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Afghanistan to offer Taliban leaders 'exile for peace'
Thu May 6, 4:00 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan is proposing to offer top Taliban leaders exile if they agree to stop fighting against the government under a peace deal being drawn up, a British newspaper reported Thursday.
Karzai may face hostile audience in U.S. Congress
By Susan Cornwell – Thu May 6, 8:19 am ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Once hailed as a hero in the U.S. Congress, Afghan President Hamid Karzai may find the welcome mat a bit smaller when he visits Washington next week.
Afghan officials: 16 arrested for plotting attacks
AP via Yahoo! News
KABUL – Top Afghan security officials say that during the past month, police have arrested 16 people who were plotting suicide and rocket attacks in the capital, Kabul.
Taliban order night phone blackout in Afghan north
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) – The Taliban have ordered mobile phone operators to shut down their networks during the night in a northern Afghan province, officials said on Thursday, a sign of the militants' increasing influence in a once peaceful area.
Captured Leader Offers Insight Into the Taliban
By ERIC SCHMITT May 5, 2010 The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the most senior Afghan Taliban leader in custody in Pakistan, is providing important information to American officials on the inner workings of the Taliban, pivotal insights as the United States looks ahead to negotiations
Afghan army to take initial responsibility of U.S.-run detention center
KABUL, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Some 400 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers Thursday completed a five week training program and would be transferred to initially take responsibility of Bagram Detention Center run by the U.S. army in Parvan province.
NATO soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan
AP via Yahoo! News - Thu May 6, 8:36 am ET
KABUL – A NATO service member was killed Thursday in a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said.
U.S., Karzai seek common view on Taliban talks
By Sue Pleming – Wed May 5, 2:38 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – "Does talking to the Taliban or other extremist groups lead to peace?" is the topic on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul's Facebook discussion page this week.
Pentagon says US Afghanistan Strategy is Beginning to Work
Al Pessin VOA News May 5, 2010
A senior Pentagon official told Congress Wednesday that the Obama administration's new approach in Afghanistan is beginning to work, and that it is being extended from the area where it first was implemented in Helmand Province to the key population center of Kandahar.
Obama security team to meet on Pakistan, Afghanistan
Thu May 6, 3:51 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama meets Thursday with his national security team amid fresh concerns in the wake of last week's failed car bombing in New York for which a Pakistani-American is in custody.
GAO reports casts new doubt on Afghanistan policy
By Nancy A. Youssef, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Wed May 5, 8:43 pm ET
WASHINGTON — An independent government report on Wednesday raises new questions about the likelihood of success for President Barack Obama's Afghanistan policy, which nearly doubles the number of U.S. troops there before a planned drawdown begins in July 2011 .
Afghans demonstrate against Iranian 'ill-treatment'
May 6, 2010 BBC News
Hundreds of Afghans have demonstrated against alleged ill-treatment and executions of a number Afghan refugees by the Iranian authorities.
French hostages alive in Afghanistan: minister
May 6, 2010
KABUL (AFP) – French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said Thursday he had received "tangible proof" from his Afghan counterpart that two French journalists kidnapped in Afghanistan were alive and well.
House panel looks at progress in Afghanistan, troop strength
By the CNN Wire Staff May 5, 2010
Washington (CNN) -- The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday took stock of the Obama administration's new counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, and examined whether more troops could be deployed if conditions warrant.
Pakistan Taliban denies training NY bomb suspect
by Hasbanullah Khan
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan's Taliban said on Thursday it neither trained nor recruited the alleged New York bomb plotter, further confusing inquiries into possible links between the suspect and militant cells.
North Waziristan: Terrorism’s new hub?
WASHINGTON POST BY AHMED RASHID 05/05/2010
LAHORE, PAKISTAN - A sense of despair and helplessness has come to grip the Pakistani public, which faces more suicide bomb attacks each day than even the Afghans next door. Major cities like Peshawar, where more than 100 police officers have been killed this year
Second VP, ministers accused of embezzling a million dollars
Pajhwok By Khwaja Basir Ahmad 05/05/2010
KABUL - Hajj and Auqaf ministry's cashier has accused second vice president and seven ministers of embezzling one million of dollars during last year's Haj ritual.
Ex-Afghan attorney general escapes attempt on life
KABUL, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Unknown armed men attacked the vehicle of former Attorney General Abdul Jabbar Sabit in east Afghanistan on Thursday, but Sabit escaped the attempt on his life, a private television channel reported.
S.Africa pace too much for Afghanistan at Twenty20
by Julian Guyer Wed May 5, 10:58 pm ET
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AFP) – South Africa won through to the second round of the World Twenty20 with a 59-run win as newcomers Afghanistan were bowled out for just 80 at the Kensington Oval.
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Afghanistan to offer Taliban leaders 'exile for peace'
Thu May 6, 4:00 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Afghanistan is proposing to offer top Taliban leaders exile if they agree to stop fighting against the government under a peace deal being drawn up, a British newspaper reported Thursday.
The proposal is part of a radical Peace and Reintegration Programme to be presented to tribal leaders at a peace conference or "jirga" of tribal and political leaders from around Afghanistan later this month, The Guardian said.
The plan is expected to top the agenda when President Hamid Karzai holds talks with US President Barack Obama in Washington on May 12, a meeting the Afghan leader's spokesman this week described as as "extremely important."
The document seen by The Guardian says insurgent leaders could face "potential exile in a third country", the report said, adding that Saudi Arabia has been used in the past for such purposes.
It also calls for "deradicalisation" classes to be set up for insurgents and thousands of new manual jobs to be created for foot soldiers who renounce violence, the report said.
Under the plan, former fighters who agreed to lay down their arms would be given an amnesty against prosecution for any crimes they may have committed and offered vocational training in such trades as carpet-weaving and tailoring.
Karzai has long been keen to hold talks with top Taliban leaders in an effort to quell a crippling and increasingly deadly insurgency against his Western-backed government.
