
Along those lines, Republicans are expected to introduce a spate of amendments to this week's fiscal 2010 Defense Appropriations Act in the Senate. One will probably be a demand to have McChrystal testify before Congress — a move the Defense Department has so far resisted until after the Administration sets its policy. Other potential amendments include one to increase funding for troop training, an amendment expressing the sense of the Senate in support of troop increases and maybe even one expressly supporting McChrystal's recommendations. On the Democratic side, an amendment is expected, perhaps from Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold, that would set a timeline for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.
"Many Democrats will say that we need to wait for the President to submit a plan," said a Democratic leadership aide. "Republicans will say, 'You didn't mind second-guessing George Bush on Iraq.' " Obama's dilemma is this: If he chooses to send more troops, he will have near united Republican support but will divide his own party; if he decides against a counterinsurgency strategy, he will be reversing a campaign promise uniting Democrats, the majority of whom are opposed to an expanded U.S. footprint in Afghanistan.
Still, in the end, Obama's decision will probably depend as much on politics in Afghanistan as on politics in Washington, especially given the disputed Afghan election. As President Bill Clinton said on Meet the Press: "I think that what the President has done here is not to dis [General McChrystal], but he's saying, 'Look, my responsibility is not just to win military battles, but to see that at least it's something bigger ... for ourselves and our security and for the people of Afghanistan. And I got to decide whether we got a partner there,' which means there has to be a functioning Afghan government."
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Afghan Minister: 'We Agree with McChrystal Assessment'
By Margaret Besheer VOA News United Nations 29 September 2009
Afghanistan's foreign minister told the United Nations General Assembly that his government welcomes the assessment from the U.S. and NATO commander in his country that more troops are needed to fight the Taliban. Meanwhile, as the annual debate continued on Monday, ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya addressed delegates by mobile telephone from the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he has taken refuse since last week.
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta expressed his government's support for U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal's recommendation that President Barack Obama send more troops to help defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan.
"Afghanistan fully endorses President Obama's new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as the new assessment by General McChrystal -- particularly their emphasis on the need for a comprehensive and long-term strategy," Spanta said.
President Obama sent an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan earlier this year. But General McChrystal has warned that more are needed.
On the contested outcome of last month's presidential election in Afghanistan, Spanta said voting "irregularities" are not unusual in emerging democracies and that the Independent Electoral Commission and the U.N.-supported Election Complaint Commission are working to address the complaints and recount some of the ballots.
Meanwhile, ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya addressed the assembly by mobile telephone from the Brazilian Embassy in his country's capital. He is trying to avoid arrest by the interim authorities that overthrew him in a military-backed coup in June. His foreign minister took the podium and held the phone with Mr. Zelaya on the line. He is appealing to the United Nations for help.
"I call on the United Nations, an operation to restore the rule of law and the freedom Hondurans deserve," Zelaya said. "I call on the United Nations to provide support, for the civilized nations of the world to maintain a firm position against barbarity. And I also request the United Nations to give guarantees for our own personal integrity, as well as the lives of the people who are being attacked with chemical gases, with electronic interference at this diplomatic site of the sister Republic of Brazil."
Meanwhile, Cuba's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodriguez, said the Obama administration has done little to improve U.S.-Cuban relations. Although he called the U.S. decision to lift restrictions on Cuban-Americans to visit or send money to relatives in Cuba a "positive step," Rodriguez said it was "insufficient." He said many issues had not been addressed, including the nearly 50-year U.S. imposed embargo of the island nation.
Turning to Asia, Burma's Prime Minister, Thein Sein, said Western economic sanctions against his country are politically motivated and should be lifted. He is heard here through a translator.
"Sanctions are being employed as a political tool against Myanmar and we consider them unjust," he said. "I would like to state that such acts must be stopped."
Burma is also known as Myanmar.
Last week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would pursue direct engagement with Burmese authorities, but that the U.S. would continue to employ sanctions.
Thein Sein is the highest ranking Burmese official to attend the General Assembly in 14 years. He said his country is taking steps toward holding "free and fair elections" next year, but he cautioned that other states should not interfere in Burma's transition to democracy. Many observers are skeptical that those elections will be credible.
