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Taliban, NATO prepare for big Helmand offensive
By Abdul Malek – Sun Feb 7, 12:16 pm ET
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Taliban militants are digging in ahead of a major NATO operation in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, in one of the biggest offensives in the eight-year-old war.
Planned Afghan Assault To Send 'Strong Signal'
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 7, 2010
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, says a major military offensive about to start will "send a strong signal" to Taliban insurgents that the Afghan government is expanding its security control.
Afghans flee ahead of major anti-Taliban offensive
AFP By Nasrat Shoib 07/02/2010
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Thousands of people are leaving their homes on the Marjah plain in southern Afghanistan ahead of a massive military operation to clear Taliban militants from their last stronghold.
NATO arrests Afghan cop accused in roadside bombs
By Rahim Faiez, Associated Press Writer – Sun Feb 7, 4:53 am ET
KABUL – NATO-led forces arrested a deputy provincial police chief they accused of helping place roadside bombs north of Kabul, officials said, in the latest sign of concerns about weaknesses in Afghan security forces.
U.S. not in direct talks with Taliban: Holbrooke
Sun Feb 7, 9:08 am ET
MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) – The United States is not in direct talks with the Afghan Taliban, and any eventual discussions would have to go hand in hand with military success, U.S. Special Representative Richard Holbrooke said on Sunday.
US opposes peace talks, delisting Taliban names
Pajhwok By Lalit K Jha 02/06/2010
WASHINGTON (PAN) - Ruling out any talks with the Taliban leadership, a top Obama Administration official has expressed opposition to the demands including removal of Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar names from the United Nations black list.
Karzai considers introducing Afghan conscription
Sunday, 7 February 2010 BBC News
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has told a conference of the world's top defence officials in Germany that he is considering introducing conscription.
NATO forces attacked in N Afghan province
KABUL, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Anti-government militants attacked a convoy of NATO-led troops in Baghlan province north of Afghanistan Sunday, provincial police chief Mohammad Kabir Andarabi said.
2 foreign troops killed in N. Afghanistan
KABUL, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two service men with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) died following a small-arms fire attack in northern Afghanistan Sunday.
NATO chief seeks broader ties with China, India
by Lorne Cook Sun Feb 7, 8:18 am ET
MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – The head of NATO said Sunday its troubles in Afghanistan showed it was vital to boost ties with nations like China, India and Pakistan and transform the alliance into a global security hub.
Revenge on the Taliban, from 10,000 feet
The Washington Post By David Ignatius 02/06/2010
In their joint operations against Taliban militants hiding in the tribal areas, the United States and Pakistan seem to have embraced a classic bit of battlefield advice: Don't get mad, get even.
A compelling way to build Afghanistan ties
Gulf Times - Opinion By Trudy Rubin/Washington Sunday7/2/2010
Readers often ask me if I ve read Three Cups of Tea, the best-seller by a self-styled crazy American named Greg Mortenson. The book describes how he came to build girls schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan Army Recaptures NW Militant Stronghold
Pakistan's military says its troops killed some 60 militants in the new offensive
VOA News February 7, 2010
Pakistan's army says its forces have recaptured a key Taliban stronghold in a region near the Afghan border.
Helmand Heroin Menace Grows
Poppy producing area diversifies into heroin as crop price falls.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Aziz Ahmad Tassal in Helmand (ARR No. 351, 04-Feb-10)
Helmand, the Afghan province that alone produces more than half of the world’s opium poppy, now presents another menace. As the price of the raw opium from the poppy plant has declined precipitously, local businessmen have branched out by refining it into heroin.
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Taliban, NATO prepare for big Helmand offensive
By Abdul Malek – Sun Feb 7, 12:16 pm ET
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Taliban militants are digging in ahead of a major NATO operation in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, in one of the biggest offensives in the eight-year-old war.
U.S. Marines are set to launch an operation within days to take Marjah, an area of lush farmland criss-crossed by canals in the center of Helmand, Afghanistan's most violent province.
The offensive will be the first major show of force since President Barack Obama ordered in 30,000 extra troops.
The operation has been flagged in advance in the hope militants will give up the fight in what commanders say is the last big Taliban enclave in the province.
"It has to do with letting people know what's coming in the hope that the hardcore Taliban, or a lot of the Taliban, will simply leave, and maybe there will be less of a fight," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Turkey on Saturday.
But some of the villagers escaping Marjah in fear of their lives said fighters are digging in rather than fleeing.
"The Taliban are not going to leave Marjah. We have seen them preparing themselves. They are bringing in people and weapons. We know there is going to be a big fight," said Abdul Manan, a man from Marjah who had fled to Helmand's capital, Lashkar Gah.
"The Taliban are very active in Marjah. They are planting mines there and in the surrounding areas," said villager Abdul Khaleq after arriving in Lashkar Gah with his family.
The United States and its allies, facing dwindling public support for the war, are hoping a big military push will convince the Taliban to accept a peace deal.
But U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke dismissed speculation Washington, which wants to start drawing down troops in 2011, was already holding talks with the Taliban.