Earlier this year, he secured Western funding for a plan to offer money and jobs to tempt Taliban fighters to lay down their arms.
Karzai will leave for Washington on Sunday to meet Obama, who has ordered thousands more troops into Afghanistan as part of a new drive to fight the Taliban and bring a swift end to a nearly nine-year war.
The meeting is seen as key ahead of a major offensive against militants in the southern province of Kandahar, considered the key battleground to reverse nearly nine years of escalating conflict in Afghanistan.
It will be the first meeting between the two leaders since Karzai's claimed that the election which returned him to power in 2009 was manipulated by foreign governments, an outburst that caused a damaging rift with Washington.
Both sides have been keen to put the row behind them, with unity between the Afghan government and its international backers seen as essential ahead of the push and the peace conference.
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Karzai may face hostile audience in U.S. Congress
By Susan Cornwell – Thu May 6, 8:19 am ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Once hailed as a hero in the U.S. Congress, Afghan President Hamid Karzai may find the welcome mat a bit smaller when he visits Washington next week.
Karzai, whose recent behavior rankled both U.S. political parties, has some explaining to do if he wants Congress to see him as a credible ally whose government is worth the continued cost of the Afghan war, some U.S. lawmakers say.
President Barack Obama has asked Congress to approve $33 billion more to help fund 30,000 additional U.S. forces this year, and $4.5 billion for related foreign aid and civilian operations directed by the State Department.
But this request is languishing on Capitol Hill amid work on other domestic priorities and scarce budget resources.
"He has a major task ahead of him to convince the Congress that he has the capacity and commitment to be a reliable and committed partner in our efforts to defeat al Qaeda and the Taliban," Democratic Representative Nita Lowey told Reuters.
She chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees spending on Obama's civilian "surge" in Afghanistan.
Back in 2004, lawmakers feted Karzai as the then-interim leader talked of building a new Afghanistan in an address to a joint meeting of Congress, an honor given to few foreigners.
More recently Karzai sparked Washington's ire by accusing Western countries and officials of perpetrating election fraud in Afghanistan, in comments the White House called disturbing and untrue. He also hosted Iranian President Ahmadinejad, no friend of Washington, in Kabul.
The Obama administration and Karzai have tried to smooth over their rift. But the Afghan leader, who arrives in Washington on Monday and will also see Obama, can expect to be questioned aggressively by lawmakers.
Obama administration officials hope Karzai's performance is enough to convince lawmakers they should approve the supplemental funds Obama wants for the Afghan war.
So far this year, Congress' Democratic leaders have been in no hurry to do so, letting Obama's war funding request wait while they work on issues like the economy and healthcare.
A small but vocal minority of the Democrats want the United States to leave Afghanistan.
QUESTIONS ABOUT ELECTIONS, CORRUPTION
Democratic Senator Robert Menendez said Karzai would be pressed over his allegations about last year's election.
"Certainly some of us are going to say to him, how is that you continue to say that in your country, and yet at the same time, you want us to be supportive?" said Menendez, a member of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee.
Republican Senator Susan Collins said Karzai should present a clear plan to deal with corruption.
"I have a lot of respect for Hamid Karzai, and I recognize the very difficult job that he has, but I'm very disappointed in the degree and extent of corruption, which allegedly involves, extends to even his own brother," Collins said.
Karzai's half-brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, is a headache for Pentagon planners charting a major offensive in Kandahar, where he is a provincial council chief. The brother has been accused of amassing a vast fortune from the drugs trade, intimidating rivals and having links to the CIA, charges he denies.
Some lawmakers looked at the plus side of the ledger of Washington's long-time ally. Karzai's efforts to re-integrate the "lower-level Taliban" deserve support, said Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee.
"He has taken a very forward-leaning position on that. If anything ... he's been the accelerator, and we've been the brake," said Levin, a Democrat.
"I think people want Karzai to succeed, and I think he has also tried to explain away some of those (controversial) comments as well," Levin said.
Republican Senator Richard Lugar said lawmakers should take a pragmatic approach, noting the United States has set a target date of July 2011 for troops to start leaving Afghanistan.
Lawmakers should ask Karzai "how much progress he is making in building an army and a police department that is going to be able to govern the country after we leave," said Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
"And the rate of progress is extremely important right now given our time of departure," Lugar said.
One area of conflict between lawmakers and the Obama administration has been what they perceive as a lack of concrete details in measuring progress in the eight-year war.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton complained on Wednesday about a National Security Council metrics report on the war. "Congress cannot judge progress from glorified press releases," he said.
(Editing by Sue Pleming and Mohammad Zargham)
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Afghan officials: 16 arrested for plotting attacks
AP via Yahoo! News
KABUL – Top Afghan security officials say that during the past month, police have arrested 16 people who were plotting suicide and rocket attacks in the capital, Kabul.
Interior Minister Hanif Atmar told reporters that all but two of the suspects were detained in Kabul, and six were Pakistani nationals.
Kabul police chief Abdulrahman Rahman told The Associated Press that investigators found the suspects admitted to ties to two groups with links to al-Qaida: Hezb-i-Islami, and the Haqqani network, an Afghan Taliban group based in Pakistan.
The officials spoke Thursday on the sidelines of a ceremony honoring officers who have completed a 22-week training program with European police advisers.
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Taliban order night phone blackout in Afghan north
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL (Reuters) – The Taliban have ordered mobile phone operators to shut down their networks during the night in a northern Afghan province, officials said on Thursday, a sign of the militants' increasing influence in a once peaceful area.
The Islamist group's order in Kunduz province follows similar edicts in recent years in the south and the east, where the Taliban-led insurgency is strongest.
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, said they were imposing the order because U.S. and NATO military forces were using the networks to locate their fighters.
Mobile phone operators said they have been forced to comply with the Taliban edict after the militants drove home their threat by destroying several phone towers in Kunduz over the past few weeks.
