Tweet
NATO wins in Afghanistan may be exaggerated: report
AFP via Yahoo! News - Oct 13 10:47am
The US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan may be exaggerating successes of raids designed to kill or capture insurgent leaders, a flagship strategy in the 10-year war, a report warned Thursday.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) hails the raids as one of the most effective tactics against the insurgency, but the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) says data from December 2009 to September 2011 is inconsistent.
"The lack of transparency is particularly apparent in the case of the insurgent ?leaders? that were reportedly being killed and captured; there is no way to properly evaluate these claims," said the AAN report on its website.
But ISAF slammed the report as "disingenuous" for making false comparisons of data that "inevitably lead to faulty conclusions on mission progress".
Two days ago, the military said the number of Taliban attacks had declined for the first time and that the Taliban has failed in recent months to seize back territory lost in US-led offensives in the south.
Basing its data on 3,771 press releases announcing the deaths of at least 3,873 people and the detentions of another 7,146, AAN said ISAF often interchanges the terms "facilitator" and "leader" without explaining why.
It also said statistics in press releases did not tally with more grandiose figures released separately by ISAF to media outlets.
Although it was unclear to what extent this was intentional, "it should make policy-makers and analysts evaluating ISAF?s progress think twice about accepting these body-count figures without more serious scrutiny," AAN said.
On September 3, an ISAF release said security forces had captured or killed more than 40 Al-Qaeda insurgents in eastern Afghanistan this year.
But a tally of previous releases add up to 22 killed and 10 captured, many of which, AAN points out, are simply noted as having had "suspected ties".
AAN concedes that the press releases themselves do not represent a complete figure, given that there may have been unreported operations, and more deaths and detentions per incident than counted.
But ISAF said it was wrong to compare figures from its press releases with broader statistics as regular updates are "not" an authoritative database of all ISAF operations, "or even a representative sample from them".
"Hence any analysis based on them which draws broader conclusions on ISAF operations overall is flawed," said spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings.
ISAF also defended its terminology, saying that leaders in charge of other insurgents can also be classified as facilitators who assist operations "much in the same manner as the authors of this report label themselves as researchers, writers, commentators and editors".
Last month, ISAF also disputed UN statistics showing a 39 percent increase in violence in the war-torn country.
NATO allies, under pressure from voters in the West increasingly fed up with the long and costly war, are scheduled to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Suspected US Drone Strike Kills Senior Haqqani Militant
VOA News October 13, 2011
Pakistani intelligence officials say a U.S. drone strike in northwest Pakistan has killed a senior member of the militant Haqqani network.
Thursday's attack in North Waziristan reportedly killed Jalil Haqqani, a logistics coordinator for the al-Qaida-linked group. At least three other militants were also killed when an unmanned aircraft fired missiles at a compound near the region's main town, Miran Shah.
Officials say Jalil was very close to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the militant network, which is reportedly based in North Waziristan.
Hours later, Pakistani officials say a second drone strike on Thursday killed six militants in the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.
The attacks occurred as the U.S. special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Marc Grossman, held talks with Pakistani leaders in Islamabad.
Grossman told reporters that he and Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar talked about the future and how to continue the ongoing dialogue between Pakistan and the United States. He said they agreed to continue to find “issues that we share with Pakistan — and there are many — and act jointly on them.”
The U.S. envoy also met with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who said the cooperation must expand beyond counterterrorism to areas such as trade, water, power and infrastructure. Grossman and Pakistani leaders also discussed the situation in Afghanistan.
Thursday's talks come amid heightened tensions between Pakistan and the United States.
Last month, senior U.S. officials accused Pakistan's military spy agency of helping the Haqqani network launch attacks in Afghanistan, including an assault on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Pakistan has denied the allegations.
In other violence in Pakistan, gunmen opened fire on a convoy of at least five NATO oil tankers Thursday in the Shikarpur area of southern Sindh province. The trucks caught on fire.
Militants often attack vehicles carrying fuel and other supplies to international troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
U.S. commanders cleared in helicopter downing that killed Navy SEALs
An investigation concludes that Taliban fighters on alert shot down the CH-47 in Afghanistan in the deadly August mission targeting a Taliban leader.
Los Angles Times By David S. Cloud, Washington Bureau October 13, 2011
Washington - A U.S. military investigation into the August downing of a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan concluded that Taliban fighters "on a heightened state of alert" shot it down, but it cleared U.S. commanders of tactical mistakes.
