 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serving you since 1998 | ||||||||||||
|
|
Iran Is Said to Give Top Karzai Aide Cash by the Bagful
By DEXTER FILKINS The New York Times October 23, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — One evening last August, as President Hamid Karzai wrapped up an official visit to Iran, his personal plane sat on the airport tarmac, waiting for a late-running passenger: Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan.
Afghanistan offers possible loophole for security firms
by Lynne O'Donnell October 24, 2010
KABUL (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday signalled his willingness to backtrack on a blanket ban on all private security firms, asking the foreign community for a list of projects needing protection.
Clinton Urges Karzai to Ease Ban on Private Security Firms or Risk Losing Aid
The Associated Press 24/10/2010
KABUL - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called President Hamid Karzai on Saturday to persuade his government to modify its imminent ban on private security companies, which threatens to shut down or stall billions of dollars in development projects across the nation.
120 more Afghan candidates face charges of electoral violation
KABUL, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A commissioner of UN-backed Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) on Sunday said the body is currently probing the cases with regard to electoral violation committed by 120 more candidates of the country's legislative elections held on Sept. 18.
IED blast kills NATO soldier in S Afghanistan
KABUL, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A NATO soldier was killed as an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off in south Afghanistan on Sunday, a press release of the military alliance released here said.
Australia's Chinook helicopters, crews return from Afghanistan
CANBERRA, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Two Australian CH-47 Chinook helicopters, their crew members and support team on Sunday returned from Afghanistan after an eight-month deployment.
Despite successful U.S. attacks on Taliban leaders in Afghanistan's northwest, insurgency remains in control
By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, October 23, 2010
MAQUR, AFGHANISTAN - October has been a calamitous month for the Taliban guerrillas waging war from sandy mountains and pistachio forests in this corner of northwestern Afghanistan.
Stabilization of Afghanistan could serve as cornerstone of NATO-Russia foundation
The Japan Times - Opinion By ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010
BRUSSELS - When I gave my first public speech as NATO secretary general just over a year ago, I focused on the NATO-Russia relationship, because I believe it is crucial for global, not just European, security. At that time, I thought the relationship to be in urgent need of repair, and that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russia should make a "new beginning."
Afghan Taliban Contacts Fall Short of Peace Talks, Envoy Says
Bloomberg By Viola Gienger 23/10/2010
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said recent contacts between the Afghan government and Taliban leaders don’t rise to the level of peace negotiations.
Back to Top
Iran Is Said to Give Top Karzai Aide Cash by the Bagful
By DEXTER FILKINS The New York Times October 23, 2010
KABUL, Afghanistan — One evening last August, as President Hamid Karzai wrapped up an official visit to Iran, his personal plane sat on the airport tarmac, waiting for a late-running passenger: Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan.
The ambassador, Feda Hussein Maliki, finally appeared, taking a seat next to Umar Daudzai, Mr. Karzai’s chief of staff and his most trusted confidant. According to an Afghan official on the plane, Mr. Maliki handed Mr. Daudzai a large plastic bag bulging with packets of euro bills. A second Afghan official confirmed that Mr. Daudzai carried home a large bag of cash.
“This is the Iranian money,” said an Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Many of us noticed this.”
The bag of money is part of a secret, steady stream of Iranian cash intended to buy the loyalty of Mr. Daudzai and promote Iran’s interests in the presidential palace, according to Afghan and Western officials here. Iran uses its influence to help drive a wedge between the Afghans and their American and NATO benefactors, they say.
The payments, which officials say total millions of dollars, form an off-the-books fund that Mr. Daudzai and Mr. Karzai have used to pay Afghan lawmakers, tribal elders and even Taliban commanders to secure their loyalty, the officials said.
“It’s basically a presidential slush fund,” a Western official in Kabul said of the Iranian-supplied money. “Daudzai’s mission is to advance Iranian interests.”
The Western and Afghan officials interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the delicacy of discussing the financial dealings of Mr. Karzai and his aide. The sources said they were motivated by a concern that Mr. Daudzai was helping to poison relations between Mr. Karzai and the United States. Mr. Daudzai and Mr. Karzai both declined to respond to written questions about their relationship with Iran. An aide to Mr. Daudzai dismissed the allegations as “rubbish.”