"We had no other option but to turn them off," said Engineer Omar, who heads operations in the north of the country for Afghan Wireless Communications Company, one of Afghanistan's largest mobile phone companies.
Other officials and residents in Kunduz also say mobile phone companies have to turn off their networks at night, when militants usually move around.
"For a week now, the networks ... due to the threats from the armed opposition of the government, are shutting down from six in the evening until five in the morning," said Abdul Razaaq Yaqoubi, the police chief in Kunduz.
Kunduz, once regarded as largely peaceful, has seen a surge in Taliban attacks and is expected to become a main battle front in coming months.
The commander of U.S. and NATO forces, General Stanley McChrystal, is expected to send 2,500 U.S. troops in coming months to beat back Taliban fighters who have seized much of Kunduz despite the presence of more than 4,000 German troops.
The Germans operate under post-World War Two restrictions on their combat role, rules which critics say have allowed the Taliban to advance.
Most of Afghanistan's infrastructure has been either damaged or destroyed during 30 years of war. There is virtually no working landline telephone system in the country.
The success of the mobile phone industry has been one of the few bright spots in a country that has attracted little foreign investment. Cutting night-time signals in some areas has caused great resentment among residents for whom mobile phones are a vital source of communication.
Five mobile operators, three of them foreign firms, with an estimated investment of several hundred million dollars have set up business in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban.
The Taliban and other insurgent groups in Afghanistan largely rely on mobile and satellite phones to allow fighters to communicate with field commanders and to relay media statements.
(Editing by Jonathon Burch and Paul Tait)
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Captured Leader Offers Insight Into the Taliban
By ERIC SCHMITT May 5, 2010 The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the most senior Afghan Taliban leader in custody in Pakistan, is providing important information to American officials on the inner workings of the Taliban, pivotal insights as the United States looks ahead to negotiations to end the war in Afghanistan, according to senior American intelligence and military officials.
Mullah Baradar, the second-ranking Taliban leader, was arrested in January outside Karachi, Pakistan, in an operation by American and Pakistani intelligence agents. His Pakistani captors initially limited American interrogators’ access to him, but American officials say they have had regular, direct contact with Mullah Baradar for several weeks.
For now, officials say, Mullah Baradar is not revealing details of Taliban combat operations, yielding little that American commanders would like to know as they prepare for a military operation around Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual base and Afghanistan’s second largest city.
But the officials said he had provided American interrogators with a much more nuanced understanding of the strategy that the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, is developing for negotiations with the government of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, who is visiting Washington next week.
Mullah Baradar is describing in detail how members of the Afghan Taliban’s leadership council, or shura, based in Pakistan, interact, and how senior members fit into the organization’s broader leadership, officials said.
He is also offering a more detailed understanding of what prompted Mullah Omar to issue a new code of conduct for militants last year that directed fighters to avoid civilian casualties. American officials say the code was meant to project a softer image to the Afghan people.
“He’s provided very useful but not decisive information,” an American counterterrorism official said on Wednesday.
Four American military, intelligence and diplomatic officials provided details of Mullah Baradar’s cooperation, but requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the delicate intelligence interrogations.
Mullah Baradar, in his early 40s and said by most officials to belong to the same Popalzai tribe as Mr. Karzai, is believed to be one of a handful of Taliban leaders who were in periodic contact with Mullah Omar, the reclusive founder of the Taliban.
Mullah Baradar’s capture was followed by arrests of two Taliban “shadow governors” in Pakistan. While the arrests showed a degree of cooperation between the Central Intelligence Agency and Pakistan’s main spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, or I.S.I., they also illustrated how the Afghan Taliban leadership has relied on Pakistan as a rear base.
Many questions remain about Mullah Baradar’s capture and Pakistan’s motivations. It appears, for instance, that Pakistani authorities did not realize at first their captive’s significance. But they have tried to turn his arrest to their advantage and are poised to use him as a chip in bargaining between the Afghan government and the Taliban and, conceivably, even as a negotiator.
“The key issue is, we should decide jointly how we are going to benefit from his presence,” a senior Pakistani intelligence official in Islamabad said recently. “When we agree on how we can use him for peace talks in Afghanistan then we would not hesitate a second, but there has to be some negotiations.”
Conspiracy theories abound as to who may have tipped off American and Pakistani spies about Mullah Baradar’s location at a house outside Karachi. One theory is that he ran afoul of more hard-line elements in the Taliban. Another is that the Pakistani military seized him because he was freelancing negotiations with Afghan interlocutors, a theory senior Pakistani military and intelligence officials reject.
Initially, some American military officials said that taking Mullah Baradar off the battlefield, and exploiting information he might provide, could deal a blow to Taliban military capacity.
But Mullah Omar has replaced Mullah Baradar, his top deputy, with Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir, a former detainee at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who is believed to be in his mid-30s and has a reputation as a tough fighter with few political skills.
“In general, operations in the south, except perhaps for the more spectacular ones, don’t need much outside directions,” said Marvin Weinbaum, a former South Asia intelligence analyst for the State Department.
And senior Taliban officials have sought to discount the impact of Mullah Baradar’s detention on their bargaining position.
“The Taliban would be ready to negotiate but under our own conditions,” a member of the Afghan Taliban’s supreme command said in an interview. “To assume that they would hold the Taliban leadership hostage because of Mullah Baradar’s arrest is not something that would cross our mind.”
Souad Mekhennet contributed reporting from Frankfurt.
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Afghan army to take initial responsibility of U.S.-run detention center
KABUL, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Some 400 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers Thursday completed a five week training program and would be transferred to initially take responsibility of Bagram Detention Center run by the U.S. army in Parvan province.
"Some 225 officers and soldiers graduated today. Together with other colleagues who have already completed training, some 400 are being transferred to Bagram this afternoon," Gen. Safiullah Safi, commander of ANA Detentions Department, told reporters in the graduation ceremony here.