Contrary to some initial reports, the helicopter carrying 38 U.S. and Afghan troops, including 17 Navy SEALs, was not on a rescue mission. Instead, it was dispatched to kill or capture a Taliban leader.
As the CH-47 helicopter descended toward a landing zone in Wardak province, it was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade, which sheared off a rear rotor blade and caused the craft to plummet 150 feet into a dry creek bed, where it exploded, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey N. Colt found in his investigation. Everyone aboard was killed.
The crash in the predawn hours of Aug. 6 was U.S. troops' single largest loss of life in the decade-old war. It took an especially heavy toll on Navy SEALs, the close-knit elite unit that only months earlier had killed Osama bin Laden during a clandestine raid into Pakistan.
Days after the helicopter crash, U.S. forces hunted down and killed the Taliban fighters who fired the grenades, senior officers have said.
Colt dismissed initial speculation that the helicopter might have been lured into a trap, but did note that the Taliban knew coalition forces and aircraft were in the area. "The shoot-down was not the result of a baited ambush but rather the result of the enemy being at a heightened state of alert due to 31/2 hours of ongoing coalition air operations," he said.
The investigation cleared the U.S. special operation task force that conducted the mission of wrongdoing. However, he criticized the commander for not repositioning surveillance aircraft — a failure he attributed to the "compressed planning process."
Colt also concluded that the sound of the surveillance aircraft probably alerted the Taliban that more forces could be on the way. Using such aircraft before sending in a helicopter should be better synchronized to minimize warning the enemy of imminent ground operations, he said.
A senior Pentagon official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said no military personnel would be disciplined for the incident.
The U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., released a summary of Colt's investigation after briefing the families of those killed. The command oversees the Afghanistan war.
The original goal of the operation was to kill or capture Qari Tahir, the senior Taliban leader in Wardak province's Tangi Valley. A platoon of U.S. Army Rangers, joined by Afghan troops, had flown in on two other CH-47s shortly before midnight after receiving intelligence on Tahir's location. Several fighters were captured, but Tahir was not among them, the report said.
Surveillance aircraft observed another group of nine or 10 suspected Taliban fighters about a mile and half away, the report said. Believing that Tahir might be among them, the U.S. special operation commanders ordered the Navy SEAL team that had been on standby to get on a single helicopter and head for the valley in hopes of finding him.
Along with the 17 SEALs, this so-called "immediate reaction force" included eight other U.S. Air Force and Navy personnel, seven Afghan soldiers, an interpreter, a military working dog and a five-member helicopter crew.
Colt said that the two pilots were highly experienced and that they flew into the valley without lights by a different route than the first two CH-47s to confuse the enemy. As the helicopter descended to 100 to 150 feet above the ground, "a previously undetected group of suspected Taliban fighters fired two or three RPGs in rapid succession from the tower of a two-story mud-brick building," Colt said.
The second explosive struck the helicopter's aft rotor. "Within a matter of seconds, while the aircraft spun violently, the aft, then forward, rotor blade systems separate[d] from the aircraft," and the fuselage dropped into the creek bed. The crash was over in less than five seconds and all of the victims were killed almost instantaneously, Colt said, but the wreckage burned for hours.
He called the decision to load the entire unit onto a single helicopter a "tactically sound" move to minimize aircraft exposure to ground fire.
Australia's Afghanistan mission to extend 'beyond 2014', defence minister says
The Australian By Brendan Nicholson October 13, 2011
DEFENCE Minister Stephen Smith has used his latest report to parliament on Afghanistan to reinforce the government's view that Australian troops will be heavily involved there well after the end of 2014.
Mr Smith reiterated that Australian special forces and instructors would stay on after 2014 to continue training and supporting the Afghans.
He said it was important to send a message to the region that Afghanistan would not be abandoned and that there was a comprehensive development plan for the future.
NATO, the US and the international community generally must maintain their commitment to a long term strategic partnership with Afghanistan, Mr Smith said.
"Australia has made clear it expects to maintain a presence in Afghanistan after our current training and mentoring mission has concluded, potentially through institutional training, a special forces presence, military advisers, capacity building and development assistance."
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
At a recent meeting in Brussels, coalition defence ministers welcomed a plan for transition to Afghan security control between 2012 and 2014 and, most importantly, for the post-2014 period, Mr Smith said.