Mr. Maliki, the Iranian ambassador in Kabul, also declined to answer questions. A spokesman for Mr. Maliki called the allegations “devilish gossip by the West and foreign media.”
The Iranian payments are intended to secure the allegiance of Mr. Daudzai, a former ambassador to Iran who consistently advocates an anti-Western line to Mr. Karzai, the officials said. Mr. Daudzai briefs Mr. Karzai each morning.
“Karzai knows that without the U.S., he is finished,” an associate of the president said. “But it’s like voodoo. Daudzai is the source of all the problems with the U.S. He is systematically feeding him misinformation, disinformation and wrong information.”
The payments to Mr. Daudzai illustrate the degree to which the Iranian government has penetrated Mr. Karzai’s inner circle despite his presumed alliance with the United States and the other NATO countries, which have sustained him with military forces and billions of dollars since the Taliban’s ouster since 2001.
Earlier this year, Mr. Karzai invited the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to the presidential palace, where Mr. Ahmadinejad gave a virulently anti-American speech. When Mr. Ahmadinejad visited Kabul, he brought two boxes of cash, an Afghan official said. “One box was for Daudzai personally, the other for the palace,” the official said.
A senior NATO officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to discuss whether Mr. Daudzai was receiving money from Iran. But he said that the Iranian government was conducting an aggressive campaign inside Afghanistan to undermine the American and NATO mission and to gain influence in politics.
The NATO officer said Iran’s intelligence agencies were playing both sides of the conflict, providing financing, weapons and training to the Taliban. Iranian agents also financed the campaigns of several Afghans who ran in last month’s parliamentary election, the NATO officer said.
The Iranian intelligence services have developed the ability to assassinate opponents and attack American troops inside the country, the NATO officer said.
“I am very concerned that they have a lethal capability and presence inside Afghanistan and Kabul,” the officer said.
Obama administration officials have expressed alarm about Iranian intentions. Last week, Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, complained to Afghanistan’s finance minister, Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal, about Mr. Daudzai and Iran’s influence in the presidential palace, a former Afghan official said.
Mr. Holbrooke did not respond to requests for comment. In an interview, Mr. Zakhilwal declined to talk about the discussion with Mr. Holbrooke or about any Iranian activities in Afghanistan.
“We have no choice but to be friendly with Iran,” Mr. Zakhilwal said. “It’s a hostile neighborhood.”
Mr. Daudzai is part of a group of Afghans around Mr. Karzai whose members once belonged to Hezb-i-Islami, a hard-line Islamist group that fought the Soviet Union in the 1980s. The group, loosely allied with the Taliban, is still fighting NATO forces and the Afghan government.
Hezb-i-Islami’s leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was one of the most brutal of Afghan warlords. During the civil war in the 1990s, his forces conducted an extended bombardment of Kabul, killing thousands of civilians. Since 2001, Mr. Hekmatyar has spent at least part of the time living under the protection of the Iranian government. The group also has long-standing ties to Pakistan’s intelligence services, which maintain links to the Taliban.
Current and former Afghan officials say the Iranian government began financing Mr. Karzai before Mr. Daudzai became his chief of staff in 2003. It is not clear when Mr. Daudzai became a conduit for Iranian cash. In 2005, he was named ambassador to Iran. It was then, one Afghan official said, that Mr. Daudzai became acquainted with Iranian intelligence officials and grew close to senior Iranian leaders like Mr. Ahmadinejad.
Mr. Daudzai returned to Kabul in 2007 to resume his job as chief of staff. Since then, officials said, Mr. Daudzai has maintained a close relationship with the Iranian ambassador. Iranian officials have nearly unfettered access to Mr. Karzai’s palace, bypassing the normal rules of protocol.
“The relationship is intimate,” an Afghan political leader said of Mr. Daudzai and the Iranians.
Accounts vary as to how much Iranian money flow into the presidential palace. An Afghan political leader said he believed that Mr. Daudzai received between $1 million and $2 million every other month. A former diplomat who served in Afghanistan said sometimes single payments totaled as much as $6 million.
