 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
New tension flares between US, Afghan leader
ISTANBUL (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai hit back Tuesday at stinging criticism by the US ambassador, raising new questions about ties between the two nations days ahead of a key conference in London.
U.S. Envoy’s Cables Show Worries on Afghan Plans
By ERIC SCHMITT The New York Times January 26, 2010
WASHINGTON — The United States ambassador in Kabul warned his superiors here in November that President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan “is not an adequate strategic partner” and “continues to shun responsibility for any sovereign burden,”
Karzai wins regional backing for Taliban peace plan
by Nicolas Cheviron – Tue Jan 26, 8:43 am ET
ISTANBUL (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai won regional support on Tuesday for his efforts to cajole Islamist insurgents to lay down their arms, as Germany offered more troops and cash for the ravaged nation.
Neighbor States Endorse Afghan Plan For Reconciliation
January 26, 2010 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
(RFE/RL) --- Leaders and senior officials from Afghanistan's neighbor countries today expressed support for President Hamid Karzai's plan to offer moderate Taliban elements reconciliation and reintegration into mainstream Afghan society.
Taliban Urged to ‘Reintegrate’ With $500 Million, Merkel Says
By Tony Czuczka
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Governments seeking to stabilize Afghanistan are planning a $500 million program to lure Taliban fighters back into civilian society, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
General McChrystal: Taliban could be part of solution in Afghanistan
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, told the Financial Times that high-level political negotiations with the Taliban could help bring an end to the conflict.
By Kristen Chick The Christian Science Monitor - Mon Jan 25, 3:03 pm ET
The commander of US forces in Afghanistan said that Afghan government negotiations with the Taliban could be part of a political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, in an interview published Monday.
General McChrystal: Taliban could be part of solution in Afghanistan
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, told the Financial Times that high-level political negotiations with the Taliban could help bring an end to the conflict.
By Kristen Chick The Christian Science Monitor - Mon Jan 25, 3:03 pm ET
The commander of US forces in Afghanistan said that Afghan government negotiations with the Taliban could be part of a political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, in an interview published Monday.
Human rights in Afghanistan must be guaranteed during Taleban talks
26 January 2010 Amnesty International
Human rights, including women's rights, must not be traded away or compromised during any reconciliation talks with the Taleban in Afghanistan, Amnesty International said on the eve of a London conference set to discuss deteriorating security conditions in the country.
Britain, Japan to help reintegrate Taliban foot soldiers
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, January 26, 2010; A07
Britain and Japan have agreed to head an international fund, expected to total up to $500 million over the next five years, as part of a broad plan to help lure Taliban fighters away from the insurgency with the promise of jobs, protection against retaliation, and the removal of their names from lists of U.S. and NATO targets.
ANALYSIS-Afghan 2011 handover start is carrot and stick
By Emma Graham-Harrison and Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A pledge to give Afghans the main role in securing several provinces by early 2011 is not the start of a major handover, but instead aims to hurry Kabul in building up security forces and promote a political settlement of the war.
Miliband to raise Dostum appointment with Afghan leader
Mon Jan 25, 12:30 pm ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he would raise with President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday the Afghan leader's decision to name militia leader Abdul Rashid Dostum his chief of army staff.
Merkel Says Germany to Add 500 Troops in Afghanistan (Update2)
By Tony Czuczka
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel said she will send 500 additional German troops to Afghanistan, bowing to U.S. pressure to widen a mission that most Germans reject.
No more French combat troops for Afghanistan: Sarkozy
Mon Jan 25, 3:18 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France will send no more combat troops to Afghanistan, in an interview on Monday three days before an international conference on stabilising the country.
NATO to name top civilian boss for Afghanistan
By Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jan 26, 7:19 am ET
BRUSSELS – NATO officials say the alliance has picked Britain's ambassador to Kabul to be its new civilian representative in Afghanistan.
Nine wounded in bombing outside US base in Kabul
by Waheedullah Massoud
KABUL (AFP) – A suicide bomber struck near a US military base in Kabul on Tuesday injuring at least nine Afghans, police and the NATO force said, just days ahead of a global summit on tackling a Taliban-led insurgency.
Taliban claims 25 dead in attack near U.S. base
January 26, 2010
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- As Afghan authorities announced the arrest of an alleged militant for planning last week's assault on Kabul, a bomber targeted a U.S. base outside the capital, the latest attempt by militants to strike the seat of Western and Afghan power.
Afghanistan: 4 policemen killed at checkpoint
By Noor Khan, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jan 26, 2:38 am ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Gunmen killed four Afghan policemen in a predawn attack Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, an official said.
Troops set for biggest push in south Afghanistan
Tue Jan 26, 3:54 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – NATO troops are to launch their biggest operation yet in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, the British general in charge of forces there has said.
Interview: NATO Chief Discusses Afghan Mission, London Conference
January 25, 2010 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that he expected concrete results from this week's London conference on Afghanistan.
NATO, Russia formally resume military ties before meeting about Afghanistan
By Slobodan Lekic, The Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Russia and NATO formally resumed military ties Tuesday in the latest sign of improving relations between the Cold War rivals as they move to boost co-operation in the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan.
4 Afghans kidnapped with China pair freed: police
January 25, 2010
(AFP) - KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — The Taliban have freed four Afghans abducted in the north earlier this month along with two Chinese engineers, who remain in militant custody, a police official said Monday.
£6m smuggled out of Afghanistan every day
More than £6 million in cash is being smuggled out of Afghanistan every day, a report by anti-fraud investigators has revealed.
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer in Kabul 25 Jan 2010
The sum is equivalent to more than £2.3bn a year, or more than three times the government's official tax and customs revenue, in a country plagued by corruption.
On the trail of the Taliban in Quetta
By M Ilyas Khan BBC News, Quetta January 25, 2010
In April 2009, Pakistani forces arrested a Taliban militant from Afghanistan carrying documents for his high command. He said this was based in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta.
Embracing Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Is No Method at All
Huffington Post By ul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould 01/25/2010
Colonel Kurtz: Did they say why [Captain] Willard, why they want to terminate my command?
Captain Willard: They told me, that you had gone totally insane and uh, that your methods were unsound. Colonel Kurtz: Are my methods unsound? Captain Willard: I don't see any method at all, Sir. Apocalypse Now
Canadian soldier in court on murder charge
January 25, 2010 CBC News
Court martial proceedings begin Monday for a Canadian soldier charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of a wounded Taliban insurgent in Afghanistan.
Afghan elections delayed, but even later date may come too soon
The decision to postpone Afghan elections until September violates the Constitution. But observers agree that extra time – even more than four months – is needed to erect safeguards against fraud.
By Ben Arnoldy Staff Writer The Christian Science Monitor - Jan 25 12:03 PM
New Delhi - The Afghan government has postponed upcoming parliamentary elections, but doubts are already surfacing as to whether the later date will be possible either.
AFGHANISTAN: "Humanitarian aid" not something the military can do - experts
KABUL, 26 January 2010 (IRIN) - Belligerent parties in Afghanistan should not call the aid they distribute "humanitarian", because this is to confuse neutral, impartial and needs-based assistance with "hearts and minds" projects designed to achieve specific ends, experts say.
Shattered palace mirrors efforts to rebuild Kabul
CNN Asia January 25th, 2010
Kabul, Afghanistan - It's name means "Abode of Peace," but the Darul-Aman Palace outside Kabul symbolizes the years of war and strife that have ravaged this city.
Back to Top
New tension flares between US, Afghan leader
ISTANBUL (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai hit back Tuesday at stinging criticism by the US ambassador, raising new questions about ties between the two nations days ahead of a key conference in London.
The New York Times published diplomatic cables sent by President Barack Obama's envoy to Kabul, Karl Eikenberry, in which he warned Karzai was "not an adequate strategic partner."
Eikenberry voiced concern about plans to pour more US troops into Afghanistan, warning it would only delay weaning Karzai off Washington and forcing him to take more responsibility for the nation.
But Karzai hit back at the criticism at a regional gathering in Istanbul, saying "Afghanistan is on the frontline of the war on terror" in a struggle which has cost "massive casualties."
"If partnership means submission to the American will, then, of course, it's not going to be the case," Karzai told reporters.
"But if partnership means cooperation between two sovereign countries, one of course very poor and the other very rich,... then we are partners," he said.
The friction came two days ahead of a 65-nation conference in London aimed at finding ways to bring stability to war-torn Afghanistan and adjacent Pakistan.
Karzai and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are set to take part in the conference in London, which is seen as complementing Obama's military strategy to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists.
While Obama has made Afghanistan a top foreign-policy priority, his administration has had a rocky relationship with Karzai with senior officials barely concealing their concerns about alleged corruption and ineffectiveness.
The year-old US administration has sought more distance from Karzai, who was close with previous president George W. Bush.
Tensions came to the fore last year after Karzai won a presidential election despite widespread allegations of ballot-stuffing. Under US pressure, Karzai agreed to a run-off vote which was cancelled when his main challenger baulked.
The Obama administration has since played down animosity with Karzai.
Retired general James Jones, Obama's national security adviser, on Monday pointed to pledges by Karzai since the disputed election as a key achievement in Afghanistan.
"We're encouraged by the steps President Karzai has taken to improve the effectiveness and the credibility of his government," Jones said at the Center for American Progress, a Washington think-tank.
"We're committed to working in partnerships to reduce corruption, which along with the insurgency is perhaps the greatest threat to Afghanistan," Jones said.
Eikenberry, a former US military commander in Afghanistan, wrote the cables in November as part of his objections to boosting US troops -- as proposed by the current commander, General Stanley McChrystal.
The message published by The New York Times said Karzai "continues to shun responsibility for any sovereign burden, whether defence, governance or development. He and much of his circle do not want the US to leave and are only too happy to see us invest further."
McChrystal ultimately won the argument and Obama approved the deployment of an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
U.S. Envoy’s Cables Show Worries on Afghan Plans
By ERIC SCHMITT The New York Times January 26, 2010
WASHINGTON — The United States ambassador in Kabul warned his superiors here in November that President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan “is not an adequate strategic partner” and “continues to shun responsibility for any sovereign burden,” according to a classified cable that offers a much bleaker accounting of the risks of sending additional American troops to Afghanistan than was previously known.
The broad outlines of two cables from the ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, became public within days after he sent them, and they were portrayed as having been the source of significant discussion in the White House, heightening tensions between diplomats and senior military officers, who supported an increase of 30,000 American troops.
But the full cables, obtained by The New York Times, show for the first time just how strongly the current ambassador felt about the leadership of the Afghan government, the state of its military and the chances that a troop buildup would actually hurt the war effort by making the Karzai government too dependent on the United States.
The cables — one four pages, the other three — also represent a detailed rebuttal to the counterinsurgency strategy offered by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top American and NATO commander in Afghanistan, who had argued that a rapid infusion of fresh troops was essential to avoid failure in the country.
They show that Mr. Eikenberry, a retired Army lieutenant general who once was the top American commander in Afghanistan, repeatedly cautioned that deploying sizable American reinforcements would result in “astronomical costs” — tens of billions of dollars — and would only deepen the dependence of the Afghan government on the United States.
