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Afghan govt says it's not banning attacks coverage
By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – The Afghan government denied Tuesday that it had banned live media coverage of insurgent attacks, saying it was developing guidelines, not restrictions, to prevent live footage from aiding fighters at the scene.
Afghanistan bans coverage of Taliban attacks
By Sayed Salahuddin And Hamid Shalizi – Tue Mar 2, 4:40 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan on Monday announced a ban on news coverage showing Taliban attacks, saying such images embolden the Islamist militants, who have launched strikes around the country as NATO forces seize their southern strongholds.
Official: Pakistani group behind Kabul attacks
By Rahim Faiez, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – An Afghan intelligence official on Tuesday blamed the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for last week's car bomb and suicide attacks that killed 16 people in the heart of Kabul.
Taliban attack wounds 4 children in E Afghanistan
KABUL, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Taliban attack in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province wounded four children, police said Tuesday.
Taliban militants find breathing room in slums of Karachi, Pakistan
Insurgents use the city to regroup and raise funds. Telling friend from foe is a challenge for police.
By Alex Rodriguez March 2, 2010
Reporting from Karachi, Pakistan - In Karachi's Baldia neighborhood, a working-class mix of Pashtun and other Pakistanis, it took an accidental explosion amid piles of suicide vests and grenades to unearth a cell of Taliban militants in a house that neighbors believed sheltered a quiet Pashtun family.
Help promised for returning Marjah IDPs
KABUL, 2 March 2010 (IRIN) - Hundreds of families who fled fighting in the Marjah area of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, in February have started returning home; conditions are difficult but steps are being taken to help them, government officials say.
McChrystal, others visit Marja, Afghanistan, as offensive enters governing phase
By Joshua Partlow The Washington Post Tuesday, March 2, 2010; A07
MARJA, AFGHANISTAN -- The initial phase of the military offensive in southern Afghanistan to wrest Marja from insurgent control has largely ended, but the more daunting task of building a credible government in the place of Taliban rule has just begun, according to senior U.S. and Afghan officials.
Marjah's residents wary of U.S. after Taliban ouster
McClatchy Newspapers By Dion Nissenbaum 03/01/2010
MARJAH - One by one, the men of Marjah tentatively approached the high-ranking Afghan official with their complaints.
Govt names new ambassador to Afghanistan
Mon Mar 1, 11:53 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – Britain has appointed William Patey, a former senior diplomat in Iraq, as its new ambassador in Afghanistan, the Foreign Office announced Monday.
Pakistan seizes key Taliban, Al-Qaeda base
Tue Mar 2, 5:42 am ET
DAMADOLA, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan's army has seized control of a key Taliban and Al-Qaeda stronghold in a region bordering Afghanistan after killing 75 local and foreign militants, a top general said on Tuesday.
Pakistani Court Blocks Transfer of Taliban to Kabul, WSJ Says
By Chris Peterson
March 1 (Bloomberg) --Lahore’s High Court blocked the transfer of at least six Afghan Taliban leaders to Kabul, saying it wanted to rule on a petition submitted by human-rights activist Khalid Khawaja, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Czech deputy PM visits Afghanistan
KABUL, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The Deputy Prime Minister of Czech Republic Martin Bartak paid an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday and exchanged views with President Hamid Karzai, a statement released by the Presidential Palace said.
Indian officials in Afghanistan to have better security cover
PTI, Mar 2, 2010, 07.14pm IST The Times of India
NEW DELHI: Indian officials present in Afghanistan will be given a personal security officer in the wake of terrorists targeting the country's installations and mission across the war-torn nation, Home Ministry sources said on Tuesday.
Pakistan holds onto its Taliban
Asia Times Online By Gareth Porter Mar 2, 2010
WASHINGTON - The refusal of Pakistani intelligence to turn over Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and as many as six other top Taliban figures to the United States or the Afghan government has dealt a serious blow to the Barack Obama administration's hopes for Pakistani cooperation in weakening the Taliban.
Taking It To the Taliban on Marjah in Afghanistan
By Bobby Ghosh time.com – Mon Mar 1, 7:45 am ET
Two days before launching the most ambitious military campaign of the Obama Administration, General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, convened a meeting in Kabul of 450 tribal elders and scholars from Helmand province.
Big rise in Afghan child migrants
By Martin Patience BBC News, Kabul Monday, 1 March 2010
As a 15-year-old, Aman Ahmedi set off on a journey for a better future - but it was to cost him his family.
Princess visits UK, Canadian troops in Afghanistan
Tue Mar 2, 4:34 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – Britain's Princess Anne made a surprise visit to British and Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence here said Tuesday.
Ministries to place ban on 'immoral websites' by May 21
Pajhwok By Frozan Rahmani 03/01/2010
KABUL - The Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Technology in coordination with the Ministry of Information and Culture are going to place a ban on the websites that exclusively circulate pornography by May 21, officials said on Sunday.
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Afghan govt says it's not banning attacks coverage
By Deb Riechmann, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – The Afghan government denied Tuesday that it had banned live media coverage of insurgent attacks, saying it was developing guidelines, not restrictions, to prevent live footage from aiding fighters at the scene.
Waheed Omar, a spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said that insurgents had used live broadcasts from the scene of attacks in the past to give instructions to their fellow militants. Omar said he would meet on Wednesday with the spokesmen of all the Afghan ministries to discuss the formulation of guidelines.
In addition to thwarting the goals of militants, he said the guidelines also would serve to protect journalists at the scene of attacks.
"These are the two things we'd like to address with the cooperation of the media," Omar said. "We hope that can happen through a mechanism that doesn't restrict anyone's access to information or restrict the presence of media on the scene."
"I would not call it restrictions," Omar said.
That characterization, however, conflicts with the message Saeed Ansari, spokesman for the National Directorate of Security, gave the news media on Monday.
Ansari told representatives of The Associated Press and other news organizations, in individual meetings at the heavily secured compound, that the government was instituting a ban on live coverage at attack sites. He did not disclose specific details about how the ban would be imposed, but said there would be punitive measures taken against journalists who did not comply. He did not elaborate.
During the meeting, the AP argued that the ban would make it difficult to provide the public with up-to-date information about insurgent attacks in Afghanistan.
"We believe broad, pre-emptive bans on coverage are inconsistent with a democratic society," John Daniszewski, AP senior managing editor for international news, said in New York. "Experience shows there are many ways to cover important breaking stories without interfering with police or security operations."
U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said the United States supported freedom of the press and planned to discuss the issue with the Afghan government. "Continuing to strengthen free and independent media is important to any country's democratic development," Hayden said.
The announcement came just days after Taliban militants struck at hotels in the heart of Kabul in an assault that showed the militants remain a potent force. The militants fought with suicide attackers and a car bomb, killing 16 people — half of them foreigners.
Last year, the Afghan government issued a similar directive, instructing journalists not to broadcast "any incidence of violence" during the hours of polling in the Aug. 20 presidential election and directing journalists to stay away from the scene of attacks until investigators could collect evidence.The orders were not strictly enforced.
The head of the Afghan Independent Journalists Association, Rahimullah Samandar, said Tuesday that the informal nature of the request by Afghan officials shows that the government knows it cannot legally keep journalists from reporting on attacks or visiting the sites of incidents.
