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Warlord close to Afghan leader may be added to terrorism blacklist
The Scotsman By Jerome Starkey 03 November 2010
AN AFGHAN warlord who made untold millions protecting Nato convoys on behalf of president Hamid Karzai's cousins could face international sanctions if US officials succeed in adding his name to a terrorism blacklist. Commander Ruhullah is among a handful of corrupt power brokers who US officials in Kabul want added to the United Nations Taleban and al-Qaeda sanctions committee, known as List 1267.
Taliban-linked activities kill 12, wound 11 in Afghanistan
By Farid Behbud
KABUL, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Taliban-linked militancy in Afghanistan left 12 persons including five insurgents dead and injured 11 others on a single day on Wednesday.
UNHCR worried about growing number of conflict IDPs
KABUL, 3 November 2010 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says it is concerned about the growing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) caused by conflict in Afghanistan, and the fact that it is often too dangerous to assist them.
IED blast kills NATO soldier in S Afghanistan
KABUL, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- A soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed Wednesday in an Improvised Explosive Device(IED) strike in south Afghanistan, bringing the number of the alliance casualties to two in a single day, the military alliance said in a press release.
30 militants killed, illicit drug set on fire in S Afghanistan
KABUL, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Security forces eliminated 30 militants and destroyed huge amount of illicit drug during a raid against insurgents in a far-flange area of southern Helmand province, the Interior Ministry said in a statement released on Wednesday.
4 militants, 2 children killed in Afghanistan's Helmand province
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Four Taliban militants and two children were killed Wednesday in Nad Ali district of Afghanistan's volatile southern Helmand province when the insurgents clashed with security forces troops, provincial administration spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.
Afghan Offensive Pushes Militants to Kandahar
Back in Home City, Taliban Use Bombs, Threats to Undermine Local Officials
The Wall Street Journal By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV NOVEMBER 3, 2010
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - American operations to clear the Taliban from villages around Kandahar are pushing insurgents into the city, where the militants' campaign of assassinations and bombings is undermining efforts to stabilize Afghanistan's second-largest metropolis.
Australian Defense Force to investigate Afghanistan firefight death
CANBERRA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- A review into a firefight between Australian soldiers and insurgents in Afghanistan has been under way, after claims a local man was killed by small arms fire, Australian Defense Force announced on Wednesday.
US to spend 500 million dollars on embassy in Afghanistan
November 3, 2010
KABUL (AFP) – The United States is bolstering its presence in Afghanistan with a 500 million dollar expansion of its Kabul embassy and the construction of two consulates, it announced Wednesday.
Int'l assistance can back regional efforts in Afghan reconstruction: FM
ANKARA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmay Rasoul said Wednesday that international assistance can back regional efforts in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, the semi- official Anatolia news agency reported.
Kabul's "Bush Market": Pop Tarts and Night Goggles On Sale!
TIME - World By Jason Motlagh Tuesday, Nov. 02, 2010
Kabul - Tucked behind an office building less than a mile from Kabul's police headquarters, the black market stalls bristle with stolen American-made goods on sale at Afghan-friendly prices. Boxes of blueberry Pop Tarts and Jack Link's beef jerky are stacked alongside deodorant sticks and bodybuilding protein supplements.
The book reader of Kabul
The Boston Globe - Editors By H.D.S. Greenway November 3, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - GENERAL DAVID Petraeus is fighting a war here for time, not space. As one of the new breed of soldier-scholars, with a degree from Princeton, he knows that Americans get tired of long wars, and that at the end of this month, the US Army will have been here longer than were the Russians.
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Warlord close to Afghan leader may be added to terrorism blacklist
The Scotsman By Jerome Starkey 03 November 2010
AN AFGHAN warlord who made untold millions protecting Nato convoys on behalf of president Hamid Karzai's cousins could face international sanctions if US officials succeed in adding his name to a terrorism blacklist. Commander Ruhullah is among a handful of corrupt power brokers who US officials in Kabul want added to the United Nations Taleban and al-Qaeda sanctions committee, known as List 1267.
Ruhullah was referred to as "the butcher" in a report for the US Congress this summer, which accused him of using a private army to run a protection racket.