One former Afghan official said the money appeared to be kept in a safe in Mr. Daudzai’s office.
It is not clear whether Mr. Daudzai takes any of the money himself or whether he is the only conduit. But Afghan and Western officials say Mr. Daudzai owns at least six homes in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and in Vancouver, British Columbia, acquired during his time as Mr. Karzai’s top aide.
One Afghan official said Mr. Daudzai used his power over Mr. Karzai’s schedule to ensure that Afghans who saw him registered complaints about the American presence in the country and the deaths of Afghan civilians in the war. “This is the strategy,” the Afghan official said.
Mr. Daudzai’s efforts on Iran’s behalf have met with some resistance. According to the Western official, Mr. Daudzai ran afoul of Afghan intelligence officials when he tried to help some Iranian businesses set up operations in Kabul. The Afghan intelligence officials believed that the Iranian officials were fronts for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, a powerful wing of the Iranian military.
The Iranian businesses were shut down by the National Directorate of Security, the Western official said. But not for long.
“Daudzai helped them get going, then N.D.S. closed them down, but then they reopened again,” the Western official said. An Afghan official confirmed the account.
Iranians get involved in other parts of Afghanistan’s political life as well. The Iranian ambassador is trying to sway the choice of speaker of the lower house of Parliament, Afghans said. According to an Afghan official, Mr. Maliki recently called Mirwais Yasini, a candidate for the speaker’s job, and urged him to step aside in favor of Yunus Qanooni.
Sangar Rahimi and Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghanistan offers possible loophole for security firms
by Lynne O'Donnell October 24, 2010
KABUL (AFP) – Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday signalled his willingness to backtrack on a blanket ban on all private security firms, asking the foreign community for a list of projects needing protection.
His order that all private security companies be disbanded by the end of the year has caused widespread concern that aid and development projects would be unable to continue without adequate protection in the war-torn country.
The Afghan government had already partially rolled back the ban, allowing private protection to continue for diplomats and foreign military bases.
Private security firms in Afghanistan are employed by US and NATO forces, the Pentagon, the United Nations, aid and non-governmental organisations, embassies and foreign media.
They employ about 26,000 registered personnel, though experts say the real number could be as high as 40,000.
Karzai has been under intense pressure to extend the January 1 deadline to enable foreign organisations to find an alternative, with many aid organisations and foreign companies prepared to leave the country otherwise.
In a meeting with representatives of the foreign community -- including the UN's representative Staffan de Mistura, NATO's civilian representative Mark Sedwill and commander of foreign forces US General David Petraeus -- Karzai appears to have offered a compromise.
While "underlining that the government of Afghanistan remained steadfast in its decision to dissolve private security contractors," it asked them to name projects in need of protection, a statement from his office said.
"President Karzai expressed... gratitude for the development and reconstruction projects carried out by the international community and asked the foreign representatives to provide, if needed, the government with a list of the major projects that need protection and their security requirements so that the government can take appropriate measures accordingly," it said.
"It was also agreed that further discussions be continued so reasonable solutions to the challenge can be sought (consistent with) the presidential decree Number 62 on the disbandment of the private security firms," it said.
The statement comes after Washington on Friday called on Karzai's government to find a solution that would allow the transitional use of private security guards, in the hope that development projects would not be closed down.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said there was a "lack of clarity" on the decree.
"We're hopeful that we can resolve with the Afghan government a course of action so that over time we can help with this transition from private security contractors to a situation where the responsibility for security in Afghanistan is done by the Afghan government," Crowley told reporters.
"That's their objective. That's actually our objective," he said.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that some US-funded firms, including those building roads and energy projects and helping farmers, had begun to close down as the deadline neared.
Afghan security forces, especially the police, are regarded as corrupt and are not trusted to be able to provide adequate security.
"We don't think it's had an impact at this time, and we certainly do not want to see development projects that are important to Afghanistan's future affected by this decree," Crowley said.