Safi said the troopers were trained by Afghan military police, special unit of U.S. forces, and trainers from the Afghan Justice Ministry.
The process of handing over the detention center in Bagram Airbase, 50 km north of Afghan capital Kabul, began in February this year, and will be completed by early 2011, he said.
He said some 2,000 ANA forces would be trained to take full responsibility of the center.
"We had no information about prison and how to deal with prisoners, but after training, we know what behaviors we should have with detainees," said Ghulam Hsan, an ANA soldier.
Some 840 suspected Taliban fighters, including more than two dozen foreigners, are said to have been held in Bagram detention center.
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NATO soldiers killed in southern Afghanistan
AP via Yahoo! News - Thu May 6, 8:36 am ET
KABUL – A NATO service member was killed Thursday in a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, the alliance said.
The death comes a day after another service member died in a small-arms attack in the south. NATO did not identify the victims or their nationalities.
Eight members of the international force have been killed in the country so far this month.
NATO is gearing up for a military campaign this summer in the south. The U.S.-led operation will try to clear the southern city of Kandahar of Taliban fighters in what will be a critical test of the war.
Also Thursday, hundreds of Afghans shouting "Death to Iran" gathered outside the Iranian Embassy in Kabul Thursday, saying Afghan refugees who live in the country face abuse.
About a million Afghan refugees live in Iran.
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U.S., Karzai seek common view on Taliban talks
By Sue Pleming – Wed May 5, 2:38 pm ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – "Does talking to the Taliban or other extremist groups lead to peace?" is the topic on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul's Facebook discussion page this week.
The embassy does not give its view -- toeing the line that talks must be Afghan-led and not dictated by Washington -- but it is an issue President Hamid Karzai is expected to hammer out in meetings with U.S. President Barack Obama next week.
A peace assembly, or "jirga," is planned by Karzai in Afghanistan this month to discuss ways to bring the Taliban to the table. The Taliban has so far dismissed Karzai's re-integration efforts.
U.S. officials said they wanted to make sure Karzai was on the same page as Washington before the assembly, with one senior official saying reconciliation was "in the mix" of issues being discussed during Karzai's May 10-14 visit.
"A big part of this will be to make sure they are singing from the same sheet of music (on reconciliation) when he goes back to Afghanistan," said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.
Karzai sees the jirga as one of the major initiatives in his plans to reach out to insurgents this year. But Washington says it is too early to expect a breakthrough in talks with senior Taliban, particularly as U.S. military operations gain momentum in the coming months.
"There are certain red lines. Anyone willing not to cross those red lines can participate in the process," said a senior U.S. official when asked about reconciliation.
Those "red lines" include that senior Taliban commanders must renounce violence and links to al Qaeda as well as respect the Afghan constitution, which includes women's rights.
Asked over the weekend whether she was resigned to the fact the Taliban would ultimately be part of any Afghan government, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said simply: "No."
"You've got to look to see who is reconcilable. Not everybody will be," Clinton told NBC.
KARZAI NEEDS U.S. BACKING
U.S. relations have been particularly tense with Karzai in recent months following a string of anti-Western statements by the Afghan leader.
The hope is that his White House meetings will underscore Washington's commitment to Afghanistan and Karzai will not feel pressured to cut deals with the Taliban and other militants due to fears he will be abandoned, particularly in the buildup to the target date of July 2011 for U.S. troops to start leaving.
"Karzai knows we are pulling out and so he wants to cut a deal (with the Taliban) that will save him," said Christine Fair, assistant professor at Georgetown University and expert on Afghanistan. "He is going to play his cards."
But Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, a former premier and leader for an anti-Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, said Karzai needed U.S. backing to talk to the Taliban.
"Without the American consent and approval, Mr. Karzai will not be able to do anything with regard to the negotiations with the Taliban," he said.
Afghanistan expert Bruce Riedel said the administration still appeared divided over how to handle talks, with some showing flexibility but the Pentagon not wanting the process to start until they had the upper hand on the battlefield.
"The question here is, do we have a joint strategy for moving forward on a political process? He (Karzai) is ready to go forward and is waiting to see what we will be prepared to go along with," said Riedel, a former CIA analyst now with the Brookings Institution.
"Even if you are very skeptical about the Taliban's willingness to talk, you had better have a game plan."
"IT'S ALL ABOUT TIMING"
Former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and Iraq, Ryan Crocker, cautioned the Obama administration against pushing Karzai too hard on who should or should not be included in talks.
"It seems to me that we have got to have a basic trust in Karzai as the leader of Afghanistan and I really don't think we should be in the business of negotiating with him over who he does and does not deal with," said Crocker, now with Texas A&M University.
U.S. General Stanley McChrystal's adviser on reconciliation, retired British General Graeme Lamb, had a similar view when he spoke to Marines at a conference in Quantico, Virginia, last month. He said one lesson from Iraq was not to "get ahead of the government" in talks with militants.
Allies should not expect too much to emerge from the jirga this month, he said, but choosing the right moment for talks was key, and Karzai needed to understand this.
"You know, it's like sex and good dinner: It's all about timing," Lamb said.
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Pentagon says US Afghanistan Strategy is Beginning to Work
Al Pessin VOA News May 5, 2010
A senior Pentagon official told Congress Wednesday that the Obama administration's new approach in Afghanistan is beginning to work, and that it is being extended from the area where it first was implemented in Helmand Province to the key population center of Kandahar.
Amid reports of continuing problems at the site of the first of the new offensives - the town of Marjah in Helmand Province - and months of preparations for the next phase in and around the southern city of Kandahar, the Pentagon says its new approach is working.
The Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Michele Flournoy, testified before the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee.
"The evidence suggests that our shift in approach is beginning to produce results," said Michele Flournoy. "The insurgency is losing momentum. And though real challenges and risks remain, we see a number of positive trends."
