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Lucrative Afghan Oil Deal Was Awarded Properly, Karzai Says
New York Times By GRAHAM BOWLEY June 24, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai, responding to recent allegations that insiders close to him are plundering the nation’s mineral wealth, said Sunday that the United States and British governments had given their imprimatur as to how a lucrative oil contract was awarded.
Delegation to Investigate Sar-e-Pul, Dostum Oil Dispute
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 24 June 2012
A government delegation is heading to northern Sar-e-Pul province to investigate allegations of Abdul Rashid Dostum preventing extraction at an oil basin.
Dozens Of Afghan Policemen Reportedly Poisoned
June 25, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Officials said more than 40 police officers have been poisoned in a police academy in southern Afghanistan.
Afghan Tunnel: Decrepit, Dangerous Yet Indispensible
NPR By Sean Carberry June 24, 2012
The U.S. military says it's spending an extra $100 million a month on the war in Afghanistan since Pakistan closed its border to NATO supply convoys. Now, NATO is using a route thousands of miles longer through Russia and Central Asia.
IEC Pledges Transparent Election as Japan Pledges $8.6M
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 24 June 2012
Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) pledged on Sunday to ensure Afghanistan's upcoming presidential election will be a transparent and democratic process in response to Japan's donation of $8.6 million.
IEC Pledges Transparent Election as Japan Pledges $8.6M
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 24 June 2012
Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) pledged on Sunday to ensure Afghanistan's upcoming presidential election will be a transparent and democratic process in response to Japan's donation of $8.6 million.
U.S. Awards Afghan Contract to Dubai Firm
Pentagon Chooses New Food Supplier for American Troops in Afghanistan, Amid Billing Dispute With Previous Provider
Wall Street Journal By NATHAN HODGE June 24, 2012
KABUL - The U.S. military has awarded contracts valued at nearly $10 billion to provide food for troops in Afghanistan, amid a billing dispute with its longstanding supplier Supreme Foodservice GmbH.
Serco to help close bases in Afghanistan
The Washington Post By Marjorie Censer Monday, June 25, 2012
After years of building up the military’s presence in Afghanistan, some contractors are now helping the military move out.
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Lucrative Afghan Oil Deal Was Awarded Properly, Karzai Says
New York Times By GRAHAM BOWLEY June 24, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai, responding to recent allegations that insiders close to him are plundering the nation’s mineral wealth, said Sunday that the United States and British governments had given their imprimatur as to how a lucrative oil contract was awarded.
Mr. Karzai’s office put out a statement saying that he met Saturday with the American and British ambassadors to Kabul to clarify recent reports of bias and that both men had agreed that the concession awarded to a Chinese company and a local Afghan company was done so transparently and fairly.
“The U.S. and U.K. ambassadors confirmed the transparency and fairness exercised in the Amu Darya oil tender,” according to the statement, which was accompanied by a photograph of the United States ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, and other officials meeting with Mr. Karzai and the Afghan mines minister, Wahidullah Shahrani. The statement said experts from the American and British governments had properly audited the process by which the contract was awarded and it was done according to international best practices. Although it is unusual for a foreign government to claim independently the support of outside nations against internal criticism, the United States on Sunday supported Mr. Karzai’s assertion.
“We have no problems with the characterizations in the news release and we have nothing more to add,” said Gavin Sundwall, a spokesman for the American Embassy in Kabul. The British Embassy in Kabul offered no comment.
In the past few years, vast deposits of untapped mineral wealth worth billions of dollars have been identified in Afghanistan, and the Afghan government hopes these deposits of copper, oil, gold, iron ore and critical industrial metals like lithium could provide valuable revenue for the country as international financial support begins to wind down. It is in the process of negotiating a series of contracts with companies to develop the projects.
Afghanistan’s National Security Office asked the country’s attorney general earlier this month to investigate allegations that Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a powerful warlord and political rival of Mr. Karzai’s based in northern Afghanistan, had pressured Chinese engineers who were starting preparatory work on the Amu Darya oil field, demanding illegal payouts.
