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McCain: Kandahar is key to victory in Afghan war
y BDeb Riechmann, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jul 5, 12:48 pm ET
KABUL, Afghanistan – The ranking Republican on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee said Monday that NATO and Afghan troops will prevail in the war if they can succeed in securing and bolstering governance in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
U.S. lawmakers press Afghanistan's Karzai on graft
By Rob Taylor – Mon Jul 5, 11:37 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – Senior U.S. lawmakers pressed Afghanistan's president to do more to stop graft, but said on Monday that threats to pull U.S. aid over the issue would only hobble a war strategy that stands a good chance of success.
NGOs await ruling on "proselytizing" case
KABUL, 5 July 2010 (IRIN) - More than a month has passed since the Afghan government suspended the work of two international NGOs on charges of Christian “proselytizing”, but formal investigations have been shrouded in secrecy and seem to have become mired in bureaucracy.
Three NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan
Mon Jul 5, 10:51 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Three NATO soldiers have been killed fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, two of them in a bomb attack in the relatively peaceful west of the country, the military said on Monday.
NATO soldier killed in IED attack in E. Afghanistan
KABUL, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack in Afghanistan's eastern region on Monday, bringing the casualties of ISAF forces to six over the past week, the military alliance said in a press release.
2 Taliban commanders detained in NE Afghan province
FAIZABAD, Afghanistan, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Afghan troops arrested two Taliban commanders in the relatively peaceful Badakhshan province in northeast Afghanistan, deputy to provincial governor Shamsul Rahman Shams said Monday.
Hopes for peace with Afghan prisoner releases
By Patrick Falby July 4, 2010
(AFP) –LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan — Khan Mohammad and Taher smile as they peer out of a US military helicopter: after a year in prison as suspected supporters of Al-Qaeda, they are nearly home.
Petraeus Appeals for Military-Civilian 'Unity' in Afghanistan
July 04, 2010 FoxNews.com
Gen. David Petraeus, in a July 4 message to troops and diplomats in Afghanistan, called for a "team effort" between the military and civilian sides of the war as Sen. John McCain continued to question whether that's possible.
Pakistan renews call for dialogue with some Taliban
By Kamran Haider – Mon Jul 5, 2:35 pm ET
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan's government, under fresh pressure to deliver stability after suicide bombers killed dozens last week, renewed its call on Monday for talks with Taliban militants ready to renounce violence.
No escape yet for Bill Shaw, the Briton cleared of bribery in Kabul
Former army officer's two year sentence overturned but he will be held until legal formalities are complete
The Guardian Aunohita Mojumdar in Kabul Sunday 4 July 2010
A former British army officer Bill Shaw was acquitted today of bribery charges by an Afghan court which overturned an earlier conviction and two-year jail sentence.
Critics press Obama on Afghanistan withdrawal deadline
CNN - Africa By the CNN Wire Staff July 4, 2010
The July 2011 deadline to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan is unrealistic and unhelpful, Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad told CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday.
Pakistan kills wanted Taliban commander
Mon Jul 5, 10:44 am ET
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan said Monday that a Taliban commander with a 234,000-dollar price on his head had been killed in a shootout with soldiers in the country's notorious North Waziristan region.
In Azerbaijan, key to Afghanistan efforts, Clinton walks tightrope on democracy
By Mary Beth Sheridan Washington Post staff writer Monday, July 5, 2010
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN - After a major speech in Poland encouraging democracy, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled Sunday to a country that has tossed bloggers in jail, held elections widely considered flawed and abolished term limits for its president.
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McCain: Kandahar is key to victory in Afghan war
By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press Writer – Mon Jul 5, 12:48 pm ET
KABUL, Afghanistan – The ranking Republican on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee said Monday that NATO and Afghan troops will prevail in the war if they can succeed in securing and bolstering governance in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
Sen. John McCain, who visited Afghanistan's largest city in the south on Monday with two other U.S. lawmakers, warned of tough fighting ahead and predicted that casualties would rise in the short-term.
"The Taliban know that Kandahar is the key to success or failure," McCain told a news conference at the airport in Kabul. "So what happens in this operation will have a great effect on the outcome of this conflict. But I am convinced we can succeed and will succeed, and Kandahar is obviously the key area. And if succeed there, we will succeed in the rest of this struggle."
McCain, a Republican from Arizona, also reiterated his opposition to President Barack Obama's plan to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan beginning in July 2011. Obama has said that large numbers of troops would not be pulled out if conditions did not allow, but that caveat has often gotten lost in the discussion over the length of U.S. commitment to the war.