Following the collapse of the Taliban regime in a US-led invasion in 2001, private security firms rushed in to fill a vacuum created by a lack of adequately trained police and army forces.
In 2006 the Afghan authorities began registering, regulating and licensing the firms, and though the ban was widely welcomed in principle there have been questions about the activities of some companies.
The Afghan government has already formally banned eight foreign private security firms, including Xe, the controversial company formerly called Blackwater.
Executives with private security firms have refused to speak publicly about the ban, but have said that visas for some employees have been cancelled as part of the dissolution process.
The United States and NATO have more than 150,000 troops in the country battling a spreading insurgency, with aid and development organisations coming under regular attack.
On Saturday, the United Nations compound in the western city of Herat was attacked by insurgents wearing suicide vests and Afghan police uniforms, authorities said.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Clinton Urges Karzai to Ease Ban on Private Security Firms or Risk Losing Aid
The Associated Press 24/10/2010
KABUL - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called President Hamid Karzai on Saturday to persuade his government to modify its imminent ban on private security companies, which threatens to shut down or stall billions of dollars in development projects across the nation.
Clinton suggested formulating a joint plan to steadily phase out private security companies without disrupting the work of contractors who employ private guards to protect their workers, projects and facilities, said P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department.
The telephone call was part of intense negotiations that U.S. and other Western diplomats are conducting with Afghan officials this weekend over Karzai's decision to shut down private security contractors by Dec. 17. He claims the private guards are undermining his nation's army and police, and wants Afghan security forces to take on the job of providing protection for the aid workers. Western officials argue that the hand-over must be phased in so projects are not disrupted.
Crowley said Clinton pledged in the phone call to work together with the Afghan government to provide a smooth transition.
Companies running aid projects can't legally operate in Afghanistan without insurance, and the insurers aren't ready to trust local security forces, which are not fully trained, according to a diplomatic official familiar with the talks. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations, said money that donor nations spend to pay private security guards to protect their projects will not be automatically redirected to the Afghan government for the Afghan security forces.
Contractors who are involved in building roads, schools and hundreds of other development projects, have already started winding down programs, saying they will have to stop their work if they can't employ guards to protect their workers and facilities.
"We're not aware that any U.S.-funded development projects have stopped operating, but without clarity our partners are making plans for the possibility they are unable to continue their work here," U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Saturday.
Karzai agreed earlier this year to allow private guards to keep working for foreign governments at embassies, other diplomatic outposts and military facilities. But he has refused to extend the exemption.
Private security operators — some of which are poorly regulated, reckless and effectively operate outside local law — have become a point of contention between the Afghan government and U.S. and NATO coalition forces and the international community.
Karzai estimates that 30,000 to 40,000 people work for security companies. According to the Pentagon, there are about 26,000 private security contractors working in Afghanistan for 37 different companies — 17 of them Afghan-owned.
The companies protect everything from development projects and NATO supply convoys to private houses.
The weekend negotiations involve all the top players in the Afghan capital, including U.S. ambassador Karl Eikenberry, NATO's top civilian official Mark Sedwill and the U.N.'s top envoy to Afghanistan, Steffan de Mistura, who plans to meet with Karzai on Sunday. The State Department in Washington was being kept appraised of the discussions.
Sedwill, who strongly supports Karzai's policy to shut down the private security firms, acknowledged that the international community did not properly respond to Karzai's long-standing concerns about the conduct of some of the private security outfits — many of which are unlicensed and act like private armies.
"We are working with the government to implement the president's decree so that the Afghan security forces can take responsibility for protecting the range of work by the international community here on which the prosperity and stability of Afghanistan depends," Sedwill said in a statement.
Steven O'Connor, a spokesman for Development Alternatives Inc., a Bethesda, Maryland based organization that runs U.S.-funded projects in Afghanistan, said Friday that the group was planning an early shut down of its Local Governance and Community Development Project, which employs more than 800 Afghans in more than 20 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.
He said the company remains hopeful that the decree will be modified, but if the ban remains in its current form, DAI will shut down the project by the end of December. He said DAI had developed contingency plans to wind down all six of its projects in Afghanistan.