Flournoy said there is better coordination between the U.S. military and its international and Afghan allies, and between the troops and their civilian counterparts. She said new tactics have sharply reduced Afghan civilian casualties, and that efforts have been intensified to build the Afghan Army and police forces, and a justice system to back them up.
But Flournoy acknowledged that many challenges lie ahead.
"I don't want to suggest that achieving success in Afghanistan will be simple or easy," she said. "Far from it. Kandahar, for example, will present challenges that are fundamentally different from those that we have recently encountered in Helmand. Inevitably, we will face challenges, possibly setbacks, even as we achieve successes. We need to recognize that things may get harder before they get better."
All of the 30,000 additional U.S. troops President Barack Obama authorized for Afghanistan have not yet arrived, and allied nations have not yet identified all of the troops they have promised to deploy. U.S. officials say there is a critical shortage of trainers for the Afghan Army and police, and that without enough trainers, any international withdrawal could be delayed.
U.S. officials have called the initial part of the new Afghanistan effort a 12 to 18 month process, culminating in July of next year with the beginning of what is expected to be a very gradual U.S. troop withdrawal.
At the same congressional hearing, the chief of operations for the senior U.S. military command, Lieutenant General John Paxton, described Kandahar as "the real prize" of southern Afghanistan. He said U.S., international and Afghan forces are working together to expand secure zones in the area and to improve freedom of movement for local people.
The Kandahar effort has been code-named "Operation Hamkari," which means "cooperation" in Dari. But General Paxton said the effort to take control of Kandahar for the Afghan government will not be like the earlier operation in Marjah, which had a well-defined starting date and involved a major military operation.
"Hamkari is not about highly kinetic military operations," said General Paxton. "It is about applying the combined resources of the Afghan National Army, the Afghan National Police and ISAF, in support of the governor, to improve security - both in the city and in the populated environs."
Some members of the congressional committee expressed skepticism about the Obama administration's approach to fighting the Afghan insurgency, saying that it is taking too long and costing too many American lives.
But the Pentagon officials defended the plan, saying that it is the only way to defeat an insurgency that has a measure of popular support. The Under Secretary of Defense, Michele Flournoy, said she believes the allied effort in Afghanistan is "on the right road for the first time in a long time."
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Obama security team to meet on Pakistan, Afghanistan
Thu May 6, 3:51 am ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President Barack Obama meets Thursday with his national security team amid fresh concerns in the wake of last week's failed car bombing in New York for which a Pakistani-American is in custody.
The meeting in the White House situation room includes Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, top intelligence and counterterrorism officials and General Stanley McChrystal, commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
The session comes ahead of a planned meeting in Washington with Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who hopes to mend frayed ties with the United States.
Karzai is scheduled to meet Obama May 12. The meeting is seen as key ahead of a major offensive against militants in the southern province of Kandahar, considered the key battleground to reverse nearly nine years of escalating conflict in Afghanistan.
The focus on Pakistan comes days after the arrest of Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad in connection with the failed Times Square bomb plot and questions on whether the incident is linked to a wider group from that country.
Pakistan's military said it had yet to establish a link between Shahzad, who is the son of a retired air force officer, and the country's main militant stronghold in Waziristan.
"Until and unless the link is established, it will be premature to say that he had gone there," army spokesman Athar Abbas told AFP.
Waziristan is the powerbase of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which claimed Saturday's attempted attack.
Shahzad, accused of planting a large but poorly made car bomb in Times Square on Saturday, underwent extensive questioning but has not yet faced charges in court.
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GAO reports casts new doubt on Afghanistan policy
By Nancy A. Youssef, Mcclatchy Newspapers – Wed May 5, 8:43 pm ET
WASHINGTON — An independent government report on Wednesday raises new questions about the likelihood of success for President Barack Obama's Afghanistan policy, which nearly doubles the number of U.S. troops there before a planned drawdown begins in July 2011 .
The report, by the Government Accountability Office , found that the Taliban remain a resilient fighting force, despite the boost in U.S. troops, and suggested that many factors remain in place that will allow the Taliban to survive U.S. efforts to eradicate them.
The report noted that Taliban -initiated attacks in Afghanistan rose 75 percent between 2008 and 2009 and that civilian casualties rose 72 percent between last September and March, compared with the comparable period a year earlier.
The report, released just days before Afghan President Hamid Karzai is scheduled to visit Washington amid strained relations with the Obama administration, buttressed last week's downbeat Pentagon assessment of the situation in Afghanistan . That report found that overall levels of violence rose 87 percent between February 2009 and March 2010 .
The GAO report said that the rising levels of violence in Afghanistan had made it harder for U.S. and international aid agencies to build development projects there — a key aspect of the U.S. policy to undercut Taliban influence in the country. United Nations development teams have only limited ability to visit much of the country, the GAO reported.
The GAO also disputed Pentagon assertions that violence is rising because the Taliban if fighting back against the surge of U.S. troops and because of U.S. offensives to push the Taliban from strongholds around Marjah in the southern opium-producing province of Helmand.
The GAO, citing an unnamed official from U.S Central Command, said the Taliban are proving resilient as a result of several factors, including "the porous nature of the Afghanistan - Pakistan border region, the ineffective nature of governance and services in various parts of Afghanistan , assistance from militant groups out of Pakistan and Afghanistan , and continued financial support in the form of narcotics trafficking revenue and funds from outside of the region."
There are currently about 87,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan . The remaining Afghan surge troops are expected to all arrive by the end of the summer, bringing the total U.S. presence to 98,000.
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Afghans demonstrate against Iranian 'ill-treatment'
May 6, 2010 BBC News
Hundreds of Afghans have demonstrated against alleged ill-treatment and executions of a number Afghan refugees by the Iranian authorities.
Their protest follows a recent visit by a delegation of Afghan MPs to Iran to assess the plight of one million Afghans who live in the country.