“Sending additional forces will delay the day when Afghans will take over, and make it difficult, if not impossible, to bring our people home on a reasonable timetable,” he wrote Nov. 6. “An increased U.S. and foreign role in security and governance will increase Afghan dependence, at least in the short-term.”
Without offering details, Mr. Eikenberry has said in public hearings since then that his concerns have been dealt with, and that he supported the White House’s troop increase plan.
But it is not clear what might have changed about his assessment of President Karzai as a reliable partner, and the strong language of the cables may increase tensions between the ambassador and the Karzai government, especially as world leaders meet in London on Thursday to discuss a much-debated Afghan plan to reintegrate Taliban fighters. It also coincides with a strong effort by the administration to mend ties with Mr. Karzai.
An American official provided a copy of the cables to The Times after a reporter requested them. The official said it was important for the historical record that Mr. Eikenberry’s detailed assessments be made public, given that they were among the most important documents produced during the debate that led to the troop buildup.
On Nov. 6, Mr. Eikenberry wrote: “President Karzai is not an adequate strategic partner. The proposed counterinsurgency strategy assumes an Afghan political leadership that is both able to take responsibility and to exert sovereignty in the furtherance of our goal — a secure, peaceful, minimally self-sufficient Afghanistan hardened against transnational terrorist groups.
“Yet Karzai continues to shun responsibility for any sovereign burden, whether defense, governance or development. He and much of his circle do not want the U.S. to leave and are only too happy to see us invest further,” Mr. Eikenberry wrote. “They assume we covet their territory for a never-ending ‘war on terror’ and for military bases to use against surrounding powers.”
He continued, “Beyond Karzai himself, there is no political ruling class that provides an overarching national identity that transcends local affiliations and provides reliable partnership.”
In a second cable, dated Nov. 9, he expressed new concerns: “In a PBS interview on November 7, Karzai sounded bizarrely cautionary notes about his willingness to address governance and corruption. This tracks with his record of inaction or grudging compliance in this area.”
On Monday, Mr. Eikenberry declined through an embassy spokeswoman, Caitlin M. Hayden, to comment on the cables and his views on Mr. Karzai. She said by e-mail, “We stand by what we provided during the review process, which got us to the clear strategy we’re now implementing, that the ambassador unequivocally supports.”
In his memos, Mr. Eikenberry raised other concerns. He said he had serious doubts about the ability of the Afghan police and military forces to take over security duties in the country by 2013. “The Army’s high attrition and low recruitment rates for Pashtuns in the south are crippling,” he wrote. “Simply keeping the force at current levels requires tens of thousands of new recruits every year to replace attrition losses and battlefield casualties.”
The ambassador, who left the military last April to become Mr. Obama’s emissary, also complained about an inadequate civilian counterpart organization to the NATO military command in Afghanistan. Nearly three months later, he is still expressing concerns about too few civilian experts in Afghanistan.
He also noted worries that the success of Mr. Obama’s Afghanistan policy hinged on Pakistani forces’ eliminating militants’ havens in the mountainous region near the Afghan border.
“Pakistan will remain the single greatest source of Afghan instability so long as the border sanctuaries remain,” he wrote. “Until this sanctuary problem is fully addressed, the gains from sending additional forces may be fleeting.”
“As we contemplate greatly expanding our presence in Afghanistan, the better answer to our difficulties could well be to further ratchet up our engagement in Pakistan,” he wrote without elaboration.
On Nov. 9, he repeatedly warned against rushing into a large deployment of more American forces without further study.
He urged that the White House appoint a bipartisan panel of “civilian and military experts to examine the Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy” and provide recommendations by the end of 2009. The recommendation, which would have extended a White House-led policy review of many months, was not accepted.
Mr. Eikenberry suggested sending a relatively small force to train Afghan security forces and protect some population centers, and to condition more troops on the Afghans’ meeting objectives, like committing to taking full responsibility for national defense by a specific date.
And while General McChrystal warned of failure if additional troops were not deployed, Mr. Eikenberry concluded by cautioning of competing risks “that we will become more deeply engaged here with no way to extricate ourselves, short of allowing the country to descend again into lawlessness and chaos.”
Back to Top
Back to Top
Karzai wins regional backing for Taliban peace plan
by Nicolas Cheviron – Tue Jan 26, 8:43 am ET
ISTANBUL (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai won regional support on Tuesday for his efforts to cajole Islamist insurgents to lay down their arms, as Germany offered more troops and cash for the ravaged nation.
After talks with his Turkish and Pakistani peers, as well as officials from countries such as China, Iran and Russia, Karzai described moderate Taliban fighters as "sons of the Afghan soil" who should be brought back into the fold.
And in a joint statement after the meeting in Istanbul, the participants declared that they "support the Afghan national process of reconciliation and reintegration ... in a way that is Afghan-led and -driven."
The Turkish-hosted talks form part of the build-up to a major conference in London on Thursday where Karzai hopes to secure Western support for his strategy of wooing Taliban fighters with the lure of jobs and money.
That strategy already appears to have won the endorsement of Germany, whose Chancellor Angela Merkel announced Tuesday that her government would ask parliament for another 500 troops for Afghanistan.
She said Berlin would also provide 50 million euros (70 million dollars) to a 500-million-dollar global fund to bring insurgents into the mainstream and roughly double development aid to 430 million euros.
Berlin currently has about 4,300 troops in Afghanistan. Merkel's government wants to increase that by 500 as well as offer 350 reservists who could be deployed for a limited period.
Karzai meanwhile told reporters in Istanbul that the reintegration of Taliban followers was essential to national unity, provided they were not followers of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.
"Those Taliban who were not part of terrorist networks or Al-Qaeda are the sons of the Afghan soil," Karzai said. "They are thousands and thousands and thousands and they have to be reintegrated." Facts: The UN Taliban blacklist
On Monday, Karzai said he would appeal at the conference in London for Taliban names to be removed from a UN blacklist.
The idea had previously met resistance but "as we are talking today, there is more willingness that this can be reconsidered," he said.
While there was no immediate reaction to the proposal, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid stated last week that "the only political solution is that the foreign forces and the Afghan government surrender to us." Focus: Taliban unmoved by talk of peace overtures
Attacks by Islamist insurgents have been on the upsurge in recent months. In the latest attack, at least five Afghan civilians were wounded Tuesday when a suicide bomber in a car laden with explosives struck near a foreign military base in Kabul.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs noted that US generals David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal had drawn parallels between Afghanistan and reconciliation schemes that had worked with factions in Iraq.
Gibbs did not comment in detail on Karzai's plan.
But he said Washington was open to "a similar path to what happened in Iraq... provided that whoever this is accepts the Afghan constitution, renounces violence, and publicly breaks with groups that advocate violence."
Richard Holbrooke, the special US envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, also said Monday that the 65 nations meeting in London would back Kabul's proposal to set up a reintegration fund to persuade fighters to lay down arms.
The intensified peace efforts come as the United States and allies aim for an eventual withdrawal from Afghanistan after eight years of battling a brutal Islamist insurgency. Related article: Troops set for biggest Helmand mission
Under a plan announced by President Barack Obama in December, 30,000 more US troops are to be deployed to the battlefield this year, and NATO partners have pledged about 10,000 new troops.
That would swell the foreign deployment in Afghanistan to about 150,000 to tackle the insurgency and train Afghan police and army to prepare for when US troops begin to withdraw in mid-2011.
Although Merkel refrained from giving a withdrawal date, her foreign minister said Germany wants to start bringing its soldiers home in 2011. Related article: Troops set for biggest Helmand mission
And in a further sign of a shift in focus, diplomats said Britain's ambassador in Kabul, Mark Sewill, was to be named as NATO's new civilian representative in Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Neighbor States Endorse Afghan Plan For Reconciliation
January 26, 2010 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
(RFE/RL) --- Leaders and senior officials from Afghanistan's neighbor countries today expressed support for President Hamid Karzai's plan to offer moderate Taliban elements reconciliation and reintegration into mainstream Afghan society.
The meeting in the Turkish city of Istanbul took place in the diplomatic run-up to a big conference on January 28 in London on the country's future.
The presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan, Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari, were present, together with officials from Iran, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and China, all of which share common borders with Afghanistan.
Hosted by Turkish President Abdullah Gul, the meeting included observers representing the United States, Britain, and Russia, as well as the European Union and NATO.
Participants issued a joint statement afterwards, saying they support a process of reconciliation within Afghan society, and reintegration of insurgent elements. It said the reconciliation process must be driven and led by the Afghans themselves.
The statement appears to be a clear endorsement of Karzai's plan to draw low- and mid-ranking Taliban moderates into reconciliation with his government, provided they have not been involved in terrorism.
Karzai said today that there are many thousands of such individuals, whom he called "sons of the Afghan soil."
That same plan was discussed at the January 25 summit of Karzai, Zardari, and Gul in Istanbul. At that meeting, Karzai's plan to draw moderate Taliban elements into reconciliation with his government was discussed.
Karzai said after the summit that the plan has international and regional support, including "the backing of our partners, particularly the United States and Europe. It also has greater recognition within our neighborhood."
In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs noted that reconciliation schemes had worked with various factions in Iraq. Gibbs said the United States is open to a similar path in Afghanistan to that in Iraq -- provided that the factions involved accept the Afghan Constitution, renounce violence, and publicly break with groups that advocate violence.
Speaking at the same news conference as Karzai, Zardari spoke in favor of reconciliation as opposed to open-ended military action.
"No democratic government or no democratic party can talk about only war. We have to talk about peace," Zardari said.
"And if there are any people who are reconcilable, or people who want to give up their way of life, democracy always welcomes them back."
An Afghan spokesman said Karzai welcomed the readiness of the United Nations to consider a proposal from his government to remove some Taliban names from its blacklist, making them available for negotiations.
with agency reports
Back to Top
Back to Top
Taliban Urged to ‘Reintegrate’ With $500 Million, Merkel Says
By Tony Czuczka
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Governments seeking to stabilize Afghanistan are planning a $500 million program to lure Taliban fighters back into civilian society, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
The plan will be presented at an international conference on Afghanistan in London on Jan. 28, in a response to a call by Afghan President Hamid Karzai for help in getting insurgents to stop fighting his government, Merkel said in Berlin today.
“This is an international accord to set up a fund to allow reintegration in cooperation with the Afghan government,” Merkel told reporters. Germany will contribute 10 million euros ($14 million) a year for five years “as part of a fund of about 350 million euros, that is $500 million,” she said.
Taliban members who are not part of the al-Qaeda terrorist network should be integrated into society, Karzai said during a stop in Turkey today. Those who joined the Taliban “are children of Afghanistan,” he said in remarks in Istanbul aired by NTV television and translated into Turkish. Karzai is due to arrive in Berlin later today for talks with Merkel before he travels on to the London conference.
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan, said yesterday that Karzai’s initiative would fill a gap in dealing with the Taliban because “there’s no good program to invite them back into the fold.”
“We are going to go to London to affirm our international support for it,” Holbrooke said in an interview on MSNBC. “Money will be forthcoming for it. I can’t say how much. The Japanese are going to take the lead.”