The company has suffered violence in the past, including a July 2 suicide bombing at its compound in Kunduz, killing four people.
British aid worker Linda Norgrove, who was kidnapped on Sept. 26 and killed less than two weeks later during a rescue attempt, also worked for the group.
Back to Top
Back to Top
120 more Afghan candidates face charges of electoral violation
KABUL, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A commissioner of UN-backed Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) on Sunday said the body is currently probing the cases with regard to electoral violation committed by 120 more candidates of the country's legislative elections held on Sept. 18.
"The ECC is adjudicating electoral violation cases leveled against 120 candidates including 96 contesters referred by the country's election body - Independent Election Commission (IEC) and 24 others by security institutions," Ahmad Zia Rafat told reporters at a news conference here.
Without naming any candidates, Rafat further said that if the ECC establishes the accuracy of allegations leveled against these individuals, penalties may follow which can include exclusion of candidates from the election process, nullification of votes received, and even referral to the prosecutorial authorities.
This is the second batch of the contesters who have been charged for involving in fraud and vote rigging. Previously 175 other election competitors had been introduced to the election watchdog to probe the leveled allegations against them.
He also said that ECC is grating five days from sending notice to the alleged candidates to defend themselves against the allegations, he emphasized.
Briefing reporters on the number of complaints, Rafat said ECC had received 5,315 post-election complaints as of Sunday and of these 1,797 ceases have been adjudicated and the decisions have been posted on ECC website.
"Of those complaints over 2,000 have been classified as category A allegations, if proved may affect the election results in several polling stations," he further said.
The Sept. 18 polls was the second Afghan parliamentary election since the collapse of Taliban regime in 2001 held to elect members of the 249-seat Wolesi Jirga or Lower House of Afghanistan for the next five years.
Over 2,500 candidates including more than 400 women had contested the election and the final results are expected to be announced within three weeks.
Under the Afghan electoral law the final results would not be announced unless all complaints are adjudicated.
Over 4 million Afghans out of 11.4 million eligible voters braved Taliban attacks and had cast their votes on the voting day.
Back to Top
Back to Top
IED blast kills NATO soldier in S Afghanistan
KABUL, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- A NATO soldier was killed as an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) went off in south Afghanistan on Sunday, a press release of the military alliance released here said.
"An International Security Assistance Force service member died following an improvised explosive device attack in southern Afghanistan Sunday," the press release added.
However, it did not identify the nationality of the victim, saying it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.
Soldiers from the United States, Britain, Australia, Canada and some more countries have been serving in Taliban hotbed southern region to ensure security there.
More than 590 NATO soldiers with majority of them Americans have been killed since beginning this year in Afghanistan.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Australia's Chinook helicopters, crews return from Afghanistan
CANBERRA, Oct. 24 (Xinhua) -- Two Australian CH-47 Chinook helicopters, their crew members and support team on Sunday returned from Afghanistan after an eight-month deployment.
The two Chinooks, operating from the main coalition base at Kandahar in south Afghanistan, chalked up 860 sorties, transported more than 4,700 troops.
The helicopters also moved in excess of 691,000 kilograms of supplies and equipment, during 737 hours of flying assisting the efforts of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
According to task group commander Lieutenant Colonel David Lynch, the effort of the team was highly commendable.
"On just about all the missions we flew this year supporting our coalition partners, our crews were fulfilling the role of air mission commander, taking the lead and providing direction to the other coalition aircraft involved in the missions," he said in a statement.
"A major contribution to the rotary wing group's sustained high performance was the role played by the maintenance crews who were responsible for keeping the Chooks in the air."
Australian Defense Force said the personnel will now take a break for Christmas time, and the helicopters will undergo maintenance.
The group and two Chinooks will head back to Afghanistan early next year to resume flight operations in support of ISAF operations.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Despite successful U.S. attacks on Taliban leaders in Afghanistan's northwest, insurgency remains in control
By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service Saturday, October 23, 2010
MAQUR, AFGHANISTAN - October has been a calamitous month for the Taliban guerrillas waging war from sandy mountains and pistachio forests in this corner of northwestern Afghanistan.
