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Afghan police were unable to fight militants in Kabul hotel without NATO help
By ANI | ANI – Sat, Jul 2, 2011
Kabul, July 2 (ANI): Afghan officials have admitted that they could not have retaken the Intercontinental Hotel from Taliban militants without the help of NATO Special Forces.
13 Killed in Afghan Bomb Blast
VOA News July 2, 2011
Officials in southern Afghanistan say a roadside bomb has ripped through a van, killing 13 civilians, including two children and four women.
Iran Funnels New Weapons to Iraq and Afghanistan
Wall Street Journal By JAY SOLOMON JULY 2, 2011
TEHRAN - Iran's elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has transferred lethal new munitions to its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent months, according to senior U.S. officials, in a bid to accelerate the U.S. withdrawals from these countries.
Freed French Journalist Hints Ransom Paid to Taliban
VOA News July 1, 2011
A French journalist who was freed this week after being held hostage for 18 months in Afghanistan says money and prisoners may have been exchanged to secure his release from the Taliban.
Two more Turkish engineers kidnapped in Afghanistan released
ANKARA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Two more Turkish engineers, who were kidnanpped in Afghanistan in May, have been freed by their captors, Turkish officials said on Friday.
Iran's DM slams U.S. arms allegations as "baseless"
TEHRAN, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi refuted the arms allegations made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates against the Islamic Republic of Iran as "baseless", the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.
103 Taliban Militants Killed in Kunar
TOLOnews.com By Sonil Haidari Saturday, 02 July 2011
At least 103 Taliban militants have killed in Afghan, Nato forces' operation in nine days and several others captured, local officials said on Saturday.
Talks with Taliban must be secret to be successful
The Globe and Mail By Ahmed Rashid Friday, Jul. 01, 2011
The daring nighttime raid on one of one Kabul’s best-known hotels by Afghan militants on Tuesday underlines once again how much depends on the secret talks with the Taliban. Following Barack Obama’s plan for a limited withdrawal of troops, hopes of a settlement that would allow a full and safe Western troop withdrawal by 2014 depend on these negotiations.
Family of 18 wiped out in Afghan bomb attack
July 2, 2011 The New York Post
KABUL, Afghanistan — A roadside bomb ripped through a van carrying a family Saturday in southern Afghanistan, killing all on board — the deadliest incident in a string of attacks that killed 18 civilians, according to officials.
The myth of Afghan democracy
Analysis: Afghanistan's emerging governmental system is looking as corrupt as ever.
Global Post By Jean MacKenzie July 1, 2011
The recent attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul has obscured a less spectacular, but equally important, news item: the imminent demise of any pretense of democracy in troubled, volatile Afghanistan.
Afghan-Pakistan Tensions Over Rocket Fire
Diplomatic row as civilians killed in unexplained attacks.
IWPR By Mina Habib 1 July, 2011
Afghanistan - Diplomatic tensions are rising as Afghan officials accuse Pakistan of firing rockets over the border into the eastern Kunar and Nangarhar provinces.
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Afghan police were unable to fight militants in Kabul hotel without NATO help
By ANI | ANI – Sat, Jul 2, 2011
Kabul, July 2 (ANI): Afghan officials have admitted that they could not have retaken the Intercontinental Hotel from Taliban militants without the help of NATO Special Forces.
The revelations come at a time when Afghan forces are expected to take over security operations from the US in seven cities of Afghanistan later this month.
NATO officials however, claimed that its forces were barely needed and that Afghan forces secured the hotel themselves, ABC News reports.
A senior Afghan police official also admitted that one of his men accidentally shot and wounded a New Zealand special forces soldier who was in the hotel embedded with the Afghan police.
An intelligence official also acknowledged that initially, none of the Afghan police who guard the hotel responded to the attackers in any way.
Officials also said Afghan police were finding it impossible to get anywhere close to the roof before the NATO helicopter arrived.
Afghan authorities are clearly upset that the attackers managed to breach one of the most secure buildings in the city. Police said today that the head of the department that provides security to VIPs and hotels such as the Intercontinental is under investigation, the report said. (ANI)
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13 Killed in Afghan Bomb Blast
VOA News July 2, 2011
Officials in southern Afghanistan say a roadside bomb has ripped through a van, killing 13 civilians, including two children and four women.
Authorities say the people were killed Saturday morning when their vehicle struck the device in Zabul province in southern Afghanistan.