General Dostum and his political bloc, the National Front, denied the allegation and accused Mr. Karzai of trying to protect the interests of the Watan Group, an Afghan company associated with Mr. Karzai’s family that, along with the Chinese National Petroleum Company, had won the contract to operate the oil field with a Chinese company.
“The main goal of the government and its leadership is not protection of the national wealth but is protection of interests of shareholders of the project who have family relations with the officials in the government,” the party said in a statement.
The National Security Office’s allegations against General Dostum prompted a reaction by a Republican congressman from California, Representative Dana Rohrabacher, who has sharply criticized Mr. Karzai and what he has described as the “corrupt little clique” around him.
Mr. Rohrabacher, in a letter this month to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, said General Dostum believed that “the benefits of such energy development must accrue to the Afghan people and not a corrupt Afghan leader who sees the Afghan government as a family business.”
Local Afghan news media reported that on Sunday government ministers attended an opening ceremony to mark the beginning of extraction of oil from the Amu Darya field.
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Delegation to Investigate Sar-e-Pul, Dostum Oil Dispute
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 24 June 2012
A government delegation is heading to northern Sar-e-Pul province to investigate allegations of Abdul Rashid Dostum preventing extraction at an oil basin.
The delegation will be comprised of staff from Afghanistan's intelligence agency and the Attorney General's Office.
The Afghan National Security Council (NSC) recently accused the former powerful Jihadi commander General Dostum of undermining national interests by preventing the extraction process of an oil basin in Sar-e Pul, one of Dostum's strongholds in northern Afghanistan.
Deputy Attorney General Ratmatullah Nazari said that he has received some documents from the Ministry of Mines proving that Chinese engineers have been prevented from working on the mining process.
He said local warlords related to Dostum were allegedly preventing engineers from the Chinese National Petroliam Corporation (CNPC) to work on the project while making demands for "illegal financial benefits".
"There are two issues. One is the prevention of oil extraction which we have proof of from the Ministry of Mines, and the second is the threats issued to 15 engineers," Nazari told TOLOnews on Sunday.
"If it is proven that General Dostum is guilty, he should surrender to law," he added.
A Sar-e Pul MP and member of the Dostum-led Junbish-e Mili Party, Sayed Anwar Saadat, dismissed the allegations and called it a "government conspiracy" to defame his party leader.
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Dozens Of Afghan Policemen Reportedly Poisoned
June 25, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Officials said more than 40 police officers have been poisoned in a police academy in southern Afghanistan.
Helmand's provincial government spokesman Dawood Ahmadi said the officers felt headaches and began vomiting after having breakfast in Lashkargah police academy on June 25.
He said they were taken to a military hospital where one of the officers was in critical condition, while the others were recovering.
Ahmadi said an investigation was underway to determine the cause.
The incident is considered the latest in similar incidents in northern and southeastern Afghan provinces where school girls were the main victims of poisoning.
Based on reporting by DPA and BBC Pashto
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Afghan Tunnel: Decrepit, Dangerous Yet Indispensible
NPR By Sean Carberry June 24, 2012
The U.S. military says it's spending an extra $100 million a month on the war in Afghanistan since Pakistan closed its border to NATO supply convoys. Now, NATO is using a route thousands of miles longer through Russia and Central Asia.
That route passes through Afghanistan's perilous Salang Tunnel, 11,000 feet up in the Hindu Kush mountains. The Soviet-built tunnel was heralded as a marvel of engineering when completed in 1964.
But years of war, neglect and geology have turned it into a dangerous bottleneck.
Driving through the Salang Tunnel is a pretty harrowing experience. Water pours in through holes in the wall. Whatever pavement might once have existed has long since deteriorated into an extremely rough, bumpy, dirt, and in some places, mud road.
The tunnel is barely wide enough for two lanes of traffic, and the uneven road surface means trucks often tilt over at precarious angles.
Major Choke Point
Even though the tunnel is only 1.6 miles long, a recent drive through it took more than 20 minutes because it's jammed with massive trucks inching along the cratered road.
The diesel fumes were dizzying. At one point, the dust was so thick you could barely see five feet in front of you. It's no wonder the tunnel has become known as a choke point.