"We have not received a written document or letter from the intelligence service," Samandar said. He said that Afghanistan's constitution protects journalists' right to decide what to cover and said he does not expect Afghan reporters to abide by the request.
"It is censorship of media coverage," Samandar said. "We will not accept it." He noted that the government's attempt to ban coverage of violence during last year's election was largely ignored without retribution.
Ajmal Samadi, a spokesman for Afghanistan Rights Monitor, a civil liberties group, said restricting freedom of expression is unsavory and contradicts international human rights laws and Afghanistan's constitution. "Unfortunately the international community has been silently watching the Karzai regime's undemocratic moves, which are not limited to the state control on media," Samadi said.
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Afghanistan bans coverage of Taliban attacks
By Sayed Salahuddin And Hamid Shalizi – Tue Mar 2, 4:40 am ET
KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan on Monday announced a ban on news coverage showing Taliban attacks, saying such images embolden the Islamist militants, who have launched strikes around the country as NATO forces seize their southern strongholds.
The announcement came on a day when the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) fighting the Taliban reported six of its service members had been killed in various attacks.
Journalists will be allowed to film only the aftermath of attacks, when given permission by the National Directorate of Security (NDS) spy agency, the agency said. Journalists who film while attacks are under way will be held and their gear seized.
"Live coverage does not benefit the government, but benefits the enemies of Afghanistan," NDS spokesman Saeed Ansari said. The agency summoned a group of reporters to announce the ban.
The move was denounced by Afghan journalism and rights groups, which said it would deprive the public of vital information about the security situation during attacks.
"Such a decision prevents the public from receiving accurate information on any occurrence," said Abdul Hameed Mubarez head of the Afghan National Media Union, a group set up to protect Afghan journalists, who often complain of harassment by authorities.
"The government should not hide their inabilities by barring media from covering incidents," said Laila Noori, who monitors media issues for Afghanistan Rights Monitor, the country's main liberties watchdog. "People want to know all the facts on the ground whenever security incidents take place."
The Afghan government banned reporting violence for a single day during a presidential election last year, but otherwise had not had formal restrictions on filming security incidents. However, journalists have occasionally been beaten by security forces while filming at the scene of incidents in the past.
SUICIDE BOMBER
Two blasts hours apart on Monday killed at least six people in the southern city of Kandahar, birthplace of the Taliban whose fighters are being targeted in a renewed push by NATO-led troops.
One ISAF member was killed in one of the Kandahar strikes. In various attacks in the country, five other ISAF service members were also killed, the force said.
NATO-led troops launched an offensive last month to drive the Taliban out of their strongholds as part of a plan to hand control of the country to Afghan forces before a planned U.S. troop drawdown that would begin in July 2011.
U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, the ISAF commander, visited Marjah in Helmand province, the town seized by U.S. Marines in the offensive, one of the biggest operations of the eight-year-old war.
He was joined by Afghan Vice President Karim Khalili and Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal, who met hundreds of local residents at a "shura," or traditional council meeting.
"The most important thing is to bring peace and stability to the people in Afghanistan. This is our priority. This is a promise," Khalili told the gathering. But not all were impressed.
"You promised not to use big weapons. Why was my house destroyed?" asked Abdul Kader, a white-bearded village elder.
McChrystal told reporters the goal was to build a government in the area that villagers would embrace: "In the near term, they have to feel represented, they have to feel it's fair."
There could be 200-300 fighters left in the town "who were Taliban two weeks ago," McChrystal said. "Now, whether they still are is a personal choice for each of them. Some may become sleeper cells waiting for someone to tell them what to do. Some may just put the gun away and see what's going to happen."
Fighters have responded with attacks in other parts of the country, using roadside bombs and suicide attacks.
In the past week, the Taliban have carried out four big attacks killing at least 29 people and wounding scores more.
On Friday, two suicide blasts and a two-hour shootout between Afghan forces and the Taliban rocked the capital Kabul, killing 16 people and wounding 37. Among those killed were Indian government employees and an Italian diplomat.
In Monday's first blast, a suicide bomber blew up a car as NATO-led troops passed in convoy on a road several miles from Kandahar airport, a key NATO base. Mohammad Ibrahim, a doctor in a Kandahar hospital, said four civilians were killed.
A NATO helicopter evacuated the wounded, and a bridge close by was badly damaged, a Reuters journalist said.
Hours later, a car packed with explosives blew up outside Kandahar's main police station, killing a police officer and wounding 16 people.
(Additional reporting by Ismail Sameem in Kandahar and a pool reporter traveling with McChrystal in Marjah; writing by Bryson Hull and Peter Graff; Editing by Charles Dick)
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Official: Pakistani group behind Kabul attacks
By Rahim Faiez, Associated Press Writer
KABUL – An Afghan intelligence official on Tuesday blamed the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba for last week's car bomb and suicide attacks that killed 16 people in the heart of Kabul.
The same militants have been fingered by India for the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks that killed 166 people.
Friday's assaults in the Afghan capital targeted residential hotels popular with foreigners, and six Indians were among the dead. The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility within hours of the attacks, but the assertion that Pakistan-based militants were involved could jeopardize tentative peace talks between Pakistan and India that were relaunched only last week.
India pulled out of the talks after the Mumbai attacks, which ratcheted up tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Saeed Ansari, a spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service, told The Associated Press on Tuesday that his agency has evidence that Pakistanis, specifically Lashkar-e-Taiba, were involved in the attacks. He said one of the attackers was heard speaking Urdu, a Pakistani language.
Lashkar-e-Taiba is one of several militant Islamist groups that Pakistan's military intelligence helped create in the 1980s, seeking to use them against archrival India and fight Indian rule in Kashmir, which both countries claim.
Ansari also said that the Taliban "had no knowledge" of the Kabul attacks up to five hours after they began.
However, an Afghan Taliban spokesman telephoned an Associated Press reporter about 2 1/2 hours after the attacks began Friday to claim responsibility and said foreigners were the target.
The Kabul attack came a day after India and Pakistan held their first official talks since the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. India insisted during the talks Thursday that Pakistan needed to make more aggressive efforts to rein in anti-Indian insurgents there.
Friday's assault was the deadliest in Afghanistan's capital since Oct. 8, when a suicide car bomber killed 17 people outside the Indian Embassy. A suicide car bomber killed more than 60 people in an attack at the gates of the Indian Embassy in July 2008.
India accused archrival Pakistan's main spy agency of involvement in the embassy asault.
But New Delhi did not immediately blame Pakistan after Friday's assault.
India sent a three-member team by air force jet to work with Afghan authorities investigating the attacks, Indian Ambassador Jayant Prasad said Tuesday.
"We've had a team here since the day after the attacks," Prasad said.
(This version CORRECTS that official says one of the attackers, not several, was speaking a Pakistani language.)
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Taliban attack wounds 4 children in E Afghanistan
KABUL, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Taliban attack in Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province wounded four children, police said Tuesday.
"The Taliban rebels fired rockets but the weapons hit a residential area outside provincial capital Assadabad last night injuring four innocent children," provincial police chief Khalilullah Ziae told Xinhua.
He did not provide more information.
On the other hand, six Taliban militants, according to officials laid down their arms and joined the government in Lalpor district of the neighboring Nangarhar province on Monday.
Taliban militants who have intensified their activities and carried out three suicide attacks and roadside bombings in southern region on Monday have not made comment on injuring children and surrounding their comrades in east Afghanistan.