And North Korea's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pak Kil Yon, said his country is not seeking an "arms race," but that it possesses a "dependable nuclear deterrent," which could "possibly prevent war and defend peace." He said Pyongyang would react to "dialogue with dialogue" but warned it would respond to "sanctions by strengthening its nuclear deterrence."
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Afghans Cool to Prospect of More U.S. Troops
Many in Afghanistan Say the Country Needs More Afghan Forces, Not U.S. Soldiers
By NICK SCHIFRIN, ALEEM AGHA, and MATTHEW McGARRY ABC News KANDAHAR, Afghanistan, Sept. 29, 2009
In the Helmand River Valley, where more American troops have shed their blood this year than anywhere else, the police chief has a simple message to the Obama administration as it debates whether to send more troops to Afghanistan.
Four thousand Marines arrived in Helmand in July carrying a new strategy: set up camp on the ground they capture. Today, 32 of their men dead, the Marines have brought a shaky peace to the valley and spend as much time protecting the population as hunting the Taliban.
Asadullah Sherzad, the province's police chief, praises the additional troops and thanks the United States for sending them. But that does not mean he thinks more Americans should come.
"As many foreign forces can come here as they want," he told ABC News. "But without Afghan forces, they won't be effective."
In a fractious country, that was the most widely held opinion expressed in two dozen interviews conducted by ABC News in Kabul and across the country's most volatile provinces.
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Bin Laden, Omar in Kandahar, minister says
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Taliban leader Mullah Omar and al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden are hiding in Kandahar, Afghanistan, the Pakistani interior minister said.
The Sunday Times of London reported elements in the Pakistani intelligence agency were supporting members of the Taliban and protection its chief, Mullah Omar, in the city of Quetta.
Washington said it might consider an air campaign to take out Mullah Omar and other terrorist leaders who have tried to find sanctuary in the volatile tribal regions in Pakistan.
Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, was killed in a U.S. airstrike on a village in South Waziristan on Aug. 5.
Rehman Malik, the Pakistani interior minister, denied the allegations in the Times, saying Omar and bin Laden are in Kandahar, Pakistan's Online International reports.
Malik also downplayed the claims that the Inter-Services Intelligence agency was protecting or providing support to the Taliban.
"The ISI's role in fighting the Taliban had been acknowledged by international intelligence establishments," he said.
He went on to characterize the Times report as an attempt to undermine the Pakistani effort to combat terrorism, saying he may push to limit U.S. airstrikes in the region.
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U.S. Says Taliban Has A New Haven in Pakistan
By Pamela Constable Washington Post Foreign Service Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- As American troops move deeper into southern Afghanistan to fight Taliban insurgents, U.S. officials are expressing new concerns about the role of fugitive Taliban leader Mohammad Omar and his council of lieutenants, who reportedly plan and launch cross-border strikes from safe havens around the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta.
But U.S. officials acknowledge they know relatively little about the remote and arid Pakistani border region, have no capacity to strike there, and have few windows into the turbulent mix of Pashtun tribal and religious politics that has turned the area into a sanctuary for the Taliban leaders, who are known collectively as the Quetta Shura.
Pakistani officials, in turn, have been accused of allowing the Taliban movement to regroup in the Quetta area, viewing it as a strategic asset rather than a domestic threat, while the army has been heavily focused on curbing violent Islamist extremists in the northwest border region hundreds of miles away.
As a result, Pakistani and foreign analysts here said, Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, has suddenly emerged as an urgent but elusive new target as Washington grapples with the Taliban's rapidly spreading arc of influence and terror across Afghanistan.
"In the past, we focused on al-Qaeda because they were a threat to us. The Quetta Shura mattered less to us because we had no troops in the region," said Anne W. Patterson, the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan. "Now our troops are there on the other side of the border, and the Quetta Shura is high on Washington's list."
Patterson also acknowledged that the United States is far less familiar with the vast desert region than with the northwestern tribal areas, where it has been cooperating closely with Pakistan for several years in the hunt for al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders and where it periodically kills insurgents with missiles fired from remotely piloted aircraft. The United States does not carry out such drone strikes in the Quetta region.