The French news agency reports at least 11 of the dead were from the same family.
Local officials say the group was thought to be Afghan refugees returning from Pakistan.
Roadside bombs, planted by militants who have been waging an insurgency against foreign forces for nearly 10 years, are a frequent cause of casualties among civilians in Afghanistan.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, NATO says a service member was killed in a blast Saturday in the western region of the country.
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Iran Funnels New Weapons to Iraq and Afghanistan
Wall Street Journal By JAY SOLOMON JULY 2, 2011
TEHRAN - Iran's elite military unit, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has transferred lethal new munitions to its allies in Iraq and Afghanistan in recent months, according to senior U.S. officials, in a bid to accelerate the U.S. withdrawals from these countries.
The Revolutionary Guard has smuggled rocket-assisted exploding projectiles to its militia allies in Iraq, weapons that have already resulted in the deaths of American troops, defense officials said. They said Iranians have also given long-range rockets to the Taliban in Afghanistan, increasing the insurgents' ability to hit U.S. and other coalition positions from a safer distance.
Such arms shipments would escalate the shadow competition for influence playing out between Tehran and Washington across the Middle East and North Africa, fueled by U.S. preparations to draw down forces from two wars and the political rebellions that are sweeping the region.
The U.S. is wrestling with the aftermath of uprisings against longtime Arab allies from Tunisia to Bahrain, and trying to leave behind stable, friendly governments in Afghanistan and Iraq. Iran appears to be trying to gain political ground amid the turmoil and to make the U.S. withdrawals as quick and painful as possible.
"I think we are likely to see these Iranian-backed groups continue to maintain high attack levels" as the exit date nears, Maj. Gen. James Buchanan, the U.S. military's top spokesman in Iraq, said in an interview. "But they are not going to deter us from doing everything we can to help the Iraqi security forces."
In June, 15 U.S. servicemen died in Iraq, the highest monthly casualty figure there in more than two years. The U.S. has attributed all the attacks to Shiite militias it says are are trained by the Revolutionary Guards, rather than al Qaeda or other Sunni groups that were the most lethal forces inside Iraq a few years ago.
In Afghanistan, the Pentagon has in recent months traced to Iran the Taliban's acquisition of rockets that give its fighters roughly double the range to attack North Atlantic Treaty Organization and U.S. targets. U.S. officials said the rockets' markings, and the location of their discovery, give them a "high degree" of confidence that they came from the Revolutionary Guard's overseas unit, the Qods Force.
U.S. defense officials are also increasingly concerned that Iran's stepped-up military activities in the Persian Gulf could inadvertently trigger a clash. A number of near misses involving Iranian and allied ships and planes in those waters in recent months have caused Navy officials to call for improved communication in the Gulf.
Iran's assertive foreign policy comes amid a growing power struggle between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Many of the president's closest aides have been detained on alleged corruption charges in recent weeks, raising questions as to whether Mr. Ahmadinejad will serve out his term.U.S. and European officials also say Iran has grown increasingly aggressive in trying to influence the political rebellions across the Middle East and North Africa. Tehran is alleged to have dispatched military advisers to Syria to help President Bashar al-Assad put down a popular uprising.
In recent months, according to U.S. officials, Iran has also increased its intelligence and propaganda activities in Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen, countries where pro-U.S. leaders have either fallen or come under intense pressure.
Iranian officials denied in interviews and briefings this week that the Revolutionary Guard played any role in arming militants in Iraq and Afghanistan. They charged the U.S. with concocting these stories to justify maintaining an American military presence in the region.
"This is the propaganda of the Americans. They are worried because they have to leave Iraq very soon, according to the plan," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast. "They are better off going home and sorting out their own domestic problems."
Iranians officials have also accused the U.S. and Israel of interfering in Iranian affairs, including assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists and supporting opposition groups. The U.S. and Israel have denied this.
In recent weeks, Iran's leadership invited the presidents of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to Tehran to discuss regional affairs. Senior Iranian officials made it clear during those meetings that they wanted an accelerated exit of American forces from the region.
"Americans want to have permanent bases in Afghanistan, and this is dangerous because the real security will not be established as long as the American military forces are present," Ayatollah Khamenei told Afghan President Hamid Karzai last week, according to Iranian state media.
