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U.S. Urges Afghan Vote Vetting as Fraud Claims Jump (Update3)
By James Rupert
Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is urging Afghan authorities to address mounting allegations of fraud in the election that President Hamid Karzai is set to win.
Afghan president welcomes results of election
KABUL, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The sitting Afghan President Hamid Karzai who is near to secure reelection has expressed satisfaction over the partial results of election announced so far, a statement released by his office Wednesday said.
Challengers say vote fraud will hurt Afghanistan
September 9, 2009
(AFP) – KABUL — Leading challengers for the Afghan presidency claimed massive fraud had compromised elections, raising questions Wednesday about the legitimacy of Hamid Karzai's expected second term in office.
Vote discontent simmers in Afghan north
By Moheb Mudessir BBC Uzbek Tuesday, 8 September 2009
In Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan's second city with its modern buildings and famous Blue Mosque, people are getting restless over the results of the Afghan elections.
Election plunges Afghanistan into political purgatory
National Post Peter Goodspeed Wednesday, September 09, 2009
An election that should have been a crucial turning point in Afghanistan's transformation has sparked a political and constitutional crisis that threatens to undermine eight years of international sacrifice in the war-torn country.
US Says Legitimate Election Vital to Future Partnership with Afghanistan
By David Gollust Washington 08 September 2009
The United States said Tuesday that a "legitimate" electoral process in Afghanistan is vital to future U.S.-Afghanistan partnership. The comments came amid reports of evidence of fraud in the August 20 presidential election
Growing insecurity in Kabul
KABUL, 9 September 2009 (IRIN) - It was almost midnight when a massive bang awakened residents of Kabul’s fifth district on 5 September. A rocket had landed on a house killing three members of the family: the father, mother and a child.
Obama's Afghan Hopes Meet Reality
Washington Post By Jim Hoagland Thursday, September 09, 2009
The aftermath of Afghanistan's elections has been uglier and more consequential than the campaign that preceded the voting. It has become clear that President Hamid Karzai's bid for reelection was tainted by widespread fraud
Kabul Tells Tehran Not To Interfere In Afghan Affairs
RFE/RL 09/09/2009
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Zahir Faqiri says he has urged Iran not to interfere in the "internal affairs" of Afghanistan, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reports.
Iran condemns "massacre of civilians" in Afghanistan by NATO forces
TEHRAN, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi on Tuesday strongly condemned "massacre of civilians" in Afghanistan by NATO forces, the local Fars news agency reported.
Officials: Discovery of Weapons Cache Suggests Iranian Meddling in Afghan War
Fox News Channel By Jennifer Griffin Wednesday, September 09, 2009
The discovery of a weapons cache in western Afghanistan has raised concerns that Iran is interfering in the war-torn country, much like it did in Iraq, by supplying weapons used to attack and kill U.S. and coalition
U.S. Learned Its Lesson, Won't Abandon Afghanistan, Gates Says
Washington Post By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in an interview broadcast this week that the United States would not repeat the mistake of abandoning Afghanistan, vowing that "both Afghanistan and Pakistan can count on us for the long term."
Two Taliban insurgents killed, 9 others surrender in Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Clash between Afghan troops and Taliban insurgents in Kandahar province south of Afghanistan claimed the lives of two insurgents and forced nine others to lay down arms and surrender, an official said Wednesday.
Germany owes Afghanistan an explanation
The Guardian By Tomas Valasek 09/09/2009
Massive civilian casulties caused by a Nato strike need thorough investigation if the campaign is to remain credible
Chancellor Angela Merkel defends German mission in Afghanistan
BERLIN, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday defended Germany's military mission in Afghanistan, but also expressed regret for innocent victims, if there were any, in last week's German-ordered air strike on two hijacked fuel tankers.
ICC probes possible Afghanistan war crimes
ABC Online 9-Sep-09
The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) says he is gathering information about possible war crimes committed by NATO soldiers and insurgents in Afghanistan.
Obama Struggles to Regain Early Momentum
Analysis by Eli Clifton and Daniel Luban IPS-Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sep 8 (IPS) - The United States Congress returns to work Tuesday after a turbulent summer recess that has raised doubts over President Barack Obama's ability to face down domestic opposition
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U.S. Urges Afghan Vote Vetting as Fraud Claims Jump (Update3)
By James Rupert
Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is urging Afghan authorities to address mounting allegations of fraud in the election that President Hamid Karzai is set to win.
“The results of these elections need to be credible and need to reflect the will of the Afghan people,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters in Washington yesterday. “We need to have a rigorous vetting of all of these allegations of fraud.”
Afghanistan’s UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission yesterday ordered a partial recount for polling stations that reported 100 percent turnout or where at least 95 percent of votes were cast for a single candidate. The Obama administration is counting on the election to produce a credible government that can support the joint battle against Taliban guerrillas.
“A legitimate electoral process is vital to us and vital to any kind of partnership that we would have with the government going forward,” Kelly said.
The recount order was issued hours before the nation’s election authority announced new results showing Karzai surpassing the required majority for victory. With 91.6 percent of polling stations tallied, the official count shows Karzai with 54.1 percent of the vote to 28.3 percent for his main rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.
“Karzai is highly likely to remain president for a second five-year term,” James Auger and Jan Zalewski, analysts for London-based business intelligence and forecasting company IHS Global Insight, wrote in an e-mail. “The question is how legitimate his victory is perceived to be, and whether it is secured without the need for a run-off.”
‘Evidence of Fraud’
The complaints commission said it found “clear and convincing evidence of fraud,” the first confirmation of allegations that independent election monitors say risk undermining the outcome of the vote and the next government.
Abdullah has released photos and videos that he says show Karzai’s backers stuffing ballot boxes in southern Afghanistan, where violence by Taliban guerrillas kept turnout low. If fraudulent votes are removed, Karzai will get 30 percent of votes at most, less than the majority needed for him to avoid a runoff, Abdullah said in an interview with the Polish daily Rzeczpospolita.