"... I want to state very clearly that our nation is not involved in any direct contacts with the Taliban," he told reporters at a security conference in Munich, Germany.
Holbrooke said in principle negotiations and military operations could run in parallel, citing as examples the efforts to end the Vietnam war and the conflict in former Yugoslavia.
"But it must go hand in hand with security success. It is not an alternative to the military campaign. It requires military success to make progress."
"THE WRATH OF THE AMERICANS"
The Taliban have stepped up their fight against foreign troops in recent years, although they have largely shied away from face-to-face combat, relying instead on homemade bombs.
But Abdullah Nasrat, a Taliban commander in Nad Ali district where Marjah is located, told Reuters by telephone there were some 2,000 insurgents there ready to fight to the death.
"We are well prepared and will fight until the end. We don't have sophisticated weapons like the Americans with tanks and airplanes, but we have Islamic zeal. That is the power we have to fight against the infidels," he said.
Around 100 families have fled Marjah and surrounding areas, seeking refuge in Lashkar Gah over the last week, the provincial governor's spokesman Dawood Ahmadi said. Afghan families average around six members.
"On the government side, we are ready to help these people. We are ready to help up to 50,000 displaced people," he said, adding there was a possibility of more people fleeing. Those who fled said they feared for their lives.
"We know that the wrath of the Americans is coming upon us. We left Marjah to save our lives and our families' lives," the villager, Khaleq, said.
In Munich, Afghan President Hamid Karzai renewed a call for an end to civilian casualties in Afghanistan and a halt to military raids on Afghan villages by international forces.
Civilian casualties had been declining recently but "we'd like to see civilian casualties go completely," he said.
Civilian deaths and injuries inflicted during operations by international forces have caused deep anger among Afghans and analysts say that encouraged people to join the Taliban.
"We believe that the war on terror is not in the Afghan villages and homes. We believe this war on terror is in the sanctuaries, training grounds and the motivational factors and financial resources beyond the Afghan borders," Karzai said.
"Therefore ending operations in Afghan villages is what the Afghan people are seeking as a priority: ending raids at night on Afghan homes, ending the arrests of Afghans in their homes."
DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF ARRESTED
Washington and its allies are keen to train up Afghan forces so they can take more responsibility for maintaining security. But new training teams are urgently needed if Afghan security forces are to grow to a target of 300,000 personnel in 2011.
Defense Secretary Gates said on Sunday NATO allies could make up a shortfall of trainers by reshuffling rather than expanding their existing troop commitments.
But in a sign of the challenge Western troops face in setting up Afghan security forces they can trust, NATO said on Sunday that an Afghan provincial deputy police chief had been arrested as part of a ring that planted roadside bombs.
Western governments acknowledge that the police force is plagued by corruption, incompetence and infiltration by insurgents, undermining their efforts to transfer security.
International troops and Afghan security forces arrested the deputy police chief of mainly French-patrolled Kapisa province, Colonel Attaullah, in the province's Mahmud Raqi district, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
(Additional reporting by Jonathon Burch in Kabul, Ismail Sameem in Kandahar, Adam Entous in Ankara and William Maclean in Munich; Writing by Jonathon Burch and Myra MacDonald; editing by Robin Pomeroy)
(For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/afghanistanpakistan)
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Planned Afghan Assault To Send 'Strong Signal'
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty February 7, 2010
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, says a major military offensive about to start will "send a strong signal" to Taliban insurgents that the Afghan government is expanding its security control.
McChrystal said in Kabul today that the offensive planned for southern Afghanistan aims to clear out insurgents so local civilian authorities can retake control.
A big force of U.S. Marines as well as NATO and Afghan soldiers are expected to launch the offensive -- said by commanders to be the largest assault against Taliban-led militants since the war began -- in Helmand Province within days.
RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan has reported that residents of four major towns in Helmand are fleeing their homes ahead of the offensive.
Residents of Gereshk, Marjah, Naad Ali, and Baba Jee have already begun evacuating their homes and villages.
An RFE/RL correspondent said they are mostly heading for the provincial capital, Lashkargah, to seek shelter.
AFP reported earlier that hundreds of people have left Marjah, a city of 80,000.
"The government of Afghanistan will reclaim Marjah as one of its own," said the British commander of the operation, General Nick Carter.
NATO forces have been dropping leaflets in the region for weeks, warning residents of the impending assault.
A Taliban spokesman told AFP the insurgents were massing fighters around Marjah and "ready to fight."
with agency reports
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Afghans flee ahead of major anti-Taliban offensive
AFP By Nasrat Shoib 07/02/2010
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Thousands of people are leaving their homes on the Marjah plain in southern Afghanistan ahead of a massive military operation to clear Taliban militants from their last stronghold.
A huge force of US Marines leading NATO and Afghan soldiers is expected to launch the operation -- which commanders say will be the largest assault against the militants since the war began -- within days.
"The government of Afghanistan will reclaim Marjah as one of its own," said the British commander of the operation, General Nick Carter.