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Taliban militants find breathing room in slums of Karachi, Pakistan
Insurgents use the city to regroup and raise funds. Telling friend from foe is a challenge for police.
By Alex Rodriguez March 2, 2010
Reporting from Karachi, Pakistan - In Karachi's Baldia neighborhood, a working-class mix of Pashtun and other Pakistanis, it took an accidental explosion amid piles of suicide vests and grenades to unearth a cell of Taliban militants in a house that neighbors believed sheltered a quiet Pashtun family.
"We thought they were fruit sellers," said Mohammed Zahid, 24, who lives across the path from the heavily damaged house. Police said the Jan. 8 blast killed seven Taliban militants who had been planning to attack a Baldia police training center.
"They appeared to be good Muslims. We had no idea they were involved in anything like this," Zahid said.
The dense warrens of cinder-block huts in Karachi's sprawling ethnic Pashtun neighborhoods make ideal hide-outs for Afghan and Pakistani Taliban militants looking for a break from the fighting or for a base from which to strategize and muster up new financing. The Taliban members are Pashtun, and they easily melt into the teeming masses that choke dusty swaths of bazaar storefronts and alleyways.
The arrest of the Afghan Taliban's second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, in Karachi in late January spotlighted this vast, chaotic city's role as a Taliban refuge. And because military offensives in Pakistan's Swat Valley and South Waziristan regions have led Taliban militants to flee in growing numbers to Karachi, in Sindh province, authorities' focus on Pakistan's largest city as a hunting ground for extremists is also likely to grow.
"We don't deny their presence here, and our search for them goes on," said Collin Kamran Dost, special home secretary for Sindh province. "But the city is so huge, and there are so many slums. The face of a Taliban is the same as the face of a Pakistani Pashtun. And we have more than 1.5 million Afghanis living here. So it's difficult to determine whether someone is a Taliban member or a peaceful citizen."
A recent spate of high-profile arrests -- including Baradar's capture, raids that nabbed nine Al Qaeda-linked militants Feb. 17 and Thursday's arrest of Abdul Aziz, a militant with ties to Qari Hussain Mahsud, the Pakistani Taliban's top trainer of suicide bombers -- points not only to improved Pakistani cooperation with the U.S. but also to hope in Washington that Pakistan will show new vigor in looking for Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda commanders on its soil.
The arrests indicate how key militant commanders have tried to embed themselves deep in the slums of Karachi, a city of more than 16 million people.
Baradar, who was the Taliban's military chief, is believed to have had more responsibility for the insurgency's overall operations than the Taliban's supreme leader, the reclusive Mullah Mohammed Omar.
Among the nine people arrested in raids in Karachi last month was an alleged Al Qaeda-linked militant responsible for overseeing foreign fighters deployed to Pakistan's tribal areas along the Afghan border.
Members of the Pakistani Taliban have used Karachi as a haven for years, slipping into the city for a month or more to rest or seek medical treatment before returning to their stronghold in the northwestern tribal belt.
Lately, as the southern city of Quetta has become increasingly unsafe for Afghan Taliban leaders, they have also been making the trek to Karachi to establish new cells, experts say.
Militants had spared the city of the suicide bombings and other violence seen in major Pakistani cities. However, authorities believe that bombings that hit Karachi in December and February suggest that the Pakistani Taliban has added the city to its list of targets.
A bomber killed 43 people on Dec. 28 when he blew himself up in the middle of a procession observing the Shiite Muslim holy day of Ashura. Five weeks later, two bombs targeting a hospital and a bus filled with Shiites killed at least 22 people. The Pakistani Taliban, which is made up of Sunni Muslims, claimed responsibility for both attacks.
"They're reacting to the loss of [South] Waziristan," Dost said. "It's as simple as that."
A primary reason the Taliban comes to Karachi is to build up supplies of cash to help fund the insurgency. Bank robberies, kidnappings and extortion have become staples of the militants' fundraising, authorities say. But they also rely heavily on cash solicited through the hundreds of madrasas, or religious schools, that dot the city.
Kamran Akhtar, the nazim, or administrative chief, of the Baldia neighborhood, said that of his district's 166 madrasas, 112 support the Taliban. "To a large extent, the militants raise funds through Baldia madrasas," Akhtar said.
He believes the Taliban fighters in Baldia number in the hundreds. As nazims have done in other neighborhoods that are heavily Pashtun, Akhtar has organized a network of street informants -- a Karachi version of a Neighborhood Watch group -- who relay tips to police about suspected militants and their activities. Many of the tipsters are Pashtun.
"There are Pashtuns giving us information, and other Pashtuns providing the Taliban shelter," he said.
In Sohrab Goth, another poor Karachi neighborhood with a high concentration of Pashtuns, Taliban members extort money from trucking and construction equipment firms whose owners have tribal ties to Waziristan, police and residents said.
"The Taliban come here mostly to raise funds, and yes, they have their financiers here, wealthy Pashtun businessmen who help finance the insurgents," said Ismail Khan Mahsud, head of the local student wing of the Awami National Party, a Pashtun political party.
alex.rodriguez @latimes.com
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Help promised for returning Marjah IDPs
KABUL, 2 March 2010 (IRIN) - Hundreds of families who fled fighting in the Marjah area of Helmand Province, southern Afghanistan, in February have started returning home; conditions are difficult but steps are being taken to help them, government officials say.
Over 4,000 families were displaced by a major anti-Taliban offensive by NATO and Afghan forces which began on 13 February, according to the provincial authorities.
“Over 600 displaced families have returned to Nad Ali and Marjah [both towns in Nad Ali District] from Lashkargah over the past four days,” Ghulam Farooq Noorzai, director of Helmand’s refugee affairs department, told IRIN, adding that more people would return in the days ahead.
Dawood Ahmadi, a spokesman of the governor of Helmand, gave a bigger return figure: “About 2,500 families have returned to their homes and only 1,000-1,200 families are in Lashkargah.”
The government said it is not providing transport assistance to the returning families. Most people were using small cars as they had few belongings.
However, roads around Marjah have been risky because of improvised explosives planted by the insurgents.
“The main Lashkargah-Marjah road is closed due to mines and bombs but people are using alternate routes,” said Ahmadi, adding that NATO and Afghan soldiers were working to remove improvised bombs and reopen the main road.
The Interior Ministry said three car passengers were killed in an improvised explosion in the outskirts of Lashkargah city on 1 March.
Having announced the end of the military phase of the operation, NATO and Afghan government officials have vowed swiftly to deliver security, good governance and services.
People would also receive financial assistance from the government and NATO if their houses or other property was damaged or destroyed as a result of the offensive, Ahmadi said.
Health centres
“We have reopened and supplied with medicines four basic health centres in Marjah and Nad Ali,” Enayatullah Ghafari, head of Helmand’s public health department, told IRIN, adding that plans are under way to conduct a polio immunization campaign in the area because in February a sub-national immunization drive was not implemented there.
Government officials said schools will be reopened in Marjah and Nad Ali in the near future. Over the past two years, under the Taliban, all schools in the area had been closed.
However, not everyone is happy: “The Taliban were just and efficient but the Karzai government is corrupt and bad,” said one man in Lashkargah city.
Shops are reopening in Marjah but food and other prices are high because of shortages: Roadside bombs and insecurity are a disincentive to local truckers.