"This continuing long-term commitment and continued investment in Afghanistan's future is a key to ensuring that Afghanistan and its neighbours including Pakistan also invest in a peaceful future for Afghanistan," he said.
"It is important to begin work on the post-2014 period now. Not to set this out soon will undermine what we have achieved, jeopardise Afghan confidence in the international community's long term commitment to their country and send the wrong message to regional neighbours, in particular Pakistan."
Mr Smith said that between August 1, 2010, and October 1, 2011, Australian forces had detained 988 suspected insurgents.
He said 153 of the suspects were handed over to Afghan authorities until that process was suspended on July 12 because of concerns raised by the UN about mistreatment of prisoners by Afghan guards.
The rest of the detainees were freed after initial screening.
Mr Smith said the ADF had captured 10 people who were subsequently released, then recaptured.
Five were released as there was insufficient evidence to warrant their continued detention.
There was sufficient evidence to hold and prosecute the remaining five.
Two were handed over to US authorities and three were transferred to Afghan custody at a detention facility in Tarin Kowt.
Mr Smith said last month's commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks was a sober reminder that there would be serious and horrifying consequences if international terrorists were allowed to operate unchecked.
"It is therefore imperative that we remain focused on our goal to help prepare the Afghan National Security Forces to take lead responsibility for providing security for the Afghan people," Mr Smith said.
"To do so we must continue in our efforts to stabilise the security situation and to mentor and train the Afghan security forces.
"To leave now would be to put at risk the gains so hard fought for."
Mr Smith said Afghan and coalition forces had stalled, then reversed, the Taliban's momentum. Over the summer "fighting season" the Taliban had been unable to retake any ground in Oruzgan Province, where the Australians are based, or across Afghanistan.
Mr Smith said the government had agreed to allow some Australian instructors who were mentoring the 6th Kandak of the Afghan National Army to move with that battalion to neighbouring Kandahar Province.
Australian Special Forces and their Afghan partners, the Provincial Response Company (PRC) and the National Interdiction Unit (NIU), also continue to disrupt the insurgency in and around Oruzgan Province by taking insurgent leaders and bomb-makers off the battlefield and reducing the insurgency revenue stream from narcotics.
This has helped create the environment necessary for ISAF forces to finalise their training mission and to create a safer environment for the Afghan people.
Brendan Nicholson is The Australian's defence editor
Why political activism isn't working in Afghanistan
Despite the billions of dollars of international money spent to develop a democratic culture in Afghanistan, few understand what one politician is trying to accomplish by her hunger strike.
Christian Science Monitor By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent October 12, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan - For 11 days now, a female politician has been on hunger strike in a small tent set up in a parking lot outside the Afghan Parliament building.
Formerly a member of parliament from Herat province, Simin Barakzai was among nine parliamentarians removed from office in late August to settle an electoral dispute that dragged on for more than a year.
Rejecting allegations of fraud, Ms. Barakzai launched a campaign to regain her seat and called on the government to review its decision. When all efforts failed she started the strike designed to cast light on the broader problem of corruption and insufficient government transparency in Afghanistan.
Barakzai’s hunger strike may stand as a stark example of how far Afghanistan has to go before it’s ready for civic activism. Despite billions of dollars of international money that has been spent to develop a democratic culture here, few understand what Barakzai is trying to accomplish or even trust her stated motives.
Many people see this as a personal issue, not a democratic cause says Mohammad Hassan Walasmal, an independent political analyst in Kabul. “If she is called fraudulent and kicked out of the parliament people think it’s a personal issue.”
Think you know Asia? Take our geography quiz.
Over the past four decades, Mr. Walasmal has conducted three hunger strikes. Although each one of them supported an Afghan cause, he says, he never once received any encouragement from other Afghans, even from Afghan expatriates, when he went without food for 50 days in Norway to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
“In Afghanistan people really don’t know about these kinds of things,” he says. “It’s impossible in this situation and with this condition of the Afghans to have a bigger movement grow out of Mrs. Barakzai’s hunger strike.” The key issue
Government corruption is one of the most important issues to Afghans. In the recently released Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, Afghanistan tied for second as the nation where residents perceived the most corruption within their society.
But turning frustration into action is something very difficult for Afghans. A predominately rural society, most politicking for everyday people takes place at the community level and the actions of the national government are perceived as beyond the influence of normal people.