Back to Top
Back to Top
General McChrystal: Taliban could be part of solution in Afghanistan
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, told the Financial Times that high-level political negotiations with the Taliban could help bring an end to the conflict.
By Kristen Chick The Christian Science Monitor - Mon Jan 25, 3:03 pm ET
The commander of US forces in Afghanistan said that Afghan government negotiations with the Taliban could be part of a political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, in an interview published Monday.
Gen. Stanley McChrystal's remarks, though hardly the first mention of talks with the Taliban by a US military official, come before an international conference on Afghanistan in London Thursday expected to address a framework for Afghanistan to become responsible for its own security.
In an interview with the Financial Times published Monday, McChrystal said high-level political negotiations with leaders of the Taliban could help bring an end to the conflict.
“I think that [negotiation] is in the purview of the government of Afghanistan to do, but I believe that a political solution to all conflicts is the inevitable outcome. And it’s the right outcome. I think that the re-integration of fighters can take a lot of the energy out of the current levels of the insurgency. Then I think you open up the option, the possibility, for everybody to look at what’s the right combination of participation in the government here.
When asked if senior Taliban leaders might eventually become government leaders in Kabul, McChrystal said “I think that anybody who dedicates themselves to the future and not the past, and anybody whose future is focused on the right kinds of things for Afghanistan,” might participate in government. He also said he hoped the international community would walk out of the conference Thursday with a “renewed commitment” to the “right outcome” for the Afghan people.
McChrystal’s position on negotiations with the Taliban is not groundbreaking. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of US Central Command, which overseas US forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan, took the same position in October 2008, as Reuters reported. But McChrystal’s statement could be aimed toward influencing Thursday's conference in London.
His comments also come after the leader of the UN mission in Afghanistan called Sunday for the removal of some Taliban leaders from the UN’s terrorist list as a step toward beginning negotiations, reports The New York Times.
A draft communiqué for the London conference focuses on committing the international community to creating a framework for the transition of security responsibility to the Afghans, reports Reuters. The document says that transition would begin in 2010 and that coalition forces may move to a supporting role in a number of provinces by 2011. The document outlines the establishment and international funding of a national reintegration organization that will reach out to insurgents “who are prepared to work peacefully within the constitutional framework and have no links to terrorist groups such as [Al Qaeda]."
The Daily Telegraph reports that a central point of the conference will be to rapidly increase the size of the Afghan Army and police forces so that they are capable of taking responsibility for security in Afghanistan, a position US officials and military commanders have long encouraged. The newspaper reports that NATO and the Afghan government will set the goal of growing the Army from 100,000 to 172,000 by October next year. The Telegraph reported that the Afghan minister of defense says his forces aim to be "self-reliant in the next three to five years."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Pakistan's former spymaster: Taliban leader is ready to talk
By Saeed Shah And Jonathan S. Landay, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Mon Jan 25, 7:16 pm ET
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — The U.S. must negotiate a political settlement to the Afghanistan war directly with Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar because any bid to split the insurgency through defections will fail, said the Pakistani former intelligence officer who trained the insurgent chief.
Omar is open to such talks, asserted retired Brigadier Sultan Amir Tarar , a former operative of Pakistan's premier spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate . He is popularly known as Colonel Imam, whose exploits have gained him near-legendary status in central Asia .
"If a sincere message comes from the Americans, these people (the Taliban ) are very big-hearted. They will listen. But if you try to divide the Taliban , you'll fail. Anyone who leaves Mullah Omar is no more Taliban . Such people are just trying to deceive," said Tarar, a tall, imposing man with a long gray beard and white turban, in an interview with McClatchy .
His comments came as the U.S. and its NATO allies appear increasingly anxious to find a path toward a political resolution to the more than eight-year-old war whose escalating human and financial costs are fueling growing popular opposition.
In Washington , U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones was asked by McClatchy if the Obama administration ruled out having the ISI act as a conduit between Omar and the U.S., as Pakistani officials are advocating.
"We are pursuing a general strategy of engagement," replied Jones, a former four-star Marine general. "We'll see where this takes us."
Senior U.S. and European officials have in recent days been heavily promoting a "re-integration" plan under which low-level Taliban fighters are to be offered jobs, education and protection in return for renouncing al Qaida and defecting to the Afghan government. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to unveil the initiative at an international conference on Afghanistan in London on Thursday.
Karzai also is being encouraged to reach out to senior Taliban leaders, who U.S. commanders think may be induced to switch sides under the pressure of a stepped up military campaign by the 116,000-strong U.S.-led international force bolstered by 30,000 more American soldiers, most of who are due to arrive this summer.
"The U.S. remains committed to continued engagement by the Afghan government to politically reconcile any Afghan citizen willing to renounce al Qaida and violence and to accept the Afghan Constitution," said an administration official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
Some U.S. officials and experts, however, see little chance for progress on a political resolution.
Omar, who has led the Taliban since its inception in 1992 and is thought to be directing the insurgency from a sanctuary in the western Pakistani city of Quetta, has repeatedly rejected negotiations until all foreign forces leave Afghanistan , they pointed out.
"I don't think anything is happening here," said a U.S. defense official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue with a journalist.
Furthermore, the insurgents have expanded to 34 of Afghanistan's 36 provinces, and they think they're winning and that they only have to out-wait the Obama administration, which set July 2011 as the start of a U.S. troop withdrawal.
"If I were sitting on the side of those trying to be brought into some kind of reconciliation process, I'd be saying time is on my side," said a former senior U.S. intelligence official with long experience in Afghanistan and Pakistan who requested anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity.
Tarar, 65, a key player in Afghanistan from the 1979-89 Soviet occupation until 2001, said he trained Omar after he graduated from an Islamic seminary in 1985 to fight as a guerrilla against the Soviet forces. At the time, the ISI was running secret camps for "mujahedin" fighters along the Afghan border with U.S. funding.
Tarar, who worked closely with the CIA and was schooled in guerrilla warfare at Fort Bragg, N.C. , arranged for Omar's medical treatment after he was injured. They met again in 1994 after the Pakistani official was posted in the western Afghan city of Herat and "got closer to each other," Tarar said.
The ISI saw the potential of Omar's movement of Islamic purists in the mid-1990s and heavily backed them against the government formed by the victorious anti-Soviet mujahedin. When the Taliban swept into Kabul in 1996, they gave sanctuary to Osama bin Laden .
The Pakistani security establishment thinks that Omar's ambitions are limited to Afghanistan , and that the Taliban can now be persuaded to share power with other Afghan factions.
"Mullah Omar is highly respected, very faithful to his country. He's the only answer. He's a very reasonable man," said Tarar, who insisted he was speaking in a personal capacity. "He's a very effective man, no other man is effective. He's for peace, not war. The Americans don't realize this. He wants his country to be peaceful. He doesn't want to destroy his country."
Tarar said that Omar would be willing to cut a deal, if it would lead to the departure of foreign troops and included funds to rebuild Afghanistan . "I can help," he said. "But can I trust the Americans?"
Pakistan admitted last weekend that it is talking to "all levels" of the Taliban .
Western diplomats think the ISI must be involved in any negotiations or it would act as a spoiler, continuing to provide aid to the Taliban and allied insurgent groups as part of a goal to install in Kabul a pro- Pakistan regime that would sever close ties with India .
Tarar said that without talks, the war would grind on with U.S. forces ignoring the counterinsurgency textbooks that call for the use of minimal force and winning the support of the people.
"The time is on the Taliban's side. The longer the Americans stay, the more complete will be their defeat. They will not be routed but they will be worn out, psychologically and physically," he said.
(Shah is a McClatchy special correspondent. Landay reported from Washington .)
Back to Top
Back to Top
Human rights in Afghanistan must be guaranteed during Taleban talks
26 January 2010 Amnesty International
Human rights, including women's rights, must not be traded away or compromised during any reconciliation talks with the Taleban in Afghanistan, Amnesty International said on the eve of a London conference set to discuss deteriorating security conditions in the country.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, other leaders and foreign ministers are to discuss security arrangements in Afghanistan for the next two years, including reconciliation programmes to reintegrate so-called moderate elements of Taleban.
"Any discussions with the Taleban must include clear commitments that they will respect and promote the rights of the Afghan people," said Sam Zarifi, director of Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific programme.
"The Taleban established a terrible record of violating human rights during their rule and they have done nothing since then to indicate they will act differently if they return to power."
"The policymakers gathered in London this week have to show that they will not sacrifice the well-being of the Afghan people at the altar of political and military expediency."
Similar deals with the Taleban in neighbouring Pakistan led to increased human rights violations in areas under Taleban control and a significant escalation in conflict and insecurity.
The Afghan government and insurgent groups must both adhere to Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law and domestic law, Amnesty International said.
The Taleban and other insurgent groups in Afghanistan have shown little regard for human rights and the laws of war, deliberately targeting civilians, launching indiscriminate suicide attacks in which civilians are killed and engaging in the wholesale destruction of girls’ education.
According to UN figures, the Taleban were responsible for two thirds of the more than 2400 civilian casualties in Afghanistan last year, the bloodiest year yet since the fall of the Taleban.
In areas under their control, the Taleban have severely curtailed the rights of girls and women, including the denial of education, employment, freedom of movement and political participation and representation.
Afghan civil society groups, in particular women's groups, have voiced serious alarms about the prospect of ceding any type of political control to the Taleban.
"Diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict are a positive step forward," said Sam Zarifi, "but the rights of the Afghan people must never be negotiated away.
"It is our experience that peace without justice or human rights is not real peace and could ultimately lead to further conflict."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Britain, Japan to help reintegrate Taliban foot soldiers
By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, January 26, 2010; A07
Britain and Japan have agreed to head an international fund, expected to total up to $500 million over the next five years, as part of a broad plan to help lure Taliban fighters away from the insurgency with the promise of jobs, protection against retaliation, and the removal of their names from lists of U.S. and NATO targets.
Establishment of the fund will be announced Thursday at a high-level international conference on Afghanistan in London, according to U.S. and British officials. Representatives from nearly 70 nations, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, will attend.
The fund will help support a proposal by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, to be announced at the conference, to begin the reintegration of low-level fighters. Karzai will also outline his strategy for reconciliation with amenable insurgent leaders.
Reintegration is a key component of the Afghanistan strategy President Obama outlined last fall. U.S. officials have said that they believe that up to 80 percent of Taliban foot soldiers are fighting for money and because of local grievances rather than in support of an ideology. Earlier reintegration efforts have failed, officials have said, because of poor planning, inadequate security and insufficient financial support.
Japan is expected to provide the largest contribution to the new fund, out of a $5 billion aid commitment made in November. Britain and the United States also plan to make sizable contributions, officials said.
The administration is looking to the one-day conference for policy commitments in support of Obama's new strategy -- including his deployment of more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops -- from governments whose backing has often been tentative in the face of widespread opposition from their publics. Although several other nations, including Britain, have promised to send more forces, early commitments of up to 7,000 troops include some who had been previously scheduled to be rotated into Afghanistan. Both Germany and France have resisted calls to send more troops, and Canada and the Netherlands have set dates for the withdrawal of their combat forces.