McCain said he expected progress to be made in Afghanistan between now and July 2011. "But we must not tell the enemy that we will begin leaving when we have not finished the job," he said.
During a two-day visit, McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who is on the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an Independent from Connecticut who is chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, met with Gen. David Petraeus, the newly installed NATO commander, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry.
Lieberman said he understood that Obama wanted to use the July 2011 timetable to send the message that the U.S. would not be in Afghanistan forever. Still, he said he thought the president was wrong to set it. "We hear it everywhere we go here. They say they think we're leaving. We're not going to leave until we win."
McCain also said he expected Petraeus to refine the rules of engagement on the battlefield.
"Probably there will be some tweaking," McCain said. "We get that impression from him."
The rules were designed to limit civilian casualties and improve Afghan public support for coalition forces. The rules don't prevent U.S. troops from calling in air support, but the emphasis is on caution, and some officers fear career damage if they mistakenly call for air or heavy weapons support and kill civilians in the process. Analysts say the rules have been interpreted and implemented unevenly across the country.
All three criticized New York Democratic Representative Nita Lowey, chairwoman of a key House panel that voted to cut off nearly $4 billion in civilian aid to Afghanistan pending an investigation into allegations that Afghan officials were blocking corruption probes and foreign aid was being pocketed.
Afghan officials have pushed back, saying she was wrong to suggest that government officials in Kabul had misused or pocketed donor funds, accurately pointing out that contractors and foreign capitals hold the pursestrings for the vast majority of international aid in the country.
Putting nearly $4 billion in civilian aid in doubt is self-defeating because it's impossible to defeat the Taliban until Afghanistan has more effective civilian institutions, Graham said.
"Congress needs to understand that statements like this at this point in time are ill-advised," Graham said. "People are making a decision who to side with. ... The money in question is just as important to the war effort in my view as additional troops."
NATO said three U.S. service members died Monday — two in a roadside bomb explosion in western Afghanistan and another following a roadside bombing in eastern Afghanistan. Also Monday, a British soldier was killed in the blast during a vehicle patrol in southern Helmand province, the British Defense Ministry said. Their deaths brought to 12 the number of U.S. and other international troops killed so far this month.
June was the deadliest month of the war for U.S. and international forces, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
The AP count, based on announcements by the alliance and national commands, indicates that 103 international service members, including 60 Americans, died in June. The previous deadliest month for the multinational force was July 2009, when 75 troops were killed. For the U.S. contingent, the deadliest month was October 2009, when 59 service members were killed.
Roadside mines also are killing civilians. The Afghan Ministry of Interior reported Monday that six Afghan civilians, including a woman, died after their vehicle hit a roadside bomb Sunday in New Bahar district of Zabul province. Another civilian was killed and four others were wounded in a roadside bomb blast Sunday in Shinkay district of Zabul province, the ministry reported.
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U.S. lawmakers press Afghanistan's Karzai on graft
By Rob Taylor – Mon Jul 5, 11:37 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – Senior U.S. lawmakers pressed Afghanistan's president to do more to stop graft, but said on Monday that threats to pull U.S. aid over the issue would only hobble a war strategy that stands a good chance of success.
Former U.S. presidential candidate and Republican senator John McCain and Democratic Senator Joseph Lieberman urged President Hamid Karzai at a private dinner to put more effort into battling the endemic corruption giving oxygen to a growing Taliban insurgency.
"I believe that there are still serious problems with corruption here, there are serious problems with contracting, and those we have discussed with the president and other members of the government, as well as our government," McCain told reporters at the end of a tour of the country's restive south.
"But I am convinced we can succeed and will succeed, and Kandahar is obviously the key area. If we succeed there, we will succeed in the rest of this struggle."
McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war, said he agreed with new U.S. and NATO forces commander General David Petraeus that the war in Afghanistan was at a make-or-break stage, with the Taliban at their strongest since their 2001 overthrow.
Petraeus took command of the nine-year fight at the weekend after his predecessor, General Stanley McChrystal, was dismissed and the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives approved $33 billion in funding for a troop surge meant to turn the tide of the war.
The surge will bring to 150,000 the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan and entails tackling the Taliban in their southern strongholds while relying on Karzai to improve local governance ahead of a U.S. troop phase-down starting from July next year.
McCain, visiting the Afghan capital Kabul, again voiced reservations about setting a date for a U.S. withdrawal, arguing that President Barack Obama should not pull out troops until the country and government were stable.
He joined Lieberman and Republican senator Lindsey Graham in condemning a vote by a U.S. lower house panel last week to freeze almost $4 billion in aid funding to Afghanistan, blaming corruption concerns.