As Patterson put it, bluntly: "Our intelligence on Quetta is vastly less. We have no people there, no cross-border operations, no Predators."
According to Pakistani analysts, the Taliban's presence in the Quetta region is more discreet than it was earlier in the decade, when Omar fled there from U.S. and Afghan military attacks. He was joined by thousands of fighters, who blended into ethnic Pashtun neighborhoods and refugee camps.
But although Omar and his associates now keep a low profile and move constantly among villages and mosques in the lawless Pashtun strip between Quetta and the border, Pakistani and foreign experts said Baluchistan has reemerged as a Taliban sanctuary, recruiting ground and command post.
"Quetta is absolutely crucial to the Taliban today," said Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani expert on the Taliban, in a telephone interview. "From there they get recruits, fuel and fertilizer for explosives, weapons, and food. Suicide bombers are trained on that side. They have support from the mosques and madrassas."
Michael Semple, a former U.N. official in Afghanistan now based in Islamabad, described the Quetta region's refugee camps as "a great reserve army" for the Taliban. He said Pashtun tribes in the Kandahar region of Afghanistan, the Taliban's ethnic and spiritual base, have strong ties with those on the Pakistan side.
"They are intermarried, they have Pakistani ID cards, and you can't tell the difference," Semple said. On the other hand, he said, reports of Taliban leaders living openly in Quetta, even attending weddings, are nonsense. "They are deeply suspicious of the Pakistanis, and they have their own agenda," he said.
During Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting that ended last week, posters appeared on walls across Quetta, asking people to contribute their money, vehicles and sons to the "fight against occupying forces" across the border in Afghanistan.
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, has raised new alarms about the Quetta Shura, describing it in his recent report to President Obama as a major command center for the widening wave of Taliban bombings and attacks.
Virtually all of the Afghan Taliban's strategic decisions are made by the Quetta Shura, according to U.S. officials. Decisions flow from the group "to Taliban field commanders, who in turn make tactical decisions that support the shura's strategic direction," a counterterrorism official said.
Unlike Pakistani Taliban groups based farther north in the rugged mountains on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, the Quetta Shura is considered uninterested in operations inside Pakistan. Pakistani officials have discounted the shura's dominance and even its existence. But U.S. military officials describe it as "effective" and a "viable command and control organization."
Critics have long raised doubts about whether Pakistan's security forces are willing to seriously pursue Taliban leaders and activities in Baluchistan. Some allege that Pakistan's intelligence services continue to secretly train Taliban fighters there, although Pakistani officials assert that they have purged their ranks of religiously motivated officers. Patterson said Pakistani officials were growing "extremely nervous" that the current policy disputes in Washington would lead to a premature U.S. pullout from Afghanistan. "They will not rush to cut ties with the Taliban if they think they will be back in charge there again," she said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly accused the Pakistanis of ignoring the activities of Omar and his associates. Twice he gave Pakistani officials lists with what he said were the names and locations of Taliban leaders in the Quetta area, but Pakistan flatly rejected the allegations.
Pakistani security officials said they have made significant efforts to stop Taliban cross-border infiltration in Baluchistan, stepping up border patrols at Washington's request. The army has conducted no major anti-Taliban operations there, however, leaving raids to the police and frontier constabulary.
"From our judgment, there are no Taliban in Baluchistan," said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, Pakistan's military spokesman. Asked about the names of Quetta Shura leaders provided by Afghan and U.S. officials, he said: "Six to 10 of them have been killed, two are in Afghanistan, and two are insignificant. When people call Mullah Omar the mayor of Quetta, that is incorrect."
Abbas noted that the recent Pakistani army operation in the northwest Swat Valley had successfully driven Pakistani Taliban forces out of the area, and he said he hoped the Swat campaign had overcome any concerns Washington might have about Pakistan's willingness to take on the Islamist insurgents. If the United States has information about Taliban leaders in Baluchistan, "tell us who and where they are," he said. "We will not allow your forces inside, but if you lead, we will follow."