The report also suggested he had been paying off Taleban commanders who posed a persistent threat to his business. He profited by escorting roughly 3,500 lorries a month at up to $1,500 per vehicle.
The US initiative comes amid repeated calls from the Afghan government to remove names from the list in a bid to facilitate peace talks with the insurgents. Although names have been continually added, removed and reviewed since the list was first approved 11 years ago, this is the first time individuals linked to Mr Karzai's government have been actively considered.
Apart from working for Mr Karzai's cousins, Ruhullah also has close links to the president's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai. Ahmed Wali has repeatedly denied claims he controls southern Afghanistan's opium trade.
A western official in Kabul said the US government was using the list "as leverage and one of the tools that we have in ongoing efforts to rid the Afghan government of corruption and draw the decade-long insurgency to a close".
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Taliban-linked activities kill 12, wound 11 in Afghanistan
By Farid Behbud
KABUL, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Taliban-linked militancy in Afghanistan left 12 persons including five insurgents dead and injured 11 others on a single day on Wednesday.
In the latest waves of violent attacks, the militants carried out a suicide car bombing in the eastern Khost province leaving two Afghan soldiers dead and wounding 10 others, an army officer confirmed.
The blast occurred at around 01:00 p.m. local time when a suicide bomber blew his explosive-laden car up near an Afghan army checkpoint in Sabari district, Khost province, killing two Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers and injuring 10 others, Mohammad Israr, an army officer in Khost province said.
"In the suicide car bombing against the Afghan army today in Sabari district, two ANA soldiers were martyred and 10 others sustained injuries," Israr told Xinhua.
The attacker was also killed in the blast, said the officer.
Also on the same day Wednesday, a roadside bomb planted by Taliban militants struck a vehicle in Khost's neighboring Paktia province injuring the district chief of Syed Karam and killing his bodyguard, the police said.
"Agha Gul, governor of Syed Karam district, was on the way to the provincial capital Gerdez today when his car ran over a mine as a result he sustained injuries and his bodyguard was killed," a senior police officer Ghulam Dastgir Khan told Xinhua.
Wednesday's violent attacks in Khost and Paktia provinces took place just day after President Hamid Karzai paid a visit to the Paktika province and called on Taliban militants to give up militancy and join the peace process.
Taliban-linked militancy and conflicts also claimed the lives of four militants and two children in the southern Helmand province on Wednesday.
"Four Taliban militants and two children were killed Wednesday in Nad Ali district of Helmand province as Taliban rebels came in contact with NATO-led troops today," the provincial administration spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.
The two innocent children lost their lives when they were caught in the cross fire, he added.
Two soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have also lost their lives in Taliban- linked activities in the restive southern and relatively peaceful northern region of Afghanistan Wednesday, ISAF confirmed in separate statements.
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UNHCR worried about growing number of conflict IDPs
KABUL, 3 November 2010 (IRIN) - The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) says it is concerned about the growing number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) caused by conflict in Afghanistan, and the fact that it is often too dangerous to assist them.
Between June 2009 and September 2010, 120,000 people were forced out of their homes by armed conflict, increasing the number of IDPs to 319,000, it said.
“These figures do not include IDPs scattered in urban/semi-urban locations for which systematic accounting is problematic. These figures equally do not reflect IDP groups that have scattered across the inaccessible areas of the southern swathe of the country following recent armed offensives,” Nader Farhad, a UNHCR spokesman in Kabul, told IRIN.
In addition to conflict, some people are displaced by natural disasters (primarily floods), loss of livelihoods, and land disputes, aid workers say. The Ministry of Refugees and Returnees Affairs (MoRR) puts the total number of IDPs at nearly 500,000.
Most IDPs are in the insecure south and east of the country and many are not accessible by aid workers.
As winter approaches, UNHCR said it was planning to distribute warm clothes, charcoal and blankets to thousands of “extremely vulnerable” IDPs, and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it was working closely with UNHCR to assist IDPs.
“WFP has been distributing a three-month emergency food ration to over 43,000 recently displaced people,” WFP spokesman Challiss McDonough told IRIN, adding that the organization would provide special winter food assistance to 320,000 vulnerable individuals - not all of them IDPs - across the country.