"That would be a very serious mistake and it won't happen. We have to tell the American people that there is a strategy in play that will succeed," McCain said.
The three lawmakers, speaking after separate talks with Petraeus and senior aides, said they were convinced the surge was well conceived and planned, but the already bloody fight against the Taliban would get worse as insurgents fought back.
More than 100 NATO troops died in June, the deadliest month since the war began, as NATO and Afghan forces intensified operations against the Taliban in the south.
Nearly 1,900 foreign troops have died in Afghanistan since the Taliban were overthrown in 2001.
(Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
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NGOs await ruling on "proselytizing" case
KABUL, 5 July 2010 (IRIN) - More than a month has passed since the Afghan government suspended the work of two international NGOs on charges of Christian “proselytizing”, but formal investigations have been shrouded in secrecy and seem to have become mired in bureaucracy.
“We have sent letters to the Attorney General’s Office [AGO], the Ministry of Interior [MoI] and the National Directorate of Security [NDS] calling on them to complete their investigations as soon as possible,” Sediq Amarkhil, spokesman of the Ministry of Economy (MoE) which registers and supervises NGOs in the country, told IRIN. He said solving the case was taking longer than normal.
Officials in the AGO and MoI told IRIN the case had not been referred to them but was being handled by the 17th department of the NDS.
An NDS official who preferred anonymity said the directorate was looking into 14 cases of “proselytizing”, two of which involved foreign NGOs.
The NGOs, Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) and Church World Service, were accused of “proselytizing” after a local TV channel showed pictures of several Afghans converting to Christianity.
The case quickly turned into a sensitive domestic issue with demonstrations across the country, and ministers summoned to an emotional National Assembly. Afghan law prohibits religious proselytizing.
It is unclear why the two NGOs are embroiled in the controversy as the TV video does not explicitly indicate their involvement in what appears to be a group baptizing ceremony.
“We are eagerly awaiting the results [of the investigations],” Atle Sommerfeldt, secretary-general of NCA, told IRIN, adding that he firmly believed the accusations against his organization were false.
Laurent Sailard, director of ACBAR, a consortium of over 100 national and international NGOs, expressed disappointment with what he called a “stagnant bureaucracy” which he said was hindering the work of NGOs.
Afghanistan’s state services have been widely criticized as corrupt, complex and slow. There is a backlog of thousands of cases awaiting adjudication at the Supreme Court, officials acknowledge.
Lobbying
NCA, which has operated in Afghanistan since 1995, has an annual budget of about US$10 million - mostly for rural development and clean energy projects - and implements projects in partnership with local NGOs.
Several NCA beneficiaries from the eastern province of Nangarhar have lobbied the MoE to allow the NGO to resume its activities.
“People have defended the NGOs and say they’re innocent,” said MoE’s spokesman, Amarkhil.
NCA has about 50 national staff in Afghanistan who have been instructed to stay at home until the case is solved. The organization’s three international employees have remained in the country.
“So far there has been no dramatic impact on our beneficiaries,” said Sommerfeldt.
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Three NATO soldiers killed in Afghanistan
Mon Jul 5, 10:51 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Three NATO soldiers have been killed fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, two of them in a bomb attack in the relatively peaceful west of the country, the military said on Monday.
A third soldier was killed on patrol in the south, where the nearly nine-year war is at its fiercest, on American Independence Day, NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said.
It later announced two soldiers died in western Afghanistan on Monday following an improvised explosive device (IED) attack.
Such bombs are a high-profile Taliban weapon and responsible for the overwhelming majority of deaths of both troops and civilians in the war.
The nationalities of the soldiers were not given.
The deaths bring to 331 the number of foreign soldiers to have died in the war so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on that kept by the independent icasualties.org website.
The deaths come after US General David Petraeus took command on Sunday of the 140,000 NATO and US troops in Afghanistan, replacing US General Stanley McChrystal, who was sacked for insubordination.
Another 10,000 foreign troops are due to deploy to Afghanistan by August as part of a plan to intensify pressure on the insurgents, mainly in the southern provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, and speed an end to the war.
In Zabul, the province neighbouring Kandahar, a roadside bomb killed six civilians overnight, the interior ministry said Monday.
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NATO soldier killed in IED attack in E. Afghanistan
KABUL, July 5 (Xinhua) -- A soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) attack in Afghanistan's eastern region on Monday, bringing the casualties of ISAF forces to six over the past week, the military alliance said in a press release.
"An ISAF servicemember died following an IED strike in eastern Afghanistan today," the press release said on Monday.