Karzai is also expected to present the conference with new economic development proposals and plans to stem the corruption that plagues his government.
U.N. diplomats said Monday that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon plans to announce at the conference the appointment of a new U.N. special envoy to Afghanistan to play a leading role in overseeing often-overlapping and uncoordinated development efforts by the United States and NATO. The current envoy, Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide, is scheduled to depart Afghanistan in March. The leading candidate to replace him, U.S. and allied officials said, is Sweden's Stephan de Mistura, a career U.N. diplomat who previously served as head of the U.N. mission in Iraq.
Most attention in the lead-up to the conference, however, has focused on the reintegration and reconciliation plans. Until recently, Obama's administration, like George W. Bush's, had expressed interest in the reintegration of low-level Taliban fighters while resisting suggestions that senior insurgent leaders could be wooed toward reconciliation with the Afghan government.
More recently, however, U.S. officials have said that anyone, with few exceptions, who agrees to lay down arms and respect the Afghan constitution can potentially be reconciled. When Eide suggested last month that the United Nations reconsider some of the names on its "blacklist" of terrorists, Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he was not opposed.
In an interview Monday with MSNBC, Holbrooke said he saw no reason to take senior Taliban leaders such as Mohammad Omar off the list. "But we can revisit that list," he said. "Some of the people on it are dead. Some probably are innocent. We ought to reexamine it."
But with insurgent forces inflicting heavy losses on U.S., NATO and Afghan troops, and leaders of the Taliban and several related groups showing little inclination to negotiate, U.S. and international efforts have focused on the reintegration of lower-level insurgents.
"The people out there we are talking about are not the ideological leaders," Holbrooke said. "And isn't it a lot better to invite them off the battlefield through a program of jobs, land, integration, than it is to have to try to kill every one of them?"
Although some Afghanistan experts have called U.S. assessments of Taliban foot soldiers naive, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, has called reintegration a key component of U.S. counterinsurgency strategy.
In guidance to commanders in October, McChrystal instructed them to open dialogues to "determine local grievances and reasons for fighting" and then try to address them; establish assimilation plans with sympathetic community leaders; and use military funds to create "employment opportunities" for willing insurgents.
"Do not offer any rewards or promises of immunity or amnesty" from Afghan government prosecution, the guidance said, "but consider placing the individual(s) on a restricted target list pending determination of reliability."
In an interview with the Financial Times published Monday, McChrystal said that "a political solution to all conflicts is the inevitable outcome" and that "reintegration of fighters can take a lot of the energy out of the current levels of the insurgency."
In the meantime, McChrystal said, he expects a rough year ahead. "I think what the insurgents are going to do this year is keep the violence as high as they can," he said. "They have got to create the perception that Afghanistan's on fire. They have to create the perception that the government of Afghanistan and coalition partners can't deal with it, that it's getting to the point geographically and intensiveness that we can't do it."
McChrystal said he anticipated increased Taliban use of roadside and suicide bombs that will further alienate the population, while increased coalition forces continue to defeat the insurgents in direct military engagements.
"I think in a year, they could look pretty desperate," he said.
Staff writer Greg Jaffe contributed to this report.
Back to Top
Back to Top
ANALYSIS-Afghan 2011 handover start is carrot and stick
By Emma Graham-Harrison and Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, Jan 26 (Reuters) - A pledge to give Afghans the main role in securing several provinces by early 2011 is not the start of a major handover, but instead aims to hurry Kabul in building up security forces and promote a political settlement of the war.
If successful, the target laid out in a draft communique for the Jan. 28 London conference will also allow Western politicians to claim concrete progress in a war that has dragged on for more than eight and is increasingly unpopular with home electorates.
"I don't think it's going to be a massive handover," said John Dempsey, a lawyer at the United States Institute of Peace in Kabul, who has discussed the plan with some of the diplomats who drew it up and describes it as "ambitious".
"It is to remind the Afghan government that they are going to have this obligation, so they take building up the army and the police force seriously. It is also to send the message to the Taliban that the international security forces don't plan to be around forever," he said.
Provinces chosen for the handover are likely to be more peaceful northern areas where the insurgency has made fewest inroads, because Afghanistan's long-neglected security forces would be hard pressed to defend anywhere else.
Foreign troops would also keep a supporting role, potentially offering anything from backup on complex raids to air support.
"The Afghan forces have not reached the level to be able to take control of all security," said Noor Ul-haq Olumi, a senior general during the communist regime who is now a lawmaker.
Certainly nobody expects Afghans to be managing the Taliban heartlands, provinces like Kandahar and Helmand, any time soon.
UK Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth admitted on Sunday that the handover would be a long process. Senior Afghans also warned that even the army, considered better trained, equipped and with higher morale than the police, could not manage alone everywhere.
"What sort of impact have foreign and Afghan troops made so far together, to make us optimistic Afghans alone will be able to do it?" asked former Prime Minister Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai.
The Defence Ministry highlighted Afghan forces' role securing the capital, where they have formally taken over from foreign troops, but said a national handover would take half a decade.
"We have the responsibility for Kabul which is very important and vital and comes under more sophisticated attacks. We are doing ok here," said spokesman Zaher Azimi.
"Afghan forces will be able to take control of all security responsibilities in five years provided they get the pledged scores of aircraft and heavy weapons," he said.
TALKS AND REINTEGRATION
The handover plans come at a time when violence is at its highest level since the 2001 ouster of the Taliban. Last year was the deadliest of the war for civilians and foreign troops.
U.S. President Barack Obama is sending an additional 30,000 troops to try and turn the tide, but has also said he will begin to scale them back by the middle of next year.
So Karzai and the West are also pushing plans to lure Taliban foot soldiers away from the conflict with cash, jobs and land, and trying to persuade leaders to sit down and talk about a peace settlement. The withdrawal and negotiations plans are linked.
Insurgent leaders are unhappy about the reintegration scheme for ordinary fighters, but one of the main groups has welcomed the pullout schedule as a possible step towards talks.
"We do not see a hindrance to the negotiations provided a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces is set," said Wali Ullah, a spokesman for Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a veteran guerrilla commander who leads the major Hezb-i-Islami group.
"With Mr Karzai and (other) Afghans we have no problems."
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan also signalled he hoped talks could bring an end to the war, with increased troop levels weakening those Taliban currently resisting negotiations, and forcing them to accept a deal.
"As a soldier, my personal feeling is that there's been enough fighting," Stanley McChrystal said in an interview published in the Financial Times on Monday.
"I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the future, and not the past," he said when asked whether he would be content to see Taliban leaders in a future Afghan government.
But the spring and summer battles with new troops will key, because without a stronger military advantage, the West may struggle to bring enough insurgents to the table.
"You only talk if you can't militarily impose a solution, and there is no incentive on the part of the Taliban to negotiate, so I don't see how this is possible," said Kamran Bokhari, at international strategic intelligence firm Stratfor.
"I do think all this has to do with the desperate need for Washington and its allies to show on the home front that they are making some sort of progress in Afghanistan."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Miliband to raise Dostum appointment with Afghan leader
Mon Jan 25, 12:30 pm ET
BRUSSELS (AFP) – Foreign Secretary David Miliband said he would raise with President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday the Afghan leader's decision to name militia leader Abdul Rashid Dostum his chief of army staff.
Dostum is one of the most ruthless warlords to emerge from decades of conflict in Afghanistan. He was recently renamed to the post of chief of staff to the military's commander-in-chief, Karzai himself.
"I'll be seeing President Karzai tomorrow in Istanbul," Miliband told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday in response to a question about the nomination of Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek.
"I will follow up the discussion I had with him last weekend in Kabul about the composition of his government," said Miliband, who will host a major international conference on Afghanistan in London on Thursday.
"The Afghan people don't want to go back to Taliban misrule but they do expect improvements in governance from all parts of the Afghan state and that's something that needs to be prosecuted with real drive and determination by all ministers in government," he said.
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, at the same press conference, added: "The Afghan government has committed itself to better governance and I take it for granted that this includes full respect for human rights."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Merkel Says Germany to Add 500 Troops in Afghanistan (Update2)
By Tony Czuczka
Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel said she will send 500 additional German troops to Afghanistan, bowing to U.S. pressure to widen a mission that most Germans reject.
The extra troops will protect the civilian population and train Afghan forces to help President Hamid Karzai’s government assume more responsibility for security, Merkel said. Another 350 soldiers will be put on standby for Afghanistan, she said.
“I think this will get a positive reception,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin today. “It’s not like we asked the Americans what we should do. We decided ourselves, first and foremost, what to do under current conditions.”
The chancellor outlined the policy shift two days before an international conference on Afghanistan in London. Merkel, who won’t attend the conference and plans to send Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle in her place, is due to meet Karzai in Berlin later today when he stops off on his way to Britain.
Germany has faced increased pressure from NATO and its allies to send more combat troops to the north of the country after President Barack Obama decided to send 30,000 additional soldiers. The mission has become more unpopular in Germany as violence in the region increases, underscored by a German- ordered airstrike in Kunduz province that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization says killed as many as 142 civilians.
Parliamentary Vote
Raising the current ceiling of 4,500 troops in Afghanistan requires approval by the German parliament. While Merkel’s coalition has enough votes to pass the increase, she’ll probably ask the opposition for support. She briefed party leaders on her plans earlier today, and is scheduled to give a statement on Afghanistan tomorrow in the lower house of parliament, or Bundestag.
Merkel also proposed increasing German aid to Afghanistan through 2013 to 430 million euros ($606 million) from a currently planned 220 million euros and to boost the number of German police officers training Afghan police to 200 from 123.
“Our aim is an Afghanistan that stops the Taliban and terrorists from posing a threat to Afghans as well as to ourselves,” she said. Germany had decided on a “very defensive approach” that isn’t more dangerous than the current mission.
Her government has sought to prepare Germans for the troop increase. Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg caused a stir by saying repeatedly that German troops operate in “war- like circumstances” in Afghanistan.
Withdrawal Pressure
Pressure on Merkel to withdraw German military forces from Afghanistan is growing, according to an Infratest dimap poll on Jan. 7. Seventy-one percent said they want a troop withdrawal “as soon as possible,” up two percentage points from December to a record.
The same poll for ARD public television said Merkel’s approval rating fell to 59 percent this month from 70 percent in December, led by public concern about the economy. The Jan. 4-5 survey of 1,000 people had a margin of error of as many as 3.1 percentage points.
Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, said on WDR television yesterday that Germany’s contribution in Afghanistan is a “vital, indispensable part” of the international effort.
“We are fighting on behalf of the Afghan people to help them get rid of the Taliban and to battle al-Qaeda, which poses a direct threat to both Germany and the U.S.,” he said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
No more French combat troops for Afghanistan: Sarkozy
Mon Jan 25, 3:18 pm ET
PARIS (AFP) – French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France will send no more combat troops to Afghanistan, in an interview on Monday three days before an international conference on stabilising the country.
"I said a year and a half ago... that there would no more combat troops (sent by France to Afghanistan), and I am trying to scrupulously keep my commitments and my word," he said in a rare televised interview.
France may still send extra non-combat military personnel to train the Afghan security forces, Sarkozy added.