Second Round
The decision to recount some votes means “there’s a chance we’ll have a second round” of voting, Abdullah said. For that, “I expect a far bigger turnout, because Afghans are regaining the belief that the elections could be above board.”
Karzai’s campaign has denied any role in vote fraud. Campaign spokesman Wahid Omar could not immediately be reached following the recount order.
The Independent Election Commission said on its Web site that its official vote tally is “subject to challenge in accordance with the law prior to final certification.”
The contest between Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun from the south, and Abdullah, whose support is rooted among non-Pashtun northerners, risks reviving Afghanistan’s historically troublesome ethnic divide.
Karzai welcomed the latest vote count in a statement posted on the presidential Web site today. He thanked the election commission for holding “fair” polls.
Legitimacy ‘Undermined’
“Should Karzai be allowed to declare victory without proper investigation of the allegations, there is clearly a danger that his legitimacy will be badly undermined,” IHS said.
It is already difficult to secure adequate financial and military support from the international community, the analysts said. “The task will be greatly complicated if confidence is lost in Karzai,” they added. “There is a balancing act however, as the United States knows it needs to keep Karzai on side.”
The complaints commission ordered the election authority to recount ballots from any polling place where the turnout appeared to equal or exceed 100 percent. Recounts were also ordered for any polling place that received as many as 100 votes if any candidate got more than 95 percent of them.
Initial inquiries, notably in Ghazni, Paktika and Kandahar provinces found evidence of fraud in a number of polling stations, the complaints commission said in the order, posted on its Web site. It said the condition of ballot papers and boxes, and polling officials’ documents, showed that many ballots were illegally cast or “were not legally counted.”
The polling places where fraud was apparent had recorded votes “far in excess of what could be expected based on credible observer reports of low voter turnout,” it said.
Further Investigation
The recount of suspect votes will take place with independent election observers, candidates’ agents and investigators of the complaints commission watching, the order said. It will permit further investigation of the ballots, which may then be excluded from the vote count, the commission said.
The order was signed by the complaints commission’s chairman, Grant Kippen, a Canadian elections specialist appointed by the United Nations to help ensure a credible vote result. The chief UN official in Afghanistan, Special Representative Kai Eide, urged election authorities to exclude from the vote count “results from ballot boxes where there is evidence of irregularities.”
Even if the process itself had been fair, the fact that only some 5 million of an estimated total 15 million eligible voters took part shows the limitations of democracy in Afghanistan, IHS said.
-- With assistance from Ali Sheikholeslami in London. Editors: Mark Williams, Julian Nundy
To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in New Delhi at jrupert3@bloomberg.net.
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Afghan president welcomes results of election
KABUL, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- The sitting Afghan President Hamid Karzai who is near to secure reelection has expressed satisfaction over the partial results of election announced so far, a statement released by his office Wednesday said.
"President Karzai has welcomed the partial results of the election announced by the Independent Election Commission and hopes that final result would be announced after completion of the procedure," the statement added.
Afghanistan's second presidential election in the post-Taliban country was held on Aug. 20 but the election body has been announcing the partial result gradually and on phased basis.
Karzai was moving closer to winning re-election as election authority said Tuesday he has received 54.1 percent ballots with results from 91.6 percent polling stations.
Karzai's has significantly widened his lead against major rival, Abdullah Abdullah, who has 28.3 percent support, according the partial results released by the Independent Election Commission (IEC) on Tuesday.
Karzai needs to receive over 50 percent to avoid a run-off.
The vote count progressed very slowly as IEC only released small part of results every two or three days and the official final result is expected on Sept. 17.
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Challengers say vote fraud will hurt Afghanistan
September 9, 2009
(AFP) – KABUL — Leading challengers for the Afghan presidency claimed massive fraud had compromised elections, raising questions Wednesday about the legitimacy of Hamid Karzai's expected second term in office.
The president has passed the key threshold of an outright majority based on results from more than 90 percent of polling stations, which put the war-torn and corrupt country on track for another five-year Karzai rule.
But the head of the country's Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC), Grant Kippen, said the election process could drag on indeterminately as there was no way of knowing how long investigations into fraud allegations would take.
The count is already languishing behind schedule, with preliminary results now due Saturday -- nine days later than originally intended.
The head of NATO, which together with a US-led coalition has 100,000 foreign soldiers fighting a Taliban insurgency, defended efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan, amid mounting criticism of military operations and the elections.
Foreign governments now face increasingly hostile public opposition to the war and questions over record Western fatalities with no exit in sight.
Karzai welcomed the partial election results and praised staff from the Independent Election Commission -- which has been beset by accusations of bias from critics -- for their "impartial" spirit.
His main rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah -- trailing the president in the vote count released so far -- said the election commission should suspend the release of results as the figures include fraudulent votes.
"It's illegal what they have been doing and on top of this I think these announcements include hundreds of thousands of fraudulent results," he told AFP of a timetable clearly laid out before the election.
For the first time, the ECC said Tuesday it had found "clear and convincing evidence of fraud".
"With the experience of our history we have come to the conclusion that we can only decide our fate through free, fair, transparent and inclusive elections," Abdullah said Wednesday.
He has said he expects "hundreds of thousands of votes will be discounted or taken out," and that Afghanistan's image will take a beating.
"I think the damage will be unfortunately a lasting one."
Partial results on Tuesday gave Karzai 54.1 percent of the vote from 91.6 percent of polling stations.
The ECC has called for recounts of ballots it says were cast fraudulently and IEC officials said ballot boxes from 600 polling sites -- each with 600-700 ballots -- could be "quarantined".
The ECC's Kippen said final results cannot be ratified until all complaints are investigated.