However, the press release did not disclose the nationality of the victim and exact place of the incident but the U.S. forces are mostly stationed in eastern Afghanistan within the frame work of ISAF to secure that part of the country.
Taliban militants, whose regime was ousted in a U.S.-led military campaign, have largely been relying on IEDs, roadside and suicide bombings after the outfit made a bloody comeback four years ago.
More than 300 NATO soldiers, with majority of them Americans, have been killed since the beginning this year in Afghanistan.
Over 126,000 NATO-led ISAF troops have been serving in Afghanistan to help bring lasting peace in the militancy-hit central Asian state.
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2 Taliban commanders detained in NE Afghan province
FAIZABAD, Afghanistan, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Afghan troops arrested two Taliban commanders in the relatively peaceful Badakhshan province in northeast Afghanistan, deputy to provincial governor Shamsul Rahman Shams said Monday.
"In the operation involving national army and police and launched in Kasham district Sunday afternoon, two key Taliban commanders namely Qari Najibullah and Qari Shafiq were arrested," Shams told Xinhua.
He also said that Qari Najibullah had served as Taliban shadowy district governor and Qari Shafiq as shadowy police chief in Kasham district.
Both the detained Taliban commanders, according to the official, were involved in organizing subversive activities including killing six policemen last month.
Taliban militants have yet to make comment.
The relatively peaceful Badakhshan province has experienced few Taliban-linked activities since early this year while in 2009 it enjoyed complete peace.
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Hopes for peace with Afghan prisoner releases
By Patrick Falby July 4, 2010
(AFP) –LOGAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan — Khan Mohammad and Taher smile as they peer out of a US military helicopter: after a year in prison as suspected supporters of Al-Qaeda, they are nearly home.
The two men were heading back to eastern Logar province for a "shura" ceremony that would see them return to their communities under a reintegration programme the Afghan government says is essential to ending the war.
"This will have a positive impact for the general situation in Afghanistan," Brigadier General Mohibullah, head of the detainee reintegration programme, told AFP.
"Each guy belongs to a family, each family belongs to a tribe."
There are 15,000 detainees around Afghanistan, including around 800 at Bagram air base near Kabul, where Mohammad and Taher were held, according to the US department of defence and the Afghan government.
Suspected militants have been rounded up in the country since the US-led invasion to topple the Taliban regime in late 2001, and were at first held without any review of their cases.
They have gradually been granted more rights, as Afghanistan attempts to reform its prison system and the US Supreme Court ruled Al-Qaeda suspects held at the notorious jail in Guantanamo Bay were entitled to hearings.
Afghanistan is now accelerating hearings after a landmark "peace jirga" -- a council of elders and community leaders from across Afghanistan held in Kabul in June -- called for the release of detainees held without charge.
To help gain prisoner releases, local leaders promise to help them live peaceful, stable lives.
The prisoners must sign a document of allegiance to the Afghan government and enroll in a reconciliation programme, renouncing violence and getting jobs.
The Afghan government and NATO forces say the initiative, which has so far released some 130 prisoners, is the first step toward reforming the country's legal system, which has been plagued by allegations of abuse.
Rights groups say however the process does not address Afghanistan's problems of arbitrary detention and that detainees are not given access to legal representation.
"We are very happy that the indefinite detention of these detainees is being addressed through this process, but we have concerns," said Nader Nadery, of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
"A review process needs a longer period of time to get prisoners enough evidence to argue for release," he said.
Once home, Mohammad and Taher said they had been wrongfully held without evidence.
Taher's son, 21-year-old Nakibullah, said that in his father's absence he had to take time off from economics studies to support the family of three wives and ten children.
"One year passed without heating because we didn't have money for wood," Nakibullah said.
Taher said someone from another tribe who held a grudge against him in a land dispute had told NATO forces he was a militant.
"They kept asking the same questions, like, 'why were you trying to help Al-Qaeda and attack foreign troops?'," said the former engineer.
Mohammad, a taxi driver who lost a leg fighting the Soviets in the 1980s, said he was arrested in a raid on his home while two Pakistani men were his dinner guests.
"They gave us specific dates we went to Pakistan and asked why did you go to Pakistan?" said the father of nine.
"I told them I don't have a relationship with Al-Qaeda, I went to Pakistan to buy tractors."
Some 50 relatives, elders and government and military officials turned out at the local government offices to witness their release ceremony.
"I want to assure you that anybody released in this area will not join the Taliban," said Abdul Hamid, a local government official.
But the programme comes with no guarantees, as the experience of Saudi Arabia shows.