The assault is known as Operation Mushtarak -- Dari for "together", as Afghan troops will also play a pivotal role -- and has been flagged by military officials for months to either repel or draw in the enemy.
Taliban leaders say they are massing fighters around Marjah, in the centre of Helmand province, in preparation for a bloody battle.
"We are in control and ready to fight," said purported Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi, speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The area is said to be the last bastion of control for the militants, whose insurgency has nevertheless been spreading since their regime was overthrown in 2001.
Mushtarak echoes assaults last year -- the British Operation Panther's Claw and the Marines' Operation Dagger -- seen as successfully eradicating militants who had controlled other poppy-growing regions in Helmand valley.
Preparatory operations around Marjah, south of the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, have been going on for weeks, with leaflets dropped on the area from NATO helicopters warning residents of the assault to come.
Habibullah, 48, said he and his family left Marjah for Lashkar Gah two months ago to escape the violence.
"There are a lot of Taliban there. They are violent towards us, accusing us of spying for the foreign forces, demanding food all the time," he told AFP.
"There are still people living there and the Taliban are still in control, but there has been a lot of fighting, with gunfire and bombings, and lots of soldiers have been coming in to fight the Taliban and then leave," he said.
The battle to come is expected to be hard and bloody. The Taliban have evolved their tactics to a devastating degree, retreating from the battlefield and using IEDs, or improvised explosive devises, and suicide bomb attacks.
According to the Marines' Brigadier General Larry Nicholson, Marjah will present "the largest IED threat NATO has ever faced".
IEDs are crudely made bombs, often detonated by remote control. Their strike rate is highly accurate and military intelligence officers say they are now claiming up to 90 percent of foreign troops' deaths and casualties.
Of the 57 foreign troops killed in Afghanistan so far this year, the vast majority have fallen to IEDs.
Operation Mushtarak comes after US President Barack Obama announced in December his plan for a troop surge to take the fight to the militants to clear the way for desperately needed governance and development.
The US and NATO are deploying an extra 40,000 troops, on top of the 113,000 already in Afghanistan, as part of the surge, with most heading to the southern battleground.
The Marjah assault is the spearhead of a new counter-insurgency strategy, brainchild of US General Stanley McChrystal, who commands foreign forces in Afghanistan, aimed at winning over ordinary Afghans to support the government.
He told a global security conference in Istanbul last week the situation in Afghanistan is serious but no longer deteriorating because "we have made significant progress... and we'll make new progress in 2010".
President Hamid Karzai is eager to bring on board Taliban foot soldiers, who largely fight for cash rather than loyalty to the Islamists, by offering them money and jobs to put down arms and rejoin mainstream society.
Marjah is at the heart of one of the world's biggest poppy growing areas. Illegal drug exports from Afghanistan are believed to be worth close to three billion dollars a year, helping fund the insurgency.
French army Major General Jacques Lechevalier said clearing the Taliban from the area would also add momentum to the fight against drugs and corruption.
"It's not just the jihadists and the Taliban, but also drugs and corruption that makes the bed of Islamism," he said.
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NATO arrests Afghan cop accused in roadside bombs
By Rahim Faiez, Associated Press Writer – Sun Feb 7, 4:53 am ET
KABUL – NATO-led forces arrested a deputy provincial police chief they accused of helping place roadside bombs north of Kabul, officials said, in the latest sign of concerns about weaknesses in Afghan security forces.
Provincial officials said Sunday that the man was an honest and good officer.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees the police, wasn't informed about the arrest in advance and is contacting NATO to learn what happened, according to ministry spokesman Zamary Bashary.
Attaullah Wahab, the deputy police chief and security director in Kapisa province, was detained along with a bodyguard in a raid backed by helicopters while he was home in the provincial capital of Mahmud-i-Raqi, according to a spokesman for the provincial government, Halim Ayar.
NATO did not identify the suspect but said joint Afghan-coalition forces arrested an Afghan national police commander Friday for illegal activity and corruption in Kapisa and the Bagram district — the site of the main U.S. military hub — in neighboring Parwan province.
He was accused of involvement in the storage, distribution and installation of bombs on roads surrounding Mahmud-i-Raqi as well as corruption related to road reconstruction.
"He has been clearly linked to criminal activities including a murder during the summer of 2009," a NATO statement said of the detained police official.
Combating the threat of roadside bombs has taken on new urgency as 37,000 new U.S. and NATO troops arriving means more targets. Improvised explosives are the biggest single killer of international and Afghan forces, and they also kill hundreds of civilians.
On Sunday, a bomb detonated by remote control struck an Afghan patrol near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, killing three policemen, according to local police officer Mohammad Razaq.
Wahab had been in his post for about a year, and Ayar said he was "an honest man and a good officer." He said dozens of residents staged a brief protest against the arrest Saturday.
The confusion underscored the uneasy relationship between the U.S.-led forces and Afghan community leaders. President Hamid Karzai has frequently called on the international force to improve coordination with Afghan troops.
U.S.-led forces are increasing efforts to train Afghan police and soldiers and overcome concerns about infiltration by Taliban militants and corruption so the international force can eventually withdraw.