"It takes us 10 to 12 days to get from the [Afghan] border through the Salang Tunnel," says Najibullah — Afghans typically go by a single name — a truck driver sitting on the southbound side of the road. The distance covered in this journey? About 200 miles.
Lines of trucks waiting to pass through the tunnel often stretch up to 10 miles on either side. That's because truck traffic is restricted to one direction at a time. Every 12 hours, the traffic alternates directions.
Najibullah is hauling food for NATO troops that he picked up at Afghanistan's border crossing with Uzbekistan.
"A year ago, it used to take us one to two nights" to make the approximately 265-mile journey from Uzbekistan to Kabul, he says.
A year ago, 1,000 to 2,000 vehicles passed through the tunnel each day. But since the Pakistanis stopped allowing NATO to use their roads last November, traffic through the Salang has soared. An estimated 10,000 to 20,000 vehicles are now passing through daily, and it's getting more complicated with the drawdown of U.S. forces.
U.S. Pullout Creating Extra Strain
Stephen Biddle, an Afghanistan expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, sums it up this way: "The issue is the mathematics of the stuff you need to move, the size of the pipe through which you're moving it, and how much time you're willing to take."
He says that the troops will fly out on schedule, but their equipment might take a bit longer. And, hauling armored trucks and generators out via Salang could cost five times more than going through Pakistan. It's putting even more strain on a situation that's already dangerous.
Setting aside questions of avalanches, washed-out roads and asphalt collapsing under the weight of heavy trucks, Biddle says, "simply getting through the Salang Tunnel itself is a dangerous undertaking that could very easily yield a catastrophe with a significant loss of life."
Mahmoud is another trucker waiting to pass through the tunnel. He's been driving this route for 30 years, and he says the problems are growing day by day.
"They are not giving us extra money. Because of the bumpy roads, we are getting flat tires. When we spend 10 to 15 days here, we are spending our own money to refuel the truck and also to refuel the freezer," he says.
In negotiations with the U.S., Pakistan has demanded significantly more money to reopen its land routes to NATO convoys. Pakistan also wants a formal apology for errant NATO airstrikes last November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Biddle says the U.S. would rather take its chances with the Salang Tunnel.
"It increases our cost," he says, "but we're already spending an enormous amount of money."
Fears Of Disaster
On a recent day, a convoy of SUVs pulls up at the Salang Tunnel's northern entrance, and Afghan Gen. Mohammed Rajab stepped out. He's been the chief of maintenance for the Salang highway for 10 years. He looked at the crumbling concrete on the opening jutting out from a snowcapped mountain peak. He's worried about a disaster — like the 1982 fuel truck fire that killed hundreds of Soviet troops and Afghans.
"Our big concern is from the ventilation," he says. "When there is an accident inside the tunnel, possibly the pollution will kill all the people who are stuck inside."
Rajab has been pushing for NATO to fund renovations. He says it would take at least four months with the tunnel completely closed to make needed repairs. That's not an option given NATO's demand for supplies.
Last summer, USAID spent $5 million repaving the tunnel, sealing leaks and repairing the lights. But that pavement is already gone, water is pouring in, and the lights barely illuminate part of the tunnel.
A trip back through the tunnel, on the return to Kabul, is another anxiety-inducing experience. To top it off, traffic coming the other direction is blocked because a truck has wedged itself against the inside wall.
NPR's Hashmat Baktash contributed to this report.
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IEC Pledges Transparent Election as Japan Pledges $8.6M
TOLOnews.com Sunday, 24 June 2012
Afghanistan's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) pledged on Sunday to ensure Afghanistan's upcoming presidential election will be a transparent and democratic process in response to Japan's donation of $8.6 million.
Speaking at a press conference in Kabul, IEC Chairman Fazal Ahmad Manawi said that the no one will be allowed to interfere in the decision of the commission.
"The election is a political process; anyone will try to interfere in order to win the election. We provide the opportunity for candidates to compete in a legal and democratic manner, and we will not allow anyone - neither the candidates nor the government - to interfere in this process," he said.
Announcing a donation from Japan of $8.6 million for capacity building within the IEC and for the election process, Manawi promised that all the expenses would be transparent and the officials would be accountable.