Authorities in the Gulf state reported recently that 20 percent of its citizens released from Guantanamo had resumed contact with Islamist militants after going through a similar rehabilitation programme.
And those who swear off violence can run into trouble. Brigadier General Mohibullah said three men were killed by their former Taliban comrades upon their release.
Taher made it clear there was little trust after his year in prison.
"Foreigners (in Afghanistan) should know that their partners are their enemies," he said after swearing allegiance to the Afghan government.
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Petraeus Appeals for Military-Civilian 'Unity' in Afghanistan
July 04, 2010 FoxNews.com
Gen. David Petraeus, in a July 4 message to troops and diplomats in Afghanistan, called for a "team effort" between the military and civilian sides of the war as Sen. John McCain continued to question whether that's possible.
Petraeus formally took command in Afghanistan Sunday after Gen. Stanley McChrystal resigned over divisive comments he and his aides made in a magazine article last month. The comments underscored the tension that exists between the military and civilian teams -- something the incoming general is aiming to smooth over immediately.
"This endeavor has to be a team effort. We must strive to contribute to the 'Team of Teams' at work in Afghanistan and to achieve unity of effort with our diplomatic, international civilian and Afghan partners as we carry out a comprehensive, civil-military counterinsurgency campaign," he wrote Sunday. Petraeus made a similar plea in remarks to troops upon taking command.
"Cooperation is not optional," he said.
But despite Petraeus' appeal, some in Congress have questioned whether McChrystal is the only top-ranking official who has to go. McChrystal, a supporter of the troop-heavy counterinsurgency strategy, was at odds with Amb. Karl Eikenberry over the approach -- and with Petraeus now the face of that strategy, McCain suggested the jury's out on whether the two can effectively work together.
"I hope that the ambassador and General Petraeus can work together," he said on ABC's "This Week." "I think that the assessment needs to be made. Obviously, the past relationships have not worked out as well as they should have."
McCain, R-Ariz., repeated his assertion that former Amb. Ryan Crocker and Petraeus made up "the ideal team" while the two were serving in Iraq. Petraeus was the commanding general in Iraq at the time before leaving to assume leadership at U.S. Central Command.
"Let's hope we can establish that same kind of relationship here in Afghanistan," McCain said.
McCain is in Afghanistan with Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Lieberman said Petraeus did not directly address the make-up of the diplomatic team during a face-to-face meeting with the general.
"We didn't talk about civil-military relations at this point, except that General Petraeus talked about how committed he was to a unity of effort among Americans here in Kabul," Lieberman said.
Last year, Eikenberry sent cables to Washington critical of the counterinsurgency approach during President Obama's months-long strategy review. In the Rolling Stone article that led to his resignation, McChrystal said Eikenberry was trying to look good for the history books.
His staff also made critical comments about Special Representative Richard Holbrooke.
In his letter to U.S. forces, Petraeus described the Afghanistan war as a "contest of wills" and urged his team to stay focused.
"Our enemies will do all that they can to shake our confidence and the confidence of the Afghan people," he wrote. "In turn, we must continue to demonstrate our resolve to the enemy. We will do so through our relentless pursuit of the Taliban and others who mean Afghanistan harm, through our compassion for the Afghan people and through our example and the values that we live."
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Pakistan renews call for dialogue with some Taliban
By Kamran Haider – Mon Jul 5, 2:35 pm ET
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistan's government, under fresh pressure to deliver stability after suicide bombers killed dozens last week, renewed its call on Monday for talks with Taliban militants ready to renounce violence.
At least 42 people were killed and 175 wounded when two suicide bombers struck Pakistan's most important Sufi shrine on Thursday night, the second major attack in a month on Pakistan's cultural hub and traditional seat of power Punjab province.
Speaking after a special high level meeting on law and order, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said the government would welcome negotiations under the right conditions.
"One thing is very clear that they will have to accept the writ of the state and surrender before the government. Our doors are open for negotiations with those who will surrender before the government," he told reporters.
The Taliban has shown no sign it would enter negotiations since the military launched a series of crackdowns against the homegrown Taliban in April 2009.
The suicide attacks in the eastern city of Lahore last week raised new questions over the effectiveness of those operations.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani opened the law and order meeting by urging political parties and religious leaders to help the state and army fight militancy after the attacks and called for a national conference to formulate a strategy to combat terrorism.
A new wave of domestic violence and deeper public discontent could distract Pakistan's government, which analysts say is busy maneuvering to gain maximum leverage in Afghanistan if peace is negotiated, in order to counter enemy India's influence there.
Gilani was quoted in a statement from his office as saying the federal government could not handle the problem on its own.