“We have asked the UN and other international aid agencies to help us quickly deliver food aid to 6,000 families in Marjah and Nad Ali and we hope they will respond soon,” said Noorzai.
Some of the displaced children attending health centres in Lashkargah town in mid-February were acutely malnourished, according to Ghafari, who added that food insecurity threatened the health of many children and pregnant women.
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McChrystal, others visit Marja, Afghanistan, as offensive enters governing phase
By Joshua Partlow The Washington Post Tuesday, March 2, 2010; A07
MARJA, AFGHANISTAN -- The initial phase of the military offensive in southern Afghanistan to wrest Marja from insurgent control has largely ended, but the more daunting task of building a credible government in the place of Taliban rule has just begun, according to senior U.S. and Afghan officials.
Helicopters bearing Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan; Karim Khalili, Afghanistan's second vice president; and a host of other senior officials touched down Monday afternoon next to a sandbagged, bullet-pocked school that now serves as Marine headquarters here. The officials entered a town now controlled by U.S. Marines and Afghan soldiers, where the fierce gun battles that punctuated the early days of the offensive have ceased.
"We're not at the end of the military phase, but we're clearly approaching that," McChrystal said. "The government of Afghanistan is in the position now of having the opportunity, and the requirement, to prove they can establish legitimate governance."
The farmlands of Marja, once a Taliban stronghold and drug-trafficking hub, remain a treacherous place. During the two-week-long offensive, 5,000 Marines and Afghan soldiers have encountered hundreds of mines and homemade bombs, and the troops still plan another detailed, house-by-house clearing of the ground they've passed through. More than 100 insurgents have been killed in the fighting, along with at least six NATO troops; six more NATO troops were killed Monday in violence across the nation.
But the Afghan flag now flies over Marja, a place where no government presence existed before the offensive, and the shooting has stopped, at least for now.
"Ten days ago there would have been firefights right on this street," Brig. Gen. Lawrence D. Nicholson, the Marine commander in Helmand province, told McChrystal outside the government center.
"There has not been a shot fired in Marja for seven days. Not one shot. Marja's quiet," Nicholson said. "We're very happy with the progress."
Whether the Taliban has fled or just chosen to stop fighting remains an open question. McChrystal said some Taliban fighters may have started to function as "sleeper cells," waiting for orders, while "some of them probably just put the gun away and are waiting to see what's going to happen." He said he didn't expect the quiet to last unchallenged, because the Taliban would try to create the perception of insecurity. "I think they may test it with suicide bombers," he said.
The more difficult test will probably be how the people of Marja take to their new government, embodied by Haji Zahir, the newly installed town leader. He stood alongside Khalili on Monday, the most senior Afghan official to visit Marja since the offensive began.
Speaking to a crowd of residents who sat on the ground in a dozen even rows, Khalili said the Afghan government would "exhaust all avenues to bring peace and security."
"We will stay, we will fight with all our forces, we will defend you," Khalili said. "We will be next to you, shoulder to shoulder."
But skepticism toward the government runs deep among many Afghans, and many see the police in particular as a corrupt and predatory organization. Some in Marja are angry about damage to homes and fields during the fighting. One elderly Afghan man with a long white beard approached Khalili after his talk and began shouting that his home had been destroyed in the operation. Khalili stood silent as the man went on, then told him that his home was too close to the road, according to a translation of his remarks.
Earlier in the day, McChrystal toured a combat hospital to speak with the wounded and met with about 75 U.S and British troops at Camp Bastion in Helmand province. He told them about his counterinsurgency philosophy and the need to operate with utmost care to avoid civilian casualties. Last month McChrystal apologized to President Hamid Karzai twice for U.S. attacks on suspected insurgents that killed nearly 40 civilians in Helmand and neighboring Uruzgan province.
While Marja, part of the Nad Ali district, was an important target as an insurgent sanctuary, the piece of ground is "not particularly valuable," McChrystal said. "The operation is about changing everyone's mind-set."
McChrystal said he wanted the operation to convince Afghans far beyond Marja that U.S. troops and the Afghan government had the momentum, that they would stay and hold areas they had moved into, and that Afghan security forces and local government could lead the way. "We're trying to convince everybody, okay, we've now figured this out," he said. To convince them that "now we're winning, and we're going to win."
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Marjah's residents wary of U.S. after Taliban ouster
McClatchy Newspapers By Dion Nissenbaum 03/01/2010
MARJAH - One by one, the men of Marjah tentatively approached the high-ranking Afghan official with their complaints.
One man accused U.S. Marines of insulting Afghan men by conducting intrusive searches. Two worried that the government would tax their poppy harvests just like the Taliban did. A fourth was told he'd receive financial compensation for relatives killed during the fighting.
With U.S.-led forces now in control of the one-time insurgent stronghold in southern Afghanistan , President Hamid Karzai's deputy flew from Kabul on Monday to reassure Marjah residents that the Taliban were gone for good and that things would slowly get better.
"We will be with you," Second Vice President Karim Khalili told more than 400 men at the biggest community gathering since the Taliban were pushed out.
"We will not abandon you," Khalili said. "It is not like it was in the past where they cleaned a place and left. No. We will stay and we will fight."
Now that NATO forces have secured Marjah, the challenge is installing a credible, competent local government that can regain the trust of skeptical residents.
"What I think we've got to do is try to move fast enough to try to meet expectations, but carefully enough that we're not in any way . . . blind to some of the nuances that have to be worked through," said Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal , the head of coalition forces, who joined Khalili in walking down Marjah's main street as Marines threw candy to children and Afghan soldiers kept guard.
There was not much public jubilation when Khalili walked down Marjah's main street with a group of Afghan security forces and NATO officials, passing shuttered shops and austere town buildings, which U.S. Marines are transforming into military compounds.
At the afternoon shura, residents greeted Khalili with tepid applause.
Throughout the day, Khalili urged Afghans to be patient and give Karzai's government a chance to win their support.
"You've got to give us time." Khalili told more than 150 Helmand province leaders who greeted the vice president at the provincial government compound in Lashkar Gah .
In the coming days and weeks, with U.S. Marines providing a backbone of security, Afghan officials will reopen schools, expand the valley's critical irrigation system and set up the government. The biggest challenge is introducing an Afghan police force that doesn't demand bribes and undermine confidence in the new officials.
"It's going to be a test for the government to demonstrate to the people of Marjah and the people of Helmand that they're not going to put up with the shenanigans that we've seen in the past," said Army Maj. Gen. Michael Flynn , America's top military intelligence officer in Afghanistan . "We're not kidding ourselves. It's not going to be eliminated. But it needs to be reduced so that it's out of their daily lives."
U.S. Marines in Marjah said they're gradually winning trust.
"Every day, more and more residents are coming forward to tell us where there are IEDs (roadside bombs)," said Lt. Col. Cal Worth of St. Louis , the commander of the 1,500-member 1st Battalion , 6th Marine Regiment from Camp Lejeune, N.C. , now based in the heart of Marjah.
While direct battles with the Taliban have come to a halt for now, Worth said the Marines' presence is still felt around town.
"You can go two clicks (kilometers) to the west, and it's almost like Taliban country," Worth said.
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Govt names new ambassador to Afghanistan
Mon Mar 1, 11:53 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – Britain has appointed William Patey, a former senior diplomat in Iraq, as its new ambassador in Afghanistan, the Foreign Office announced Monday.