"If there is a need for more people to train, supervise the police, carry out civil engineering and help the population... why not?" he said.
France has 3,300 soldiers helping fight the Islamist Taliban movement on the ground in Afghanistan. They are among 113,000 foreign troops under US and NATO command there, to which about 40,000 are due to be added this year.
Sarkozy also cited concerns for the threat posed by the unrest in Afghanistan to stability in its nuclear-armed neighbour Pakistan.
"France will stay in Afghanistan because it is question of our own security," Sarkozy said. "If the Taliban win in Afghanistan, then Pakistan will fall."
Britain is to host the meeting on Thursday with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and foreign ministers.
It is expected to focus on how NATO-led troops can hand over to Afghan forces and efforts to persuade Taliban militants to stop fighting.
Back to Top
Back to Top
NATO to name top civilian boss for Afghanistan
By Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jan 26, 7:19 am ET
BRUSSELS – NATO officials say the alliance has picked Britain's ambassador to Kabul to be its new civilian representative in Afghanistan.
Two diplomatic officials say ambassador Mark Sedwill has been appointed to the post. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The new civilian representative will administer reconstruction efforts and act as a counterpart to the military commander, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
NATO spokesman's office said it could not confirm the report, but Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is scheduled to make an announcement later Tuesday.
The move will come two days before the start of an international conference in London, where Afghan and international officials will map plans to shore up the Kabul government as the U.S. and its allies rush 37,000 more troops here to confront the Taliban.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO says it will announce the alliance's new top civilian representative in Afghanistan on Tuesday.
The official will administer reconstruction efforts and act as a counterpart to the military commander, U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal.
Two officials say Britain's ambassador to Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, is the leading candidate for the post. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision was pending.
Tuesday's announcement comes two days before the start of an international conference in London, where Afghan and international officials will map plans to shore up the Kabul government as the U.S. and its allies rush 37,000 more troops here to confront the Taliban.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Nine wounded in bombing outside US base in Kabul
by Waheedullah Massoud
KABUL (AFP) – A suicide bomber struck near a US military base in Kabul on Tuesday injuring at least nine Afghans, police and the NATO force said, just days ahead of a global summit on tackling a Taliban-led insurgency.
The attacker detonated a car packed with explosives near the main gate of Camp Phoenix, a military base on the outskirts of Kabul on the main road to the eastern provinces. Other NATO member states also have a presence in the camp.
Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the bombing bore the hallmarks of the Taliban, who are waging an increasingly deadly insurgency to topple the Afghan government and oust foreign troops.
"There was a suicide car bomb attack near Camp Phoenix. The suicide attacker detonated his car close to an international forces convoy," Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman told AFP.
He said nine Afghan civilians including three who worked as interpreters for the foreign forces were injured, adding: "The situation is under control."
NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was "aware of an explosion outside the main gate of Camp Phoenix that occurred this afternoon at approximately 5:00 pm (1230 GMT)".
"Initial reports indicate the cause of the explosion was a vehicle-borne IED," the force said, referring to an improvised explosive device in a car.
The bombing comes just over a week after seven Taliban gunmen armed with suicide vests launched an attack on civilian and government buildings near the presidential palace in Kabul, killing five people.
The January 18 attack on Kabul was one of the most dramatic strikes on the capital since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban government, sparking the insurgency by remnants of the regime.
Afghanistan on Sunday postponed a parliamentary vote for four months in the face of the insurgency and a lack of funds, a move welcomed by the UN, which had raised concerns about graft and logistics.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is in Istanbul seeking to win support for a plan to convince Taliban foot-soldiers to lay down their arms in exchange for jobs and money. Related article: Karzai wins backing for Taliban plan
On Thursday, the Afghan government and its foreign backers will meet in London to try and hammer out possible solutions to the insurgency, but the Taliban leadership have repeatedly rebuffed any attempts at peace talks.
US officials have said the militants will have to see the tide turn against them on the battlefield before they come to the negotiating table, and tens of thousands more foreign troops are to be deployed this year.
US President Barack Obama has pledged 30,000 more troops to the Afghan conflict which, along with 10,000 more from other NATO members, will swell the foreign force to about 150,000 by the end of this year.
The Taliban and other insurgent groups have refused any talks until all the foreign forces leave Afghanistan, and frequently attack the troops across Afghanistan, with a record 520 foreign military casualties last year.
Camp Phoenix was the site of another suicide blast last November, when both foreign soldiers and Afghan civilians were injured in a similar attack.
Afghan soldiers are trained at the base by international troops, who have put the training of Afghanistan's security forces at the heart of efforts to hand over responsibility for fighting the Taliban insurgency.
Karzai wants to boost the Afghan police and army from the current 190,000 to 300,000 by mid next year, and will use the conference in the British capital on Thursday to drum up funding for the scheme.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Taliban claims 25 dead in attack near U.S. base
January 26, 2010
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- As Afghan authorities announced the arrest of an alleged militant for planning last week's assault on Kabul, a bomber targeted a U.S. base outside the capital, the latest attempt by militants to strike the seat of Western and Afghan power.
The NATO-led command said the latest explosion occurred around 5 p.m. Tuesday outside the main gate at Camp Phoenix, a U.S. military base on the outskirts of the capital. It said initial reports indicate that the blast was caused by a vehicle bomb, but did not release any casualty figures.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack, authorities said.
An Afghan military official at the scene of the strike said the vehicle blast injured six Afghan civilians and two U.S. service members, and an eyewitness showed CNN digital camera photos of about 11 or 12 injured people.
Taliban spokesman Zabullah Mujahid claimed in a text message that the strike killed 25 soldiers and damaged three tanks.
Afghan soldiers cordoned off the area about 60 meters, or more than 65 yards, from the blast.
The latest explosion erupted eight days after a dramatic and well-coordinated assault on key government sites in Kabul killed five people and wounded more than 70 others. The January 18 strike was particularly audacious because militants penetrated the Afghan government's power centers as members of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's Cabinet were to be sworn into office.
The National Directorate of Security on Tuesday announced the arrest of a 29-year-old man named Kamulddin in connection with the attack and released a video of him confessing to the coordinated strike.
In the video, Kamulddin said the plan was hatched in Pakistan by the Haqqani network, a militant group with ties to al Qaeda and the Taliban. An NDS spokesman confirmed the network ordered the assault and confirmed that the attack was planned outside of Afghanistan.
About 20 Taliban insurgents entered the presidential palace; the ministries of Finance, Mines and Justice; and the Serena Hotel, an Afghan government spokesman said. NATO-led forces said "several small explosions" and gunfire were reported near the Feroshgah-e-Afghan Shopping Center and the Serena Hotel, and later added that "numerous" suicide bombers had attacked government buildings close to the presidential palace and the Ministry of Justice.
Seized around 24 hours after the strike, Kamulddin said he sheltered suicide attackers in his Kabul house, and the men had weapons and explosive-laden vests. Along with the bombers, there were three or four attack coordinators, Kamulddin said in the video.
The Afghan Taliban initially claimed responsibility for the blast, but Kamulddin said the plan was organized in Pakistan by the Haqqani network, a group with cross-border ties to Taliban militants and believed to be behind a majority of the suicide attacks in the country. The network has a presence in southeastern Afghanistan and the Pakistani tribal region.
NDS spokesman Sayed Ansari also said the NDS arrested five people for their alleged roles in other attacks, including a September 2 bombing that killed Abdullah Abdullah Laghmani, the deputy head of the NDS.
Raids across Afghanistan late Monday and Tuesday led to the detention of insurgents, the discovery of weapons and the killing of at least one militant, according to releases from NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
ISAF forces killed "several armed insurgents "on Tuesday in Konar province, in eastern Afghanistan with an airstrike targeting insurgents seen "maneuvering to a fighting position previously used to stage attacks."
International forces have been bulking up their troop presence in recent months to counter militants. In the latest move, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Germany will send 500 more troops to Afghanistan to work in security and training. ISAF said that nation has more than 4,200 troops in the country.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan: 4 policemen killed at checkpoint
By Noor Khan, Associated Press Writer – Tue Jan 26, 2:38 am ET
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Gunmen killed four Afghan policemen in a predawn attack Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, an official said.
The attack occurred about 2 a.m. at a checkpoint near the Information and Cultural Affairs Ministry's directorate in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, an area expected to be a major focus of fighting with the influx of 37,000 additional U.S. and NATO forces.
Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the provincial governor, said it's not clear who killed the officers. He said the policemen apparently had visitors and an investigation was under way into whether the attack was political or personal.
Taliban militants frequently target Afghan security forces and officials to undermine the U.S.-backed government.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Monday that he will press for the removal of some Taliban figures from a U.N. sanctions list and seek support for a reconciliation plan.
Karzai, speaking in Turkey ahead of Thursday's international conference on Afghanistan to be held in London, said the U.S. and Europe back his plan to reconcile militants who are not aligned with al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.
British officials said that international funding for Karzai's program is expected to be agreed to at the London meeting, but did not offer specifics on the likely amount to be pledged.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Troops set for biggest push in south Afghanistan
Tue Jan 26, 3:54 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – NATO troops are to launch their biggest operation yet in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, the British general in charge of forces there has said.
Major General Nick Carter told the BBC the offensive would force the Taliban out of areas they controlled and strengthen the authority of the Afghan government in places which are currently lawless.
"If we're going to win the argument on behalf of the Afghan government... then we need to assert the government's control over those areas which are at the moment ungoverned," Carter said on Monday.
The announcement of the planned offensive comes as the United States is pouring an additional 30,000 troops into Afghanistan this year, on top of 70,000 already there.
It was also made as international attention focuses even more intensely on Afghanistan ahead of a major international conference on stabilising the war-torn country in London on Thursday.
Carter, who has been at the head of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan since late 2009 and leads 45,000 servicemen and women, described Helmand as "a work in progress, simply ungoverned."
Many parts of Helmand had no sort of administration at all, he told the BBC, adding if they were governed "it's by parallel governments provided often by the Taliban."
He would not disclose when the joint NATO and Afghan army operation would begin, but said it would target areas in central Helmand the government has not ruled for months or years.
Carter would not be drawn about the possible number of casualties in such a large operation, but there were significant losses during the last major offensive in Helmand in June and July last year, called Panther's Claw.
Plans to explain the nature of the operation to Afghans in Helmand would lessen the chances of intense fighting, he said, adding: "We often find the Afghans don't fight -- but they welcome you."
He also gave the example of an operation run in a similar way by Canadian forces to the west of Kandahar, during which he said "not a shot was fired".
More than 113,000 international soldiers are currently fighting the Taliban under United States and NATO command and losing soldiers almost daily, in the conflict which started with the US-led invasion of 2001.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Interview: NATO Chief Discusses Afghan Mission, London Conference
January 25, 2010 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
In an exclusive interview with RFE/RL, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that he expected concrete results from this week's London conference on Afghanistan.
Speaking to RFE/RL correspondent Abubakar Siddique, Rasmussen also said that the NATO mission in Afghanistan was not an "occupation force." "We will stay as long as it takes to finish our job, but our ultimate goal is to hand over responsibility to the Afghan people," he said.