"Beside the army and law enforcing agencies, the terrorism, sectarianism and ethnic divide need to be handled by the important pillars of the state including public representatives from all the political parties, religious leaders and civil society," he said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the shrine attack, but officials have blamed "Punjabi Taliban" -- a term used for militants drawn from the province who have ganged up with Taliban in the northwest and have also forged ties with al Qaeda -- for previous attacks in the province.
DANGEROUS ALLIANCES
It is those alliances that are most worrying for Pakistan, which says its military is stretched fighting the Pakistani Taliban in the northwest.
"The nexus between these three is a problem for Pakistan. All the past activities that had been investigated, there is an involvement of these three," Interior Minister Rehman Malik said at the press conference.
But he ruled out a military crackdown in the Punjab.
Militants may have been trying to whip up emotions by attacking sacred religious sites in a bid to destabilize Pakistan, a nuclear-armed, regional power that Washington sees as critical in the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Last month, Pakistani Taliban attacked two Lahore mosques belonging to the Ahmadi minority group, killing more than 80 people and wounding more than 100.
The Ahmadis consider themselves Muslims, but many in Pakistan, including the government, do not.
Lahore's police chief said earlier six militants had been arrested over the past few weeks in connection with several attacks including the one on the Ahmadis.
(Writing by Michael Georgy, editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
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No escape yet for Bill Shaw, the Briton cleared of bribery in Kabul
Former army officer's two year sentence overturned but he will be held until legal formalities are complete
The Guardian Aunohita Mojumdar in Kabul Sunday 4 July 2010
A former British army officer Bill Shaw was acquitted today of bribery charges by an Afghan court which overturned an earlier conviction and two-year jail sentence.
Though acquitted, Shaw, a senior manager at G4S, the private security company that guards the British embassy in Kabul, still has to wait for his release. At the end of a hearing lasting more than seven hours and spread over two days, he was led back to prison today to await the completion of legal formalities.
Shaw said he was "very, very excited" about the verdict, describing his time in Pul-e-Charkhi, a prison infamous for its overcrowding and squalor, as "a living hell". In a statement from their home in Leeds, West Yorkshire, his overjoyed wife Liz, said: "I just want him home and won't believe this nightmare is over until he's back with us, his family."
In an interview broadcast on BBC Radio 4's The World this Weekend, Shaw described his ordeal as the "lowest part of my life". He said: "They moved me to a place called the counter-narcotics justice centre. That to me was a picture of Guantánamo Bay.
"Everything was taken off me all your identity is stripped from you completely.
"You put a uniform on, they issue you with one bar of soap, a toothbrush and toothpaste - that is it, no possessions. That is the lowest part of my life, nine weeks spent in there being totally controlled and administered 24 hours a day."
His daughter Lisa Luckyn-Malone added: "We have been deeply concerned about Dad's health and safety, and hope he is released very soon."
Shaw's family has led a high-profile campaign, drawing attention to the former Royal Military police officer's deteriorating health and highlighting concerns about his safety in Pul-e-Charkhi.
The father-of-three and his lawyer, Kimberley Motley, said they have both received threats and that Shaw was put in solitary confinement at his own request.
Shaw, 52, who served in the RMP for 28 years and was awarded an MBE, was arrested and fined $25,000 (£16,400) in March by Afghanistan's national security directorate for paying a bribe to secure the release of the company's bombproof vehicles which had been confiscated by the Afghan security service. Shaw said he believed he was paying a legitimate fine to release the two vehicles.
Motley said today her client had been denied basic rights, including a presumption of innocence in the first trial: "We were proving his innocence rather than the prosecution proving he was guilty." Motley said no evidence and no witnesses were produced before the court.
Motley, who told the Guardian at Shaw's conviction that the court had not followed Afghan law or UN conventions to which Afghanistan is party, said the case ought to be an eyeopener to the flaws in the system. The law, she said "does provide protection, but is not being implemented. Rule of law needs to be improved by different [donor] countries."
Donor countries, including the UK, have given considerable amounts to the Afghan government to develop legal institutions and improve the rule of law.
In a brief statement today, the Foreign Office said it was "pleased for Mr Shaw and his family", adding "the UK continues to strongly support the work of the Afghan government to counter corruption and reinforce the rule of law".
Criticism of Shaw's arrest also centred on allegations that the Afghan government was making him a scapegoat in an attempt to counter criticism of corruption.
International private security firms have also earned the hostility of the Afghan population because of their abrasive behaviour and excessive use of force, which tars even those which may be more disciplined. " We will work with the authorities to ensure that Bill is returned to his family as soon as possible," a G4S spokesman told the Guardian.