Patterson said Pakistani officials had "made it crystal clear that they have different priorities from ours," being far more concerned about Taliban attacks inside Pakistan than across the border. She noted that Pakistan had once trained Islamist fighters to operate against India and elsewhere and that the same groups have now turned against the state.
"You cannot tolerate vipers in your bosom without getting bitten," Patterson said. "Our concern is whether Pakistan really controls its territory. There are people who do not threaten Pakistan but who are extremely important to us."
Another concern raised by critics and foreign officials is the support by some political and religious leaders in Baluchistan toward the Taliban. They note that the strong local presence of Jamiat-i-Islami, a conservative Islamic party that backed the original Taliban movement and virtually ran the Baluchistan government from 2002 to 2008, has given the Afghan extremists additional protection.
Mehmood Jan, a newspaper publisher in Quetta, said in a telephone interview that there are "thousands" of Jamiat madrassas in the Pashtun belt and that some Jamiat legislators openly champion the Taliban. Jan said provincial police forces had regularly raided Taliban hideouts, including mosques and madrassas, but with only limited success. In many Pashtun neighborhoods, he said, "everywhere you see the white turbans of the young Taliban and the black turbans of the adults."
Staff writer Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.
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NATO Secretary-General Defends Alliance's Afghanistan Contributions
By Michael Bowman VOA News Washington 29 September 2009
NATO's new secretary-general says the alliance remains committed to the fight in Afghanistan, despite greater violence in the country and a rising death toll among U.S. and NATO troops. Anders Fogh Rasmussen acknowledged that more resources will be needed to battle Taliban militants at a time when public support in many allied nations for continued operations in Afghanistan is waning.
In his first Washington address since assuming NATO leadership last month, Secretary-General Rasmussen said he understands America's desire to see its NATO allies commit more troops and resources to Afghanistan. But he defended the contributions already made in the eight-year campaign.
"I will not accept from anyone the argument that the Europeans and the Canadians are not paying the price for success in Afghanistan," said Anders Fogh Rasmussen. "They are. Afghanistan does not suggest that NATO is past its prime [outdated]. It proves just the opposite. The solidarity built up over 60 years is being strongly tested in Afghanistan. And it is holding up over years, despite casualties and setbacks."
Rasmussen noted that all 28 NATO members are taking part in the mission and that non-U.S. troop commitments have risen by 9,000 in 18 months. He responded directly to NATO critics in the United States, including some in Congress who have accused European governments of shirking responsibilities.
"Talking down the European and Canadian contributions, as some here in the United States do on occasion, can become a self-fulfilling prophecy," Rasmussen said. "If they do not feel as if their efforts and sacrifices in NATO are recognized and valued, they will be less inclined to make those efforts and those sacrifices. And that is not in anyone's interest."
The Netherlands and Canada have set schedules to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is conducting a strategic review of the mission in Afghanistan, after sending an additional 21,000 U.S. forces to the country. In a report that was leaked to the news media, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan recently warned of mission failure unless more troops and resources are devoted to the effort.
Despite continuing challenges in Afghanistan, the NATO leader said the ongoing mission is indicative of NATO's continued relevance. That point was echoed by U.S. Senator Richard Lugar.
"I do not believe that Afghanistan defines the success or failure of NATO," Lugar said. "I am impressed by the fact that a number of NATO nations have sent troops. They have stayed. And largely, I suspect, it is because of their feelings of alliance with the United States and with each other."
Even so, Secretary General Rasmussen said NATO cannot remain in Afghanistan indefinitely. He urged accelerated training and equipping of Afghan security forces, saying that, ultimately, the Afghan people must take the lead in stabilizing their country.
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In Building Afghan Army, It's Back to Basics
By Walter Pincus The Washington Post Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Building up Afghanistan's army, which has become a top priority in the Obama administration's strategy, will not be simple, no matter how many more U.S. troops are going to be provided Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.
Army building, like nation building, is a challenge in a country in which corruption is rife and illiteracy is high. Nine out of 10 new Afghan army recruits cannot read or write, according to recent news reports.