RFE/RL: The Afghan government is expected to present a detailed plan for reconciliation with the Taliban in London. Previous plans have failed to win international backing due to a lack of resources and political backing. Is there any reason to believe the situation is any different today?
Anders Fogh Rasmussen: Yes, I think the situation will be very different, firstly, because there is now political support, and secondly, because I would expect the international community to provide funds for a reconciliation-and-reintegration effort. Having said that, I also need to stress that this reconciliation-and-reintegration process must be led by the Afghan government, and I take it for granted that the groups involved in that will accept and abide by the Afghan Constitution and democracy.
RFE/RL: Is anyone in the Western coalition really talking to authoritative figures among Taliban in Afghanistan in the run-up to the London conference? What have they indicated?
Rasmussen: No, as I said before, it is crucial that a reconciliation-and-reintegration process is led by the Afghan government. We will and we can, of course, assist if the Afghan government so wishes. But I think it is crucial that there is an Afghan ownership to this process.
RFE/RL: Why would the Taliban buy into reconciliation while they claim to be winning the war?
Rasmussen: Well, they will not win. We will prevail. They will not regain power in Afghanistan, first of all, because the Afghan people want freedom and democracy, they don't want the Taliban back, and secondly, because we have made very important decisions on the way ahead. We have increased the number of troops significantly. We will develop the capacity of the Afghan security forces. We will train Afghan soldiers and Afghan police and, gradually, Afghan soldiers and Afghan police will take over the responsibility for the security. And finally, the international community will provide more funds for development in Afghanistan and, in that respect, the Afghan government has also committed itself to a strengthened fight against corruption and the drug trade and, in general, committed itself to deliver better governance. So, for all these reasons, we will see new momentum and new progress in Afghanistan in 2010.
RFE/RL: Related to this topic, in an interview published today, General Stanley McChrystal said that he believed any Afghan could potentially play a role in the future government of their country, if they focused on the future. Do you share his opinion? If leading Taliban are going to be brought into the government, is the definition of victory shifting in Afghanistan? How would you define victory in that country?
Rasmussen: Well, I will speak about success, and success will be to hand over responsibility for the security to the Afghan people, to the Afghan security forces. The ultimate goal should be that the Afghan people will become masters in their own house and take responsibility for running and securing [their] own country.
We are there right now to protect the Afghan people. We are there to assist [them] in developing a stable society and a stable democracy. And I can assure you that we will stay committed as long as it takes to finish our job. NATO and ISAF is not an occupation force. We will stay as long as it takes to finish our job, but our ultimate goal is to hand over responsibility to the Afghan people.
RFE/RL: Mr. Secretary-General, shifting gears to another issue, media reports suggest that NATO is planning to create a top civilian post in Afghanistan. Why do you think it is needed and how will it affect the pace of reconstruction in the country given that NATO has had a senior civil representative in Kabul for years?
Rasmussen: And that is exactly the point. We have already a civilian representative in Kabul. However, we do believe that there is a strong need for better organization and better coordination of the civilian assistance to Afghanistan. We would also like to improve our capability to cooperate with the Afghan government and with other international actors in Kabul. There is also a strong need for better coordination among the so-called provincial reconstruction teams that work locally in Afghanistan. And to that end, we need an enhanced office of our civilian representative. So we will ensure an enhanced office, and I will also, in the near future, appoint a new civilian NATO representative in Kabul.
RFE/RL: On the issue of training Afghan forces, while Western allies are pushing Afghan security forces to rapidly expand in number in order to take over security responsibilities, many Afghans do not feel enough is being done to equip the country with modern weaponry. Assuming NATO troops will, sooner or later, be leaving Afghanistan, what kind of military infrastructure do you envision leaving behind? Will NATO continue to provide air support for the foreseeable future?
Rasmussen: All this will very much depend on the development in Afghanistan. As I said, our goal is to hand over the lead responsibility for security to the Afghan security forces, and therefore we will now train and educate Afghan soldiers and Afghan police. And we appreciate very much that the Afghan government has decided to increase the number of security forces to a level of around 300,000 by 2011. And of course we will ensure that the Afghan security forces are appropriately equipped. How this will take place in details will of course very much depend on the security challenges in the coming years."
RFE/RL: Continuing with the security theme, considering the presence of some questionable characters, including warlords and other powerbrokers, within the government, what challenges does arming Afghans and providing them with military training present?
Rasmussen: Well, we know from experience that the Afghan security forces actually do a great job. The fact is that the Afghan security forces are in the lead of two-thirds of the planned military operations in Afghanistan and this fact testifies to the capacity and determination of the Afghan security forces. Afghan soldiers are good fighters and I don't think there's any reason to believe that they will not support the Afghan government and the Afghan democracy, because at the end of the day, it is also a support of the Afghan people.
RFE/RL: Moving on to a larger strategic question, everybody involved in the Afghan struggle has used President Barack Obama's troop-withdrawal deadline to advance their interests. The Afghan Taliban are clearly holding out. Sensing a loss of foreign forces, the Afghan government is trying to hold onto its power and gains while the Pakistani military is using it as a reason for not going after Afghan Taliban sanctuaries. Given that all this is not conducive to a peaceful resolution in Afghanistan, should Obama rethink his talk about deadlines?
Rasmussen: But, actually, President Obama has not spoken about an exit from Afghanistan. What he has announced is an evaluation of our mission by 2011, which I think is reasonable. I mean, we have just decided to increase the number of troops significantly, and we do hope to see substantial progress in the coming 12 to 18 months. So in my opinion, it makes sense to take stock of the situation by mid-2011.
But President Obama has not spoken about a withdrawal from Afghanistan. As I said before, we will stay as long as it takes to secure the country. I can assure you that the international coalition will not leave Afghanistan until the country is able to stand on its own feet. [They] will not be left behind. So 2011 will be an important year to take stock of the situation, but it will be a condition-based approach. Hopefully the situation will allow us gradually transfer security responsibility to the Afghan security forces. But it will be based on the condition that Afghan soldiers and Afghan police are really capable to take care of their security."
RFE/RL: One brief question at the end, Mr. Secretary-General. What concrete commitments and specific goals are you looking to walk away from London with?
Rasmussen: Well, I would like and I also expect two concrete results from the London conference. Firstly, that we agree on the overall framework for a transition to lead Afghan responsibility for the security. We have to make sure that the transition for responsibility to the Afghan security forces takes place in a coordinated manner. And I think we will take a decision on it at the London conference.
And secondly I would expect that the international community as well as the Afghan government commit themselves to a reinforced civilian reconstruction and development in Afghanistan. So I think, the London conference will further contribute to the new momentum and progress we will see in Afghanistan in 2010.
Back to Top
Back to Top
NATO, Russia formally resume military ties before meeting about Afghanistan
By Slobodan Lekic, The Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium - Russia and NATO formally resumed military ties Tuesday in the latest sign of improving relations between the Cold War rivals as they move to boost co-operation in the fight against insurgents in Afghanistan.
It was the first meeting between NATO and Russia military officials since relations broke down in the wake of Russia's war with Georgia in August 2008.
Russian Chief of Staff Gen. Nikolai Makarov held talks with NATO's top officer, Italian Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, before a formal meeting with the defence chiefs of NATO's 27 member states, said Col. Massimo Panizzi, spokesman for NATO's military committee.
Officials said that meeting was expected to focus on furthering co-operation in areas of common interest such as Afghanistan, and anti-piracy and counterterrorism operations. No specific decisions were expected Tuesday, but the talks were expected to pave the way for closer technical co-operation.
Relations between NATO and Moscow have improved steadily since they were suspended after the war with Georgia.
Foreign ministers met in June on the Greek island of Corfu, and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen held talks in Moscow last month with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
Moscow has repeatedly expressed its willingness to help the war effort in Afghanistan because of fears that any return to power by Taliban extremists would destabilize Central Asia and endanger Russia's own security. It has allowed NATO nations to use its territory and air corridors for the transport of supplies to Afghanistan as routes through Pakistan have come under repeated Taliban attack.
Russia also has trained hundreds of Afghan government anti-narcotics officers.
But Fogh Rasmussen and NATO's military commander, U.S. Adm. James Stavridis, have indicated they would like co-operation to be expanded to include items such as Russian military help in maintaining the large fleet of Soviet-built military helicopters being used by both the alliance and the Afghan army and police.
Afghanistan's security forces are largely armed with the ubiquitous Soviet-designed Kalashnikov assault rifles, and NATO officials say they would like Russia to provide more of those to both the army and police.
Back to Top
Back to Top
4 Afghans kidnapped with China pair freed: police
January 25, 2010
(AFP) - KUNDUZ, Afghanistan — The Taliban have freed four Afghans abducted in the north earlier this month along with two Chinese engineers, who remain in militant custody, a police official said Monday.
Two Chinese engineers and their two Afghan drivers and two guards were snatched in the province of Faryab on January 16, and the Taliban militia claimed responsibility for the kidnapping the same day.
Faryab deputy police chief Mohammad Afzal Imamzada told AFP that the Afghans were freed after negotiations, while similar talks were underway to secure the freedom of the Chinese pair.
"The Afghans have been freed but the Chinese are still there. The Afghans were freed under negotiations by tribal elders and we're trying to secure the freedom of the Chinese through the same way," Imamzada said.
He gave no further detail on the progress of the talks.
A Taliban spokesman had earlier said that the militant leaders would decide the fate of the hostages.
Criminal gangs and Taliban insurgents have kidnapped several dozen foreigners, many of them journalists, since the 2001 US-led operation toppled the hardline Taliban regime.
The Taliban have denied that they are holding two journalists from France 3 public television, who were snatched with three Afghan assistants in the eastern province of Kapisa on December 30.
Back to Top
Back to Top
£6m smuggled out of Afghanistan every day
More than £6 million in cash is being smuggled out of Afghanistan every day, a report by anti-fraud investigators has revealed.
Telegraph.co.uk By Ben Farmer in Kabul 25 Jan 2010
The sum is equivalent to more than £2.3bn a year, or more than three times the government's official tax and customs revenue, in a country plagued by corruption.
Investigators found the cash leaving Afghanistan is taken out mainly stuffed in suitcases through Kabul airport and most ended up in the United Arab Emirates.
World leaders attending this week's London conference on the future of Afghanistan are expected to back peace and development schemes needing billions of pounds.
But they fear the aid will be wasted unless Hamid Karzai takes action to stem runaway corruption within his administration.
His international backers remain frustrated at his inability to tackle the graft blamed for delaying development and alienating Afghans from the government.
David Miliband, Foreign Secretary, said on Monday it was "absolutely key that the money is not siphoned away in corruption and extortion".
The inquiry, conducted by the Ministry of Finance and organised crime experts from America, found £119m left in one single 19-day period, mainly through Kabul airport.
Dr Omar Zakhilwal, Afghan finance minister, said his government did not know where it was going or why it was leaving.
Investigators, working with UAE customs, said it was hard to ascertain how much was from the plunder of public funds or from other illegal activities such as drug trafficking.
Some was from legitimate currency speculation and the hawala system of informal money transfer, which is widespread across the Middle East.
Afghan law states travellers must declare any money over £12,500 when they leave the country, but the rules are rarely enforced.