___
Associated Press writer Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.
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U.S. not in direct talks with Taliban: Holbrooke
Sun Feb 7, 9:08 am ET
MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) – The United States is not in direct talks with the Afghan Taliban, and any eventual discussions would have to go hand in hand with military success, U.S. Special Representative Richard Holbrooke said on Sunday.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, he dismissed media speculation since a January 28 Afghanistan conference in London that there had been secret contacts.
"The press since London has been kind of obsessed with the idea there are all sorts of secret talks going on with the Taliban. So I want to state very clearly that our nation is not involved in any direct contacts with the Taliban."
"Negotiations and military operations, however you define negotiations, can run in parallel...(but) success in military operations will affect whatever the discussions are."
President Hamid Karzai used the conference in London to repeat a call for reconciliation with his "disenchanted brothers" in the Taliban. He has since traveled to Saudi Arabia to ask its leaders for help reaching out to the militants.
Holbrooke said that in principle negotiations and military operations could run in parallel, citing as examples the efforts to end the Vietnam war and the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
Holbrooke added: "We appreciate this (reconciliation) issue, we recognize its importance. It's long been a missing component of our policy."
"But it must go hand in hand with security success. It is not an alternative to the military campaign. It requires military success to make progress."
(Reporting by William Maclean and Mark Trevelyan, Editing by Myra MacDonald)
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US opposes peace talks, delisting Taliban names
Pajhwok By Lalit K Jha 02/06/2010
WASHINGTON (PAN) - Ruling out any talks with the Taliban leadership, a top Obama Administration official has expressed opposition to the demands including removal of Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar names from the United Nations black list.
I cannot see that under the current circumstances anyone could realistically remove those names, the Special US Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, told reporters at a news conference held at the Washington Foreign Press Center.
Holbrooke was responding to a question on demands made by a number of tribal leaders in eastern Nanagarh province early this week urging the international community to remove the names of Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar from the UN black list.
The five names that were de-listed were people who had left the Taliban and are living openly and peacefully in Kabul. I don't think that the people (Mullah Omar and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar) you mentioned qualified for that kind of treatment, he said.
Holbrooke noted that this was not an American decision. It's a UN Security Council decision. And other nations have a vote and indeed four other nations have a veto on this issue. So whatever the US did, it would require the consent of other countries. And I'm virtually certain that wouldn't be forthcoming anyway, he said.
The envoy said while the US is supporting the reintegration process; it is not in favour of reconciliation with the Taliban. It is not happening now. And the United States is not involved in it. Is it important in the long run? Yes. Is it something we want to watch carefully? Yes, Holbrooke said.
Reconciliation is a reference to the possibility of discussions with the leadership of the Taliban about bringing about bringing a peaceful end to the war. This is what has gotten confused in people's minds, because people are talking about contacts with the Taliban, about negotiations with the Taliban, he said.
Let me be very clear. First of all, the United States is not in direct contact with the Taliban. Secondly, there's plenty of indirect, track-two or private-channel contacts between Taliban and Pashtun families, other people in other parts of the world. We're not part of that, he said.
Holbrooke said the United States' position on this was clearly stated by Secretary Clinton last July and President Obama in December. Anyone involved in either reintegration or reconciliation has to renounce al-Qaeda. That is the core objective, after all, of our presence in this region, is to defeat al Qaeda. And recent events show what a threat they continue to be. So let's not let the speculation get out ahead of the reality, he noted.
President Hamid Karzai is currently visiting Saudi Arabia to seek the Kingdom's support in efforts aimed at reconciliation with the Taliban and other insurgents groups.
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Karzai considers introducing Afghan conscription
Sunday, 7 February 2010 BBC News
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has told a conference of the world's top defence officials in Germany that he is considering introducing conscription.
The Afghan president said at the summit in Munich he wants to build an army and police force of 300,000 by 2012.
His comments come as US-led forces are poised to launch a major offensive in Helmand province against the Taliban.
The Nato commander, General Stanley McChrystal, said the operation would "send a strong signal".
Mr Karzai told the Munich conference that a number of Afghan community leaders had urged him to consider conscription.
"Afghanistan should be able to provide security for its people, so we are no longer a burden on the shoulders of the international community and the partners that are there with us today," he said.
The idea of reintroducing a military draft - which was used in Afghanistan until 1992 - has been suggested before.
Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak said last week there was no need for conscription as the army had no lack of recruits.
'Prepare for casualties'
The Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen McChrystal, promised a major offensive about to begin in central Helmand would send a "strong signal that the Afghan government is expanding its security control".
Thousands of coalition and Afghan troops are converging for the operation to capture the town of Marja, a Taliban stronghold.
The attack - codenamed Moshtarak, which means "together" in the Pashtun language of southern Afghanistan - is expected to begin any day.
UK Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth said on Sunday the British public should be ready for military casualties once the offensive begins.
"We shouldn't deny or pretend to people that ... casualties are not a very real risk on these kind of operations and people have to be prepared for that," he said.