The first to die was their leader, Mullah Ismail, hunted down and killled by U.S. Special Operations troops. Next came the heir apparent, Mullah Jamaluddin, even before he could take over as Taliban "shadow" governor. Within a week, several other top commanders were dead, a new governor had been captured and the most powerful among the remaining insurgents had lit out for the Turkmenistan border - all casualties of the secretive, midnight work of American commandos.
And yet what has happened here in Badghis province also shows how large a gap remains between killing commanders and dismantling an insurgency. Nearly half of the province remains under insurgent control, an Afghan intelligence official estimated. A new Taliban governor has already been dispatched to the province, Afghan officials say, even though NATO portrayed Mullah Ismail's killing as a "huge blow" that would "significantly reduce Taliban influence throughout the region."
"Fighting in Afghanistan is like hitting coals with a stick, it just spreads to other places," said Delbar Jan Arman, who as provincial governor is trying to stave off the Taliban advances. "It will continue."
The barrage launched against the Taliban by Special Operations forces here in recent weeks is part of a broader American effort that is clearly succeeding. As other U.S. goals in Afghanistan have faltered - reforming the government, winning hearts and minds - Gen. David H. Petraeus and his new troops have so far succeeded at killing their enemies. American officials have held up the example of the onslaught against the Taliban leadership as a clear sign of progress, a development sure to factor into President Obama's December review of the Afghan campaign.
"We're trying basically to squeeze the life out of the enemy,'' Petraeus said in an interview Friday.
The increased military pressure in recent months has undoubtedly made life more difficult for Taliban leaders. Petraeus said the number of U.S. Special Operations troops doing targeted raids has continued to increase in recent months, even after a buildup under his predecessor, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.
Among those insurgents killed in the past month are al-Qaeda's No. 3 commander in Afghanistan and 15 shadow governors. Petraeus said mid-level commanders - "the senior leaders aren't in the country, they lead by cellphone" - have expressed frustration at being sacrificed while their bosses live safely across the border.
"This is quite relentless pressure. It forces them on the run," Petraeus said. "But again, if you don't take away the safe haven, it doesn't have a lasting effect."
The aggressive killing campaign has unfolded despite recent discussions between insurgents and the Afghan government, which NATO has helped facilitate by providing safe passage to Kabul for some senior Taliban figures. These early steps toward negotiations do not seem to have slowed the U.S. military's targeting of the Taliban, as both sides vie for the upper hand in the event that real negotiations commence.
Scattered, for now
Baghdis is a sparsely patrolled outpost far from southern Afghanistan's dense concentration of insurgents and NATO troops. For the past few years, the Taliban here have operated from a stronghold in the northern Bala Murghab district, assembling a robust force that former fighters say was well-funded from Pakistan. They controlled the territory so completely that Afghan soldiers and police sometimes refused to patrol or set foot beyond the district center, according to Afghan officials.
Tribes of Pashtuns, Tajiks and Uzbeks recruited Taliban fighters to battle foreign and Afghan troops, and one another. Until recently, with the bulk of NATO and Afghan troops elsewhere, the growing threat in Badghis was largely ignored.
"The government didn't want to kill them before, they always wanted them to be reconciled and join the peace process," said Mohammad Jabar, Badghis's acting police chief. "Since a month ago, the government has rolled up their sleeves and they have decided to get rid of them."
Although the number of Afghan soldiers has increased in Badghis, many here cite U.S. Special Operations raids as the most effective weapon against the Taliban.
Mullah Ismail had seized the reins as Taliban leader in the province after U.S. troops killed his predecessor in February 2009. As governor, he received about $60,000 a month from Mohammad Omar's Taliban leadership council in Pakistan, the Afghan intelligence official said, a sum augmented by payments extracted from residents in the name of Islamic charity. Earlier this summer, a Taliban court run by his subordinates carried out the whipping and execution of a 41-year-old widow who had been convicted of fornication.
The nighttime airstrike by U.S. Special Operations forces that killed Mullah Ismail and five associates on Oct. 6 temporarily left Taliban forces in the province leaderless. After his killing, and the deaths of other commanders, many insurgents - including Manan Dewana, regarded as the most powerful remaining commander - fled toward the Turkmenistan border.