"Until we know how many polling stations and ballot boxes are involved, and where they are, we cannot possibly predict how long it will take," he said.
Dark horse candidate Ramazan Bashardost, who has won more than 10 percent of the vote so far despite campaigning from a tent, called on the international community to pressure Afghanistan's authorities to ensure the vote is clean.
"I think it was not really an election, it was kind of a horrible comedy movie in which the main role of Karzai was played by Charlie Chaplin and Abdullah by Mr Bean," said Bashardost.
"No other country has had the levels of election fraud that Afghanistan has."
In remarks released by his office, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen insisted that the Taliban could never take power again and that the polls, while flawed, were still a step forward for the country.
"I am concerned that the public discourse on the effort in Afghanistan has started to go in the wrong direction," said Rasmussen, underlining: "We may not be making progress fast enough, but we are making progress.
"And while the elections have clearly not been close to perfect, in the context, they were still a step forward," he said.
The laborious tally process has added to concerns about the credibility of the process, already under a cloud because of low turnout, expected to be just 30-35 percent but still not announced officially.
"The United Nations and the international community, if they think that democracy can be established by fraud then it's OK, otherwise they must denounce it," Wadir Safi, politics professor at Kabul University, told AFP.
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Vote discontent simmers in Afghan north
By Moheb Mudessir BBC Uzbek Tuesday, 8 September 2009
In Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan's second city with its modern buildings and famous Blue Mosque, people are getting restless over the results of the Afghan elections.
In this usually peaceful part of the country, with its mixed population of Tajiks and Uzbeks, the main challenger to the incumbent Hamid Karzai, Abdullah Abdullah, has won most of the votes.
So the announcement that Mr Karzai has taken more than 50% of the ballots counted so far across the country has put Mr Abdullah and his supporters in very difficult position.
As soon as the polls closed on election day, the Abdullah camp began to complain about alleged fraud, promising to take legal action to resolve its complaints.
And Mr Abdullah has made it clear all along that he is not going to accept a government that in his view has come to power on the basis of fraud and illegitimacy.
Zalmai Yunusi, the head of Mr Abdullah's campaign team in the northern province of Balkh, where he got a majority of votes, calls the election and the vote count a scandal.
Mr Yunusi said the Independent Election Commission had reacted to the Abdullah camp's complaints like the Roman emperor Nero.
"When Rome was burning, he was on the roof singing to himself," he said.
Mr Yunusi said Afghans had been happy that their country was moving towards democracy.
"But unfortunately all the people have become disappointed and it is not unrealistic to imagine that people might react angrily and that there can be protest and even bloodshed."
It is an opinion that is widely shared among Mr Abdullah's supporters.
'Deceived'
Khalid, a taxi driver who voted for Mr Abdullah, says that in some parts of Balkh province people are talking about big demonstrations to be held in the coming days.
"It's their right, because Karzai has deceived them and they should fight for their rights," he said.
Although the Afghan government has already warned people to avoid violence and that any violent protests will be met decisively, there are concerns of potential protests and confrontation between Mr Abdullah's supporters and those of other leading candidates.
Many people in Afghanistan - and not just in the north - believe that if the defeated candidates cannot accept the final result and feel their complaints have not been dealt with properly, they could cause a big headache for the next government.
The authorities can hardly afford facing another front being opened against them in this up-to-now fairly peaceful part of the country, given the many challenges they already face.
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Election plunges Afghanistan into political purgatory
National Post Peter Goodspeed Wednesday, September 09, 2009
An election that should have been a crucial turning point in Afghanistan's transformation has sparked a political and constitutional crisis that threatens to undermine eight years of international sacrifice in the war-torn country.
The U.S. government and its NATO allies were counting on last month's Afghan elections to produce a credible government to support a renewed counterinsurgency battle against the Taliban.
But now, as the final ballots are being counted and complaints of fraud continue to multiply, it is increasingly obvious Afghanistan has plunged into a dangerous political limbo.
With widespread claims of ballot stuffing, intimidation and fraud, it is possible nearly 700,000 votes - one in 10 - were tainted.
European Union election monitors in Afghanistan said yesterday they are deeply concerned "hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes" have been included in preliminary official results released by Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission.
"A minority of people have flouted the law by seeking to manipulate the results of the elections and so to deny the Afghan people of a legitimate, democratic choice of President," the EU monitors said in a statement on Wednesday.
The IEC claims that, with 91.6% of the Aug. 20 vote counted, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is poised to claim a first round victory with 54.1% of the vote. His closest opponent, former foreign minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah has only 28.3%.
But if tainted ballots are discarded, Mr. Karzai's lead would be eroded to the point where he will have to face a second-round election.
While Mr. Karzai has, so far, heeded U.S. requests not to claim victory until election fraud complaints are dealt with, he welcomed the latest vote count on his presidential website on Wednesday and applauded the IEC "for its efforts in pursuing the process in an impartial and faithful national spirit."
Fraud investigations into the vote could delay a final result for months, further adding to the instability of a country whose president's term in office already expired in April.
A delayed result could also push any run-off election back to next spring, since it would be difficult to hold a poll in snow-bound northern Afghanistan in the winter.
Whoever ultimately emerges to claim the presidency will find his legitimacy undercut, while the bitter fight between Mr. Karzai, an ethnic Pashtun from the south, and Dr. Abdullah, whose support is rooted in the non-Pashtun north, risks reviving ethnic tensions that have divided Afghanistan for decades.
Complaints over election irregularities have already strained Washington's relations with Mr. Karzai, who won few friends in the United States when he made a series of alliances with war criminals and drug lords in his bid to stay in power.
The U.S. State Department has already said if Mr. Karzai is elected, his vice-presidential running mate, war lord and suspected drug king pin Mohammed Fahim, will be banned from entering the United States.