Iraq has in recent years been a proxy battlefield for the U.S. and Iran. U.S. officials in Iraq said the Qods Force is training and arming three primary militias that have in recent months attacked U.S. and Iraqi forces. Kata'ib Hezbollah, or Brigades of the Party of God, is viewed as the one most directly taking orders from Revolutionary Guard commanders in Iran. Two others, the Promise Day Brigade and Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, are offshoots of the Mahdi Army headed by the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who currently lives in Iran.
Over the past six months, Kata'ib Hezbollah has escalated attacks on U.S. forces employing weapons called IRAMs, or improvised rocket-assisted munitions. The weapons are often propane tanks packed with hundreds of pounds of explosives and powered by rockets. Militiamen launch the weapons from the backs of flatbed trucks.
Kata'ib Hezbollah claimed credit for a June 6 IRAM attack that killed six American troops at Camp Victory, near Baghdad International Airport. This week, three more Americans were killed when an IRAM struck a desert base just a few miles from the Iranian border in Iraq's Wasit Province, according to U.S. officials.
"We believe the militias see themselves as in competition with each other," said Gen. Buchanan. "They want to claim credit for making us leave Iraq."
The U.S. believes Iranian involvement in Afghanistan is significantly lower than in Iraq. But U.S. officials said they have seen clear evidence that the Revolutionary Guard has transferred longer-range rockets to elements of the Taliban that significantly enhance their ability to target U.S. and other NATO forces.
In February, British forces intercepted a shipment of four dozen 122-millimeter rockets moving through Afghanistan's desolate Nimruz Province near the Iranian and Pakistan borders. The rockets have an estimated range of about 13 miles, more than double the distance of the majority of the Taliban's other rockets.
"It was the first time we've seen that weapon," said a senior U.S. defense official in Afghanistan. "We saw that as upping the ante a bit from the kind of support we've seen in the past."
U.S. officials stressed that most of Iran's influence in Afghanistan is channeled through "soft power"—business, aid and diplomacy. But these officials said the deployment of more U.S. and NATO forces along the Afghan-Iranian border as part of the Obama administration's Afghanistan "surge" appears to have raised Iran's sense of insecurity.
These officials said Iran's support for the Taliban appears to wax and wane in relation to how successful Washington and NATO appear to be in stabilizing Afghanistan. Shiite-majority Iran has traditionally viewed the Taliban, a Sunni group, with trepidation. The two sides nearly fought a war in 1998 after the Taliban executed Iranian diplomats based in the central Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif.
"They're supporting the Taliban because they want us out of here," said the U.S. official in Afghanistan. "If we're making gains, I can see them upping their support. If they're making gains, they'll probably stay quiet."
In large part because of the growing wariness over Iran's backing of Shiite militias in Iraq, the U.S. is considering altering its withdrawal plans from the country, say administration and defense officials.
All U.S. forces are due to depart at the end of the year, but senior American officials have hinted loudly that they would like Baghdad to ask the U.S. to keep a viable force in the country beyond that date. Some administration and military officials have talked about retaining 10,000 troops in Iraq.
Military officials and defense analysts cite Iran as a prime justification for extending the U.S. presence. They say Iran is trying to use its military, which is much more powerful than Iraq's, and Shiite proxy militias inside Iraq to pressure Baghdad to maintain close ties with Tehran.
Adm. William McRaven, the administration's nominee to lead Special Operations Command, told a Senate panel this week that he favors keeping a commando force in Iraq that would be available to counter threats. —Julian E. Barnes contributed to this article.
Write to Jay Solomon at jay.solomon@wsj.com
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Freed French Journalist Hints Ransom Paid to Taliban
VOA News July 1, 2011
A French journalist who was freed this week after being held hostage for 18 months in Afghanistan says money and prisoners may have been exchanged to secure his release from the Taliban.
France-3 television reporter Herve Ghesquiere told BBC News that officially there was no ransom, but "of course, as he put it,"it was not for chocolates."
Ghesquiere, videographer Stephane Taponier and their Afghan translator were freed Wednesday after being abducted in December 2009 while working on a story about reconstruction east of Kabul. Two Afghan journalists who were kidnapped along with them were freed earlier.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
The French government denied a ransom was paid to secure the journalists' release.
The Taliban said Thursday Ghesquiere and Taponier were freed in exchange for the release of Taliban prisoners.
The journalists returned to France Thursday in good health. They told reporters they were not beaten or mistreated by their captors, but suffered difficult living conditions.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
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Two more Turkish engineers kidnapped in Afghanistan released
ANKARA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Two more Turkish engineers, who were kidnanpped in Afghanistan in May, have been freed by their captors, Turkish officials said on Friday.