Several thousand have been arrested by the Iranian authorities and hundreds are reported to be on death row.
Some MPs say more than 50 Afghans have been executed by Iran in recent weeks.
But Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Zaher Faqiri said on Thursday that only six Afghans had been executed in Iran. However, between 4,000 and 5,000 Afghans were in Iranian jails, he confirmed.
The treatment of Afghans in Iran has caused much concern in their home country, correspondents say.
A similar demonstration was held last week.
Iran received millions of refugees during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan and the later civil war. In recent years it has been deporting some of them back to Afghanistan.
Tehran opposed the Taliban regime toppled by the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. It has since experienced a rise in drug use as easily-available heroin from Afghanistan flows across the border.
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French hostages alive in Afghanistan: minister
May 6, 2010
KABUL (AFP) – French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said Thursday he had received "tangible proof" from his Afghan counterpart that two French journalists kidnapped in Afghanistan were alive and well.
The visiting cabinet minister spoke following talks with Afghan Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar in Kabul.
"My colleague, the Afghan interior minister, told me a few minutes ago that as of an hour and a half ago, there was tangible proof demonstrating that the hostages were alive and in good health," said Hortefeux.
"I cannot say more," he added.
Herve Ghesquiere and Stephane Taponier, who work for the France 3 television network, were kidnapped in December 2009 along with their Afghan translator, an editorial fixer and a driver on a road in eastern Afghanistan.
Their channel released their names in April, after the Taliban militia released a video of the journalists that contained a new death threat.
Criminal groups and Taliban insurgents have kidnapped several dozen foreigners, many of them journalists, since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban regime in Kabul, sparking the current insurgency.
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House panel looks at progress in Afghanistan, troop strength
By the CNN Wire Staff May 5, 2010
Washington (CNN) -- The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday took stock of the Obama administration's new counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, and examined whether more troops could be deployed if conditions warrant.
The Obama administration has added about 30,000 troops in Afghanistan since December, bringing to about 100,000 the U.S. force there. Some 40,000 NATO troops also are deployed in the conflict.
Lt. Gen. John Paxton, director of strategic plans and policy for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked whether Gen. Stanley McCrystal, who is heading up operations in Afghanistan, has so far requested additional troops.
"We've made some adjustments in terms of combat forces on the ground, so we've made some modest adjustments in the number," Paxton said.
Michele Flourney, under secretary of defense for policy, added that part of the president's decision to add the 30,000 troops was to give Defense Secretary Robert Gates "a degree of flexibility" for him to authorize "further troops in support of force protection."
The surge in troop strength is one of several elements in the administration's counterinsurgency strategy, which also seeks to combat the opium trade in the region and give farmers a profitable crop they can raise and support their families with.
Flourney also stressed that the counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan is also aiding the global war on terrorism.
"The border region [between Afghanistan and Pakistan] has been the sort of focus of al Qaeda for many years," Flourney said. "So I think denying them sanctuary and denying them safe haven there has a powerful impact on the global impact."
But in addition to the troop surge, Flourney said a good working relationship with the Afghan government is key.
"I think that in any situation, the military strategy takes you so far and at some point there is a political set of outcomes that are reached. We saw this in Iraq. We're working with the Afghan government to try to get a better understanding of the process that they will ultimately lead."
The goal of the Obama plan is to begin withdrawing U.S. troops in July 2011 in an effort to force Afghan officials to take the lead on ensuring their country's security.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said his forces will take the security lead in five years, despite doubts among military analysts that the Afghan army and police will be able to provide a sufficient number of trained forces in that period.
Allied and Afghan troops recently retook the southern city of Marjah from the Taliban and have been expected to move on the Kandahar region in June.
Those plans have been met with apprehension by Afghan leaders, including Karzai.
Karzai has told tribal leaders in the Kandahar region, the Taliban's traditional stronghold, that he would hold back the NATO offensive until he had their backing. His insistence on that support has frustrated the White House.
Karzai told a gathering of tribal leaders in early April that the U.S.-led alliance would not move against Taliban fighters in Kandahar "until you say we can." White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters a day later that Karzai's remarks were "genuinely troubling."
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Pakistan Taliban denies training NY bomb suspect
by Hasbanullah Khan
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) – Pakistan's Taliban said on Thursday it neither trained nor recruited the alleged New York bomb plotter, further confusing inquiries into possible links between the suspect and militant cells.
Faisal Shahzad, the 30-year-old son of a retired air force officer who migrated from Pakistan and became a US citizen last year, has been charged with five counts of terrorism for trying to bomb Times Square on Saturday night.
But the case now hinges on whether Shahzad acted alone, had outside help or was acting on behalf of a larger group either in Pakistan or elsewhere.
Pakistani and US investigators are trying to piece together how and why the son of an affluent family could have turned his back on the prospect of a comfortable life in the United States to plot mass murder.
The main spokesman for Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which purportedly claimed the attack in a video but which has been described as increasingly fragmented, said the faction neither recruited nor trained Shahzad.
"We don't even know him. We did not train him," Azam Tariq told two AFP reporters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The Taliban spokesman, whose voice was recognised by both the AFP reporters familiar with him, suggested he may have been trained by other militants.
"He may be trained by any other militant group," the spokesman added.
"I deny this claim that Taliban were involved in this incident. This is a propaganda against us. If we are involved in something, we admit it."
But his claim could not rule out the possibility that a Taliban splinter could have had links to Shahzad. The name Taliban has also become a by-word for practically all militant groups operating in Pakistan.
Members of the TTP, originally an umbrella of nebulous cells, have scattered since a major Pakistani offensive last year into its South Waziristan nerve centre and in the wake of US drone attacks.
There were reports of dissension among its senior leaders after founder Baitullah Mehsud was killed by a US missile last August, with some commanders said to be unhappy with his successor Hakimullah Mehsud.