One way to gauge how the U.S. military sees this job is to look at the tasks that have been drawn up for the 175 contractors to be hired to help mentor and train personnel at the Afghan Ministry of Defense.
The U.S. Army Materiel Command has provided bidders for this two-year contract with a 96-page statement of work. It details the tasks to be performed by teams assigned to each of the 18 functional areas within the ministry.
Many of the tasks reflect Pentagon practices transferred to Afghanistan. For example, the contractor is to "develop and deliver an education program on ethical practices for key leaders" in the offices of Defense Minister Rahim Wardak and his top deputies. They are also to develop an ethical code of conduct for leaders, as well as "a tracking system for allegations of corruption."
A 16-member contractor contingent is to work in the office of the Afghan army intelligence chief, which has overall staff responsibility for coordination of major intelligence disciplines, according to the work statement.
The contractors' first task, one that is already underway, is to complete the writing and production of "a cornerstone military intelligence manual similar to the U.S. FM 2-0 (Intelligence)." That is the intelligence field manual used by the Army.
The contractors are to eliminate from the U.S. manual any policies or regulations that would not be compatible with Afghanistan mores, but keep those "critical portions addressing ANA [Afghan National Army] missions."
Once an English text is completed, the contractors are to monitor translation into Dari or Pashtu as directed by the Afghan chief of intelligence. They then are to "coordinate" internal approval through other ministry officials and then through Wardak's signature.
When the manual is approved, they are to coordinate its printing and distribution. Finally, they are to coach the Intelligence Ministry workers in preparing a training program for teaching the manual to Afghan army intelligence personnel. Part of that program is to ensure "that more than 50 percent of Afghan National Army intelligence personnel complete basic computer and Dari literacy training," according to the work statement.
The contractors are also to develop a curriculum for basic and advanced courses for military intelligence officers, including training in counterintelligence and human intelligence. In the latter cases, the contractors are to adapt material from Army field manuals on those subjects.
In the first year of the contract, the goal is to train 50 percent to 70 percent of those officers in the human intelligence field. How elementary is that training? It includes such basics as surveillance principles, interviewing, how to approach sources, questioning and debriefing, according to the work statement. Contractors are also to teach intelligence officers how to manage sources and write reports on what is learned.
The work statement describes as the "desired end state," after the first year, that Afghan officers in the human intelligence field have "the ability to conduct source operations with only routine contractor assistance." At the end of the second year, the goal is that the Afghan officers "demonstrate the ability to conduct source operations independently."
At the ministry level, contractors are to train and advise the deputy intelligence chief in charge of collection to link his human spying activities to the intelligence requirements of the Afghan army.
The counterintelligence area also needs basic development. For example, contractors are to work with the deputy intelligence chief for counterintelligence to establish "a mechanism for background investigations of new Afghan Army recruits." That must include mentoring Afghan counterintelligence officers in procedures for such investigations based on questionnaires filled out by recruits.
At the more advanced level, the contractors are to advise intelligence officers serving in the Afghan Military Command Center on "proper briefing of relevant material" and to improve sharing with other entities, such as the National Police Command Center.
Does this seem like a difficult contract to undertake? No fewer than 37 companies have indicated to the Army that they have an interest.
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McKay stands behind tongue lashing of Afghan villagers
Canwest News Service September 29, 2009
Defence Minister Peter MacKay says he stands behind his top general in Afghanistan, who warned Afghans on Monday that Canada is going to halt development unless he starts getting information from the locals about who is planting roadside bombs that are maiming and killing Canadians.
Brig.-Gen. Jonathan Vance, commander of the Canadian troops, lashed out at elders in a Kandahar village after one of his soldiers was injured in a bomb explosion, saying that he wanted to start seeing some "serious co-operation" from the beneficiaries of Canadian aid.
"If we keep blowing up on the roads I'm going to stop doing development," Vance told a meeting he hastily convened with village elders in Deh-e-Bagh in the district of Dand. "If we stop doing development in Dand, I believe Afghanistan and Kandahar is a project that cannot be saved."
MacKay said he understands Vance's frustration and concurred that village co-operation is essential.