The government is also moving to help IDPs: “We have submitted a request for US$5 million to the President’s Office which, if approved, will be used to respond to some of the basic needs of IDPs,” said the MoRR’s Islamuddin Joraat.
Kabul
A growing number of IDPs are being drawn to Kabul’s expanding slums. A new MoRR survey said 2,398 families (over 14,000 individuals) were living in 16 slums in Kabul.
MoRR’s Joraat said the causes of their displacement were floods, conflict, lack of shelter and poverty.
UNHCR said there was “no noted IDP settlement in Kabul” but “mixed informal settlements dotting the city with mixed groups” and that it was working to identify “core protection issues related to IDPs among these mixed groups” in collaboration with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the MoRR. Kabul’s slums include IDPs, land-grabbers and nomads.
Flu-like symptoms and respiratory illnesses brought on by cold winter weather also disproportionately affect slum-dwellers living in cramped quarters.
IDPs in the east, south and central parts of the country are expected to face moderate and high-level food insecurity this winter, said a US-based Famine Early Warning System report on 1 November.
Over the next five months, WFP will feed 2.1 million food insecure people every month in Afghanistan, McDonough said.
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IED blast kills NATO soldier in S Afghanistan
KABUL, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- A soldier with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was killed Wednesday in an Improvised Explosive Device(IED) strike in south Afghanistan, bringing the number of the alliance casualties to two in a single day, the military alliance said in a press release. "An International Security Assistance Force service member died following an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan Wednesday," ISAF said in the brief press release.
The nationality of the victim and location of the incident had not been revealed in the press release, adding it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.
Earlier, the alliance in a statement confirmed losing another soldier in an insurgent attack in the relatively peaceful northern region of Afghanistan on the same day Wednesday.
More than 600 NATO soldiers with majority of them Americans have been killed so far this year in Afghanistan.
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30 militants killed, illicit drug set on fire in S Afghanistan
KABUL, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Security forces eliminated 30 militants and destroyed huge amount of illicit drug during a raid against insurgents in a far-flange area of southern Helmand province, the Interior Ministry said in a statement released on Wednesday.
"The operation involving Counter-Narcotics police and the NATO- led troops targeted Baramcha bazaar in Disho district of Helmand province on Saturday. As a result 30 insurgents were killed," the statement asserted.
During the operation, the troops also seized huge amount of illicit drug and huge quantity of arms and ammunition including rocket-propelled grenade, Kalashnikovs, hand grenades, bullets and 23,700 kg of ammonium nitrate used in manufacturing home-made bombs by Taliban militants and destroyed, the statement said.
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4 militants, 2 children killed in Afghanistan's Helmand province
LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Four Taliban militants and two children were killed Wednesday in Nad Ali district of Afghanistan's volatile southern Helmand province when the insurgents clashed with security forces troops, provincial administration spokesman Daud Ahmadi said.
"The incident occurred around 10 a.m. local time when Taliban rebels clashed with the NATO-led International forces in Shir Khan area of Nad Ali district as a result four militants and two children were killed," Ahmadi told Xinhua.
The two children lost their lives when they caught in cross fire, he added.
He said the security forces had detained two other Taliban fighters, adding no reports of casualties on foreign troops had been reported. Taliban militants fighting Afghan and NATO forces have yet to make comments.
The restive Nad Ali district was regained with its neighboring former Taliban bastion Marja district in the wake of a joint Afghan and NATO force operation in mid February this year.
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Afghan Offensive Pushes Militants to Kandahar
Back in Home City, Taliban Use Bombs, Threats to Undermine Local Officials
The Wall Street Journal By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV NOVEMBER 3, 2010
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - American operations to clear the Taliban from villages around Kandahar are pushing insurgents into the city, where the militants' campaign of assassinations and bombings is undermining efforts to stabilize Afghanistan's second-largest metropolis.
Though coalition and Afghan officials say they expected such a Taliban influx, insurgent intimidation is stalling efforts to build credible government institutions—a buildup without which battleground advances can't hold.
Two-thirds of the 119 budgeted city government jobs remain unfilled, despite generous U.S.-funded salaries, as municipal workers are assassinated or quit under what they say are Taliban threats. Kandahar's deputy mayor and his successor were both gunned down in recent months. Last week, another city employee was shot.