Mehsud, who oversaw a dramatic escalation in bloodshed in Pakistan late last year, appeared in videos purportedly filmed last month threatening to attack US cities to avenge the killing of Islamist militant leaders.
According to the US criminal complaint, Shahzad admitted to receiving bomb-making training in Waziristan, a fortress of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants with increasingly overlapping associations and ideology.
TTP, but also Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi, have a presence in the area. It is also a hotbed of Afghan, Arab and Central Asian fighters.
The New York Times said there were strong indications that Shahzad knew some members of the Taliban and that they probably had a role in training him.
But one theory touted by analysts is that Shahzad may have received limited training, but not been a full member of a militant faction.
The video allegedly from the TTP that claimed responsibility for the New York car bomb attempt was widely questioned in Pakistan and the United States.
"So far no concrete evidence has yet linked him to any group in Pakistan," a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The official said security agencies were questioning his close relatives and friends in Islamabad, Karachi and Pabbi, in northwest Pakistan close to Peshawar where Shahzad grew up in a middle-class family.
One security official said the type of explosives planted in the Nissan SUV that Shahzad allegedly drove had Pakistani Taliban-style signatures, but that it was premature to say who he met and how he may have done it.
The Pakistani military, which has won praise in the United States for a series of assaults on the Taliban, warned that it has yet to establish a link between the suspect and Waziristan.
Army spokesman Athar Abbas also questioned the capability and reach of the Pakistani Taliban to strike within the United States.
Any such attack would mark a radical departure for a faction that concentrated its suicide and car bomb attacks at home.
The State Department said Washington has received a "full and complete pledge" of cooperation from Pakistan.
"Whatever leads are generated here in the United States... we would fully expect Pakistan to follow up on," spokesman Philip Crowly said.
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North Waziristan: Terrorism’s new hub?
WASHINGTON POST BY AHMED RASHID 05/05/2010
LAHORE, PAKISTAN - A sense of despair and helplessness has come to grip the Pakistani public, which faces more suicide bomb attacks each day than even the Afghans next door. Major cities like Peshawar, where more than 100 police officers have been killed this year, are under siege by the Pakistani Taliban. Now it seems Pakistani militants are also involved in global jihad.
Information is still emerging about suspected Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen who apparently spent time here from July until February. Court documents indicate that Shahzad received bomb-making training in Waziristan, the known haven of numerous groups and extremists.
Over the past 18 months, Pakistan’s army has conducted major offensives in six of the seven tribal agencies that border Afghanistan. But the seventh agency — North Waziristan — has been left alone. In part, that is because it is home to the Afghan Taliban networks of Jalaluddin Haqqani and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who have close relations with the military and the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate (ISI). It has also been left alone for good tactical if not poor strategic reasons — the army has struck deals with the Pakistani Taliban in North Waziristan not to attack Pakistani forces. Until recently, these deals have held.
But Pakistan’s counterterrorism strategy, which has been voluminously praised by American generals, is now coming apart at the seams — all because of North Waziristan.
The area is the hub of so many terrorist groups and so much terrorist plotting and planning that neither the CIA nor the ISI seems to have much clue about what is going on there. A year ago, the Pakistan Taliban under Baitullah Mehsud ran a semi-disciplined terrorist movement from the tribal areas that bombed and killed Pakistanis with dastardly methodicalness. Mehsud was killed last year in a U.S. drone strike. What is left is anarchy, as groups and splinter groups and splinters of splinters operate from North Waziristan with no overall control by anyone, not even Jalaluddin Haqqani.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a ruthless leader of the Pakistani Taliban pronounced dead by authorities after a U.S. drone strike in January, has turned up alive and well. He was probably hiding out in North Waziristan all these months and nobody knew. In videos released Monday, he promises that “the time is very near when our fedayeen will attack the American states in the major cities.” He is ominously flanked by two armed and masked men.
Punjabi extremist groups that were once trained by the military to fight Indian forces in Kashmir have splintered from their mother groups and operate out of North Waziristan in alliance with the Pashtun Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda. Inexplicably, one of these Punjabi groups last week executed Khalid Khawaja, a former ISI officer known for his sympathy for al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Who killed Khawaja and why is still a huge mystery. Was it a case of terror eating its own?
Other militant groups operating out of North Waziristan include vehemently anti-Shiite groups, several Central Asian and Chechen groups, and, by some accounts, Lashkar-e-Taiba, blamed for the deadly 2008 attack in Mumbai. Training is available for Pakistanis and foreigners who come and go at will. Five young Americans are on trial in Pakistan for trying to reach North Waziristan.
Pakistan’s army says it cannot open another front in North Waziristan because it is overstretched and is focusing on its offensives in other agencies. Yet the army just held exercises with 50,000 troops on the Indian border to signal to the international community that it still considers India its main enemy.
In the tribal agencies, the army is also dealing with a quarter-million internal refugees and is engaged in humanitarian relief, reconstruction and the maintenance of supply lines that are regularly ambushed by militants. The tragedy is that neither has the civilian government offered to take over these tasks — which it should — nor is the army encouraging it to do so. Counterterrorism without a civilian “hold and build” component is meaningless.
Clearly what is happening in North Waziristan is having a global impact. Something has to be done about a region that has become an even greater terrorist hub than Afghanistan was before 2001. Pakistan’s leaders — both civil and military — should take the lead in finding solutions to the problem, as the international community helps Islamabad implement a policy that will clear out this lethal terrorism central.
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Second VP, ministers accused of embezzling a million dollars
Pajhwok By Khwaja Basir Ahmad 05/05/2010
KABUL - Hajj and Auqaf ministry's cashier has accused second vice president and seven ministers of embezzling one million of dollars during last year's Haj ritual.
Haji Mohammad Noor, who was arrested seven months back with $3, 62,000 at Kabul airport on his way back home from Saudi Arabia, told an open hearing of Criminal Justice task Force (CJTF) of the Counter-narcotics Ministry on Monday the second VP Karim Khalili and the ministers were the real culprits behind the fraud.