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Afghan gov't says safety of civilians priority
KABUL, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Safety and security of civilians should always be a priority as military buildup and using of resources to combat Taliban-led insurgency have been a part of new strategy of the U.S. in Afghanistan, spokesman of President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday.
"Reinforcement of more troops and equipments in new strategy, offered by NATO commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal, have been generally discussed," Humayun Hamidzada told reporters in a press briefing.
"However, the safety and security of civilians, especially in military operation, should be the most important issue for Afghan government."
The presidential spokesman's comment came in the wake of the top U.S. and NATO commander McChrystal on Tuesday planned to offer options for Obama's administration, including sending up to 40,000 additional troops and trainers to combat Taliban-led insurgency.
Skirmishes and Taliban-link insurgency, according to UN report, claimed the lives of 1,500 civilians by August this year as in the latest violence, 30 Afghans, including women and children, were killed as their bus struck a roadside bomb in Kandahar province of southern Afghanistan on Tuesday.
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US 'bomb plot' man denies charges
Tuesday, 29 September 2009 BBC News
An Afghan-born man charged with plotting to carry out bomb attacks on the US has pleaded not guilty in a New York court.
Prosecutors accuse 24-year-old Najibullah Zazi, a Colorado resident, of buying large quantities of bomb-making chemicals.
They say he had explosives training in Pakistan and may have been planning an attack on New York commuters.
Mr Zazi, an airport van driver, has denied any wrongdoing.
His lawyer, Michael Dowling, entered the plea on his behalf in the court in Brooklyn.
"I'd like to stop this rush to judgment because what I've seen so far does not amount to a conspiracy," he said.
Mr Zazi was later denied bail, after prosecutors argued he posed a threat to the community and was a flight risk.
Both he and his father, Mohammed, 53, were arrested in their home city of Denver on 20 September.
A third man, Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, also from Afghanistan, was later detained in New York.
All three were charged with lying to investigators; Mohammed Zazi and Ahmad Wais Afzali were subsequently released on bail.
Mr Zazi is due back in court on 3 December.
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US-Afghan team kills 30 Taliban troops
Attack follows rebel ambushes on truckers
Associated Press By Rahim Faiez September 29, 2009
KABUL, Afghanistan - A US team working with Afghan soldiers swooped in on a militant stronghold in the country's west, killing at least 30 Taliban fighters, US and Afghan officials said yesterday. Elsewhere, a Taliban highway ambush left six truckers dead, and a roadside bomb killed another six Afghans in a crowded van.
Farah provincial Governor Roh ul-Amin said no air strikes were used during the battle. US General Stanley McChrystal has made protecting Afghan civilians a priority and sharply restricted the use of air strikes.
Ul-Amin said 50 Taliban militants - but no coalition forces or civilians - died in the fighting, which he said began overnight and was ongoing.
Major James Brownlee, a US military spokesman, confirmed an operation but gave a lower death toll of 30 Taliban militants killed. He declined to comment further.
On Sunday, Taliban militants ambushed a truck convoy in eastern Kunar province, killing six drivers and burning their vehicles, the Interior Ministry and provincial police said. A seventh truck driver was kidnapped in the attack near the Pakistan border.
The trucks were loaded with construction materials bound for a military base, said General Khaliullah Zaiyi, Kunar's police chief.
“We have already told them, whenever they move from one place to another there should be a police escort,'' Zaiyi said. He said police were not informed the convoy was coming.
“We have extra forces on the highways with extra checkpoints, but it is very difficult to control such ambushes,'' he said.
Also Sunday, a private van hit a roadside bomb in northern Faryab province, the ministry said in a separate statement. Six of the people inside were killed and seven others injured, the statement said.
In northern Kunduz province, which has seen a sharp rise in Taliban violence in recent weeks, the US military said an Afghan civilian was killed and another wounded at an American-Afghan checkpoint after the vehicle failed to stop. The military declined to offer further details.
Afghanistan's civilian toll has risen alongside that of US and international forces this summer. As the Taliban grip extends across ever greater territory, stretches of highway and road are falling into their hands.