Shaw's final release will depend on whether there is a counter-appeal, though his lawyer said both his co-accused as well as the office of the attorney general had said they did not plan to appeal.
Shaw's translator, Maiwand Limar, an Afghan, was also convicted in April but had his sentence reduced today from two years to eight months, six of which he has already served.
In the absence of a counter-appeal, Shaw will be out of prison once the formalities are completed. Even if he is released, however, the court will have to rule on whether he can leave the country before the completion of the 20 days which it has given for a counter-appeal to be filed.
After his acquittal, a tearful Shaw told Sky News: "My thanks to all my supporters, here and in the UK, the British embassy and G4S who have been behind me 100%. I look forward to seeing you soon."
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Critics press Obama on Afghanistan withdrawal deadline
CNN - Africa By the CNN Wire Staff July 4, 2010
The July 2011 deadline to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan is unrealistic and unhelpful, Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad told CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday.
"First, if you over-emphasize a deadline that is not realistic, you are making the enemy a lot more bold," Jawad said. "You are prolonging the war. That deadline should be realistic. The line should be based on the reality on the ground and we should give a clear message to the enemy, to the terrorists who are a threat to everyone, that the United States, NATO, Afghans are there to finish this job."
He continued, "If that's not the feeling, we lost the support of the Afghan people, and also make the neighboring countries of interest a lot more bolder to interfere in Afghanistan."
President Barack Obama and Gen. David Petraeus, who has replaced Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, have said they would begin withdrawal in July 2011 depending on conditions on the ground.
Appearing on ABC's "This Week," Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, questioned the wisdom of a firm deadline to start withdrawing forces.
"I'm all for dates for withdrawal, but that's after the strategy succeeds, not before," said McCain, the Republican presidential candidate in 2008 who was in Afghanistan for the Fourth of July weekend.
For now, McCain described the strategy as one that hasn't gone as well as hoped.
"The president should state unequivocally that we will leave when we have succeeded," he said. "If you tell the enemy that you're leaving on a date certain, unequivocally, then that enemy will wait until you leave."
McCain's GOP colleague, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, echoed those thoughts in a separate interview from Afghanistan broadcast on the CBS program "Face the Nation."
"If you send a signal to your enemy you're going to leave at a certain date, they'll wait you out," Graham said. However, he expressed optimism that the counterinsurgency strategy now being led by Petraeus can show progress in turning over security to Afghan forces in some areas by July 2011.
"I do believe next summer we can have transition in certain parts of Afghanistan," Graham said. "Other parts will still need fighting and a firm commitment."
Overall, Graham said, he found morale on the ground "pretty good" as Petraeus assumed command of the mission.
His trip coincides with the visit to Afghanistan by Vice President Joe Biden, and Graham said Biden had assured him that any withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country would be "conditions-based" instead of launched purely for the sake of getting out without consideration for the status of the mission.
Graham joined McCain in urging Obama to clarify the conditions-based approach so that the nation's allies and enemies understand the U.S. commitment to the war.
Last week, some Democrats in Congress supported an amendment to a military spending bill that would have required Obama to give Congress a new intelligence report on Afghanistan by January and a plan for withdrawing troops by April.
If Obama fails to carry out his pledge to start bringing troops home by July 2011, Congress would need to approve additional funding for the war, the amendment said. The measure failed in a late-night vote after the White House threatened to veto the bill if it contained the amendment, but the language showed some restlessness among Democrats about the war strategy.
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Pakistan kills wanted Taliban commander
Mon Jul 5, 10:44 am ET
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan said Monday that a Taliban commander with a 234,000-dollar price on his head had been killed in a shootout with soldiers in the country's notorious North Waziristan region.
The military said Ameerullah Mehsud was one of the top commanders in the Pakistani Taliban, the group blamed for some of the deadliest bomb attacks of a three-year campaign that has killed more than 3,400 people.
He also went by the alias of Qari Gud, which means "the man who limps", and Mazloomyar, which means "friend of the oppressed" in the Pashtu language.
Mehsud was reportedly shot dead at a checkpoint in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, where Pakistani commanders have felt under increasing US pressure to launch a decisive campaign against Islamist strongholds.
"His head money was 20 million rupees (234,000 dollars). Two soldiers were also wounded in the shootout," the military said in a statement. The gunbattle took place in Miranshah on Sunday, it added.
Mehsud was listed 11 out of 19 most-wanted Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commanders for whom the government last November posted combined rewards worth five million dollars for information leading to their capture, dead or alive.
He was wanted for attacking security forces, kidnapping for ransom and "other anti-state activities," it added.