More importantly, the stench of corruption that surrounds the Afghan elections, has begun to sour international support for Afghanistan.
It couldn't happen at a worse time, when NATO and U.S. President Barack Obama are preparing for major debates on their Afghanistan policies this fall.
With combat deaths climbing and the security situation deteriorating, accusations of electoral fraud and intimidation have triggered fundamental questions about the exact purpose of the Afghanistan mission.
Instead of debating possible shifts in strategy and tactics, the 42 nations with troops in Afghanistan are beginning to question whether they should even continue to be there.
In Germany, which has an election on Sept. 27, there are growing calls to bring the country's 4,200 troops home. Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to defuse the controversy yesterday by calling for Afghans to shoulder more of their security burden themselves.
In Britain, which has to go to the polls in nine months, controversy swirls around the growing number of servicemen killed in Afghanistan (40 in the last two months) and accusations the government failed to equip them properly.
In Canada, which might have an election this fall, debate is already swirling around the government's decision to end Canada's combat role in Afghanistan in 2011.
The Netherlands has already announced an end to its combat role in 2010.
Meanwhile, Mr. Obama faces enormous political risks in Washington this fall when he is expected to seek a troop increase in Afghanistan.
That debate could further strain relations with Mr. Karzai and within NATO.
"I am concerned that the public discourse on the effort in Afghanistan has started to go in the wrong direction," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said in a speech on Wednesday.
While he stressed NATO will never allow the Taliban to return to power, he acknowledged a growing uneasiness among member states.
"While the elections have clearly not been close to perfect, they were still a step forward," he said. "We may not be making progress fast enough, but we are making progress.
"The Taliban has no chance of taking power again, nor do terrorists have any safe haven in Afghanistan from which to threaten the world. Afghans are slowly but steadily leading better, freer lives."
pgoodspeed@nationalpost.com
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US Says Legitimate Election Vital to Future Partnership with Afghanistan
By David Gollust Washington 08 September 2009
The United States said Tuesday that a "legitimate" electoral process in Afghanistan is vital to future U.S.-Afghanistan partnership. The comments came amid reports of evidence of fraud in the August 20 presidential election in which incumbent President Hamid Karzai is reported to have a wide lead.
The Obama administration is serving notice on Afghan authorities that the future U.S. relationship with the Kabul government depends on an election process seen as credible. U.S. officials also are cautioning against further release of election tallies before fraud claims are thoroughly investigated.
The comments from the State Department came as Afghanistan's election commission reported that President Karzai has drawn 54 percent of the vote with nearly all of the ballots counted - surpassing the 50 percent plus one vote margin needed to avoid a run-off with his top challenger.
But the announcement came in the shadow of what the country's electoral watchdog organization, the Electoral Complaints Commission, says was "clear and convincing evidence of fraud".
The United Nations-backed commission ordered recounts from polling stations that reported a 100 percent voter turnout and from locations where one candidate - in many cases President Karzai - was said to have received more than 95 percent of the vote.
At a news briefing, State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly said the vote count announced on Tuesday was only a first phase in a process and that the next phase, dealing with the fraud complaints, will be just as, if not more, important and that it will impact the U.S.-Afghanistan relationship.
"The results of these elections need to be credible and need to reflect the will of the Afghan people. And as a result, we need to have a rigorous vetting of all of these allegations of fraud. And a legitimate electoral process is vital to us and vital to any kind of partnership that we would have with the government going forward," he said.
Kelly counseled patience on the part of all those involved while the fraud charges are examined - a process, he cautioned, that could take months.
A senior State Department official who spoke to reporters advised Afghan officials to withhold announcing further election results until, as he put it, "you're sure that everybody has confidence in them."
He said the way to do that is to take the charges of irregularities seriously and investigate them to the fullest extent. The official said a good system is in place to examine the allegations and that everyone involved needs to "cool it" and let the process play out.
The Obama administration has repeatedly said it had no favorite in the multi-candidate presidential race, which developed into a two-way contest between Mr. Karzai and former Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, who drew about 28 percent of the vote, according to the electoral commission.
Despite its declared neutrality, the U.S. administration expressed concern last week about reported connections between one of Mr. Karzai's Vice Presidential running mates, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, and Afghanistan's illegal drug trade.
Washington expressed misgivings last month that Kabul officials allowed the return from Turkey of exiled ethnic-Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, who threw his support to Mr. Karzai.
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Growing insecurity in Kabul
KABUL, 9 September 2009 (IRIN) - It was almost midnight when a massive bang awakened residents of Kabul’s fifth district on 5 September. A rocket had landed on a house killing three members of the family: the father, mother and a child.
In the past month at least 10 rockets have been fired on different parts of Kabul, often killing or wounding civilians, according to the Ministry of Interior (MoI).
In less than a month, well over a dozen civilians have also died in a number of suicide attacks in Kabul: on 8 September a suicide attack near the airport killed two civilians and wounded six; on 18 August a suicide attack killed 10 (including two UN national staff) and injured 50; and a suicide attack in front of the NATO premises in Kabul on 15 August killed nine and wounded 90, most of them civilians.
“Whoever is firing these rockets and organizing suicide attacks is only killing innocent civilians,” said a man whose house sustained damage because of a rocket attack on 5 September.
A woman who lost her husband in the 18 August suicide attack said her family was devastated by the loss. “My husband was only a taxi driver. Who will feed my children now; who will pay for their clothes; who will pay for their medicine; who will pay for their education?” she asked.
“Indeed, terrorist attacks have increased recently, which is worrying Kabul citizens because the enemy wants to exert psychological pressure on the people,” Zemarai Bashari, MoI’s spokesman, told IRIN.
Taliban insurgents have often claimed responsibility for the attacks through their purported spokesmen.
However, it is unclear where the insurgents get their weapons and how their fighters and suicide bombers penetrate the capital.