Patey, currently ambassador to Saudi Arabia, was Britain's representative in Iraq from 2005 to 2006 and was also involved in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq while head of the Foreign Office Middle East department from 1999 to 2002.
The career diplomat gave evidence to a public inquiry into the Iraq conflict in November.
Patey will take over in May from Mark Sedwill, who has been appointed NATO's senior civilian representative in Afghanistan.
Britain has around 10,000 troops in Afghanistan as part of an international coalition following the US-led invasion in October 2001.
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Pakistan seizes key Taliban, Al-Qaeda base
Tue Mar 2, 5:42 am ET
DAMADOLA, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan's army has seized control of a key Taliban and Al-Qaeda stronghold in a region bordering Afghanistan after killing 75 local and foreign militants, a top general said on Tuesday.
"The first Pakistan army uniformed soldiers have arrived in Damadola after a recent operation and the Pakistan flag has been raised (there) for the first time since (independence in) 1947," Major General Tariq Khan told journalists.
Damadola, in the district of Bajaur near the Afghan border, was the scene of the 2006 US drone strike that targeted Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who managed to escape.
Khan accompanied a group of journalists, taken to Bajaur by the military, to a complex of caves which he said served as a militant headquarters.
Troops overran the complex in an operation launched in January, he said.
"There were Egyptians, Uzbeks, Chechens and Afghans killed in the operation," he said.
Pakistan is under huge US pressure to eliminate Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked groups which use its semi-autonomous tribal belt to plot attacks against Western troops fighting in Afghanistan.
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Pakistani Court Blocks Transfer of Taliban to Kabul, WSJ Says
By Chris Peterson
March 1 (Bloomberg) --Lahore’s High Court blocked the transfer of at least six Afghan Taliban leaders to Kabul, saying it wanted to rule on a petition submitted by human-rights activist Khalid Khawaja, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The court issued an order blocking Pakistan’s government from transferring the men pending its review of Khawaja’s petition, to be heard on March 15; he maintains the Taliban leaders were arrested in Pakistan and should be tried under Pakistani law, the newspaper reported.
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Czech deputy PM visits Afghanistan
KABUL, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The Deputy Prime Minister of Czech Republic Martin Bartak paid an unannounced visit to Afghanistan on Tuesday and exchanged views with President Hamid Karzai, a statement released by the Presidential Palace said.
"Martin Bartak, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of Czech Republic visited Afghanistan today and held meeting with President Karzai," said the statement.
Their talks focused on various issues including enhancing bilateral relations and continued Czech military and civilian assistance to reconstruction process in Afghanistan, the statement said.
Karzai thanked Czech government for its cooperation and assistance to Afghanistan and expressed the wish that the Czech Republic would enhance its role in helping with human capacity building by providing educational scholarships to Afghan youths for higher studies, it added.
Some 250 soldiers from Czech Republic have been serving in Afghanistan with the framework of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
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Indian officials in Afghanistan to have better security cover
PTI, Mar 2, 2010, 07.14pm IST The Times of India
NEW DELHI: Indian officials present in Afghanistan will be given a personal security officer in the wake of terrorists targeting the country's installations and mission across the war-torn nation, Home Ministry sources said on Tuesday.
In a move to strengthen security of Indian interests in Afghanistan, another contingent of Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel will be soon sent there, they said.
The decision comes after Afghanistan agreed to the demand by India of sending more security forces to guard vital installations and ongoing development projects which have become the target of terror groups operating in the region.
The Home Ministry has also decided to move Indian officials, including doctors, to safer locations after terrorists struck at two hotels on Friday in which Indians engaged in developmental and reconstruction works in that country were living, official sources said.
Realising that the Taliban and their associates have started targeting Indian officials who are in the field and are vulnerable, India has begun review of their security.
There are about 4,000 Indians engaged in such projects-- being implemented as part of India's developmental assistance to the tune of 1.3 billion dollars to Afghanistan.
A team of investigators is already in Kabul, joining a probe being conducted by Afghan authorities into last Friday's terror attack in which six Indians were killed.
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Pakistan holds onto its Taliban
Asia Times Online By Gareth Porter Mar 2, 2010
WASHINGTON - The refusal of Pakistani intelligence to turn over Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and as many as six other top Taliban figures to the United States or the Afghan government has dealt a serious blow to the Barack Obama administration's hopes for Pakistani cooperation in weakening the Taliban.
It has left little doubt in the minds of US officials that the Pakistani military intends to keep physical custody of the Taliban detainees in order to exert influence on both the pace of peace negotiations in Afghanistan and the ultimate terms of a settlement.
The Pakistani custody of Baradar and other Taliban leaders now appears to be more of a safe haven for the Afghan insurgents than a normal detention. At least some US officials already accept the likelihood that the Pakistanis will allow the Taliban leaders to continue to maintain contact with other Taliban officials while in custody.
The primary evidence of the Pakistani military leadership's intentions is the Pakistani refusal to allow the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to question Baradar in the days following his initial detention. The CIA was denied direct access to Baradar for "about two weeks", according to US media reports.
That Pakistani refusal of access frustrated the CIA, which was eager to interrogate Baradar about details of the Taliban's operations and finance. During those crucial two weeks, US intelligence officials got no information that would lead them to the rest of the Taliban leadership.
US intelligence officials doubt that they can get the truth from Baradar as long he is in Pakistani military custody, according to Miller's report.
During that two-week period, CIA director Leon Panetta and other US officials asked the Pakistani government and military leaders to transfer Baradar and other Taliban leaders to the US detention center at Bagram air base in Afghanistan to allow the US military to interrogate him, according to one report.
But Pakistani Interior Minister Rahman Malik flatly rejected that proposal on February 19. He announced that Baradar and two other high-ranking Taliban leaders arrested in February would not be handed over to the US, and that Pakistani questioning of Baradar would continue to determine whether he had violated Pakistani law.
Even if Baradar was found not to have broken the law, Malik said he would be returned to "the country of origin, not to the USA".
The Obama administration then tried to pressure Pakistan to extradite the Taliban leaders to Afghanistan. Federal Bureau of Investigation director Robert Mueller, accompanied by Afghan Interior Minister Hanif Atmar, met secretly with Interior Minister Malik last Wednesday and sought to get him to agree to extradition to Afghanistan, as Anand Gopal reported in the Christian Science Monitor.
Despite Afghan government statements that he had agreed to extradition to Afghanistan, Malik was non-committal about extradition on Thursday. He promised only that his government "will definitely look at" a formal request from the Afghan government.
Pakistan and Afghanistan were reported to be negotiating an agreement on the return of prisoners, with the "mechanisms" for such a return still to be worked out.
Then on Friday, a provincial high court in Pakistan's Punjab province delivered what appeared to be the final blow to the prospects for extradition of Baradar and four other Taliban leaders to Afghanistan. The court blocked any extradition by Pakistan of the Taliban leaders to any country until the court could hear the issue of the detainees rights.
The Pakistani government could appeal the decision, but officials in Islamabad told CBS News there were no plans for such an appeal at present.
Even before the court intervened in the issue, any hopes the Obama administration and the US military might have had that Pakistan was prepared to sell out its former Taliban allies had already waned.