Three Turkish engineers Salih Gul, Ersin Ozturk and Kemalettin Gul were kidnapped in south of Kabul in May, the Turkish officials were quoted as saying by the semi-official Anatolia news agency, adding that their car was found on a road near the city of Puli Alam on May 9.
Kemalettin Gul was freed earlier, and two other engineers were freed on Thursday, officials said.
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Iran's DM slams U.S. arms allegations as "baseless"
TEHRAN, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi refuted the arms allegations made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates against the Islamic Republic of Iran as "baseless", the official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday.
Vahidi made the remark in response to the recent allegations made by the out-going U.S. secretary of defense who claimed that Iran was involved in inflicting casualties on U.S. troops in Iraq and he also mentioned that the country is likely to find access to nuclear weapons in the next three years.
The U.S. officials have resorted to such baseless allegations to justify their wrong policies during Gates' term of office, Vahidi was quoted as saying.
About ten years ago, high ranking U.S. officials claimed that Iran would gain access to nuclear weapons within three years but now "We see that ... nothing has happened," said the Iranian minister.
Instead of accusing others, it would be much better for American officials to amend their wrong policies which have brought them failures and defeats in the region, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan, Vahidi said.
Recent missile war-game conducted by the Iranian forces proved the capabilities of Iranian armed forces and also the fact that the sanctions imposed on Iran have no impact on the country's military might, he was quoted as saying.
The Islamic Republic began the 10-day missile drills on Monday. On the first day of the exercises, Iran unveiled underground missile silos and fired Fateh-110 missile.
Iran announced on Tuesday that it "successfully" test-fired 14 short, medium and long-range missiles on the second day of the missile drills.
The West has long accused Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons under civilian disguise, although Tehran has always denied such charges.
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103 Taliban Militants Killed in Kunar
TOLOnews.com By Sonil Haidari Saturday, 02 July 2011
At least 103 Taliban militants have killed in Afghan, Nato forces' operation in nine days and several others captured, local officials said on Saturday.
The operation was launched nine days ago in Wata Poor district of Kunar province to clear it of militants, Fazlullah Wahidi, governor of Kunar told TOLOnews.
The operation ended on 2nd July, two Afghan National Army soldiers were killed during the operation and two others were wounded, he added.
Mr Wahidi said that foreign forces have also suffered some casualties but there is no report about the exact number.
There were no Afghan civilian casualties caused by the operation.
Afghan and Nato forces have seized a large number of weapons.
A number of residents who were forced to leave their homes in recent days have returned to their homes, Kunar governor said.
Isaf has not yet commented about the operation.
Wata Poor district is bordered by Pakistan and insurgents are active in most of its villages.
Foreign and Afghan forces have increased military operations in the country as Afghan forces will take over full security responsibility by the end of 2014 and foreign forces will leave Afghanistan.
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Talks with Taliban must be secret to be successful
The Globe and Mail By Ahmed Rashid Friday, Jul. 01, 2011
The daring nighttime raid on one of one Kabul’s best-known hotels by Afghan militants on Tuesday underlines once again how much depends on the secret talks with the Taliban. Following Barack Obama’s plan for a limited withdrawal of troops, hopes of a settlement that would allow a full and safe Western troop withdrawal by 2014 depend on these negotiations.
However, the recent leaks by government officials in Washington, Kabul and London are extremely dangerous and could scuttle the talks just as they enter a critical phase. I have followed in detail the many attempts at Afghan dialogue since 2005, hoping they would bring peace to a country that has known only war since 1978. These talks have largely been between President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban and only recently included Americans.
At stake is not just peace for Afghanistan but the region, including a deeply precarious Pakistan. The talks are premised on the realization that neither a successful Western withdrawal nor a transition to Afghan forces can occur without an end to the civil war and a settlement between the government and the Taliban, but also Pakistan, the United States and the region.
The first face-to-face meeting between Taliban leaders and U.S. government officials took place in a village outside Munich on Nov. 28, 2010. It was chaired by a German diplomat. There were also Qatari officials whom the Taliban had asked to be involved. The talks lasted 11 hours.