"The American operations are very effective: the night raids, the airstrikes and ground attacks," said Eidi Mohammad, a Taliban commander in Badghis who recently surrendered to the government. "I was afraid they would come and kill me, too."
But the Taliban also struck back in retribution. In response to Mullah Ismail's death, the Quetta Shura, the Taliban's roughly 20-person inner circle based in Pakistan, issued an order reiterating a demand to capture and kill anyone associated with the government, the Afghan intelligence official said.
In one such case, two Afghan policemen, on leave and in civilian clothes, were stopped by insurgents while driving from Bala Murghab to the provincial capital, Qal-e-Now. When their identification was discovered, the Taliban chopped off their hands and arms, beheaded them and threw their body parts in plastic bags.
Afghan officials said insurgents in Badghis have scattered into the mountains, melted back into the villages, and fear traveling in large groups. Coalition forces have pushed Taliban lines back from the district centers, including Bala Murghab, said Lt. Col. David Bottcher, the American commander in western Afghanistan.
"The enemy is in a state of disarray; I think they're trying to figure out who's in charge," he said in Badghis before attending a memorial service for three American soldiers killed by a bomb blast.
Back to Top
Back to Top
Stabilization of Afghanistan could serve as cornerstone of NATO-Russia foundation
The Japan Times - Opinion By ANDERS FOGH RASMUSSEN Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010
BRUSSELS - When I gave my first public speech as NATO secretary general just over a year ago, I focused on the NATO-Russia relationship, because I believe it is crucial for global, not just European, security. At that time, I thought the relationship to be in urgent need of repair, and that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russia should make a "new beginning."
So I made several specific proposals for laying the foundation of a far more productive future relationship. A year on, how do we measure up? We have, first of all, reinforced our practical cooperation in a range of areas:
• Fighting terrorism. Because terrorism is a transnational scourge, we can defeat it only if we work together. NATO countries and Russia have agreed on a joint assessment of terrorist threats, and are already making considerable progress on a number of concrete projects. We are working together, for example, to counter the threat of attacks on mass transport and other public gathering places.
Under a joint program called STANDEX (Stand-Off Explosives Detection), we have brought together leading research institutes and laboratories in NATO countries and Russia to integrate various technologies into a single system for detecting explosives and identifying potential attackers.
• Preventing proliferation. The proliferation of nuclear capabilities and ballistic missiles is a major concern for the international community as a whole, and a grave and growing threat to the NATO countries and the Russian Federation. Experts from NATO and Russia have met several times to discuss how their countries can best address this threat together, and a working group on arms control, disarmament and nonproliferation is now taking this cooperation forward.
• Stabilizing Afghanistan. Russia's interest in a stable Afghanistan is as strong as that of the NATO allies. In the spring of 2010, the first cargo containers reached the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) via Russian territory, opening an important additional line of communication. The NATO-Russia project to provide counter-narcotics training to personnel from Afghanistan and Central Asia has produced more than 1,300 graduates, many of whom have already used their new skills to intercept some of the largest heroin shipments in the region.
And, following suggestions that I made in Moscow last December, Russia's leaders are considering additional contributions of helicopters and training to the Afghan National Army.
Beyond increasing our practical collaboration, we have rejuvenated the NATO-Russia Council, and have broadened and deepened our dialogue over the past year. We have held open, frank, and constructive discussions on a broad range of Russian and allied security concerns, and on proposals to address them. While these discussions have not led us to see eye to eye on all issues, they have certainly helped to build a greater degree of mutual trust and confidence, which will certainly benefit our future cooperation.
The same is true of our joint review of common security challenges, which has progressed extremely well, with agreement on five threats and challenges that call for enhanced cooperation: terrorism, Afghanistan, piracy, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and natural and man-made disasters. We are already fleshing out the details on appropriate practical projects to be undertaken together.