Planning has been under way for weeks, with Nato helicopters dropping leaflets on the area warning residents to flee.
Provincial officials said about 35,000 residents of Marja were taking the advice and heading to other parts of Helmand.
One Marja resident, Gul Muhammed, told AFP news agency why he had left town.
"There are Taliban all over the place and foreign troops around Marja," he said. "So I was scared that we might get hurt."
The forthcoming offensive will be the first major military action since US President Barack Obama announced his surge of 30,000 extra US troops for Afghanistan in December.
Meanwhile, three Afghan policemen died on Sunday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb near the southern city of Kandahar.
In a separate development, Nato-led forces said they had arrested an Afghan police commander alleged to have worked with Taliban insurgents to distribute and plant roadside bombs.
Attaullah Wahab is also accused of corruption and of being linked to a murder.
His activities are said to have taken place in the north of the country at Bagram, site of the country's main US military hub, and in the provinces of Parwan and Kapisa.
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NATO forces attacked in N Afghan province
KABUL, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Anti-government militants attacked a convoy of NATO-led troops in Baghlan province north of Afghanistan Sunday, provincial police chief Mohammad Kabir Andarabi said.
"Soldiers from Hungary went to Andarab district today but on the way back to their base in Baghlan's provincial capital Pul-e- Khumri, they came under attack," Andarabi told Xinhua.
During the firefight a Taliban insurgent was killed and another sustained injuries, Andarabi added.
Meantime, Zabir Sadiqi, who claims to speak for Hizb-e-Islami -- an associate militant group to Taliban, accepted responsibility and, in talks with media via cellular phone from unknown location, said insurgents inflicted casualties on the troops by firing rockets.
However, Andarabi rejected the claim, stressing that there were no casualties on the NATO soldiers.
A civilian-military unit of Hungary -- the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) -- is based in Pul-e-Khumri to help strengthen security and reconstruction process in the northern Baghlan province.
Some 360 Hungarian soldiers within the framework of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been serving in Afghanistan to maintain security there.
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2 foreign troops killed in N. Afghanistan
KABUL, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Two service men with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) died following a small-arms fire attack in northern Afghanistan Sunday.
A press release issued by the ISAF confirmed the casualties but failed to disclose details.
Earlier the day, local police in northern Afghanistan's Baghlan province told Xinhua that an ISAF convey was attacked by insurgents' light-arms fire.
The ISAF forces returned fire, killing one insurgent.
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NATO chief seeks broader ties with China, India
by Lorne Cook Sun Feb 7, 8:18 am ET
MUNICH, Germany (AFP) – The head of NATO said Sunday its troubles in Afghanistan showed it was vital to boost ties with nations like China, India and Pakistan and transform the alliance into a global security hub.
Drawing from flaws exposed in Afghanistan, where NATO is struggling to hold off a Taliban and Al-Qaeda insurgency, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the military alliance should become a forum for consultation on major hot spots.
"This is a key lesson we are learning in Afghanistan today ... we need an entirely new compact between all the actors on the security stage," he said at a major security conference in Munich, southern Germany.
"India has a stake in Afghan stability. China too. And both could help further develop and rebuild Afghanistan. The same goes for Russia. Basically, Russia shares our security concerns," he said.
NATO and its partners have more than 110,000 troops in Afghanistan, but they have been unable to put down the insurgency more than eight years after a US-led coalition ousted the Taliban from power.
Under a recent switch of strategy, almost 40,000 extra troops are streaming into the conflict-torn country, aiming to protect civilians and win their support, rather than hunt down fighters, many re-supplied from Pakistan.
Following last month's conference in London, the strategy also involves a "surge" of civilian experts, backed by redoubled efforts from major donors, financial institutions and bodies like the United Nations and European Union.
"We cannot meet today's security requirements effectively without engaging much more actively and systematically with other important players on the international scene," Rasmussen said.
"The alliance should become the hub of a network of security partnerships and a centre for consultation on international security issues -- even issues on which the alliance might never take action," he went on.
"What would be the harm if countries such as China, India, Pakistan and others were to develop closer ties with NATO? I think, in fact, there would only be a benefit, in terms of trust, confidence and cooperation."
Rasmussen underlined that he did not seek to replace the work of the United Nations, and his stance was backed by German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg.
"We don't want to enter into any competition with the United Nations," the minister said. "We don't want to turn NATO into a global security agency."
The alliance's top military officer, US Admiral James Stavridis added: "NATO is not a global actor, but an actor in a global world. There's a huge difference."
Rasmussen said he envisaged a forum in which NATO and its partners world-wide could air views and concerns, and exchange best practice.
"And where, if it makes sense -- if we decide that NATO should have a role -- we might work out how to tackle global challenges together."
NATO has 28 member nations, but its partnership involves 44 countries in Afghanistan, as well as ties with other regional forums, such as the group of Mediterranean nations.
But Rasmussen said militaries did not train, plan or organise together, while non-governmental groups avoided armies out of concern it might harm their image, but that changing practices would require a "cultural revolution".