Over the past week, Taliban fighters on motorbikes have also swarmed roads in the heart of the city at night, checking motorists' documents and warning them against collaborating with the government, witnesses and coalition officials say.
"Nobody wants to work with me—they're all afraid," said Kandahar Mayor Hamid Haidari, sitting in his office in the unlit, nearly deserted municipal building amid a recent power blackout. "Everyone wants to stay alive." Mr. Haidari himself kept away from the office for 10 days last month after a warning that he would be targeted by a Taliban suicide bomber.
This climate of fear clashes with optimistic assessments by coalition and Afghan commanders, who say intensive military operations over the past two months have dealt a major blow to the Taliban in this southern province, the focus of President Barack Obama's troop surge. U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus plans to showcase progress in southern Afghanistan's Helmand and Kandahar provinces this month at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Portugal, and during a U.S. policy review in December, coalition officials say.
Kandahar, southern Afghanistan's economic and political hub, is the birthplace of the Taliban movement. "It's strategically important—both for the government and for the Taliban," said the provincial chief of police, Gen. Sardar Mohammed Zazai.
U.S. and Afghan troops' push in Kandahar province in recent weeks has succeeded in seizing Taliban redoubts in the rural districts of Arghandab, Zhari and Panjway surrounding Kandahar city, and in the southwestern suburbs of Mahalajat.
Faced with an overwhelming force, the insurgents abandoned areas the Taliban had ruled for years, often melting away without a fight.
Now, "after we've cleared their totemic heartland, they're trying to surge into the city," says U.S. Army Col. Jeffrey Martindale, commander of the 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, the coalition unit responsible for Kandahar city and Arghandab.
American officials say the jump in Taliban activity in the city wasn't unexpected and shouldn't be viewed as a sign that the Kandahar campaign, whose ultimate goal is to secure the metropolis, is failing.
"One of the things we see is that sometimes attack levels go up when the enemy is at their weakest," said the brigade's executive officer, Lt. Col. David Meyer.
The recent uptick of strikes from improvised explosive devices in the city has had limited impact, Col. Martindale added, explaining that the attacks have been led by second- and third-tier commanders who usually lack the sophistication and resources to mount major bombings.
"But it demonstrates that they are still there," Col. Martindale said. "And in some cases, that's enough to scare people away."
Taliban violence is keeping many locals away from government jobs. Until this summer, Eliyas Rahimi earned 78,000 afghanis, or $1,730, a month, a princely amount by Afghan standards, as a public-relations consultant for the municipality.
In August, he began receiving warning phone calls from the Taliban, which he says he initially dismissed as pranks.
Then the caller recounted Mr. Rahimi's daily schedule, a sign he was under surveillance.
The 23-year-old says he threw out his cellphone and never showed up at the office again. "Anyone can be targeted here—and after you're dead, that is it. Nobody cares," said Mr. Rahimi, who remains unemployed.
Many victims of the violence end up in Kandahar's main hospital, Mirwais. Well over a dozen patients suffering from gunshot injuries and fragmentation wounds from IEDs are admitted daily, doctors say.
On Sunday, a bearded Afghan man, registered as "No Name" in the hospital entry book, and a 12-year-old boy were wheeled in on blood-stained gurneys. A police patrol that dropped them off didn't know their identities.
The man, hit with four bullets and pronounced dead minutes later, was wrapped in a white shroud and pushed into the corner as doctors tried to rescue the boy, naked except for a crimson-red bandage on his head.
The next day, the victims' relatives crowded at the intensive-care ward near the boy's bed. The father, Popolzai, had been a tribal elder, a frequent target for insurgents. The boy, Sakhidad, remained in critical condition.
"Every morning, whenever we step out of our homes, we're afraid we'll be killed," said a cousin, Mohammed Akbar.
Relatives of another shooting victim, a municipal employee named Samiullah, gathered around the adjoining bed. The man, unconscious, writhed as he was hooked up to a rusted oxygen tank. Two assassins' bullets had torn through his abdomen last week.
Samiullah's brother-in-law, Ahmad, scoffed at the idea that recent military operations brought improved security to the city.