Japan, one of the leading regional donors of Afghanistan, wants a free and fair election process in Afghanistan in order to promote a democratic regime in the country, its representative said.
Japan's Ambassador to Afghanistan Reiichiro Takahashi said that the Afghan government needs good governance to attract investors.
"The Afghan government should have good governance and provide an encouraging situation for the investors," he said, adding that Japan along with the international community was in support of the upcoming presidential election.
UNDP Director Alvaro Rodriguez welcomed the contribution from Japan saying it will help improve the IEC.
"The UNDP is very grateful for this contribution from the Government of Japan which will improve transparent, accountable and sustainable election administration, and build greater public confidence in the electoral process. This project will support the capacity and development of a permanent and independent electoral administration in Afghanistan, and the capacity of the IEC to prepare the next elections," Rodriguez said.
The last presidential election in 2009 was seen to be marred with allegations of massive fraud and irregularities with more than a million votes marked as invalid by an election watchdog panel.
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Iran to transfer Tajik electricity to Turkey, Europe: minister
TEHRAN, June 24 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Energy Minister said that his country is in talks with Tajikistan to transfer electricity from the central Asian state to Turkey and other European countries, the Press TV reported on Sunday.
"By importing inexpensive electricity from some neighboring countries, it is possible to transfer electrical energy to countries demanding it," Majid Namjou was quoted as saying.
To connect Iran's power grid to that of Tajikistan, a new power transfer line must be built through Afghanistan, he said, adding that "therefore, a common power line among the three countries will be built after a final agreement is reached."
Earlier this month, the Iranian Energy Ministry official in charge of foreign exchanges, Abdolhamid Farzam, said the country is planning to connect its electricity network to six countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus, according to Press TV.
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U.S. Awards Afghan Contract to Dubai Firm
Pentagon Chooses New Food Supplier for American Troops in Afghanistan, Amid Billing Dispute With Previous Provider
Wall Street Journal By NATHAN HODGE June 24, 2012
KABUL - The U.S. military has awarded contracts valued at nearly $10 billion to provide food for troops in Afghanistan, amid a billing dispute with its longstanding supplier Supreme Foodservice GmbH.
The supply deal, mainly to a Dubai-based company, but which also includes a no-bid award to Supreme, is likely to come under close scrutiny in Washington. Critics say the military's food-supply contract in Afghanistan has been a textbook example of the high cost to taxpayers when the U.S. military becomes dependent on one supplier in a war zone.
The Pentagon says it has spent about $6.8 billion since 2005 on its current food-supply contract with Supreme, a unit of Netherlands-based Supreme Group that delivers food, water and other supplies to about 250 delivery locations around Afghanistan. Earlier this year, the Defense Logistics Agency, the Pentagon's logistics arm, began reducing payments to Supreme by $21.7 million a month in order to start recouping what the agency says were $750 million in overpayments.
Supreme's current contract ends in December, and the Defense Logistics Agency said Friday it had awarded a follow-on contract valued at an estimated $8.1 billion to a new vendor, Dubai-based Anham FZCO, following a monthslong competition.
In a surprise move, the Pentagon's logistics arm also granted a separate interim deal valued at an estimated $1.5 billion to Supreme.
Under terms of the new arrangement, Supreme will continue deliveries for up to a year while the newcomer gets up to speed. According to defense officials, Anham will have six months to ramp up—stocking its warehouses, acquiring trucks and training personnel—before it starts to gradually take over delivery locations from Supreme.
Victoria Frost, a spokeswoman for Supreme, said the interim contract award "reflects the excellent service which we have delivered to the war fighters in Afghanistan for over more than six years."
Ms. Frost said Supreme would work with the military and Anham to ensure a "smooth transition" at the end of the interim contract. Supreme declined further comment on the alleged overpayments. In an earlier statement, the company said billing disputes are "not uncommon" in complex, risky environments such as Afghanistan.
The Defense Logistics Agency said the new supply arrangement will ensure there is no interruption in supplies.
Stacey Hajdak, a spokeswoman for the agency, said that Supreme's contract remains in effect until Dec. 12, 2013, but could end earlier if Anham completes the transition more quickly.