Intelligence officials had accused the cashier of being involved in the embezzlement of money taken from 23 travel agencies during last year's Haj rite and that he transferred the money secretly to the country.
However, during his hearing, Noor said," I have nothing to do with this as I am just a cashier. How can I be given bribe?" He said he was just following the orders for transferring the money.
He requested the court to arrest Khalili and the seven ministers, who he did not name. He said 23 private travel agencies and Haj operation commission embezzled the amount.
Khalili was part of the Haj Operation Commission which is supposed to ensure a safe travel to and from Saudi Arabia of Afghan pilgrims.
Prosecutors Ibrahim Ghafori and Ahmad Rashid Totakhel who filed the case against Noor Mohammad said Noor facilitated the deal between the then Haj and Auqaf minister, Siddiq Chakari, and the private travel agencies both in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia.
They also accused Noor of receiving $150 from each pilgrim in Afghanistan by illegally enrolling them in traveling list and providing them accommodation in Saudi Arabia.
Of the total embezzled amount through this process, the prosecutors said, $500,000 went to Chakari and 362,000 pocketed by Mohammad Noor.
Noor agreed with the prosecutors, but said he did this on the behest of Chakari. He said he had to obey his orders as his subordinate.
About the 25 million afghanis embezzled amount, Noor said he withdrew it from the Da Afghanistan Bank (central bank) on the behest of Chakari for accommodating Afghan pilgrims in Saudi Arabia. He said only five million afghanis were spent there and when was bringing back the remaining money from Saudi Arabia, he was arrested at the Kabul Airport. He said Chakari ordered him to bring back the money to Afghanistan.
He said he told Chakari that he could not transfer such a big amount of money to the country but he said there would be no problem.
Siddiq Chakari is currently in London, England who has been formally indicted by Afghan Attorney General Office (AGO). The AGO asked Interpol officially to arrest Chakari and extradite him to Afghanistan, but no one knows what happened to him.
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Ex-Afghan attorney general escapes attempt on life
KABUL, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Unknown armed men attacked the vehicle of former Attorney General Abdul Jabbar Sabit in east Afghanistan on Thursday, but Sabit escaped the attempt on his life, a private television channel reported.
"Unidentified armed men attacked the car of Abdul Jabbar Sabit in east Afghanistan today," Tolo aired in its main news bulletin.
Sabit escaped unhurt. However, the abductors took away five of his men to unknown location, the news report added without giving more details.
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S.Africa pace too much for Afghanistan at Twenty20
by Julian Guyer Wed May 5, 10:58 pm ET
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AFP) – South Africa won through to the second round of the World Twenty20 with a 59-run win as newcomers Afghanistan were bowled out for just 80 at the Kensington Oval.
The Afghanistan top order on Wednesday had no answer to fast bowlers Morne Morkel, the man of the match, with four wickets for 20 runs, Dale Steyn (two for six) and Charl Langeveldt (three for 12).
But the lowest record score in a Twenty20 international remains the 67 made by Kenya against Ireland in Belfast in 2008.
Kenya also hold the corresponding World Twenty20 record of 73, set against New Zealand in Durban in 2007.
Afghanistan fast bowler Hamid Hassan, who earlier took an impressive three wickets, took his team's score off 67 by swinging left-arm spinner Roelof van der Merwe for six.
Hassan (22) and fellow tailender Mirwais Ashraf (23) prevented what had looked like a record-breaking rout although South Africa still won with four overs to spare.
Afghanistan, who only a few years ago were playing the likes of Jersey and Denmark, had no answer to the pace of South Africa's quicks and collapsed to 12 for five in pursuit of a victory target of 140.
But Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan, the former Pakistan pace bowler, was proud of how his side had performed in their first major international tournament.
"With each stage they are going a step higher," Khan said.
"Today, to restrict a batting line-up like South Africa to 139 is a big achievement so there are all sorts of pluses for them.
"They key is they need to be exposed to that pressure again and again and then they'll get used to it.
"We were talking about practising for the pace bowlers and on a bowling machine you can put it to 90mph but you can't have Dale Steyn bowling at you and swinging the ball."
Meanwhile Morkel was looking forward to bowling again on the Kensington pitch when South Africa begin their Super Eights campaign here on Thursday against New Zealand.
"Hitting the deck hard is my strength and I'm preparing for the games ahead as well so it was about doing the basics right.
"With the new ball, it's going through quite nicely and it was much quicker than the pitch at St Lucia."
South Africa coach Corrie van Zyl added: "The New Zealand team is always a dangerous team in this format and we haven't got a lot of time to prepare.
"We have to rest well then hit our straps from the start."
Steyn did the initial damage having Noor Ali, who made 50 in Afghanistan's tournament opener against Group C winners India, caught behind for nought with an 88 miles per hour delivery.
Mohamammad Shahzad struggled to get bat on ball and, when he did, he too was caught behind by wicketkeeper Mark Boucher off Steyn.
Morne Morkel then accounted for Afghanistan captain Nowroz Manga with his first ball and removed Karim Sadiq with his fourth as the collapse continued under the floodlights.
No 8 Samiullah Shenwari became the first Afghan batsman in the innings to make 11 but was then run out after by AB de Villiers's direct hit.
Hassan showed defiance by lofting Albie Morkel's first ball for six over long-off and Ashraf struck the seamer for an even bigger six over long-on.
Ashraf gave van der Merwe the six treatment before he was bowled by Langeveldt.
Earlier, Hassan, red headband and all, was every inch the image of a fiery fast bowler as he took three for 21 in South Africa's total of 139 for seven.
Hassan's scalps were all 'proper' batsmen in Jacques Kallis, Boucher and JP Duminy.
No batsman made more than Kallis's 34 but if the conditions were helpful to Hassan, they were always likely to be even more favourable to South Africa's pace attack.
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