Pakistan said he was TTP commander for Makeen and Razmak, a Taliban stronghold in South Waziristan about 430 kilometres (270 miles) southwest of the capital Islamabad.
Pakistan fought a bloody campaign to push the militant group out of their South Waziristan headquarters late last year. Many militants are believed to have escaped to North Waziristan and other parts of the lawless tribal belt.
Pakistan ground troops, backed by jet fighters and helicopter gunships, are pressing campaigns against the TTP in much of the tribal belt, which falls outside direct government control and snakes the border with Afghanistan.
The United States have welcomed the campaigns. Washington calls the tribal belt the most dangerous region on Earth and say Al-Qaeda and its allies are plotting terror attacks on the West.
It was not immediately clear whether anyone would be rewarded in connection with Mehsud's death.
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In Azerbaijan, key to Afghanistan efforts, Clinton walks tightrope on democracy
By Mary Beth Sheridan Washington Post staff writer Monday, July 5, 2010
BAKU, AZERBAIJAN - After a major speech in Poland encouraging democracy, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled Sunday to a country that has tossed bloggers in jail, held elections widely considered flawed and abolished term limits for its president.
But she took a notably cautious approach there on the issue of democratic reforms.
That's because the country is Azerbaijan, a key transit route for U.S. troops and supplies heading for Afghanistan.
Clinton's visit highlighted the tricky task of balancing democracy and security interests. Former Republican officials have accused the Obama administration of soft-pedaling democracy concerns in an effort to make progress on other issues with countries such as Russia and China.
The Obama administration disputes that charge, and Clinton has made high-profile speeches on democracy and Internet freedom in the past few months, including one Saturday in Poland expressing alarm about a growing crackdown on civil-society groups worldwide.
But on Sunday, her primary goal was to improve relations with Azerbaijan.
The country's authoritarian rulers have complained that the Obama administration is ignoring them -- leaving the U.S. ambassador's slot empty for more than a year and not inviting Azerbaijan to the Nuclear Security Summit this April, according to U.S. officials and analysts.
Clinton, anxious to repair ties, made Azerbaijan a stop on a five-nation tour of former Soviet bloc countries. She arrived less than a month after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates paid a visit, carrying a letter from President Obama pledging a closer relationship.
President Ilham Aliyev greeted Clinton warmly Sunday morning in his seaside palace, a honey-colored building with chandeliers the size of Christmas trees. "I'm sure your visit will strengthen this partnership," he said.
Clinton responded that she was "very committed to our relationship." She praised Azerbaijan's thriving economy, culture and contributions to U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Asked at a news conference about the human rights situation in Azerbaijan, she said, "We've seen a lot of progress."
That prompted an Azerbaijani journalist to ask: "You said there is progress. Can you explain how it goes on?" The country's human rights situation, he said, is "worsening year after year."
Rights groups say Azerbaijan's leaders, buoyed by oil wealth, are becoming steadily less democratic.
In 2009, "the Azerbaijani authorities deepened their authoritarian grip on the country and governed with increasing impunity," Freedom House, a democracy watchdog, said in a recent report.
Azerbaijan has been ruled since 1993 by members of the Aliyev family, first by Heydar Aliyev and then his son Ilham. Their influence was hard for Clinton to miss; she landed at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport, sped down the Heydar Aliyev highway and passed the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Center.
Clinton sought to use quiet persuasion rather than confrontation, telling Ilham Aliyev that she had personally experienced the sting of media criticism and the difficulties of democracy but that they had made her a better politician, aides said.
Asked at the news conference "what priority you place on democracy" in Azerbaijan, Clinton said the relationship was complex, with important interrelated issues.
"Democratic reform is always one of our top goals for any developing country," she said.
Clinton noted that she had met with Azerbaijani youth organizers, some of whom were pushing for democratic change. Officials said she also complained in private to Aliyev about the sentencing of two young bloggers to prison last year in what was widely seen as reprisal for their mocking the government.
Tom de Waal, an expert on Azerbaijan at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said it appeared that the Obama administration had other priorities than democracy promotion in its dealings with Azerbaijan.
"They've decided it's a country with whom we have two hard security issues," he said.
Azerbaijan's ports, railroads and airspace have been crucial in moving U.S. troops and equipment to Afghanistan.
The second security issue is the dispute over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was seized by Armenia in a war in the early 1990s that killed about 30,000 people.
In her meetings in Azerbaijan and in the evening in Armenia, Clinton urged a peaceful solution to the conflict and pledged continued U.S. support for efforts to negotiate a settlement.
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