Home to an estimated four million people and thousands of international military and diplomatic personnel and aid workers, Kabul has seen an increasing number of security measures being put in place - from blast resistant walls to road blocks to heavily armed patrols and the deployment of private security contractors.
Organized crime
Some analysts are linking organized crime, corruption and illegal militia groups to the latest spate of attacks in the capital.
“The old subversive groups who were shelling Kabul and terrorizing civilians in the past have been reactivated,” said Noorullah Stanikzai, a lecturer at Kabul University.
“There are criminal elements that add fuel to the insurgency-related insecurity,” Wadeer Safi, a law professor and political analyst, told IRIN.
Armed criminal gangs are not only blamed for abductions, assassinations and extortion, but are believed to be smuggling arms, explosives and supplying intelligence to the insurgents, experts say.
“Some criminal activities such as drug smuggling and high-profile kidnappings have financial and political linkages with the insurgency,” said MoI’s Bashari.
History repeating itself?
“People are increasingly worried about their security not only in Kabul but throughout the country,” said Ahmad Zaki, a Kabul resident.
“If insecurity increases people will be forced to migrate abroad again,” said Stanikzai.
“No one wants to live in a city with constant fear of death in [the form of] a blind rocket or explosion,” said political analyst Safi.
Whilst Afghan and international officials categorically blame the insurgents for the violence, a BBC/ ABC/ ARD poll in February 2009 showed 27 percent of Afghans blame the Taliban for the violence in their country, while 12 percent blame US forces, and 12 percent blame the government.
“The current insecurity trend is dissimilar to the 1990s, but it has the potential to get worse and push the capital back to the old dark age,” said Safi.
“We’re doing our best to improve security: We have increased the police force in Kabul from 7,000 to over 11,000,” said Bashari.
Todd Vician, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul, told IRIN ISAF was concerned about the safety of Kabul citizens, and that it has been working hard to enhance the capability of the Afghan national security forces.
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Obama's Afghan Hopes Meet Reality
Washington Post By Jim Hoagland Thursday, September 09, 2009
The aftermath of Afghanistan's elections has been uglier and more consequential than the campaign that preceded the voting. It has become clear that President Hamid Karzai's bid for reelection was tainted by widespread fraud, a development that represents the Obama administration's first significant failure in foreign affairs.
The administration had emphasized that its primary goal was a credible election process, not the victory of any particular candidate or group. President Obama and his aides had sharply urged Karzai publicly and privately to make this vote as close to fair and free as possible in a country at war. Karzai not only disregarded the pressure; he used it to campaign as a nationalist fighting outside influences.
The Afghan leader does not fall short in the chutzpah department or in cunning. He presented Washington with a fait accompli by stitching together a coalition of warlords and other corrupt local officials to deliver the results he wanted. Post-election U.S. efforts to get Karzai to bring his opponents into high positions in the government -- which would require them to stop voicing accusations of fraud -- do not change the underlying meaning of what happened on Aug. 20 and since.
The disputed elections are not simply a political embarrassment. They pose significant questions about the new U.S. counterinsurgency strategy of population protection, which was initially keyed to clearing areas contested by the Taliban -- largely the Pashtun-inhabited southern region -- to enable people there to vote freely.
But even in many of the "cleared" villages, Afghans refused to come out to vote, apparently fearing that in a matter of weeks or months the Taliban would seep back into their zones and seek vengeance on those who went to the polls.
Even more tellingly, Pashtun elders went to Kabul, sought out Western journalists and gave them detailed on-the-record accounts of how Karzai supporters falsified the returns from the elders' territory. This may attest to their new attachment to democracy and press freedom -- or, as I would guess, to their fear of how the Taliban would react to fabricated precinct results showing large pro-Karzai turnouts in their villages.
These are calculations that people engaged in civil wars live and die by. Those who reside in the territory that American, British, Afghan and other soldiers fought to clear will wait to see whether their communities do remain beyond Taliban reach for long. Only then will they decide to take the kind of risks the administration expected of them this time.
The White House initially described the elections as an unalloyed success story. But after the United Nations-backed Electoral Complaints Commission said Tuesday that it had found "clear and convincing evidence of fraud," particularly in the southern provinces, U.S. officials privately resumed criticizing Karzai. Still, they avoided any suggestion that the relatively heavy U.S. and British casualties this August had been in vain.
The continuing role of tribal politics in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan will also be studiously and deliberately neglected by the administration in public. That is unfortunate. The tensions between Afghanistan's ethnic groups hold the key to the administration's political and military strategies -- but an increasingly restive American public is not being told this.
Karzai's relatively poor showing among his fellow Pashtuns, who make up 42 percent of Afghanistan's population and nearly all of the Taliban's forces, is a danger sign for Obama's strategy of rapidly building up the Afghan National Army by adding U.S. trainers and other forces while moving to co-opt local Taliban commanders.
The Bush administration originally rejected such a strategy after concluding that Afghan forces lacked the "absorptive capacity" to field enough officers and sergeants to direct large Afghan formations. This was another way of saying that an army expansion that would have sent large numbers of Tajik and Uzbek tribesmen from the north into Pashtun areas to fight the Taliban would have created disasters.
The important debate is not the media guessing game about how many troops U.S. commanders may request beyond the 21,000 that Obama already approved. The more serious question is whether the escalation strategy can produce results on the ground fast enough to stem growing disaffection at home.
Karzai's failure to heed Washington's demands for a credible election process makes this harder. Obama is stuck with a damaged plan to which there is little immediate alternative. He needs to be more forthright with the American people about the sacrifices and obstacles ahead. It is the people who are ultimately responsible, and they need the facts to exercise that responsibility.
jimhoagland@washpost.com
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Kabul Tells Tehran Not To Interfere In Afghan Affairs
RFE/RL 09/09/2009
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Zahir Faqiri says he has urged Iran not to interfere in the "internal affairs" of Afghanistan, RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan reports.