The newspaper report in the US on Wednesday quoted a "top American official" who had met with Pakistani army chief Ashfaq Pervez Kiani "recently" - presumably Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who had met with Kiani on January 21 - who did not seem confident about the prospects of getting control of the Taliban leaders. The official said, "We'll know soon whether this is cooperation, or a stonewall and kind of rope-a-dope."
The official was referring to a number of past episodes in which the Pakistani military was ostensibly supporting US policy in Afghanistan while it continued to support the Taliban.
The same story last Wednesday quoted a "top American military officer in Afghanistan" as speculating that the Pakistanis were intending to use Baradar and their other Taliban prisoners to accelerate the timetable for a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan. "I don't know if they're pushing anyone to the table," said the unnamed general, "but they are certainly preparing the meal."
By suggesting that the Pakistanis were preparing for a negotiating process involving Baradar, the "top military officer" was acknowledging that he and other US officials expect Pakistan to allow Baradar to negotiate with the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul while he is in custody.
That role would also require that Baradar be allowed to communicate with other members of the Taliban leadership - both those in custody and those still operating freely, including Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
Multiple reports from US sources have indicated that the original arrest of Baradar was not the result of a raid specifically targeting the Taliban's second-ranking leader but an "accident". Baradar's identity was discovered only after the raid took place, the US officials said.
It now appears that Pakistan's military leadership quickly adopted a new strategy for stepping up the timetable for Afghan peace negotiations and ensuring that its interests were protected in those negotiations after it realized that it had Baradar in custody.
That decision would account for the rapid detention of as many as six other members of the Taliban leadership council that followed the apprehension of Baradar, as Gopal reported in the Christian Science Monitor on Wednesday.
The plan evidently assumes that the Taliban leaders will have to consult Pakistani intelligence officials while they negotiate with the Afghan government and the United States.
The Obama administration had been counting on Pakistan to end its policy of providing safe haven for Afghan Taliban leaders and fighters because, without such a decision, US officials admit there is little or no possibility of seriously weakening the Taliban.
That assumption impelled Obama to write a letter to Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari last November, warning bluntly that Pakistan's support for the Taliban would no longer be tolerated, the Washington Post reported on February 19.
The Pakistani government adjusted to the latest US pressure on its Taliban policy by allowing the Central Intelligence Agency to expand its intelligence operations in Pakistan aimed at intercepting Taliban and al-Qaeda messages to Karachi. It also agreed to joint operations with the CIA to find high-level Taliban operatives.
But it is now clear that the increased intelligence cooperation with the CIA did not mean Pakistan had abandoned its broader strategy of relying on the Taliban as the best guarantee of Pakistani influence in Afghanistan.
Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in US national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam, was published in 2006.
(Inter Press Service)
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Taking It To the Taliban on Marjah in Afghanistan
By Bobby Ghosh time.com – Mon Mar 1, 7:45 am ET
Two days before launching the most ambitious military campaign of the Obama Administration, General Stanley McChrystal, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, convened a meeting in Kabul of 450 tribal elders and scholars from Helmand province. The general's objective: to build support for Operation Moshtarak, a massive offensive on the Taliban stronghold of Marjah. McChrystal ran through the military phase of the plan, which would involve 6,000 U.S. Marines and British soldiers and 4,500 Afghan troops and police. Then he described how these troops would protect the town while a "government in a box"--a corps of Afghan officials who had been training for this moment for months--would start administering the town. The elders all signed off on the plan, but not before one of them warned the American general, "You have to understand that if you don't do what you say, we'll all be killed."
McChrystal repeated the chieftain's words Feb. 18 in a secure video teleconference with President Barack Obama and his top advisers on Afghanistan and Pakistan. By then, the operation, by all accounts, was going well. NATO troops had encountered only sporadic resistance; much of the town was under the control of the U.S. Marines. British-led forces, meanwhile, had taken the nearby community of Showal. Some government in a box was already being unpacked.
There was good news from other fronts too. In Pakistan, a joint operation in Karachi by the CIA and Pakistan's own spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), had netted a very big fish: Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Afghan Taliban's military chief. In quick succession, the ISI had also rolled up two of the Taliban's "shadow" governors of Afghanistan's provinces and another senior figure. And in North Waziristan, near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, a missile launched from a CIA drone had struck at the heart of the Haqqani network, an al-Qaeda-affiliated group responsible for countless attacks on NATO troops. The network's current leader, Sirajuddin Haqqani, survived, but his younger brother Mohammed had been killed.
After a year of mostly grim tidings from Afghanistan and Pakistan, Obama could have been allowed a moment of satisfaction. But McChrystal's recounting of the Helmand chieftain's warning ensured that the mood in the White House's Situation Room during the conference call was somber. According to National Security Adviser Jim Jones, who was there, Obama added an exhortation of his own, using the idioms of counterinsurgency warfare. "Do not clear and hold what you are not willing to build and transfer," he told McChrystal, a maxim he had repeated often over the previous months. "You've heard me say it many times, but it bears repeating," Obama said as he signed off.
That sense of restraint is at the heart of Obama's "AfPak" strategy, which requires McChrystal's troops to help Afghans build and take increasing responsibility for their country, rather than depending solely on Western forces to thump the Taliban. Marjah is the first real test of that plan, and the Administration is determined to keep everyone's expectations to the bare minimum. That is wise, as much could still go wrong. The Taliban could return to areas from which it has been ousted; the Afghan army could turn out to be too slim a reed on which to hang the Administration's ambitions. And so, in contrast to the Bush Administration, which was often accused of overstating small successes, the Obama White House has projected a studied solemnity over encouraging dispatches from the war the President has made his own. Every sign of progress in Afghanistan and Pakistan has been greeted with circumspection. Yes, say Administration officials in Washington and commanders in the field, things are going well--but let's not beat our chests. Far too much hangs in the balance now: Afghan lives, American lives and, just possibly, the fate of Obama's war.
Making Marjah Count
A town of 60,000 souls, Marjah is ringed by poppy fields that are watered by irrigation canals built in the 1950s and '60s by U.S. engineers. McChrystal chose this location to launch the reconquest of Afghanistan because it is the western end of a population belt that extends from central Helmand province through Kandahar province--both infested with the Taliban. McChrystal has set out to secure that belt, starting in Marjah, then moving to Lashkar Gah, Kandahar city and finally Spin Boldak. "It's where we hadn't been, it's where the enemy still was, and it's where the population is," says a senior Administration official.
Since it's an opening salvo in what promises to be a long, hard-fought year, McChrystal knew Operation Moshtarak would influence perceptions, among allies and enemies alike, about how the war would be fought--and how the peace would be waged. Managing those perceptions would be key to victory. "This is not a physical war, in terms of how many people we kill or how much ground you capture, how many bridges you blow up," he told reporters in Istanbul on Feb. 4. "This is all in the minds of the participants. The Afghan people are the most important, but the insurgents are [too]. And of course, part of what we've had to do is convince ourselves and our Afghan partners that we can do this."
The offensive was months in the planning, and little effort was made to keep it secret. If the Taliban chose to melt away rather than resist, McChrystal reasoned, it would give him more time to set up a robust administration--a good advertisement for those in other towns where NATO troops would soon have to fight. U.S. commanders even ordered an opinion poll of Marjah residents: they wanted to know how they felt about the U.S. and the Taliban and to gauge what they might want from his government in a box.