“Without experience with a strong democratic society in Afghanistan, people here don’t have a lot of experience with political activism and they still don’t know its importance,” says Muhammad Hassan Haqyar, an independent political analyst in Kabul. “People are frustrated, but they know that as much as they criticize the system and complain there will be no solution.”
Barakzai’s display of civil disobedience follows closely on the heels of Anna Hazare’s 12-day hunger strike to protest government corruption in India, which grabbed headlines around the globe and forced parliamentary action. Lack of political culture?
But Afghanistan is not India. Though Barakzai has received a number of high-profile visitors and about 10 people started fasting with her on day 10, she has little popular support.
In part, the absence of supporters could be explained by the fact that she represents Herat Province, which is on the Western edge of the country. Her supporters would have to travel a considerable distance on a road with many security problems to reach Kabul.
Still, even her husband blames the lack of a political culture for the poor turn out.
“In other countries the people and the government know the rules and they really understand a democracy and respect its rules, but in Afghanistan it is not like that. People don’t know a lot about these kinds of things, and that’s maybe why people aren’t here,” says Barakzai’s husband Mohammad.
As Barakzai enters critical condition, the government has shown no signs of meeting her demands for a fair investigation. Additionally, the government’s religious council issued a decision saying hunger strikes are un-Islamic and dissuaded people from supporting her.
“We should not expect such a corrupt government to take a positive action. Our idea is that the international community should take part in this because this is the right time, “ says Ajmal Sohail, leader of the Afghan Liberal Party.
Those who’ve recently begun fasting say that while they intend to go up to 10 days without food, few seemed willing to give their lives in protest. As Barakzai, meanwhile, recently issued her will, blaming the government for her death and telling her family not to mourn her loss.
“Afghanistan has lots of problems after three decades of war and in this period we were hoping there would be rule of law, but it is clear this did not happen. She should realize this and she should stop,” says Najia, a member of parliament from Paktika province, who like many Afghans only has one name. “In Afghanistan the price for a human life is really low.”
Manawi Blamed for September Election Row
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Wednesday blamed chief of Independent Election Commission for election chaos while an unseated law maker continues her hunger strike for eleven days now.
Some parliamentarians alleged that Chief of IEC Fazl Ahmad Manawi has not dealt honestly with votes cast during last year's parliamentary elections.
Meanwhile, Council of Scholars decreed that going on a hunger strike is prohibited according to religious laws.
Going on a hunger strike is an act of blasphemy based on Islamic laws, Council of Scholars further said.
On Tuesday Afghanistan election commission called on Simin Barekzai, a woman MP who has gone on hunger strike, to end a 10-day hunger strike to protest against her disqualification from parliament.
Simin Barekzai, 30, is one of nine MPs expelled from the national assembly over allegations of fraud in vote.
"The commission is ready to release any kind of information to the public and relevant authorities to clarify her case. We hope Mrs Barekzai will end her strike soon," said IEC Chief Fazl Ahmad Manawai.
Health officials expressed concern about health of Mrs Barekzai.
Barekzai and eight other members of the House of Representatives were kicked out by the Independent Election Commission in August in an attempt to resolve nearly a year of disputes over widespread flaws in last year's September parliamentary polls.
To protest against her removal, Barekzai went on a hunger strike in a white tent in front of the national assembly.
U.S. troops in Afghanistan discover the charms of eyebrow-shaping
By Laura Rozen | The Envoy
Here's the latest--if unlikely--grooming craze for U.S. troops at a remote forward operating base in Shinwar, Afghanistan: eyebrow-shaping.
According to the Wall Street Journal's Michael Phillips, Afghan barbers--forbidden from practicing the fine arts of eyebrow-trimming, shaping, plucking and threading on their religiously observant Muslim countrymen--have eagerly added the service for American troops coming in for a hair cut and a shave. Sometimes, as Phillips recounts, the treatment comes as a bit of a shock to U.S. soldiers looking for a no-frills trim.
Private First Class Richard Guillemette's "first brow 'do was an accident," Phillips reported Thursday from the Afghan barbershop near U.S. Cavalry Forward Operating Base Joyce, not far from Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. Guillemette had asked the base's Afghan barber, Gulam Farooq, for the usual hair cut and a shave, and realized only "too late ... the barber was ... sculpt[ing] his eyebrows into thin arches, tapering into points at the flanks."
A month later, however "Pfc. Guillemette, a 20-year-old from Lyman, Maine, decided he liked the look, and he has had two touch-ups since then"--rivaling the high-maintenance beauty routines of even many of the most-disciplined civilian counterparts.