"NATO is much more than just 28 allies," said Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay. "Partnerships are integral to NATO's ability to meet security challenges at a distance."
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Revenge on the Taliban, from 10,000 feet
The Washington Post By David Ignatius 02/06/2010
In their joint operations against Taliban militants hiding in the tribal areas, the United States and Pakistan seem to have embraced a classic bit of battlefield advice: Don't get mad, get even.
Since the beginning of 2010, the United States has stepped up the pace of its Predator strikes, with quiet Pakistani support. These attacks appear to have killed Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, top lieutenant Qarimullah Hussain, who trained Taliban suicide bombers, and other key members of the insurgency, a senior administration official said Tuesday.
Though the Predators launch their Hellfire missiles from the lofty altitude of 10,000 feet, make no mistake: This is an intense and unrelenting campaign of assassination. It continued Tuesday with a fusillade of at least 17 missiles in North Waziristan, in an apparent assault on senior al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
The Predator blitz this year followed a Dec. 30 suicide attack on a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan, that had been active in targeting the Taliban insurgents across the border. That attack killed eight CIA personnel and left the agency eager to settle scores. The agency, backed by Pakistani intelligence, has done just that.
Hakimullah, who was hit Jan. 14, had posed in a taunting video with the Jordanian double agent who carried out the Khost bombing. Hakimullah also took credit for a wave of terrorist attacks across Pakistan that traumatized that nation.
Although Pakistan publicly criticizes the drone attacks, the administration official argued that the recent campaign "is being done in full concert and cooperation" with the Pakistani government. "We've been very pleased with the extent of the cooperation," the official said, adding that the "box" of geographical coordinates within which the Pakistanis allow the Predators to operate was wide enough to permit attacks on targets that are "geographically dispersed."
The Pakistanis have their own heavy score to settle with the Taliban, whose bombing attacks have stretched from Peshawar to Lahore. The Pakistani spy service, the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, has been a special target, with attacks on some of its senior officers and regional headquarters. That's one reason the Pakistanis have been cooperative; they're angry and they want revenge.
"It became personal for the ISI," said the senior administration official. Enraged by the attacks on their colleagues, Pakistani officers have helped the CIA gather intelligence in the tribal areas. The Predator barrage "has given the Pakistanis some breathing room," the administration official said.
U.S. officials were frustrated last year that although Islamabad blessed attacks on the Pakistani Taliban fighters who were setting off bombs at home, the Pakistanis were reluctant to strike insurgents linked with the Afghan Taliban, such as the Haqqani network and the so-called Quetta Shura, who were killing U.S. soldiers. This still concerns U.S. officials, but they note some expansion of targets.
The Pakistanis now recognize that there is "more of a blending together and a co-location of these groups," the senior official explained. "There's much more mingling, and to us, it demonstrates the collusion." He said the Pakistanis, too, had come to "recognize that militant organizations are operating across groups."
The U.S.-Pakistani cooperation extends to other activities as well. A senior Pentagon official said Tuesday that in Bajaur, a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, the two countries' military operations were "much more coordinated" across the two sides of the border.
The collaboration comes despite public accounts of friction, as was the case during the recent visit to Pakistan by Defense Secretary Bob Gates. Officials from both countries said Tuesday that those reports had been overdrawn. A Pakistani military official said, for example, that a day after stories that the Pakistanis would delay any offensive in North Waziristan, they launched an airstrike there. North Waziristan has also been a target for the Predator salvos.
American military involvement in Pakistan surfaced in a bloody incident Wednesday in which three American soldiers were among those killed by a car bomb in a border district known as Lower Dir. The soldiers were part of a group of about 80 Special Forces members who have been training the Pakistani Frontier Corps, which operates in the tribal areas. The Frontier Corps has been stepping up operations against insurgents in tribal areas such as Bajaur, Orakzai, Kurram and Khyber, a Pakistani source said Tuesday.
The tensions in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship remain, and it's unlikely that Islamabad will be trumpeting publicly the success of the drone attacks. But the slaughter of Pakistani civilians and the brazen attacks on the country's military have made the Pakistanis want to fight back.
"Drone attack" has become a vernacular phrase in Urdu, but it may not be spoken with quite as much vituperation today as it was a few months ago, before the suicide bombers went about their bloody work in Pakistan's cities and towns.
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A compelling way to build Afghanistan ties
Gulf Times - Opinion By Trudy Rubin/Washington Sunday7/2/2010
Readers often ask me if I ve read Three Cups of Tea, the best-seller by a self-styled crazy American named Greg Mortenson. The book describes how he came to build girls schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Often the questioners are quite passionate. This is no surprise, since Three Cups of Tea has topped the charts for three years, Mortenson s lectures pack huge halls, and America s top military brass frequently cite the book. Nearly 4mn copies have been sold, in 41 countries, and of the 131 schools that Greg s Central Asia Institute has built, none has been shut down by the Taliban.
I, too, have felt the book s pull and travelled with Mortenson in late 2007 to visit schools he d built in Pakistani Kashmir after a devastating earthquake. I have also gotten to know his amazing staff in Islamabad and Kabul.