When the operation got under way, it quickly became clear that only about 400 Taliban had dug in to fight. As in other such encounters between an overwhelming Western military and a local insurgency--in Iraq's Diyala province, for instance--the greatest threat to the troops came from roadside bombs and sniper fire. By Feb. 23, 13 NATO troops had been killed, as the U.S. total in the Afghan war pushed past 1,000. Estimates of Taliban casualties were around 120. Civilian casualties were low for such an intense offensive: 28 were killed in the fighting, though as the operation progressed, there was some bad news when a pair of air strikes, one near Marjah, killed 39 civilians.
As pockets of resistance continued, commanders downplayed expectations of a speedy campaign. "I guess it will take us another 25 to 30 days to be entirely sure that we have secured that which needs to be secured," British Major General Nick Carter, the top NATO commander in southern Afghanistan, told reporters on Feb. 18. "And we probably won't know for about 120 days whether or not the population is entirely convinced by the degree of commitment that their government is showing to them." If McChrystal's forces prevail, Operation Moshtarak will serve as the template for the far more challenging battle this summer, the battle for Kandahar. With nearly 500,000 people, it is the Taliban's spiritual capital. The city is nominally under NATO control, but there are reportedly thousands of Taliban in and around it--and every expectation that many will make a bloody stand.
The Pakistani Play
Under normal circumstances, in planning his offensive McChrystal would have had to keep a close watch on Afghanistan's difficult neighbor. Pakistan's support for the Taliban and the Haqqani network has frequently bedeviled U.S. military plans, as Afghan fighters have too easily slipped across the border and found sanctuary. But a year's worth of diplomatic pressure on Islamabad began to pay off before Operation Moshtarak: Pakistan launched a major military offensive of its own in South Waziristan, not against the Afghan Taliban but against its Pakistani cousins known as the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.
The Pakistani change of heart had been a long time coming. It was influenced by the TTP's bloody campaign of suicide attacks in Pakistani cities, often targeting military and ISI compounds. "I can remember anecdotally where we had questions for our team in Pakistan at one point and they couldn't get a hold of their ISI counterparts because they were too busy attending funerals of their key leadership," says a U.S. counterterrorism official. This, along with the militants' brazen capture of a town some 40 miles (65 km) from the Pakistani capital last spring, did more than any American finger-wagging to convince Islamabad that the TTP needed to be taken down. The U.S. helped by mounting drone strikes on TTP leaders, killing its founder, Baitullah Mehsud, last summer and possibly his successor, Hakimullah Mehsud, in January.
Even so, Pakistani cooperation in the arrest of Baradar, on the eve of the Marjah assault, was an unexpected bonus for McChrystal. Why did Pakistan roll up Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar's deputy? Islamabad has previously arrested senior figures in the Afghan Taliban, but they've typically been released quickly, without U.S. officials being given access to them. But the Pakistanis made an exception with Baradar, who may have a treasure trove of information on the Taliban. Possibly the Pakistanis were under pressure to reciprocate for the U.S. strikes on the Mehsuds. Or perhaps Baradar had fallen out with Omar and was trying to open a direct channel for peace talks to the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, bypassing his hosts. By taking Baradar out of circulation, Pakistan may be making a case to be given a seat in eventual peace negotiations.
Whatever the reason, his arrest doesn't represent a sea change in Pakistan's attitude toward its longtime clients in the Afghan Taliban, say White House officials with responsibility for Pakistan and Afghanistan. While Washington views the TTP, the Haqqani network, al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban as all part of the same terrorist syndicate, Islamabad is concerned mainly about the TTP's legions of suicide bombers. Nor is the effect of Baradar's arrest on the top Taliban leadership yet clear. If he had indeed broken with Omar, then the group has most likely replaced him already. The Taliban was able to shake off the 2007 killing of its top commander, Mullah Dadullah, by NATO forces. "The Taliban are used to this," says Waheed Muzhda, a former Taliban official. "When Mullah Dadullah was killed, some people thought that the Taliban would give up. But it didn't happen, because the Taliban are waging an ideological war, and in an ideological war, this kind of thing doesn't have a big impact."
Another bonus for McChrystal: in Operation Moshtarak, he has not had to contend with al-Qaeda. For many months now, Osama bin Laden's once feared legions have been consigned to the margins of the fighting in Afghanistan. Their numbers have dwindled from 500 to 100, says National Security Adviser Jones. In Pakistan they continue to enjoy the protection of the TTP and the Haqqani network but have effectively been pinned down by the CIA's drones. "Neither in Afghanistan nor in Pakistan is al-Qaeda at the tactical front edge," says a senior Administration official. Al-Qaeda remains the strategic reason for the current fighting; one of Obama's grounds for staying the course in Afghanistan is to prevent bin Laden from re-establishing safe havens there. But the only area of real military activity against al-Qaeda at the moment is in North Waziristan, where the Pakistani military is not active. The U.S. is doing the attacking, primarily with drones.
To some effect. There have been 17 strikes by unmanned aircraft in Pakistani territory thus far this year, according to the Long War Journal, a nonprofit online publication that tracks such attacks. The spike was triggered in part by a Dec. 30 suicide attack that killed seven CIA officials at an Afghan outpost. The Haqqani network and Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud apparently aided the suicide bomber; some reports say Mehsud was wounded, possibly killed, in a Jan. 14 strike. Meanwhile, the remote-control pilots operating Predators and Reapers continue to peer at their video screens, hoping to catch sight of a very tall, thin, bearded man emerging from a hideout.
Skepticism Makes Sense
Well-informed analysts know to keep the champagne on ice. At a conference at Tufts University last week attended by experts on Afghanistan, not a single optimistic take on that nation's long-standing problems could be heard. One comment became a refrain: "I have no doubt that peace will one day come to Afghanistan, but I can't say if it will be in 50 or 200 years," a speaker said. "What I can say is that at the rate we are going now, it's unlikely to be any sooner than that."
There was skepticism in Marjah too. Abdul Hadi, a student, fled the fighting along with his family on Feb. 18; now living in Lashkar Gah, he is in no hurry to return. He worries that many Taliban are just waiting for the NATO forces to move on to their next target. "I know the Taliban will come back," he says. Mohammad Hosain, a teacher from Marjah, wonders if they even left. "The Taliban does not have a uniform, so if they leave their weapons at home, they can easily move around," he says. "There is no [sign] on their face that says, 'I am a Talib.'"
People like Hadi and Hosain came by their skepticism the hard way: they have seen foreign forces defeat the Taliban in Helmand, then pull out, then repeat the cycle. The town of Musa Qala, north of Marjah, has twice been taken by NATO arms: by British and Danish forces in 2006 and by the U.S. in 2007. On both occasions, a new local government was created, and each time, the Taliban returned to murder those it deemed collaborators.
To prevent that from happening in Marjah, McChrystal is counting on his government in a box--a lineup of administrators who have prepped for months--to enforce law and order, provide basic facilities, build schools, create jobs and persuade local farmers to give up the poppy crop. But that's asking a lot from officials who have shown scant aptitude for doing a decent job elsewhere. McChrystal's plan calls for 80 prepacked governments to take root across Taliban-ruled territory over two years, but Afghanistan simply doesn't have that many clean, qualified and experienced bureaucrats, policemen, doctors and teachers. Besides, parachuting officials into former Taliban strongholds may be self-defeating; Pashtuns rarely trust anybody outside their own tribe and clan. It can hardly be reassuring to the residents of Marjah that their newly appointed mayor, Haji Zahir, has only recently returned from 15 years of living in Germany.