The second round took place in Doha, the Qatari capital, on Feb. 15. Three days later Hillary Clinton, U.S. secretary of state, made the most far-reaching U.S. public statement to date, saying: “We are launching a diplomatic surge to move this conflict toward a political outcome that shatters the alliance between the Taliban and al-Qaeda, ends the insurgency and helps to produce not only a more stable Afghanistan but a more stable region.” The third meeting took place again in Germany on May 7 and 8. All the same participants have taken part in the three rounds which have largely involved trying to develop confidence-building measures between the Taliban and the Americans, such as lifting sanctions from the Taliban, the freeing of Taliban prisoners and the opening of a Taliban representative office.
On June 17, in a big step forward, the UN Security Council accepted a U.S. request to treat al-Qaeda and the Taliban separately on a 13-year-old UN list of global terrorists. There will now be two separate lists and UN sanctions on al-Qaeda members will not necessarily apply to the Taliban, making it easier to take them off the list – a significant boost to the dialogue.
Mr. Karzai has been fully briefed after each round and has unstintingly supported the Taliban’s desire to hold separate talks with the Americans, even as his government continues its talks with the Taliban. Pakistani leaders have also been briefed about the talks, but have expressed reservations about them.
One U.S.-German target is to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2001 Bonn meeting that set up the Afghan interim government with another meeting in Bonn, in which the Taliban will participate. This would formalize the process, but there is still a long way to go before the Taliban agree to this demand – all the more reason that the identities of interlocutors are kept secret. Even so, some believe that the Americans are going about the talks too slowly.
The process began when German officials, at the request of the Taliban, held their first meeting in September, 2009, in Dubai. Germany has always been admired by the Afghans because it has stayed neutral – never taking sides in Afghan conflicts and even tried to mediate to end the 1990s civil war between the Taliban and opponents.
The Germans made sure the interlocutors represented the Taliban Shura (its governing council), which is headed by Mullah Mohammed Omar. (The Americans have also taken pains to verify the authenticity of the Taliban.) The Germans held eight further meetings with the Taliban to build trust, before bringing in the Americans. The Germans have never doubted their role as facilitators – while the actual negotiations must take place between the United States and the Taliban.
Qatar has played a role because the Taliban wanted a Muslim country at the table and considered Qatar neutral. Qatar has never backed any of the regional countries that have taken sides in past Afghan conflicts, such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, India, Turkey or Iran. One hopes the next big steps would involve how both sides could reduce violence on the battlefield. At some stage the Taliban would have to admit talks are taking place, which they strongly deny at present.
A former Taliban leader told me recently: “The fundamental problem is between the U.S. and the Taliban and we consider the Afghan government as the secondary problem.” He added: “The talks we want must involve the international community and end with international guarantees.” If that is the case and the Taliban would like to see an orderly Western exit, the media and governments must allow these talks to succeed. The only way to do that is to respect the participants’ need for secrecy.
Particularly dangerous has been the speculative naming by journalists of participants, endangering their lives at the hands of groups such as al-Qaeda, who want to sabotage the talks. Afghan efforts have always been undermined by governments in the region or extremists. These talks are clearly no longer secret but their contents must stay private if the talks are to have any chance.
Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist based in Lahore who is the author of several books including Descent into Chaos and The Taliban.
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Family of 18 wiped out in Afghan bomb attack
July 2, 2011 The New York Post
KABUL, Afghanistan — A roadside bomb ripped through a van carrying a family Saturday in southern Afghanistan, killing all on board — the deadliest incident in a string of attacks that killed 18 civilians, according to officials.
The Ministry of Interior said four women and two children were among 13 people killed in the van in Shamulzayi district of Zabul province.
In neighboring Kandahar province, two civilians riding a donkey were killed Friday night when the animal stepped on a bomb in Maruf district, said Gen. Abdul Raziq, police chief of the district's province of Kandahar.
When villagers came to recover the bodies, another roadside bomb went off killing two more civilians, he said.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the attacks, saying in a statement that "bombings that kill innocent civilians are the work of people who don't want the nation to have a life without sadness."
Also in the south on Saturday, two gunmen on a motorcycle killed Wakil Mohammad Khan, a member of the local council in Nahri Sarraj district of Helmand province, the Interior Ministry said.
In the north, a local government official in Ghazi Abad district of Kunar province was ambushed Saturday morning by militants as he drove to work with his son and two body guards, said provincial spokesman Wasifullah Wasifi. The son and bodyguards were later released, but the disctrict chief's whereabouts are not known, said Wasifi.
Separately, NATO reported the deaths of two coalition service members in roadside bombings — one Saturday in the west and the other Friday in the south. Italian defense officials said the service member killed in the west was an Italian who died when a bomb exploded near a village in Farah province.