"The bridge was to guarantee that there's no interruption in the support that we give to the war fighter," said Tom Daley, deputy director of the agency's subsistence directorate. "We want to make sure that there's someone there providing food."
The Defense Logistics Agency, Mr. Daley added, "considered all alternatives."
The agency put the estimated value of the bridge contract at $1.5 billion, but built-in provisions for an unexpected troop surge could bring the total to $4.5 billion.
Anham's follow-on contract is valued at a maximum of $24.3 billion over 5½ years, but it is also structured to factor in the anticipated withdrawal of troops.
Most U.S. forces are expected to withdraw in 2014, although U.S. officials have discussed a possible residual force that may remain in Afghanistan for several years to conduct counterterrorism and training missions.
Anham pointed to its experience on U.S. government contracts in the Middle East, including Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan.
"We have a long track record of conducting large-scale, successful operations in the most demanding conditions," the company said in a statement.
After Supreme's original contract expired in 2010, the Defense Logistics Agency awarded it a one-year bridge contract and two six-month extensions.
Rep. John Tierney (D., Mass.), ranking member of the national security subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said his committee would look into the "blatant mismanagement of this contract" by the Defense Department.
"It is unacceptable that the Pentagon once again failed to award the follow-on contract in a timely manner, forcing them to grant Supreme another noncompetitive, no-bid contract," Rep. Tierney said in a statement.
"While I remain hopeful that the American taxpayers will be reimbursed for the any overpayment on this contract, this latest announcement by DLA continues to give grave concern," he added.
The Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, an independent panel established by Congress to study the problems of war-zone spending, singled out the Afghanistan food-service contract as a prominent example of government mismanagement in its final 2011 report.
Charles Tiefer, a former member of the commission, said Supreme "has had years and years of noncompeted monopoly status that DLA kept saying it would avoid."
The bridge contract, Mr. Tiefer added, was "like an employer keeping some wasteful employee on his payroll longer than necessary" in order to garnish wages.
Write to Nathan Hodge at nathan.hodge@wsj.com
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Serco to help close bases in Afghanistan
The Washington Post By Marjorie Censer Monday, June 25, 2012
After years of building up the military’s presence in Afghanistan, some contractors are now helping the military move out.
Reston-based Serco Inc., a subsidiary of Serco Group, last week announced it has won a contract worth up to $57 million over three years to plan and document the dismantling of hundreds of military bases and camps, from the physical buildings and tents down to the computer equipment.
The initiative will draw on the company’s experience supporting base closures in Iraq, but the contractor also hopes it will also provide a window into more work related to the end of the wars.
Serco will provide 12 six-person teams — including construction engineers, property specialists and logistics experts — that will fan out through Afghanistan, helping the Army as it decides which bases should be taken down, what should be done with the equipment and consider potential environmental issues, said Bob Wood, the contractor’s vice president of logistics.
All of the work has to be documented to ensure the government knows where its equipment in Afghanistan ends up.
The scope of the work is vast; for instance, Wood said, the government has thousands of large tents — big enough to accommodate tanks or trucks — in Afghanistan to be evaluated.
Serco has already hired 72 employees for the contract, which Wood expects to begin next month.
The company previously supported base closure assistance teams in Iraq and helped develop a base closure “smartbook,” with guidance on some of the successful processes.
Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said contracts to bring troops and equipment back from Afghanistan won’t provide a lasting surge of awards.
Still, “there could be one last flurry of contracting activity in trying to wrap up all the loose ends in Afghanistan,” he said. “It will be short-lived.”
Other local companies have seen work related to the military’s transition out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Falls Church-based DynCorp International, for instance, has a contract to inspect vehicles being shipped out of Afghanistan.
The company has also received work to move military equipment to and from various sites in the Persian Gulf, according to a spokeswoman.
Wood said the contract in Afghanistan could help the company win work related to reset — or refurbishing equipment that will be brought back to the United States, such as tanks and trucks.
Some companies see it as a “decline of business,” said Wood of the military’s preparations to leave Afghanistan. “We see it as opportunity.”
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