However, not every American soldier is on-board with the finer points of eyebrow-shaping.
"I don't get it, I just don't get it," Lt. Col. Jerry Turner, 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment commander tells the WSJ. "And you're not going to get me to get it."
And for the record, not every U.S. service branch seems to be keen on the practice. Marine Corps officials updated the Corps' 2007 regulations to stipulate that "excessive plucking or removal of eyebrows is not authorized, except for medical reasons," Phillips writes.
Nor is this the only unlikely male-grooming trend on the ground in Afghanistan. Photographer Thomas Dworzak has collected a striking series of photographs showing members of the Taliban--notorious for imposing ultra-stringent Islamist dress and grooming codes on subject populations--indulging an unlikely fondness for eyeliner.
Despite Karzai’s pledge, government graft eludes prosecution
Associated Press By Adam Goldman and Heidi Vogt Wednesday, October 12, 2011
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - A major investigation into an influential Afghan governor accused of taking bribes has been shut down and its top prosecutor transferred to a unit that doesn’t handle corruption cases, Afghan and U.S. officials said.
The closing of the investigation into the former governor of Kapisa province, Ghulam Qawis Abu Bakr, comes on the heels of a grim, unpublicized assessment by U.S. officials that no substantive corruption prosecutions were taking place in Afghanistan despite President Hamid Karzai’s pledge to root out graft.
The Abu Bakr investigation raises troubling questions yet again about how much U.S. taxpayer money is lining the pockets of powerful Afghan officials, and whether the U.S. is doing all it can to persuade Mr. Karzai to crack down on corruption.
It also suggests that the lax prosecution of corruption has pervaded all levels of government.
U.S. officials had hoped the case would be the first conviction of a relatively significant person in Afghan government.
While most of Mr. Abu Bakr’s influence is in Kapisa province, he also is connected to the Hizb-e-Islami political party, which the government has been trying to court in hopes of getting the group to cut its ties with militants.
Mr. Abu Bakr was suspended as governor after Gen. David H. Petraeus, then the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan and now CIA director, presented Mr. Karzai with documentation showing that he was colluding with the Taliban, according to an Afghan official in Kabul with direct knowledge of the incident.
In the two years since Mr. Karzai announced a new anti-corruption task force, powerful government figures have been accused of corruption and even investigated, but seldom brought to court. It appears that Mr. Abu Bakr will be no exception.
Most of the approximately 2,000 cases investigated by the anti-corruption unit since its birth in 2009 have stalled, said a NATO official familiar with the unit, who spoke anonymously in order to discuss sensitive matters.
The 28 convictions so far all have been of minor players. The attorney general’s office has been infiltrated by power brokers, ranging from lawmakers to warlords, who are blocking cases systematically, the NATO official said.
In general, little has come of Mr. Karzai’s promises after a fraud-marred 2009 election that he would make rooting out graft a priority.
In fact, a corruption scandal in the interim involving the country’s largest private bank has incriminated a number of Karzai allies, including relatives.
The first evidence that corruption was not being taken seriously in the attorney general’s office came in the summer of 2010, when a Karzai aide was arrested on charges of accepting a car in exchange for helping to thwart a corruption case. Mr. Karzai ordered the release of the aide, Mohammad Zia Salehi.
Because of the onslaught of negative publicity, Attorney General Mohammed Ishaq Aloko ordered his prosecutors not to discuss details of their cases with the U.S. officials advising them, saying that if they did, they would be considered U.S. spies, said an Afghan official who worked in the anti-corruption unit.
Both the attorney general and Mr. Abu Bakr declined to comment. The current head of the anti-corruption unit at the attorney general’s office said the case is ongoing.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
AFP via Yahoo! News - Oct 13 10:47am
The US-led NATO mission in Afghanistan may be exaggerating successes of raids designed to kill or capture insurgent leaders, a flagship strategy in the 10-year war, a report warned Thursday.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) hails the raids as one of the most effective tactics against the insurgency, but the Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN) says data from December 2009 to September 2011 is inconsistent.
"The lack of transparency is particularly apparent in the case of the insurgent ?leaders? that were reportedly being killed and captured; there is no way to properly evaluate these claims," said the AAN report on its website.
But ISAF slammed the report as "disingenuous" for making false comparisons of data that "inevitably lead to faulty conclusions on mission progress".