The planted bombs have become a major cause of deaths and injuries for both international troops and Afghan civilians. Some are remotely detonated, but many are simply placed on roads and triggered by a vehicle riding over the explosive.
The UN report issued Saturday said August was the deadliest month of the year for civilians as the Taliban stepped up a campaign of violence to discourage voting in the Aug. 20 election. A total of 1,500 civilians died in Afghanistan from January through August, up from 1,145 for the same period of 2008, the UN report said.
The UN report said about three-quarters of the civilian deaths recorded this year were the work of militants. Coalition forces were responsible for the remaining deaths, most the result of air strikes.
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Taliban commander killed in N Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- A Taliban commander was killed in Kunduz province north of Afghanistan as he came in contact with police, Inspector General of police in the province said Tuesday.
"Policemen shot dead Taliban key commander Mullah Rashid in Kunduz province during an operation on Monday evening," Abdul Razaq Yaqubi told Xinhua.
Rashid was on motorbike along with his guard when he came under police attack and was killed on the spot, but his guard escaped, the police officer said.
Taliban militants have yet to make any comment.
Kunduz, a relatively peaceful province in north Afghanistan until last year, has been the scene of growing Taliban-linked insurgency over the past several months.
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Unknown armed men set on fire a bank branch in Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- Unknown armed men set ablaze a branch building of the Bangladeshi bank BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) in Kapisa province, 80 km north of Afghan capital Kabul, a local newspaper reported Tuesday.
"Several armed men raided the office of BRAC bank in Hisai Duamdistrict Monday night and set it on fire after killing the guard," daily 8 Subh writes.
The BRAC, providing soft loans to the economically impoverished Afghans, also came under attack in the past as militants abducted at least one of its staffs in Logar province, some 60 km south from Kabul.
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Info on Mula Omar’s presence in Quetta ‘incorrect’: Rehman
The News International (Pakistan) / September 28, 2009
ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik has said that the information relating to the presence of Taliban leader Mullah Omar in Quetta is incorrect and baseless, urging that he is in Kandahar.
While talking to a foreign news agency on Monday, the Minister said that Osama Bin Laden and Mullah Omar are not present in Pakistan adding some anti-state elements are propagating negative rumors for their own personal gain.
Replying to a question, he said that President Zardari's visit to the US was quite fruitful adding that a host of issues of bilateral interest came under discussion.
To another question, he said that he is in contact with all the Baloch leaders and that the nation will soon hear good news.
He further stated that the US will not be allowed to carry out drone attacks in Balochistan.
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Musharraf: Afghan debate shows U.S. weak
Ex-president says Pakistan's intelligence agency not aiding Taliban
The Washington Times By Sara A. Carter 29 Sept 2009
Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Monday that the U.S. would make a "disastrous" mistake if it withdrew from Afghanistan and warned that a delay in sending more troops would be seen as a sign of weakness.
Mr. Musharraf also denied that Pakistan's elite Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was giving secret support to the Taliban, which the ISI helped build in the 1980s to confront the Soviet Union.
Asked by reporters and editors at The Washington Times whether the U.S. and its allies might be seen as weak because of the prolonged debate over whether to send more forces to Afghanistan, Mr. Musharraf said, "Yes, absolutely. ... By this vacillation and lack of commitment to a victory and talking too much about casualties [it] shows weakness in the resolve."
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who commands U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, submitted a request for more troops over the weekend to the Pentagon. A U.S. defense official told The Times that Gen. McChrystal presented several scenarios that could require as many as 40,000 troops.The official spoke on the condition that he not be named because he was discussing internal deliberations.
The Obama administration has said it will not be rushed into a decision on sending forces beyond the 68,000 Americans scheduled to be in Afghanistan by the end of the year.
Mr. Musharraf, a former army chief of staff who seized power in a 1999 coup and resigned last year under threat of impeachment, now resides in London and is on a speaking tour in the U.S.
He said al Qaeda was less of a threat than the Taliban, which he said is growing in strength among ethnic Pashtuns who straddle the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"We must win in Afghanistan," Mr. Musharraf said, warning that otherwise it would become a haven again for al Qaeda as it was before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
"Quitting is not an option," he said. "We should not delay. Earlier the better."