In the capital Kabul, about 500 demonstrators chanted "Death to the Pakistan military!" and "Long live Afghanistan!" in protest against deadly rocket attacks.
The rocket strikes have killed at least 36 civilians, including 12 children, along the eastern border with Pakistan in recent weeks.
The protest, organized by a group known as the National Participation Front, called on the international community to warn Pakistan against the attacks. Group director Najibullah Kabali accused the Pakistani army and intelligence service of launching rocket attacks on innocent civilians in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.
Pakistan on Monday denied Afghan accusations that it fired hundreds of rockets into the two eastern provinces in Afghanistan, killing 36 people.
Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Athar Abbas said no rounds were intentionally fired into Afghanistan, but that some may have accidentally fallen onto the neighboring state's territory when security forces targeted militants carrying out cross-border attacks into Pakistan.
The back-and-forth accusations have further strained the troubled relationship between the two neighbors.
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The myth of Afghan democracy
Analysis: Afghanistan's emerging governmental system is looking as corrupt as ever.
Global Post By Jean MacKenzie July 1, 2011
The recent attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul has obscured a less spectacular, but equally important, news item: the imminent demise of any pretense of democracy in troubled, volatile Afghanistan.
It was always a long shot for a country plagued by decades of war, staggeringly high illiteracy rates and rampaging corruption to transform itself in a few short years into a model state. Afghanistan, as U.S. leaders never tire of saying, is not Switzerland. Instead of aiming for the moon, they say, we should learn to settle for “Afghan good enough.”
Over the past week, there has been a few worrying glimpses of what that actually means.
The Kabul Bank crisis has reached absurd proportions, with what amounts to the defection of Afghanistan’s Central Bank chairman, Abdul Qadir Fitrat. He claimed asylum in Virginia, saying that his life was in danger back home for trying to expose the true culprits in a $900 million Ponzi scheme that is threatening to topple Afghanistan’s already fragile economy.
Prominently implicated in the fraud were the brothers of Afghanistan’s president and vice president. Fitrat had told Parliament that Mahmoud Karzai and Haseen Fahim were among the guilty before an “independent” commission — headed by Azizullah Lodin, the same man who helped Karzai manipulate his presidential election in 2009 — cleared them of any wrongdoing.
The Afghan government has now issued a warrant for Fitrat’s arrest, saying that he accepted millions in bribes to overlook the crisis. Previously, the Afghan president had tried to shift the blame for the debacle to the foreign firms that were trying to oversee the bank, saying they had failed in their duty by not preventing the fraud.
In the meantime, the International Monetary Fund has frozen aid to Afghanistan’s infrastructure, making it likely that the government will be bankrupt within weeks.
At the same time, the Afghan Parliament is in an uproar over a ruling by a Special Court that may disqualify up to a quarter of the country’s lawmakers for fraud in last September’s elections. The Special Court has no legal standing, according to most international experts and even the majority of Afghan officials still able to render an independent opinion.
Nevertheless, the Court, backed by the president and his judiciary, is determined to enforce its ruling. Parliament is equally determined to resist, with the prospect of major demonstrations on the streets of Kabul within the next few days.
The political opposition is joining the Parliamentarians in calling for a boycott of the Court’s decision. Amrullah Saleh, former intelligence chief and vocal critic of the government’s efforts to make peace with the Taliban, has vowed to support the legislature.
But the Parliament has more to worry about than the Special Court. President Hamid Karzai is in the process of convening a Loya Jirga, or Grand Assembly, which he has promised to consult on the issue of permanent U.S. bases in Afghanistan. The Jirga was originally scheduled for July, but now has been postponed until September.
According to the Constitution of Afghanistan, a Loya Jirga can be called “to take decision on the issues related to independence, national sovereignty, territorial integrity, and supreme interests of the country; to amend the provisions of this Constitution; and to prosecute the President” for crimes against humanity or for national treason.
The Parliament’s position is that the issue of permanent U.S. bases does not fall into any applicable category.
“The decision-making body for strategic treaties with foreign countries is the Afghan Parliament, not a Traditional Loya Jirga,” said Farkhunda Zahra Naderi, a lawmaker from Kabul province. “The government should work to strengthen legal bodies rather than establishing illegal and tribal entities.”
Political analyst and former Afghan diplomat, Mahmood Saiqal, agreed.