Even if McChrystal's officials are a huge success, two other crucial planks in Obama's plan to start pulling U.S. forces from Afghanistan in mid-2011 already look worm-eaten. One is the creation of a legitimate, reliable government in Kabul: since Karzai's contentious election late last year, Afghanistan's President has shown little inclination to ditch his corrupt cronies. Nor is there yet an Afghan security force capable of taking over from the Americans. Although U.S. commanders carefully talk up the contributions of the 4,500 Afghan National Army soldiers (two had been killed) and police in the Marjah operation, it's no secret that the U.S. Marines and British troops are doing the heavy lifting. McChrystal's target of a 134,000-man Afghan National Army by late fall--up from 104,000 now--seems hopelessly optimistic. Training is slow, and there's a scarcity in the ranks of southern Pashtuns, who are needed the most in the Taliban's strongholds.
Across the border, Pakistan's continuing support for American efforts is far from assured. Right now, Islamabad's immediate interests may coincide with Washington's, but they can just as quickly diverge, especially on the question of what to do about the Taliban's core leadership. The U.S. is adamant that it will not negotiate with Omar unless he parts ways with bin Laden. "There's a clear red line," says Richard Holbrooke, special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. "They must renounce al-Qaeda." American officials are also determined to root out the Haqqani network, which they regard as the greatest danger to NATO troops. Pakistani officials, on the other hand, view the Taliban and the Haqqanis as strategic assets and believe both should have a role in Afghanistan after the NATO withdrawal. They point out that many Afghans still regard Omar as a legitimate figure--more so, in fact, than Karzai, who is seen as an American puppet. Without Omar's endorsement, they think, any peace negotiations will be fatally flawed.
Islamabad's long-standing nightmare remains: that when the Americans go, its neighbors--especially India, Pakistan's hated rival--will be influential in Kabul. The Taliban and the Haqqanis are insurance against such an eventuality. Baradar's detention has not yet changed Pakistan's assessment of how its own interests may best be defended. Remember, too, that no matter how well Operation Moshtarak seems to be going, many Taliban commanders think they are winning. Whatever happens in Marjah, they can point to a widening influence across Afghanistan. They also have been heartened by last week's announcement that the 2,000-strong Dutch contingent will be departing this year because Holland's coalition government was unable to agree on an extension of its deployment--another indication of how unpopular the Afghan war is in the nations whose troops are fighting it.
Mullah Omar and his colleagues, taking Obama on his word that he wants to begin a U.S. pullout by July 2011, have said they intend to outlast the occupiers. If that means ceding strongholds like Marjah only to pop up elsewhere, then that's what they will do. They have been doing it for years. Call it insurgency in a box.
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Big rise in Afghan child migrants
By Martin Patience BBC News, Kabul Monday, 1 March 2010
As a 15-year-old, Aman Ahmedi set off on a journey for a better future - but it was to cost him his family.
His parents paid for Aman and his younger brother, Qais, who was 14 at the time, to be illegally trafficked to the UK.
They travelled through central Asia in vehicles and on foot before reaching Moscow.
From there, they travelled through Europe, eventually making it to France. The two boys were then loaded onto shipping containers and, finally, made it to Britain.
"My parents sent us because they wanted us to have a good life, a good future and to have a chance of getting a decent education," said Aman.
"That's why they spent a lot of money on sending us to the UK."
Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world, where opportunities are hard to come by, unemployment is high, and an insurgency rages in many areas.
Many Afghans see Britain as place of work and plenty - a country where a better life beckons.
Trade in human cargo
With the former ties of Empire and the international language of English, reaching London is an aspiration for many.
Every year, thousands of children attempt to make it to the UK.
United Nations aid agencies are warning of a sharp increase in unaccompanied Afghan children applying for asylum across Europe.
The trade in human cargo is a multi-million-pound industry kept hidden in the shadows.
In a rare interview, we met one trafficker who makes journeys like Aman's possible.
Yassin, who did not want to be identified, said it was a business full of hardship, danger and sometimes death.
He told me that people are first taken into Iran and then smuggled into Turkey. From there they are trafficked to Europe. But some do not make it that far.
"In Turkey the police caught us and imprisoned us for a month. We were finally released and told to go back to Iran," Yassin told me.
"But in the mountains, the Kurds chased us and we tried to escape. They killed many of us.
"Of the 45 that set out, only 15 survived."
Football hopes
Yassin said that after witnessing what happened first-hand, he gave up his trade in trafficking.
Aman was luckier. He arrived in Britain in 2001.
He stayed and studied in Bournemouth at a local college for four years, along with his brother. Aman played football for a local football club competing in tournaments across the country.
He started supporting Manchester United and had hoped to become a professional footballer.
But Aman was removed from the UK in 2005 as an illegal immigrant. He is now 24 and lives unemployed in Kabul with distant relatives and says he is desperate to find work.
Aman believes his brother, Qais, is still in Bournemouth.
But as for his parents - and nine other brothers and sisters - he has not seen or heard from them in almost a decade.
"I've got no idea where my family is," he said. "When my parents sent us they said they would follow but I've no idea where they are - no idea."
They may be in the UK, where Aman says he longs to return to.
"I can't because I don't have any money. But... it would mean a new life to go back to England." He paused. "A new life."
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Princess visits UK, Canadian troops in Afghanistan
Tue Mar 2, 4:34 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – Britain's Princess Anne made a surprise visit to British and Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence here said Tuesday.
Queen Elizabeth II's only daughter spent time in the British forces' main Camp Bastion base and visited Canadian troops in Kandahar.
The princess, 59, who holds several honorary ranks within the British and Canadian militaries, carried out the majority of the visits on Monday.
"This visit has been a great morale boost for the troops," said Captain Jo Barr, Adjutant of Bastion Joint Operating Base.
"They see that dignitaries like the Princess Royal are genuinely interested in what we do out here."
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Ministries to place ban on 'immoral websites' by May 21
Pajhwok By Frozan Rahmani 03/01/2010
KABUL - The Ministry of Telecommunication and Information Technology in coordination with the Ministry of Information and Culture are going to place a ban on the websites that exclusively circulate pornography by May 21, officials said on Sunday.
Addressing a news conference in this regard, acting minister for the Telecommunication and Information Technology Eng. Amerzai Sangin said the ban would be placed with the help of private internet services providing companies. Accompanied by Information and Culture minister Syed Makhdum Rahin, Sangin said the internet providing companies would be asked to install the software which could filter the sites containing pornographic or immoral' content.
Sangin warned the internet companies of 'legal action' if they failed to install the software by May 21.
On the occasion, Rahin said there were many websites spreading immoral movies. He added such films were leaving negative impact on the society.
"Some money lovers to fill their pockets with money want to destroy the new generation," he said, urging Afghans to use the internet in 'a positive manner.'
According to Sangin, as many as two million Afghans had access to internet being provided by 19 companies.
Head of Insta telecom, Khalid Momand, told Pajhwok Afghan News most of their customers were using the internet positively. He said they were not misusing the net in their office, but said a limited number of people watched black movies in net cafes. He also voiced his support for the ban on the websites circulating pornography.
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