"The government lost control," he said. "What security are they talking about when killers can come to your doorstep and shoot you in the chest in the center of the city?"
Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com
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Australian Defense Force to investigate Afghanistan firefight death
CANBERRA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- A review into a firefight between Australian soldiers and insurgents in Afghanistan has been under way, after claims a local man was killed by small arms fire, Australian Defense Force announced on Wednesday.
Locals in the Baluchi Valley of Afghanistan claimed a male was killed in a firefight between insurgents and a group of Afghan and Australian soldiers on Tuesday.
According to the Defense Department, an Afghan soldier and two insurgents were wounded and taken to a military hospital.
The department has launched an internal review to investigate the firefight.
"Following the engagements several locals approached Afghan and Australian soldiers carrying the body of a male claiming that he had been killed by small arms fire," Defence said in a statement on Wednesday.
"No more information on the claim will be available until the internal review is completed."
No Australian soldiers were wounded in the firefighting.
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US to spend 500 million dollars on embassy in Afghanistan
November 3, 2010
KABUL (AFP) – The United States is bolstering its presence in Afghanistan with a 500 million dollar expansion of its Kabul embassy and the construction of two consulates, it announced Wednesday.
Washington's Kabul embassy is already its biggest in the world, with about 1,100 employees, projected to rise to 1,200 by the end of the year, officials said.
Hundreds have arrived over the course of this year as part of a "civilian surge" bringing development experts into the country to compliment the military effort already in its 10th year.
The United States and NATO have 150,000 troops in Afghanistan fighting the Taliban-led insurgency, following a military surge aimed at speeding an end to the war.
The embassy expansion contract was worth 511 million dollars and had been awarded under US law to an American company, Caddell Construction Inc., ambassador Karl Eikenberry said.
Another two contracts, worth 20 million dollars each, have been awarded for the construction of consulates in Herat, the main city in western Afghanistan, and Mazar-I-Sharif in the north, he said.
Speaking to a gathering of Afghan officials, Eikenberry said the expansion would enable the United States "to carry out its pledge to maintain into the future its very significant security, government, economic and civil society programmes".
He said the projects currently employed 500 Afghans and that "once construction gets underway more than 1,500 Afghan workers will be employed through the completion of the project in summer 2014".
The embassy project includes an office building with 302 desks, two apartment buildings with 433 beds and a parking garage with capacity for 300 vehicles, it said.
It said the project would employ 600 Afghans and generate 150 million dollars in business for local construction companies.
It was due to be completed in June 2014, with the two consulates -- each expected to generate six million dollars for local businesses and employ 150 Afghans -- due to be finished in January 2011.
"All combined over the last two years, the dollar value for our diplomatic facilities expansion contracts in Kabul, Mazar and Herat now will be at about 800 million dollars," Eikenberry said.
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Int'l assistance can back regional efforts in Afghan reconstruction: FM
ANKARA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmay Rasoul said Wednesday that international assistance can back regional efforts in the reconstruction of Afghanistan, the semi- official Anatolia news agency reported.
Afghanistan is taking steps regarding economic development and efficient governance with the international community, Rasoul was quoted as saying at the fourth Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA) in the Turkish largest city of Istanbul.
Rasoul said Afghanistan's gross domestic product (GDP) growth was 22.5 percent this year, and the government revenues reached over 1 billion U.S. dollars for the first time in its history.
Despite its efforts to combat terrorism, illicit drug trafficking and organized crimes, the Afghan government still faces a serious situation and the problems continued threatening the Afghan society, Rasoul said.
Meanwhile, Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that there is no other remedy than regional cooperation in coping with the problems in Afghanistan.
Davutoglu said a democratic and rich Afghanistan would contribute to the development of the region.
"Economic development should be the priority, and Afghanistan can assume the role of a bridge between the Far East, Middle East and the West," Davutoglu said.
The conference, held at Istanbul's Ceylan Intercontinental Hotel on Nov. 2-3, was co-chaired by the governments of Turkey and Afghanistan.
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Kabul's "Bush Market": Pop Tarts and Night Goggles On Sale!