The NATO-Russia relationship has also progressed in other areas. NATO has been fully transparent with Russia on the development of the Alliance's new Strategic Concept, which I hope will encourage similar transparency from our Russian partners as they develop their own strategic documents. NATO has also taken the initiative on overcoming the deadlock on the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe, which promises to strengthen conventional arms control and transparency. Taken together, these achievements show that a new beginning in NATO-Russia relations has indeed been established.
My optimism about the future of our relationship does not blind me to the difficulties that remain. The NATO allies still have concerns about Georgia, where fundamental differences of principle are at stake. Russia, too, continues to have concerns — for example, over NATO's Open Door policy. I believe that these worries are misplaced and that NATO enlargement has enhanced security and stability for Russia.
Despite these remaining differences, we should have enough confidence to set out an ambitious agenda for the future.
One of our priorities should be to enhance our operational cooperation. Back in the 1990s, we worked together with great success to stabilize the Balkans. I would like to see more joint peacekeeping operations, not only on land but also at sea to enhance maritime security — particularly greater cooperation in our efforts to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
Moreover, our operational cooperation in Afghanistan could be stepped up. Russian donations to the Afghan National Army could make a huge difference to the Afghans' ability to ensure their own security, which is in the interest of us all.
It is in the area of missile defense that I see the greatest potential for enhancing the NATO-Russia relationship. Earlier this year, in light of the growing threat of proliferation of nuclear capabilities and ballistic missiles, I proposed a common "security roof" stretching from Vancouver to Vladivostok.
I hope that in the coming months and years we will have the political will to make this a reality — a reality underpinned by NATO-Russia cooperation on missile defense.
A healthy NATO-Russia relationship is vital to the security of us all. Now that a solid foundation for it is in place, together we can look to the future with renewed confidence and ambition. I will do everything in my power to ensure that we fulfill the tremendous potential that the NATO-Russia relationship holds, and I count on the support of all NATO-Russia Council members to achieve this goal. Anders Fogh Rasmussen is secretary general of NATO. © 2010 Project Syndicate
Back to Top
Back to Top
Afghan Taliban Contacts Fall Short of Peace Talks, Envoy Says
Bloomberg By Viola Gienger 23/10/2010
Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said recent contacts between the Afghan government and Taliban leaders don’t rise to the level of peace negotiations.
“What we’ve got here is an increasing number of Taliban at high levels saying, ‘Hey, we want to talk,’” Holbrooke said in an interview on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” program, airing tomorrow. “There’s a lot more in the press about this than there is in reality at this point.”
Staging any kind of formal negotiations would be particularly difficult because of the variety of militant groups targeting the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan, Holbrooke said. He cited at least five groups, including the Haqqani network and the leadership of the Afghan Taliban, both of which are based in neighboring Pakistan.
“There is no clear single address that you go to” that represents all the forces fighting the U.S.-backed Afghan government, said Holbrooke, who gathered the top leaders in each of three warring factions in Bosnia to end that 1990s conflict.
Negotiations with al-Qaeda, the group responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, are out of the question, Holbrooke said. And the role of Mullah Omar, the Afghan Taliban leader believed to be holed up in Quetta, in sheltering Osama bin Laden before the attacks “presents unique difficulties to anyone talking about reconciliation,” Holbrooke said.
Holbrooke’s assessment reflects the caution by Army General David Petraeus, the top U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization commander in Afghanistan, and other officials that the Afghan talks are preliminary. The NATO-led coalition is trying to exert enough military pressure to force the Taliban and other militants to the negotiating table to end the war.
Petraeus said last week “there have been several very senior Taliban leaders who have reached out to the Afghan government at the highest level, and have also in some cases reached out to other countries engaged in Afghanistan.”
“These discussions to this point can only be characterized as preliminary in nature,” said Petraeus, who was in London to meet with Prime Minister David Cameron and defense ministry counterparts. “They certainly cannot be characterized as negotiations.”
-Editors: Ann Hughey, Mark Rohner.
Back to Top
Disclaimer:
This news site is mostly a compilation of publicly accessible articles
on the Web in the form of a link or saved news item. The news articles
and commentaries/editorials are protected under international copyright
laws. All credit goes to the original respective source(s).