As Mr. Musharraf spoke, Pakistani soldiers traded rocket and mortar fire with militants in Waziristan, a tribal area on the border with Afghanistan. Hundreds of civilians fled and a suicide car bomber killed five people, including a prominent tribal elder, according to the Associated Press.
Mr. Musharraf said U.S. commanders shouldn't "pursue [the Taliban] in areas" where they have the advantage but "draw them out" into areas where the U.S. coalition has the upper hand.
The Taliban "move with bread and onions," Mr. Musharraf said, and don't require the elaborate logistical support that U.S. troops do.
Gen. McChrystal, in a dire assessment of the Afghan war that was leaked to the press last week, wrote that "Afghanistan's insurgency is clearly supported from Pakistan" and that senior leaders of the Taliban and other Afghan insurgents "are based in Pakistan, are linked with al Qaeda and other violent extremist groups, and are reportedly aided by some elements of Pakistan's ISI."
Mr. Musharraf conceded that insurgents cross the border but said that money and weapons were flowing primarily from Afghanistan into Pakistan, not the other way around.
Asked whether the ISI was still helping the Taliban in order to hedge against a U.S. withdrawal and oppose Indian interests in Afghanistan, he denied it.
"I don't think that is correct at all," Mr. Musharraf said. "ISI behaves as they are ordered by the government. They never go against government policy."
He added, "If our attitude is that the [Pakistani] army and ISI are the culprits, God save all of us."
Asked about Pakistan's previous support of the Taliban, Mr. Musharraf said that Pakistan had no other option after the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan but to recognize the Taliban because a rival movement, the Northern Alliance, was supported by India and other opponents of Pakistan.
"Is it in our interest to be on the Taliban side now? No," Mr. Musharraf said.
Mr. Musharraf also denied reports that Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan sold nuclear weapons materials and designs to Iran, North Korea and Libya with the knowledge of the Pakistani government. A purported letter from Mr. Khan making such assertions was delivered to a British journalist, Simon Henderson, who wrote about the exchange in the Sunday Times of London earlier this month.
In 2004, Mr. Musharraf, still Pakistan's leader, pardoned Mr. Khan but put him under house arrest, which continued until February this year.
Mr. Musharraf, noting that Mr. Khan was considered a "hero to the man on the street" in Pakistan, said dealing with him after the exposure that he sold nuclear material to other countries was "the most difficult situation I ever confronted" but denied that the Pakistani government was complicit in Mr. Khan's nuclear black market.
"It is absolutely wrong to think that the Pakistan government was involved in proliferation," he said. "It was done by himself as an individual who proliferated."
He would not elaborate on how much influence Mr. Khan had in aiding Iran's and North Korea's nuclear aspirations and stated that every nation with nuclear weapons has received nuclear information from some other state.
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Third man pleads guilty in Toronto terror plot
OTTAWA, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- A third man has pleaded guilty in the 2006 terror plot to bomb Canada's landmarks in its largest city Toronto.
A total of 18 men and young boys were arrested after police received a clue that the group were planning truck explosions on the Toronto Stock Exchange building, the headquarters of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, and other buildings.
The group, labeled as Canada's first native terrorists, planned the attack to force Canadian withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Saad Gaya, 21, admitted to intending to cause an explosion on behalf of a terrorist organization in a court in Brampton, Ontario, reports reaching here said Monday.
Details of Gaya's sentence will be issued at a later date, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada.
Last week, another member of the so-called Toronto 18, 26-year-old Ali Dirie, pleaded guilty to similar charges and was sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison.
Dirie admitted to procuring weapons, arranging false travel documents and trying to recruit extremists for a domestic terrorist.
Earlier this month, Saad Khalid, 23, was given a 14-year sentence after he pleaded guilty for his role in the plot.
Seven other accused members of the Toronto 18, including the alleged ringleaders, remain in custody and are awaiting trial.
Seven of the 18 men and youths arrested have since had their charges dropped or stayed.
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