TIME - World By Jason Motlagh Tuesday, Nov. 02, 2010
Kabul - Tucked behind an office building less than a mile from Kabul's police headquarters, the black market stalls bristle with stolen American-made goods on sale at Afghan-friendly prices. Boxes of blueberry Pop Tarts and Jack Link's beef jerky are stacked alongside deodorant sticks and bodybuilding protein supplements. Looking for a pair of steel-toed tactical boots, or a Go Army sweatshirt? Check. Quick-dry synthetic underwear or a Leatherman tool? They have those too. In fact, just about anything available on a U.S. military base in Afghanistan can be found here, so long as one doesn't mind the added hassle of checking expiration dates or sorting through the surfeit of Chinese knock-offs. Or, for the occasional American shopper that stops by, the irony of purchasing items already paid for with U.S. tax dollars.
Popularly known as the "Bush Market" and, increasingly, the "Obama Market," the warren of small shops is the largest of several commercial centers named after U.S. Presidents that have sprung up since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Indeed, the presence of foreign armies in the country has for many years spawned a supply and demand for their homegrown products. Three decades ago, during the Soviet occupation, its forerunner was called the "Brezhnev Market" after the former head of the Communist party, its stalls packed with basic Russian commodities. Now, 10 years into an American-led war, hard-to-find Western items are the top draw. "I come here all the time for new clothes," says Ajmal, 27, as he browsed a selection of North Face trekking shoes. "The styles are good, the prices are low. It's great."
A similar market exists outside NATO's sprawling Bagram airbase in the plains north of the Afghan capital, where many of the goods are said to originate. And though much of what's available appear to be leftovers that could have been dumped outside-the-wire by base personnel, picked up and re-sold by enterprising Afghans, it's obvious that many wholesale shipments intended for U.S. troops never made it to their destination — like the crates of still-usable MREs (meals-ready-to-eat) and brand new all-weather sleeping bags used by troops in the field. In a war-time context, some of the stuff isn't entirely harmless, either.
On a recent visit, a TIME reporter was shown an expensive set of night-vision goggles, the kind U.S. forces depend on for a tactical advantage in the dark over Taliban insurgents better versed with the terrain. Several shops had long-range laser rifle sights of the variety used by military sharpshooters. At the Bagram market, bulletproof vests and Kevlar helmets are known to turn up. U.S. Army and Marine digital camouflage fatigues are widely available for about $40 a set. And at another market near the capital's largest mosque, Afghan police, army and even presidential guard uniforms sell for even less. (It's not unheard of for Taliban suicide bombers disguised as Afghan security forces to infiltrate and attack large gatherings.) Yet shopkeeper Khwaja Muhammad, 23, concedes that although many of the customers are state military employees who come to buy a second uniform or have alterations done, "We sell to anybody with cash."
Asked how they came by their caches, the shopkeepers provide vague explanations or step on each other's toes to keep quiet. "We buy from a guy who gets it from a another guy, that's all we know," says one. "A lot of it is gifts from the [American] soldiers," claims another, who was furiously scrubbing the name "Parker" off a plastic footlocker. But Farhad, 34, a merchant whose stock included authentic Under Armour athletic wear and GPS devices, explained that most of the goods are either lifted from NATO supply convoys or spirited off major bases like Bagram by foreign and Afghan contractors, and then sold to local middlemen who take a cut before distributing them to lower-level vendors like himself. Hearing this admission, his business partner cast him a wary glance.
NATO officials have said they know of the black market trade and would intervene if there were evidence that sensitive material was being sold that could potentially pose a security threat. "We are aware that some military items do end up in bazaars near [coalition] bases. We are also aware that some items are clearly fakes," says a spokesperson, Maj. Sunset R. Belinsky, adding, "We do take the situation seriously." According to a senior U.S. officer serving in Afghanistan, there's typically a 3% "pilferage rate" on supplies coming overland through hostile territory, a problem he thought could be mitigated with more air shipments. But he was more troubled by the idea of an inside job being perpetrated by support staff on the U.S. payroll who may be profiting on the back of those in harm's way. "Most contractors on base are not [working with the U.S.] out of patriotism or national loyalty," grumbles the officer. "They're just out to make a fast buck."