Faqiri was speaking a day after media reports quoted Fadd Hossein Maleki, Iran's ambassador to Kabul, as saying that Afghanistan "needs a coalition government."
Maleki also spoke about the high level of fraud in the Afghan elections.
Faqiri added that "Afghanistan is an independent country and can manage its own affairs. Therefore we urge Iran not to interfere into our internal affairs, as we don't interfere into theirs."
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Iran condemns "massacre of civilians" in Afghanistan by NATO forces
TEHRAN, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi on Tuesday strongly condemned "massacre of civilians" in Afghanistan by NATO forces, the local Fars news agency reported.
"Targeting civilians and massacre of defenseless people of Afghanistan is an inhumane behavior and is completely against moral values and international criteria," Qashqavi was quoted as saying.
"Unfortunately, these self-centered actions against innocents have repeatedly happened. We strongly condemn this approach," he said.
NATO's deadly air strike against suspected Taliban insurgents in Kunduz province north of Afghanistan early Friday, according to local officials, left over 100 people dead and injured.
The US and NATO commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal on the assumption of charge in June promised to avoid harming none-combatants.
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Officials: Discovery of Weapons Cache Suggests Iranian Meddling in Afghan War
Fox News Channel By Jennifer Griffin Wednesday, September 09, 2009
The discovery of a weapons cache in western Afghanistan has raised concerns that Iran is interfering in the war-torn country, much like it did in Iraq, by supplying weapons used to attack and kill U.S. and coalition troops, U.S. officials tell FOX News.
Afghan and NATO forces uncovered the weapons cache on Aug. 29 in Herat. It included a small number of Iranian-made "explosively formed penetrators," hyper-powerful roadside bombs similar to the weapons used to kill U.S. forces in Iraq, a senior U.S. Defense Official told FOX News.
Also seized during the raid were 107 Iranian-made BM-1 rockets and dozens of blocks of Iranian C4 plastic explosives.
There are questions about when these weapons entered Afghanistan, but a top U.S. military official tells FOX News that an Iranian rocket was recently fired at a base in Herat. Additional intelligence suggests that Iranians have been providing support directly to the Taliban.
Other coalition countries allege the Iranian influence is even deeper and that Iranian intelligence is funneling money to Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
"There have been a lot of reports of the Iranian government one way or another having an influence on Karzai, including a lot of reports that they have provided him with a lot of money," said Fred Kagan, a member of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's recent Afghan review and a scholar from the American Enterprise Institute.
"They have succeeded at having a government in Kabul that is rather friendly to them. Karzai was one of the first leaders to acknowledge Ahmadinejad's victory in Iran's contested presidential elections and to congratulate him for it," Kagan said.
The Iranians package the C-4 explosive to look like it is American-made, and the EFP's are machine made, suggesting that Iran is home to a lucrative industry for producing these weapons, sources said. The goal remains to push U.S. forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq and to make both look like defeats.
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U.S. Learned Its Lesson, Won't Abandon Afghanistan, Gates Says
Washington Post By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in an interview broadcast this week that the United States would not repeat the mistake of abandoning Afghanistan, vowing that "both Afghanistan and Pakistan can count on us for the long term."
In his first interview with the al-Jazeera television network, Gates said the United States made a "serious strategic mistake" by turning its focus away from Afghanistan after Soviet occupation forces were defeated there two decades ago.
"As soon as the Soviets left Afghanistan, we turned our backs on Afghanistan and we did not cultivate our relationship with the Pakistanis properly," he said, noting that U.S. decisions at the time sparked doubts about Americans' commitment to the region. "I believe we've learned our lesson."
Gates's remarks come as he and other American officials weigh whether to deploy more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The defense secretary said he remained undecided on the issue.
"There are issues on both sides of [the argument] and, frankly, I haven't made up my own mind at this point in terms of whether more forces are needed," Gates said, according to a transcript of his 45-minute interview.
Gates was scheduled to meet with President Obama on Tuesday to briefly discuss the assessment given to him last week by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Pentagon officials said. The officials added that Gates has received comments on the assessment from senior military leaders including Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. David H. Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, and plans to present his own detailed views to Obama later this week.
Gates acknowledged in the interview with al-Jazeera that the heavier fighting and growing number of casualties in Afghanistan have weakened public support for the war. "There is a sort of war awareness on the part of the American people," Gates said.
He added, though, that the possibility of withdrawal is out of the question.
The U.S. military recognized as early as 2005 and 2006 that violence was escalating in Afghanistan, Gates said, but was unable to bolster forces there because of U.S. troop commitments in Iraq. "We have to speak frankly: Because of the troop commitments in Iraq, we didn't have the resources to move in reinforcements . . . as the situation in Afghanistan began to deteriorate," he said.
Gates explained that he did what he could after taking office in January 2007, extending one Army brigade in Afghanistan and adding a second brigade that spring. "That was really about all the resources that we had at that time," he said. "As we have drawn down in Iraq, more capability has become available."
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Two Taliban insurgents killed, 9 others surrender in Afghanistan
KABUL, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Clash between Afghan troops and Taliban insurgents in Kandahar province south of Afghanistan claimed the lives of two insurgents and forced nine others to lay down arms and surrender, an official said Wednesday.
"The gun battle occurred in Panjwai district Tuesday night and the troops killed two militants on the spot. Nine more insurgents laid down arms and surrendered to the troops," senior military commander in south Afghanistan General Shir Mohammad Zazi told Xinhua.
He did not say if there were any important Taliban elements among those killed or surrendered.
Taliban militants have not to make comment yet.
Kandahar, a former stronghold of Taliban, has been the scene of almost regular violent incidents.