Senior politicians and officials can also evade checks simply by using a VIP lane in Kabul International Airport.
Investigating the flow has become a priority for a new US-led task force of police and detectives, drawn from America's Drug Enforcement Agency and Britain's Serious and Organised Crime Agency.
The Kabul-based "Afghan threat finance cell" was originally tasked with tracing and cutting off funding for the Taliban insurgency and their al-Qaeda allies.
But Washington now views corruption within Mr Karzai's regime to be such a threat it has also begun tracing the spoils of corrupt officials.
One US official told The Daily Telegraph: "Bulk shipments of millions of dollars of mixed currencies are taken through Kabul International Airport each week to Dubai. "There is too much bulk cash leaving the country in this manner for it all to be attributable to the drug trade which is estimated at $3.2 billion per year." A United Nations report on corruption last week estimated Afghans pay a total of $2.5bn in bribes each year.
The study also said the influx of aid and drugs money had quickly created a new class of super rich.
Many Afghan politicians are believed to have amassed vast fortunes from corruption, nepotism and crime.
Mr Karzai, Hillary Clinton, Ban Ki-moon and Gen Stanley McChrystal are all expected to attend Gordon Brown's London conference on Thursday.
Gen McChrystal, commander of the 110,000-strong Nato-led coalition, said he saw the potential for an eventual negotiated peace with the Taliban.
He said: "What I think we do is try to shape conditions which allow people to come to a truly equitable solution to how the Afghan people are governed." He added: "I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the future, and not the past."
The conference will also see America and its allies unveil ambitious targets to grow the Afghan police and army so that they can eventually take over the battle against the Taliban.
Nato will try to grow army from 100,000 to 172,000 by October 2011 and the police from 95,000 to 134,000 an the way to an eventual total of 400,000 for the security forces.
Back to Top
Back to Top
On the trail of the Taliban in Quetta
By M Ilyas Khan BBC News, Quetta January 25, 2010
In April 2009, Pakistani forces arrested a Taliban militant from Afghanistan carrying documents for his high command. He said this was based in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta.
The man - codenamed Khattab by his Taliban group - was initially detained at a checkpoint on the northern suburban fringes of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province.
Pakistan's government has long denied that prominent Afghan Taliban leaders operate out of Quetta. It does admit that some militants may move across the border as civilians to spend time with their families, many of whom live as refugees in Pakistan.
But among the documents found on Khattab was a written "confession" of a "spy" allegedly working for Nato troops who was caught, interrogated and then beheaded by a Taliban group in the southern Afghan province of Zabul.
A reliable source in Quetta who had detailed conversations with Khattab told the BBC that the leaders of the Taliban group, who were apparently based in city, objected to the beheading, saying they slaughtered the wrong man.
"Khattab was tasked by the Taliban commander in Zabul to carry the signed confession to his high-ups as proof that the beheading was not a mistake," the source said.
But it is not clear who Khattab's top leaders are, or where in Quetta they live.
There is also no indication of any arrests having been made on the basis of information provided by him.
"If Taliban leaders are living here, they will obviously have a lifestyle, some form of security arrangements, and will need civic services such as health," says Maj-Gen Salim Nawaz, head of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Balochistan.
"How come neither we nor the media have been able to track down a single Taliban leader?" he asked.
"Yes, Taliban may be coming and going - they do it all over Pakistan - but to say that there is a [Taliban] shura here that holds sessions, plans [war]… is nonsense."
In Pashtunabad
He may have a point.
Quetta's vast and crowded eastern neighbourhood, inhabited by the ethnic Pashtun group to which the Taliban belong, shows few signs of Taliban activity.
Several mosque schools (or madrassas) dot the narrow lanes of the neighbourhood, and men wearing Taliban-like turbans are not an infrequent sight.
But the predominant activity in the area is trade and commerce, for which the Pashtuns are better known in these parts.
And flags hoisted on most houses in the area are not those of the Taliban or any Pakistani religious group, but of a secular Pashtun political party, the PMAP, which opposes the Taliban.
"If there were Taliban in Pashtunabad, I wouldn't be selling vegetables here," says Gul Agha, a pushcart vendor who is ethnic Hazara and a Shia Muslim, which the Sunni Muslim Taliban consider un-Islamic.
In another street, a bulky man with a clean-shaven face and Ray-Ban sunglasses reacts angrily to my question if he has seen Taliban in the area.
"If I have seen one, why would I tell you? You look like an American agent."
People in another likely Taliban hideout, Kharotabad, react in the same way.
Journalists and political circles cautiously indicate that the Taliban have a presence in the city, but they are either uninformed about the specifics or are unwilling to discuss them.
When the Americans attacked Afghanistan in October 2001, most members of the Taliban government in Kabul crossed over into Pakistan's north-western city of Peshawar.
But the Taliban's top leadership, including their spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, was based in Kandahar.
Destination Quetta
Quetta, with an Afghan refugee population of more than one million and its history as a staging ground for Afghan fighters operating in southern Afghanistan, was their obvious destination.
Geographically, Quetta and areas north and east of it link up with the Waziristan region where the so-called Haqqani network, an Afghanistan-focused militant group, established the Taliban's earliest sanctuaries in the post-9/11 period.
The Haqqani network is loyal to Mullah Omar and has close links with Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda.
Together, the Haqqani network and fighters operating from Balochistan's border with Kandahar and Helmand provinces of Afghanistan form a crescent of Taliban resistance that has been destabilising all of southern and south-central Afghanistan.
Relentless missile strikes by US drones in Waziristan, and a recent operation by Pakistani forces in parts of that region, is pushing an increasing number of Taliban fighters into areas north-east of Quetta.
Taliban spread south
A government official, requesting anonymity, told the BBC that these fighters were flocking to the Toba Kakar area of Balochistan, and it was only a matter of time before they spread west to Qilla Abdullah district, and the Quetta region itself.
"There is considerable concern among people in the Zhob-Qilla Saifullah region following the influx of militants and media reports that the drones may target locations in Balochistan as well," a politician from the area said.
There are also credible reports of armed Taliban presence in areas nearer Quetta, especially in some former refugee camps that have now become permanent villages.
It is instructive, though, that the Taliban foot soldier codenamed Khattab was heading straight to Quetta, and not to any of the other areas with a reported Taliban presence.
So while a Taliban shura - or council - with the wherewithal of a war office may not exist in Quetta, the presence of mid-level leaders with the ability to monitor and oversee Taliban activities inside Afghanistan cannot be ruled out.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Embracing Gulbuddin Hekmatyar Is No Method at All
Huffington Post By ul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould 01/25/2010
Colonel Kurtz: Did they say why [Captain] Willard, why they want to terminate my command?
Captain Willard: They told me, that you had gone totally insane and uh, that your methods were unsound. Colonel Kurtz: Are my methods unsound? Captain Willard: I don't see any method at all, Sir. Apocalypse Now
One thing that remains consistent over the last 30 years in observing America's participation in Afghanistan is that mistakes and errors of judgment, no matter how egregious or self-defeating, never seem to get corrected. In fact, in its effort to rationalize a growing culture of war-making from Vietnam to Afghanistan, America has come around to embracing the insanity of the fictional Colonel Kurtz.
Without a care for the consequences, the U.S. first fostered Islamic extremists in the 1980s (repackaging them for public consumption as "fiercely religious freedom fighters"), then endorsed the rise of the Taliban by claiming they were a "cleansing" force (apparently for these same fiercely religious freedom fighters). According to former CIA operative Milt Bearden, the U.S. also helped facilitate the Arab infiltration of Central Asia by assisting Al Qaeda and ultimately redirecting Osama bin Laden out of the Sudan and into Afghanistan. The Washington beltway and a large segment of the media reveled in the genius of their new "method," for undoing communist influence and securing Central Asia.
Once a person with a cause has been linked to a policy and established in Washington, that person remains forever as the go-to person regardless of their subsequent history. One such example is the Afghan terrorist, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who like Mephistopheles appears and reappears in the Afghan narrative at various points in time only to vanish in a puff of smoke.
Hekmatyar's reputation was established back in the late 1960s as a high school student when he joined the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and then attended the Mahtab Qala military school in Kabul. By the early 1970s Hekmatyar had become radicalized by extremist Islam and joined the Nahzat-e-Jawanane Musalman (Muslim Youth Movement). As an engineering student at Kabul University he became known for throwing acid at women dressed in Western clothes and for murdering a fellow student from a Maoist faction of the PDPA. Imprisoned by King Zahir Shah's police for the murder, Hekmatyar was freed following a 1973 coup by the King's cousin Mohammed Daoud and communist PDPA leader Babrak Karmal and fled to Pakistan.
Hekmatyar joined with Ahmad Shah Massoud's Jamaat-e-Islami (Islamic Party) in a Pakistani plan designed by their Directorate of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to destabilize Afghanistan with cross border raids. Dissatisfied with the radical Jamaat's political approach after failing to stir an uprising in Afghanistan, Hekmatyar formed his own more radical party, the Hesb-i-Islami (Islamic Party) and came to the attention of the CIA. In 1979, Hekmatyar helped to precipitate the Soviet invasion by engaging Afghanistan's desperate Marxist President Hafizullah Amin in a power sharing arrangement. According to the April 1981, (No. 282) edition of British publication The Round Table the Soviets panicked when they realized Amin had set December 29th as the date for dissidents of the regime and their tribal supporters to march on Kabul.
Hekmatyar would go on to become the darling of the agency and receive the bulk of the U.S. and Saudi aid coming in for the war against the Soviet Union, including a monopoly on Stinger missiles. Although an ISI and CIA favorite, Hekmatyar's legitimacy as a fighter, his effectiveness, his loyalties and even his goals raised doubts in the Peshawar-based American press corps. According to CBS News stringer Kurt Lohbeck in his book, Holy War, Unholy Victory, Hekmatyar's reputation was an elaborate ruse concocted by the CIA and Pakistan's ISI to elicit Congressional support for the Mujahideen, and little else.
Gulbuddin had no effective fighting organization. He had not a single commander with any military reputation for fighting the Soviets or the Afghan regime. He had made alliances with top regime military figures. And he had killed numerous other Mujahiddin commanders. Yet the United States government and the covert agencies were doing their best to convert that lie into reality.
The man largely responsible for peddling Hekmatyar's dubious credentials to Washington was Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, who had been carefully shoehorned into strategic positions on both the House Appropriations Committee and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence by then Republican congressman from Wyoming, Dick Cheney. Following the war against the Soviets, Hekmatyar's reputation didn't save him when his failure to establish a Pakistani friendly government in Kabul lost him Saudi and American sponsorship. But while American influence flowed to the Taliban, Hekmatyar continued to lobby for sponsorship and a return to power by acquiring political asylum in Iran, trying to join ranks with Al Qaeda and cutting deals with the Taliban.
Marked for death by the CIA following the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Hekmatyar survived a Predator drone attack in May 2002 but continued to rally Taliban fighters against the United States and coalition forces. On February 19, 2003 both the United States Department of State and the United States treasury declared Hekmatyar a "global terrorist."