The Bush Marketeers, for their part, make no apologies for any dodgy dealings. On seeing a foreigner walk into his shop, Hamidullah, 22, reached beneath his shiny glass display case and pulled out a Panasonic Toughbook computer with a slick touch-screen. The model, he boasted with a grin, is often issued to U.S. officers in the field, and came complete with extra batteries and a leather travel case. "Two thousand for the package," he says. Never mind where it came from.
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The book reader of Kabul
The Boston Globe - Editors By H.D.S. Greenway November 3, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan - GENERAL DAVID Petraeus is fighting a war here for time, not space. As one of the new breed of soldier-scholars, with a degree from Princeton, he knows that Americans get tired of long wars, and that at the end of this month, the US Army will have been here longer than were the Russians. Having once told me he had read the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, a general before he was president, and applied some principles to Iraq, I put in a request for Petraeus’s reading list for this war.
With the current “surge’’ Petraeus is trying to arrive at a lower level of violence in time for President Obama’s December review, and more importantly, for next year when Obama has promised a conditional troop reduction.
“A tremendous debate is coming,’’ said a senior administration official who asked to remain nameless. It will be between those in Obama’s party who want a “steep and deep’’ draw-down, and Petraeus, who wants any lessening of forces to be “small and shallow.’’
As Grant once squeezed the South, Petraeus is concentrating on the Afghan south, and there have been frothy reports about the Taliban retreating and some being sneaked into Kabul for peace talks. Petraeus knows, however, that American firepower can always hold where it stands, and that clever insurgents always go to ground to fight another day. So in that sense progress can be illusory.
But spin is an important element of war, especially in Afghanistan where fighters often change sides on the perception of victory. When crunch time comes, Petraeus wants to be able to tell the president and Congress that he is winning, and that they should not take his troops away. Yesterday’s midterm elections were followed closely at headquarters, because GOP gains mean more political support for Petraeus’s views.
The irony is, as the senior administration official said, Petraeus “may hold the fate of the administration in his hand.’’ After firing two previous commanders, Obama can’t be seen as anti-military, especially being a Democrat, nor do presidents like to be perceived as having lost wars.
Petraeus’s success in Iraq may be fading, as those of the Sunni “Awakening,’’ who rallied to our side, are going back to sleeping with Al Qaeda. But if generals are always fighting the last war, Iraq still stands for Petraeus as the model, just as the British here harken back to the Northern Ireland experience.
The past haunts Afghanistan’s battle fields. The capital of Helmand Province, Lashkar Gar, literally means “home of the warriors,’’ and it is said to be the place where the Macedonians brought their war elephants to winter quarters 2,500 years ago. Kandahar is named after Iskandar — i.e. Alexander. It is also where General Frederick Roberts, later Lord Roberts of Kandahar, thrilled the British Empire with a forced march from Kabul to save the city from Pashtun warriors in 1880.
Other foreign generals who sought to impose their will on Afghanistan did not fare so well. General William Elphinston lost an entire British army in the infamous retreat of 1842, and then there was General Boris Gamov, who led the last Russian soldiers back north across the Oxus after a decade of frustration a century later. Petraeus, the fourth four-star to command here, would rather be Petraeus of Kandahar.
So what would be Petraeus’s reading list? The answer came back: Thomas Barfield’s “Afghanistan, a Cultural and Political History’’; Ali Ahmad Jalali’s “ The Otherside of the Mountain, Mujahideen Tactics in the Soviet War’’; Greg Mortenson’s “Three Cups of Tea’’; and Winston Churchill’s “The Story of The Malakand Field Force,’’ about frontier fighting in the late 19th century. In Churchill’s time there was a similar tremendous debate about Britain’s “Forward Policy,’’ whether to really go in and build up civil institutions, pacifying the Pashtuns, or whether to maintain a lesser footprint, punishing the frontier tribes when necessary; the 19th century equivalent of drone attacks and special-ops, nicknamed “butcher and bolt.’’
Petraeus would have noted that Churchill closed his Malakand book by endorsing the former. But did the general notice Churchill’s “crushing’’ conclusion to the contrary? “It is this,’’ Churchill wrote: “we have neither the troops nor the money to carry it out.’’
H.D.S. Greenway’s column appears regularly in the Globe.
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