Two days ago, the military said the number of Taliban attacks had declined for the first time and that the Taliban has failed in recent months to seize back territory lost in US-led offensives in the south.
Basing its data on 3,771 press releases announcing the deaths of at least 3,873 people and the detentions of another 7,146, AAN said ISAF often interchanges the terms "facilitator" and "leader" without explaining why.
It also said statistics in press releases did not tally with more grandiose figures released separately by ISAF to media outlets.
Although it was unclear to what extent this was intentional, "it should make policy-makers and analysts evaluating ISAF?s progress think twice about accepting these body-count figures without more serious scrutiny," AAN said.
On September 3, an ISAF release said security forces had captured or killed more than 40 Al-Qaeda insurgents in eastern Afghanistan this year.
But a tally of previous releases add up to 22 killed and 10 captured, many of which, AAN points out, are simply noted as having had "suspected ties".
AAN concedes that the press releases themselves do not represent a complete figure, given that there may have been unreported operations, and more deaths and detentions per incident than counted.
But ISAF said it was wrong to compare figures from its press releases with broader statistics as regular updates are "not" an authoritative database of all ISAF operations, "or even a representative sample from them".
"Hence any analysis based on them which draws broader conclusions on ISAF operations overall is flawed," said spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings.
ISAF also defended its terminology, saying that leaders in charge of other insurgents can also be classified as facilitators who assist operations "much in the same manner as the authors of this report label themselves as researchers, writers, commentators and editors".
Last month, ISAF also disputed UN statistics showing a 39 percent increase in violence in the war-torn country.
NATO allies, under pressure from voters in the West increasingly fed up with the long and costly war, are scheduled to withdraw combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
Suspected US Drone Strike Kills Senior Haqqani Militant
VOA News October 13, 2011
Pakistani intelligence officials say a U.S. drone strike in northwest Pakistan has killed a senior member of the militant Haqqani network.
Thursday's attack in North Waziristan reportedly killed Jalil Haqqani, a logistics coordinator for the al-Qaida-linked group. At least three other militants were also killed when an unmanned aircraft fired missiles at a compound near the region's main town, Miran Shah.
Officials say Jalil was very close to Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the militant network, which is reportedly based in North Waziristan.
Hours later, Pakistani officials say a second drone strike on Thursday killed six militants in the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.
The attacks occurred as the U.S. special representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Marc Grossman, held talks with Pakistani leaders in Islamabad.
Grossman told reporters that he and Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar talked about the future and how to continue the ongoing dialogue between Pakistan and the United States. He said they agreed to continue to find “issues that we share with Pakistan — and there are many — and act jointly on them.”
The U.S. envoy also met with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who said the cooperation must expand beyond counterterrorism to areas such as trade, water, power and infrastructure. Grossman and Pakistani leaders also discussed the situation in Afghanistan.
Thursday's talks come amid heightened tensions between Pakistan and the United States.
Last month, senior U.S. officials accused Pakistan's military spy agency of helping the Haqqani network launch attacks in Afghanistan, including an assault on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Pakistan has denied the allegations.
In other violence in Pakistan, gunmen opened fire on a convoy of at least five NATO oil tankers Thursday in the Shikarpur area of southern Sindh province. The trucks caught on fire.
Militants often attack vehicles carrying fuel and other supplies to international troops in neighboring Afghanistan.
U.S. commanders cleared in helicopter downing that killed Navy SEALs
An investigation concludes that Taliban fighters on alert shot down the CH-47 in Afghanistan in the deadly August mission targeting a Taliban leader.
Los Angles Times By David S. Cloud, Washington Bureau October 13, 2011
Washington - A U.S. military investigation into the August downing of a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan concluded that Taliban fighters "on a heightened state of alert" shot it down, but it cleared U.S. commanders of tactical mistakes.
Contrary to some initial reports, the helicopter carrying 38 U.S. and Afghan troops, including 17 Navy SEALs, was not on a rescue mission. Instead, it was dispatched to kill or capture a Taliban leader.
As the CH-47 helicopter descended toward a landing zone in Wardak province, it was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade, which sheared off a rear rotor blade and caused the craft to plummet 150 feet into a dry creek bed, where it exploded, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey N. Colt found in his investigation. Everyone aboard was killed.
The crash in the predawn hours of Aug. 6 was U.S. troops' single largest loss of life in the decade-old war. It took an especially heavy toll on Navy SEALs, the close-knit elite unit that only months earlier had killed Osama bin Laden during a clandestine raid into Pakistan.