But it s instructive to explore why Greg s book arouses such strong emotions. Especially now - as US troops surge in Afghanistan and many Americans feel the world is surging out of control, a feeling compounded by the Haiti earthquake and the chaotic response.
Americans want to hear some good news, to have a little hope, Greg told me by phone, on his way to a book talk in Vancouver, British Columbia. Readers also want to understand how the United States can do a better job of bringing stability to places such as Afghanistan.
You can find some answers in Greg s new book, Stones Into Schools: Promoting Peace With Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is even more fascinating than his first, with details of building schools in the world s most remote locations. Its message: Education is the best antidote to the Taliban.
If this sounds mushy, Greg s many meetings with hardened Afghan warriors, as described vividly in his books, show his insights are realistic. What moves his readers, I believe, is the way the books show that positive changes are still possible in the most difficult situations.
The key to such change, says Mortenson, is to listen to what local people tell you. The title for Stones Into Schools came from a hardened former mujahedeen commander in the remote Badakshan province of Afghanistan named Sadhar Khan, who talked about how much his country needed rebuilding. Khan told Mortenson: There has been far too much dying in these hills. He spoke of the Afghans who died fighting the Russians and the Taliban (whom most Afghans came to despise by the late 1990s). Now we must make their sacrifice worthwhile, he said. We must turn these stones into schools.
Even warriors want peace, says Mortenson, a lesson he learned by sitting down repeatedly with shuras (representative gatherings) of elders. He says one of the biggest American problems after the 2001 invasion was the lack of such attention paid to what Afghans themselves wanted. We should have consulted with shuras, and listened to, and respected, elders, he says. If we had, we definitely would have delivered aid differently.
Mortenson first learned this lesson over the famous three cups of tea, when he was saved by villagers in Korphe, Pakistan, after he got lost trying to summit K-2 mountain. He asked what he could do in return, and they requested a school, which became his first such venture. He learned then how crucial it was to involve locals if a project was to succeed.
We give skills, materials, teacher support, he says. The community must give the land, wood, free labour. This level of community involvement has so far prevented the destruction of any of his institute s schools, even during riots fanned by Islamists. Perhaps the most dramatic test will come this year when Mortenson plans to build a school in the home village of the Afghan Taliban s top commander, Mullah Omar, as requested by local elders.
Mortenson says that American officials who have most quickly grasped the importance of listening to shuras are military commanders. He was once a sceptic about the US military presence, because of civilian casualties, but now he says: I see that in the military there has been a huge learning curve. The military really gets it.
In late 2007, Mortenson received an e-mail from Col Christopher Kolenda, then a commander in Kunar province, suggesting that he build a school in that dicey area. After meeting with local elders, he built several schools there. Kolenda is now a senior adviser to the US commander, Gen Stanley McChrystal, and Mortenson s staff brings elders from many provinces to meet with him and his boss.
The Joint Chiefs chairman, Adm Mike Mullen, travelled to the opening of one of Greg s Afghan schools, and later told an American Legion convention: We cannot capture hearts and minds. We must engage them; we must listen to them
US civilian officials have been slower to grasp the need to confer more with locals and find it harder to do because of security considerations. Mortenson says if they did sit down with shuras, they would understand that what Afghans want most is training, whether in regular schools, or vocational or agricultural courses. Rather than use big contractors, he says, we must teach the Afghans themselves to do the job.
We need to believe, to take the risk, that people themselves can run their country. We need to change our mind-set, says Mortenson. I believe this message is what so moves Mortenson s readers, because he shows a way to change Afghan lives for the better. Add to that the moving stories of courageous girls who, in a culture stacked against them, manage to get an education, helped by warriors who decide that an educated girl is an asset to their village.
No wonder so many people read Mortenson s books. The Philadelphia Inquirer/MCT
Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Readers may write to her by e-mail at trubin@phillynews.com
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Pakistan Army Recaptures NW Militant Stronghold
Pakistan's military says its troops killed some 60 militants in the new offensive
VOA News February 7, 2010
Pakistan's army says its forces have recaptured a key Taliban stronghold in a region near the Afghan border.
A year ago, Pakistani forces had declared the group of villages called Damadola free of militants following a 2008 offensive. But officials say Taliban and al-Qaida militants recently returned to defend the strategically-located stronghold north of Khar, the main town in the Bajaur tribal agency.
Pakistan's military says its troops and a tribal militia, backed by warplanes and helicopter gunships, killed some 60 militants in the new offensive. The military's account has not been independently verified because aid workers and journalists are largely barred from the region.
Damadola has been the site of several U.S. drone missile strikes in recent years targeting al-Qaida leaders.
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Helmand Heroin Menace Grows
Poppy producing area diversifies into heroin as crop price falls.
Institute for War & Peace Reporting By Aziz Ahmad Tassal in Helmand (ARR No. 351, 04-Feb-10)
Helmand, the Afghan province that alone produces more than half of the world’s opium poppy, now presents another menace. As the price of the raw opium from the poppy plant has declined precipitously, local businessmen have branched out by refining it into heroin.