The militants also shot dead a working lady in Kandahar city couple of days ago.
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Germany owes Afghanistan an explanation
The Guardian By Tomas Valasek 09/09/2009
Massive civilian casulties caused by a Nato strike need thorough investigation if the campaign is to remain credible
Finger pointing is the defence of the concerned and the cornered. So it reflects very poorly on Nato that allies are bickering with one another over an attack that killed an unknown number of Afghan civilians last week. Nato says up to 125 died when German forces ordered a strike on a hijacked Nato fuel tanker. The Germans initially said that the dead were all militants and argued that the tanker could have been used to attack Nato forces (Berlin has since admitted civilians may have been killed). The Afghan government says many of the dead were civilians and it lashed out at the Germans for being reckless. The French government has called the attack "wrong" and the US has criticised the Germans for waiting too long to determine whether civilians were among the dead.
The allies need to take a deep breath. The last thing the Nato mission needs is more acrimony. Already, the allied publics think so poorly of the Afghan operation that the governments are coming under serious pressure to withdraw troops.
Clearly, in most cases the death of civilians is not only tragic, it is also monumentally wrong. Nato has recently – and belatedly – recognised that it must reduce civilian casualties if it is to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghans. Only time and a proper investigation will tell what the German air traffic controllers, who called in the attack, knew, and when. The rest of the allies should recognise that if German troops indeed felt that the tankers were to be used in an imminent attack on Nato troops, they may have been right to order them bombed.
The Germans owe it to the Afghans and the rest of Nato to explain their actions. Serious questions remain: the hijacked tankers were stuck in a river, so why were they a danger to Nato? The German military says its troops thought that only militants were present on the scene – an assessment that, the Germans say, was confirmed by an informant on the ground. But how could they been so sure given the number of people on the scene, and given that night-vision images (the attack happened at 2.30am) are far less clear than daytime imagery?
The US has, in my mind, erred too, in inviting journalists along on a mission to assess the impact of the bombing, and allowing them to sit in on closed-door meetings between US and German officials where the bombing was discussed. The commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, is fighting two wars: besides the one in Afghanistan, he is also trying to keep the increasingly nervous governments at home from withdrawing troops. It is not obvious how he hoped to strengthen German support for the mission by inviting the media to lambast the German troops before a proper investigation had been completed.
The tanker-bombing incident has completely obscured an important new reality. In recent months, the allies have narrowed their differences over the course of action for Afghanistan, and Gen McChrystal's new strategy has at last given Nato governments some grounds to hope for a turnaround. Among other things, the strategy puts clear emphasis on minimising civilian casualties. The recent strike is a tragic and important deviation from the strategy. It should be treated as such, investigated and closed. Instead of arguing, the allied governments need to focus on letting the new strategy work, and to give commanders on the ground time to prove it successful.
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Chancellor Angela Merkel defends German mission in Afghanistan
BERLIN, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday defended Germany's military mission in Afghanistan, but also expressed regret for innocent victims, if there were any, in last week's German-ordered air strike on two hijacked fuel tankers.
Merkel made the remarks during a speech to parliament in response to an acknowledgement by the NATO-led force in Kabul that the Sept. 4 air strike called in by German commanders and carried out by a U.S. warplane may have killed civilians.
Merkel rejected opposition calls for a troop pullout after the strike, which prompted criticism at home and abroad because of the possibility that civilians were killed in the attack.
"The mission in Afghanistan is our reaction to terror, the consequences of not acting will affect us just as much as the consequences of acting," Merkel said.
Local media reported that last week that the air strike targeted two tanker trucks seized by Taliban militants near the northern Afghan town of Kunduz.
An initial assessment led by U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, NATO's commander in Afghanistan, "concluded that civilians had been killed or injured," NATO's International Security Assistance Force said in a statement.
Merkel, addressing parliament before Sept. 27 elections, promised German support for a thorough investigation of the attack.
"We will not gloss over anything, but we will not accept any premature condemnation," she said. "I refuse to tolerate that, either from Germany or from abroad."
Merkel also told the parliament that she regrets it deeply if any civilians were harmed as a result of German actions.
"Every innocent person who dies in Afghanistan is one too many -- we mourn for every single one," she said. "Every innocent person injured is one too many -- we feel sorry for them and their relatives."
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ICC probes possible Afghanistan war crimes
ABC Online 9-Sep-09
The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) says he is gathering information about possible war crimes committed by NATO soldiers and insurgents in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan is a signatory of the treaty that established The Hague-based ICC, and any war crime committed on its territory by Afghan nationals or foreigners is of interest to the court, ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo told reporters.
"What we are trying to assess is... different types of allegations, including massive attacks, collateral damage exceeding what is considered proper, and torture," he said.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo said the ICC had received "allegations from many different sources" that he was looking into in Afghanistan.
If the preliminary examination shows grounds, a full investigation would be then launched.
He also said the court was continuing to gather information about possible war crimes committed during Israel's attack on the Gaza Strip last December and January, last year's Russia-Georgia war and in Colombia.
Mr Moreno-Ocampo added that his preliminary examination of alleged war crimes in Afghanistan was "exceedingly complex" and time-consuming because of the difficulty of gathering information there.
But he said non-governmental organisations (NGOs) active in the country have been helping him out.
He declined to provide details on what incidents the ICC was looking into but said officials were examining the actions of coalition forces, Taliban and Al Qaeda.
He also said there was no certainty they would ask the court to charge anyone.
"Before we open an investigation, my office has a duty to conduct preliminary examinations to define exactly whether or not I should open an investigation," he said.
Last week a NATO air strike in Afghanistan killed scores of civilians.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai described the strike, which was called in by a German officer, as a major "error of judgement."