Reportedly now aligned with the Taliban, Hekmatyar's power base resides in the provinces near Kabul and the scattered pockets of Pashtun communities in the north and northeast. Yet, despite his label as a terrorist and major narcotics trafficker, his Hesb-i-Islami party supported Hamid Karzai's reelection bid in the August 20, 2009 elections and he is now reportedly being courted by special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke in the hopes of luring him into a relationship with the Afghan government.
As twisted as the original U.S. support for Islamic extremism may seem today following the events of 9/11 and nearly 9 years of war, the idea that Hekmatyar might somehow once again be on America's go-to list as a potential messiah for Washington goes beyond the pale of rational thinking and into the realm of Colonel Kurtz. Empowering Hekmatyar as a "method" for destabilizing Afghanistan in the early 1970's was at least, "unsound." Putting him back into a position of power and influence in Kabul as a method for resolving America's growing Afghan crisis reveals that the method is insane. Or, in the words of Captain Willard, "I don't see any method at all."
Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould are the authors of. "Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story"published by City Lights. They can be reached at invisiblehistory.com
Back to Top
Back to Top
Canadian soldier in court on murder charge
January 25, 2010 CBC News
Court martial proceedings begin Monday for a Canadian soldier charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of a wounded Taliban insurgent in Afghanistan.
Capt. Robert Semrau will face a military judge and five panel members on the murder charge and three other charges: attempting to commit murder, behaving in a disgraceful manner and negligently performing a military duty.
According to a joint statement by defence and prosecution lawyers. Semrau's troops were on patrol Oct. 19, 2008, when they were ambushed by Taliban insurgents in Helmand province.
His group, which included 100 Afghan National Army troops, was able to gain control. Two Taliban fighters were found: one dead, the other severely wounded.
The insurgent casualty was wounded too severely for any treatment in the field, the statement says.
Semrau was left alone with the injured man and two shots were heard, according to the statement. The statement claims an unnamed witness interviewed by military investigators will testify he saw Semrau shoot the man.
The body was left behind and not recovered.
Semrau had served three years with the British army, including deployments in Macedonia and Afghanistan, according to documents presented at his hearing.
He left with an "exemplary discharge" and joined the Canadian Forces in 2005, where his record was unblemished until the charges were laid.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan elections delayed, but even later date may come too soon
The decision to postpone Afghan elections until September violates the Constitution. But observers agree that extra time – even more than four months – is needed to erect safeguards against fraud.
By Ben Arnoldy Staff Writer The Christian Science Monitor - Jan 25 12:03 PM
New Delhi - The Afghan government has postponed upcoming parliamentary elections, but doubts are already surfacing as to whether the later date will be possible either.
The country’s Constitution calls for the vote to be held in May. But on Sunday, citing a shortage of funds and the challenge of implementing safeguards against fraud, the Independent Election Commission said the polls would be held Sept. 18.
Afghanistan postponed the presidential election last year as well, a move that provoked constitutional concerns in parliament and ultimately did not prevent the vote from turning into a fraud-filled fiasco.
New date raises new concerns
Parliamentarians, who are currently on a recess, are already expressing concerns about fraud and timing. The new date falls a week after the end of Ramadan, a Muslim month of daytime fasting and diminished activity. Most of the campaign period – a time when Afghan politicians often lure crowds to rallies with food – would be effected.
“That’s a fasting month. Nobody will be willing to come out for a campaign: People will be hungry, thirsty, it will be hot weather,” says Khalid Pashtoon, a member of parliament from Kandahar Province and an ally of President Hamid Karzai.
Mr. Pashtoon says the election should be pushed back until October. “We were not happy for the postponement because it was strictly against the Constitution. But due to the current circumstances it was not possible to go forward. If they were to go forward with it, it would be a great catastrophe.”
He said he's worried that there isn't enough time to tackle the problem of fraudulent registration cards, which continue to circulate widely in the south after they were carelessly distributed before last year’s presidential election. The problem could be seen clearly, he says, from provincial elections last year in which candidates in parts of the south received more votes than the existing population.
An international sigh of relief
Aware of these challenges, international backers of the Afghan government are mostly relieved by the postponement. Some had been pushing for the elections to be held in 2011, given the influx of US troops and combat operations this year.
The Afghan Constitution specifies that elections for MPs must be held 30 to 60 days before their terms in office expire. Postponing the vote, and allowing legislators to overstay their terms, would erode the idea that their legitimacy is grounded in shared rules and timely voter input.
Still, even those committed to seeing stronger rule of law in Afghanistan concede that a delay was necessary.
“The elections need to be delayed. There’s no way they could pull them off in May in any way that would be significantly improved [over] last year’s process. They are just not ready, the financing is not there, the logistics are not set up, they have not planned for security,” says John Dempsey, a rule-of-law adviser with the United States Institute for Peace in Kabul.
But, he adds, the postponement “still is clearly against what the Constitution requires, which is problematic because the Constitution shouldn’t be a best effort document.
Back to Top
Back to Top
AFGHANISTAN: "Humanitarian aid" not something the military can do - experts
KABUL, 26 January 2010 (IRIN) - Belligerent parties in Afghanistan should not call the aid they distribute "humanitarian", because this is to confuse neutral, impartial and needs-based assistance with "hearts and minds" projects designed to achieve specific ends, experts say.
Indeed, such activities can jeopardize the safety and security of the communities receiving this aid as well as bona fide aid workers, they say.
On 16 January Afghan and US forces conducted a "humanitarian aid mission" in volatile Paktia Province to revive local people's confidence in the Afghan army and police.
"The objective of the mission was to help build confidence in the ANA [Afghan National Army] and ANP [Afghan National Police] as institutions, which had been undermined in the eyes of locals due to both real-life corruption and Taliban misinformation campaigns to exaggerate the problems," NATO said in a press release on 22 January.
During the "mission" soldiers distributed 100 bags of food, 100 bags of school materials and 200 hand-crank radios to people in the villages of Sar Mast Khyl, Pateh Khyl and Rahman Khyl.
"The whole purpose behind today was to let the ANA and ANP show a different face to the populous, to say 'hey, we're here to help you guys'," Troy Arrowsmith, a US military officer, is quoted in the press release as saying.
Wrong term?
Humanitarian aid must be neutral, impartial and independent and should be a response to real needs. However, distribution of aid by the military in Afghanistan is not impartial as it promotes the image of one set of belligerents, experts say.
"It is better for NATO to avoid using the term 'humanitarian' in describing its delivery of aid, when such activities are part of an overall military strategy to win the 'hearts and mind' of the local population and defeat the Taliban," Edward Burke, a researcher at the Madrid-based think-tank FRIDE, told IRIN.
Similar criticism has been aired by Antonio Donini, a humanitarian expert and senior researcher at the Feinstein International Center: "In my view the military should refrain from the direct provision of aid and in any case they should not call it 'humanitarian'."
He said radios could benefit communities which have little access to information but the distribution of radio sets by the military could hardly be considered a humanitarian activity.
According to the civil military guidelines which were endorsed by pro-government Afghan and foreign forces and aid agencies in August 2008, military actors can only engage in humanitarian activities as a "last resort" and when there is no civilian actor on the ground to deliver assistance. The guidelines also prohibit the use of humanitarian assistance for political and military gain or relationship-building.
"It would be better if they use the term 'stability operations' to describe their operations as this is clearly military, or at least civil-military, parlance and cannot be confused with activities by conventional intergovernmental or non-governmental humanitarian organizations," said Burke of FRIDE.
IRIN was unable to obtain any comment from NATO's press office in Kabul.
"Counter-productive"
The military's involvement in humanitarian and development activities not only blurs traditional boundaries between civil and military activities but jeopardizes the safety of aid workers and beneficiaries, aid agencies contend.
"The military emphasis on using aid to 'win hearts and minds' and promote security as part of their stabilization strategy is misplaced and even counter-productive in some instances," the British and Irish Agencies Afghanistan Group (BAAG) said in a 2009 report.
"The involvement of [the] military in development activities results in focusing more on short-term results at the expense of long-term objectives and has caused harm to civilians by drawing them into the conflict," six consortiums of local and international NGOs and civil society organizations said in a statement on 21 January.
Over the past few years aid agencies have lost access to large swathes of the country due to insecurity and attacks on aid workers and humanitarian convoys.
Where aid agencies cannot reach and respond to needs "stability operations" should be initiated by pro-government Afghan and foreign forces, said FRIDE's Edward Burke.
"The delivery of aid should be reverted as soon as possible to the control of civilian humanitarian agencies."
Back to Top
Back to Top
Shattered palace mirrors efforts to rebuild Kabul
CNN Asia January 25th, 2010
Kabul, Afghanistan - It's name means "Abode of Peace," but the Darul-Aman Palace outside Kabul symbolizes the years of war and strife that have ravaged this city.
A massive monument built in the 1920's by King Amunullah Khan, who tried and failed to reform Afghanistan, it was left empty for years, before being successively destroyed by fire, turned into a museum, used as a defence ministry and shelled by the Mujahideen after the Soviets left.
Now it is a spectacular vacant behemoth, which emerges from the dust and smog as you drive out of the capital. Commuters cycle past in the morning mist, without giving the place a second glance. I was transfixed, though, and saddened that such a magnificent building could be left to rot.
Inside, there are dozens of massive rooms with soaring ceilings and crumbling plaster, redolent of a lost Roman palace, quietly decaying into obscurity. The floor is carpeted in fallen masonry, its long corridors silent, save for the muttering of the handful of Afghan soldiers who patrol this vacant hulk. A fox darts across the rubble, a pair of pigeons whirl above its skeletal ceiling – the only movement breaking the crushing silence and melancholy of this extraordinary place.
For me, it has a wonderful dreamy feel – like something out of a film set. It's just one of the many surreal places we have visited while filming a report about the lack of development progress in Kabul. Everywhere there are reminders of the years of war: bullet-riddled buildings from the civil war of the 1990s, a smashed Soviet Cultural centre, inhabited by dazed heroin addicts, a bus graveyard with a thousand shot-up vehicles, rusting and forlorn.
Watch the slideshow of how the once-grand palace mirrors the challenge to revitalize Kabul
Despite almost a decade of U.S. and NATO presence in Afghanistan, there is precious little sign of the billions of dollars of aid that has supposedly been spent here. Kabul is a city that's grown rapidly in the last 30 years – from 400,000 to perhaps 5 million.
The mayor was recently convicted of corruption and sentenced to four years in prison. The new mayor insists he will be different, telling me about his grandiose plans for parks and gardens throughout the city.
But the truth is most houses don't even have main sewage system, let alone electricity or telephone lines. Garbage festers in every gutter, where dusty children play with junk they've salvaged from the mounds of litter. The mayor's office didn't even have a computer or Internet until a fortnight ago. Seventy per cent of the city was built without plans or permission.
But despite all the horrendous poverty and degradation, there is something intangibly delightful about this place; the soaring snow-capped mountains that frame every view, the variety of faces, from fierce Pashtun men, to piercing blue-eyed children, the azure Burka clad women who walk swiftly away from our camera. After the international community has been here so long, they all deserve better. Posted by: CNN correspondent Dan Rivers
Back to Top
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).