Marjah, a district close to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, is both a Taleban stronghold and the centre of heroin production. The connection is not accidental: the drug trade thrives in areas under insurgency, which protects the trade in return for tribute and taxes.
As the United States gears up for a renewed military effort in Afghanistan, Marjah has become the focus of a major operation to clear out the Taleban and hold the area. It will be a difficult battle: both fighters and those involved in the narcotics industry have much to lose.
“If the Americans come to Marjah, it will be very difficult for us to earn enough to feed our families,” said a 28-year-old worker in a heroin laboratory, who did not want his name to be used. “They have already moved many of the labs up into the mountains, and it is a very long way to go. We are afraid that someone will report us to the Americans. The Taleban say they will fight them, but we do not know what will happen.”
It is difficult to estimate the number of heroin laboratories in Helmand, but in 2007, when the British, American and Afghan forces retook the northern district of Musa Qala from the Taleban, more than 300 were discovered and destroyed, according to government sources.
Drug workers say that Marjah is now much bigger in the heroin trade than Musa Qala ever was. “There are hundreds of labs in Marjah,” said one worker from a heroin processing plant, who did not want to be named.
Heroin laboratories are not technically sophisticated, requiring little more than a heat source and some enamel containers for boiling the raw materials. It demands a steady supply of specific chemicals, mainly acetic anhydride, an acid which is not available in Afghanistan and has to be smuggled.
“It is smuggled in just like heroin is smuggled out,” said one laboratory worker. “Mostly it comes from Iran.”
Those involved in the trade say that Nimroz province, on the border with Iran, is a popular conduit for the substance. Taleban accompany the shipments, say the smugglers, and are well paid for their trouble. Each factory pays between 50,000 and 100,000 Pakistani rupees (590 to 1,180 US dollars) per month to the Taleban, say those involved in the trade.
Pakistan is also a rich source of the acid, says Sher Khan, a laboratory worker from Jalalabad.
“It comes in through Jalalabad,” he said. “If we hit a checkpoint, we say it is common acid. The police don’t know the difference.”
Once processed, the heroin leaves Afghanistan through a well-developed network, say smugglers.
“Most of the heroin goes out through Baramchi and Nimar to Iran,” Sher Khan said. “From there it is taken to Turkey. The heroin routes are very special. No one can smuggle heroin without the Taleban’s permission; if they try, the Taleban will confiscate it. The Taleban get the heroin out through familiar passages, because mines have been planted along other routes.”
For those who work in the heroin laboratories, the money is good.
“They pay me 800 Pakistani rupees (10 dollars) per day,” said one worker, who did not want to be named. “Why would I work anywhere else? I know that I am running a risk – I could be bombed, or attacked, but I have no choice. When the foreigners come to the surrounding villages, we run away and hide. This is the only way we can save ourselves. Now that I am experienced, the owner of the lab will not let me leave. It is very difficult to find good people.”
His friend, who gave his name as Sobhan, was also satisfied with his job.
“The good thing is that we work at night,” he said. “During the day I work on a farm, but I am happy to come here at night. They pay me in cash. And the foreigners cannot find us. We have made very good hideouts. And if the foreigners do come, we will fight them. The Taleban have told us to shoot anyone who comes here during the night when we are working.”
But one young man complained of the difficulties of processing heroin.
“It is harmful,” he insisted. “A lot of people get sick. The weather is hot, and we work close to the fire. I am used to it now, but it was very hard at the beginning. There is no more difficult work than this.”
The owner of a laboratory in Marjah acknowledged that it is difficult to find good help in the heroin trade.
“We openly compete with each other for skilled labour,” he said. “Anyone can do the work, but professionals produce a better product.”
The majority of Marjah residents are involved in the drug trade in one way or another, he added, but still it paid to be careful.
“We have only a few professionals, but not many labourers,” said the owner. “If a smuggler needs a large quantity of heroin he will bring us the labourers. We do not hire people from the street because we do not trust them. They might inform on us to the government.”
He said that the best workers came from Jalalabad – a former centre of opium which has now been declared poppy-free.
To the residents of Marjah, the heroin trade is just business as usual.
“The people here are happy about the heroin labs,” said one man. “The price of opium has declined, and if the price goes down, people’s economic condition deteriorates.”
The price of opium has fallen precipitously, due mostly to overproduction, experts say. Raw opium could fetch as much as 140 dollars per kilogramme in 2007; in 2009, the same quantity went for less than 40 dollars.
The Taleban are not the only ones getting a cut of the action, insisted another resident.
“The government also cooperates with the smugglers,” he said. “The smugglers pay them in order to let the heroin through. The Taleban take money just like the government, but they also let the smugglers rent their vehicles to transport the drugs.”
An official in Helmand’s department of counter-narcotics, who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied that the government was involved. He also maintained that the heroin trade was not as large as some have made out.
“We discovered and destroyed many factories this year,” he said. “The business is not as good as people say.”
Aziz Ahmad Tassal is an IWPR reporter in Helmand.
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