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Obama Struggles to Regain Early Momentum
Analysis by Eli Clifton and Daniel Luban IPS-Inter Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sep 8 (IPS) - The United States Congress returns to work Tuesday after a turbulent summer recess that has raised doubts over President Barack Obama's ability to face down domestic opposition from Republicans and enforce party cohesion on issues ranging from healthcare reform to troop commitments in the increasingly unpopular war in Afghanistan.
Expectations are high for Obama's address to a joint session of the House and Senate on Wednesday night, when Democrats hope he will push back against attacks from Republicans and moderate Democrats and provide a more cohesive argument for the necessity of health reform and how he intends to deliver it.
Obama has spent the better part of the summer trying to explain his plan for healthcare reform in the face of opposition which claims that the plan smacks of government intervention into the private lives of citizens.
The noisy protests at town hall meetings - and the much-publicised (if unfounded) allegations by prominent Republicans that the healthcare plan would create "death panels" to promote euthanasia - came to dominate media coverage of the healthcare debate.
The White House has been seemingly blindsided by opposition from both Democrats in the Senate - some of whom have come out against a 'public option' in healthcare reform and others who have started to voice increasing concern about war in Afghanistan - and Republicans who have opposed almost every initiative Obama has put forward except for a stepped-up war effort in Afghanistan.
Indeed, the administration seemed to be under attack for every policy proposal it made this summer. The trend reached a height last week, when the administration was forced to spend a great deal of time and energy defending Obama's superficially uncontroversial decision to deliver a televised address to schoolchildren on their first day back at school.
To many political analysts, the ''schoolchildren address'' controversy showed both the willingness of the administration's opponents to offer opposition to even the most innocuous actions taken by Obama as well as the administration's seeming inability to shrug off attacks or hit back against critics.
A number of Democrats have expressed frustration about the White House's inability or unwillingness to actively promote its domestic and foreign policy agenda in the face of opposition. Many suggest that the administration has allowed centrist Democrats in Congress (the so-called "Blue Dogs") to wield too much power in shaping the president's agenda.
''We all lose as a party if we allow the moderates and the Blue Dogs to continue," said Obama's former deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, at a gathering in San Diego.
"The Republicans are loving it, and they should. When are we going to start standing up to these people? Tell [House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid] to start leading and holding the 52 Blue Dogs accountable," he said.
While the health care debate has dominated the airwaves this summer, the summer has also been rocky for the administration in terms of foreign policy.
Public support for the war in Afghanistan - widely seen as Obama's most important foreign policy initiative - has been slipping dramatically.
A recent McClatchy poll found that 54 percent of U.S. citizens believe the U.S. is not winning in Afghanistan and 56 percent oppose sending more combat troops.
While the Pentagon is expected to request as many as 45,000 additional U.S. troops to join the 68,000 already committed to Afghanistan, Democratic support for a larger troop commitment is lukewarm, and even some prominent conservatives - such as Washington Post columnist George Will - have turned against the war.
In a sign of the continued turmoil within Afghanistan, the Afghan electoral commission announced Tuesday that it had found "clear and convincing evidence" of fraud in last month's presidential elections and demanded a recount - a further blow to the unpopular U.S.-backed incumbent, President Hamid Karzai.
The most ardent support for the war in Afghanistan comes from Republican and neo-conservative circles. On Monday, the Foreign Policy Initiative (FPI) - a neo-conservative group widely seen as the successor to the defunct Project for a New American Century (PNAC), which played a pivotal role in pushing for war in Iraq - issued a statement urging Obama to "fully resource" the war in Afghanistan.
In an illustration of the topsy-turvy state of the Afghanistan debate, one notable signatory was former Alaska governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin - who attracted controversy for propagating the "death panels" myth about Obama's healthcare plan.
Other foreign policy challenges loom as well - most notably, a likely showdown this month on Capitol Hill over Iran.
In the wake of public outcry over Iran's disputed Jun. 12 presidential elections and its subsequent repression of demonstrators, the Obama administration gave Tehran a September deadline to respond to diplomatic outreach concerning its nuclear programme, which critics allege is intended for military purposes.
On Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad invited members of the so-called "P5+1" group - comprising the U.S., Britain, China, Russia, France, and Germany - to Tehran for talks, but stated that discussion on the nuclear issue is "finished", the Washington Post reported.
Many experts argue that the continued political disarray within Iran following the election crisis makes it virtually impossible for Tehran to respond to engagement in the near future, and that the U.S. should stand back for the moment to let the Iranian political situation play out.
However, hawks within Congress are pushing the administration to institute harsher sanctions against Tehran. Hardline and influential "Israel lobby" organisations such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations are preparing a major lobbying push this month in support of sanctions legislation, according to the Forward.
On another signature foreign policy item, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the administration has also run into obstacles.
The right-wing Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted U.S. demands to cease settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the administration intended to pave the way for final-status negotiations regarding a two-state solution. The latest flare-up came last week, when the administration criticised Netanyahu's approval of the construction of hundreds of new West Bank housing units.
While the Obama administration reportedly plans to unveil plans for new peace negotiations this fall, some analysts fear that its peace plans have gotten bogged down in what journalist Tony Karon labeled "roadmapolis" – a reference to the George W. Bush administration's two failed Middle East peace initiatives, the 2002 "road map for peace" and the 2007 Annapolis conference.
While it remains far too early to write the administration's political obituary, and much of the media commentary proclaiming Obama a failure has come from ideological opponents eager to make this image into a reality, it is becoming clear that the White House must take a new tack if it is going to keep its most high-profile domestic and international goals alive.
Wednesday's address to Congress on health care will be a start, as the president attempts to regain possession of a health care debate that slipped out of his control over the course of the summer.
Only time will tell whether this fall will be remembered as a time when the administration recovered its footing - as Obama did last fall during the 2008 presidential campaign - or as a period of continued decline in its political fortunes.
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