“In my opinion, decision-making over the establishment of permanent U.S. bases does not need a Jirga,” he said. “The government has to prepare a draft of the agreement and send it to the Parliament for ratification.”
The fact that the president has chosen to ignore the Parliament and appeal to a more traditional structure is bad news for democracy in Afghanistan, Saiqal added.
“President Karzai has been trying to strengthen tribal structures against the legal entities and civil society forums over the past 10 years,” he added. “This act of the government has resulted in a weakening of the democratic process and rule of law in Afghanistan.”
In addition to substantive problems with the Loya Jirga, the president cannot even comply with the Constitutional provisions for its composition: a Grand Assembly, according to the Constitution, must include, in addition to the two houses of Parliament and the heads of provincial councils, the chairpersons of district councils. In the past 10 years, Afghanistan has been unable to adequately draw district lines, or hold elections for district councils.
There are 102 members of the Upper House of Parliament, or Meshrano Jirga; the Lower House, or Wolsi Jirga, has 249. There are 34 provinces, thus 34 Provincial Council heads, and nearly 400 districts.
Most likely Karzai would do what he has done in similar situations — he would just appoint the district council members from among his own set of loyalists, giving him virtual control over the Assembly.
The ostensible justification for the Jirga — consultation on permanent U.S. bases in Afghanistan — does not hold up to close scrutiny. For one thing, both Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates have said that the United States is not interested in such bases.
Negotiations are proceeding, however, on the Strategic Partnership Agreement, which will lay out the framework for a continued U.S. presence in Afghanistan.
The talks are reportedly tough, with the Afghan president’s increasingly erratic rhetoric and behavior contributing to the difficulty. Karzai has been in rare form of late, alternately praising and excoriating the international troops. He has threatened a virtual jihad against foreign “occupiers” while expressing thanks for the sacrifice and assistance his government receives, without which it stands little chance of continuing.
The international community has made no secret of the fact that it is on the way out of Afghanistan. U.S. President Barack Obama said as much on June 22, when he announced that all of the 33,000 “surge” troops would be withdrawn from Afghanistan by next summer.
The Canadians are bringing most of their 2,900 troops home this year; the Dutch are already gone. The British and German forces may not be far behind, if domestic debate is anything to judge by.
So the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) may look very different even one year from now. By 2014, the scheduled date for completion of the security handover to Afghan forces, there may be very few foreign troops left, aside from a small contingent of trainers, advisors and special forces who will continue to conduct night raids and other “counter-terrorism” operations.
On Tuesday, the world got a foretaste of what things might look like once the international troops are gone. Nine attackers invaded the Intercontinental Hotel, killing at least 21 and destroying the once-iconic building in the process.
The combined Afghan security forces fought the nine attackers for hours, until ISAF helicopters finally had to be called in.
Most Afghans would agree that some international presence is necessary for the foreseeable future, however much they may resent the restrictions and dangers that come with the foreign troops.
While there may be some discussion and debate at the Loya Jirga on this issue, few expect that the Assembly will have any substantive power over the final outcome of the Strategic Partnership Agreement.
What many are expecting, instead, is a move by the executive branch to use the Assembly to amend the Constitution — specifically, the provision that limits the president to two 5-year terms.
Karzai is due to step down in 2014; if the present Constitution stands, he cannot run again.
“I am concerned that Karzai might ask the United States to give him more authority in future elections, to provide his team with more power instead of an agreement for the establishment of the bases,” Saiqal said.
Presidential Spokesman Siamak Herawi dismisses such concerns, saying that the Loya Jirga is an inherently democratic structure.
“People can talk freely and declare their views about the government,” he said. “This shows that the Afghan government is committed to the principles of democracy and freedom of expression. A Traditional Loya Jirga is meant to find out the people’s will, and this is a democratic action.”
But so far Karzai has eviscerated anyone who might stand against him. The Parliament has been rendered toothless by the Special Court, whose power it has been unsuccessful in opposing.
The judiciary is independent in name only; reform of the judicial branch has been so slow and problematic that the international community has all but given up. Emphasis now is on “traditional justice” or tribal courts, in which largely untrained but supposedly highly respected members of the community help to settle local disputes.
If Karzai makes a move to amend the Constitution during the Loya Jirga, who will stop him?
The international community, with one foot out the door, may very well look the other way, as it did during the 2009 elections that reinstated Karzai, in spite of his never having won the 50-percent-plus-one majority necessary for the presidency.
Good reasons will doubtless be found: with the security handover due to be completed in 2014, this is not the time to be changing horses; there is no viable alternative; Afghanistan needs stability above all else. These, among others, were the justifications advanced in 2009 for not pushing more aggressively for a valid election.
The loser, in this case, will be Afghanistan’s “fledgling democracy.” But by then there may be very little trace of it left.
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Afghan-Pakistan Tensions Over Rocket Fire
Diplomatic row as civilians killed in unexplained attacks.
IWPR By Mina Habib 1 July, 2011
Afghanistan - Diplomatic tensions are rising as Afghan officials accuse Pakistan of firing rockets over the border into the eastern Kunar and Nangarhar provinces.
According to government sources in the east of Afghanistan, more than 520 rockets have landed in the area in recent weeks, killing 26 civilians – including 12 children – and injuring 30 others. Hundreds of local residents have fled their homes.
Foreign minister Zalmai Rasul summoned Pakistani ambassador Mohammad Sadiq to demand an immediate end to the bombardment.
President Hamed Karzai voiced concern about the attacks when he met his Pakistani counterpart Asef Ali Zardari while both were visiting Iran. He asked Zardari to provide a full explanation of the source of the rocket fire. The Pakistani leader reportedly denied any Pakistani involvement and promised to investigate.
Karzai’s spokesman Wahid Omar said diplomatic talks were under way to end what he described as a violation of Afghan sovereignty.
“Pakistan has so far denied responsibility,” he said. “We do not know what the reason for these attacks is, but they must stop.”
In Pakistan, army spokesman Major-General Athar Abbas said a few munitions might have landed across the border by accident as security forces countered militant incursions from Afghanistan, but none had been deliberately fired into that country.
Abbas told the Express Tribune newspaper that large groups of insurgents had launched a series of attacks on border posts, killing over 50 members of Pakistani local security units.
Some commentators in Afghanistan say the authorities have been slow to respond because of a lack of communication between state institutions.
The country’s parliament condemned the attacks on June 27, called on the security forces to take action to stop them, and summoned the defence and interior ministers and the head of the national intelligence agency to appear before its members.
Meanwhile, defence ministry spokesman Zaher Azimi said, “We are waiting for the decisions of parliament, government and politicians. They must decide, and we will take action.”
Azimi dismissed Pakistan’s insistence that any rockets that landed on Afghan soil must have been fired in error.
“The Afghan government does not accept this claim, because mistakes are made once or twice – but these actions have continued for the past two weeks, and innocent Afghans have been killed,” he said.
Interior ministry spokesman Mohammad Sediq Sediqi also said political direction was needed before action could be taken.
“When the Afghan government requests a response, our police will be fully prepared to carry it out,” he said. “It’s the duty of the state of Afghanistan to make a decision.”
The attacks followed claims by Karzai that relations with Islamabad were improving. During a recent trip to the country, he said new agreements had been reached to help ensure stability. In the past two months, Pakistani officials have also made regular visits to Kabul, talking of cooperation in the “war on terror”.
Kabul has long accused Islamabad of covertly supporting the Taleban and other insurgent groups, and felt vindicated in this view when al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was found and killed in Pakistan last month.
Afghans are critical of what they see as the lack of a strong response from their government.
“The silence from officials is very worrying for people, and the government must respond decisively to public concerns, as well as sending a clear message to Pakistan,” Mohammad Yasin, an official with the Kabul municipal works department, said.
Shopkeeper Azizullah went further, saying, “Half our government officials are agents of Pakistani or Iranian intelligence,” he said. “The Pakistani agents try to keep the government silent and prevent it from reacting strongly.”
Political analyst Dad Nurani suggested the attacks could be a way of focusing attention on the disputed “Durand Line” – the poorly-defined border established by an 1893 agreement. Kabul does not recognise the Durand Line, which Pakistan would like to see formalised as the official frontier.
“Pakistan may even increase the firing of rockets, because it wants Afghanistan to take similar action in response,” Nurani said. “That will mean the Durand Line is indirectly discussed and recognised.”
Nurani suspects the Pakistanis may have been prompted into action because of the imminent prospect that Afghanistan will sign a long-term strategic agreement with the United States. The presence of American troops in the country well beyond the scheduled pull-out of combat troops in 2014 could make it harder for Pakistan to force Kabul to recognise the current de facto border.
Mina Habib is an IWPR-trained reporter in Kabul.
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