Days after the helicopter crash, U.S. forces hunted down and killed the Taliban fighters who fired the grenades, senior officers have said.
Colt dismissed initial speculation that the helicopter might have been lured into a trap, but did note that the Taliban knew coalition forces and aircraft were in the area. "The shoot-down was not the result of a baited ambush but rather the result of the enemy being at a heightened state of alert due to 31/2 hours of ongoing coalition air operations," he said.
The investigation cleared the U.S. special operation task force that conducted the mission of wrongdoing. However, he criticized the commander for not repositioning surveillance aircraft — a failure he attributed to the "compressed planning process."
Colt also concluded that the sound of the surveillance aircraft probably alerted the Taliban that more forces could be on the way. Using such aircraft before sending in a helicopter should be better synchronized to minimize warning the enemy of imminent ground operations, he said.
A senior Pentagon official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said no military personnel would be disciplined for the incident.
The U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., released a summary of Colt's investigation after briefing the families of those killed. The command oversees the Afghanistan war.
The original goal of the operation was to kill or capture Qari Tahir, the senior Taliban leader in Wardak province's Tangi Valley. A platoon of U.S. Army Rangers, joined by Afghan troops, had flown in on two other CH-47s shortly before midnight after receiving intelligence on Tahir's location. Several fighters were captured, but Tahir was not among them, the report said.
Surveillance aircraft observed another group of nine or 10 suspected Taliban fighters about a mile and half away, the report said. Believing that Tahir might be among them, the U.S. special operation commanders ordered the Navy SEAL team that had been on standby to get on a single helicopter and head for the valley in hopes of finding him.
Along with the 17 SEALs, this so-called "immediate reaction force" included eight other U.S. Air Force and Navy personnel, seven Afghan soldiers, an interpreter, a military working dog and a five-member helicopter crew.
Colt said that the two pilots were highly experienced and that they flew into the valley without lights by a different route than the first two CH-47s to confuse the enemy. As the helicopter descended to 100 to 150 feet above the ground, "a previously undetected group of suspected Taliban fighters fired two or three RPGs in rapid succession from the tower of a two-story mud-brick building," Colt said.
The second explosive struck the helicopter's aft rotor. "Within a matter of seconds, while the aircraft spun violently, the aft, then forward, rotor blade systems separate[d] from the aircraft," and the fuselage dropped into the creek bed. The crash was over in less than five seconds and all of the victims were killed almost instantaneously, Colt said, but the wreckage burned for hours.
He called the decision to load the entire unit onto a single helicopter a "tactically sound" move to minimize aircraft exposure to ground fire.
Australia's Afghanistan mission to extend 'beyond 2014', defence minister says
The Australian By Brendan Nicholson October 13, 2011
DEFENCE Minister Stephen Smith has used his latest report to parliament on Afghanistan to reinforce the government's view that Australian troops will be heavily involved there well after the end of 2014.
Mr Smith reiterated that Australian special forces and instructors would stay on after 2014 to continue training and supporting the Afghans.
He said it was important to send a message to the region that Afghanistan would not be abandoned and that there was a comprehensive development plan for the future.
NATO, the US and the international community generally must maintain their commitment to a long term strategic partnership with Afghanistan, Mr Smith said.
"Australia has made clear it expects to maintain a presence in Afghanistan after our current training and mentoring mission has concluded, potentially through institutional training, a special forces presence, military advisers, capacity building and development assistance."
Start of sidebar. Skip to end of sidebar.
End of sidebar. Return to start of sidebar.
At a recent meeting in Brussels, coalition defence ministers welcomed a plan for transition to Afghan security control between 2012 and 2014 and, most importantly, for the post-2014 period, Mr Smith said.
"This continuing long-term commitment and continued investment in Afghanistan's future is a key to ensuring that Afghanistan and its neighbours including Pakistan also invest in a peaceful future for Afghanistan," he said.
"It is important to begin work on the post-2014 period now. Not to set this out soon will undermine what we have achieved, jeopardise Afghan confidence in the international community's long term commitment to their country and send the wrong message to regional neighbours, in particular Pakistan."
Mr Smith said that between August 1, 2010, and October 1, 2011, Australian forces had detained 988 suspected insurgents.
He said 153 of the suspects were handed over to Afghan authorities until that process was suspended on July 12 because of concerns raised by the UN about mistreatment of prisoners by Afghan guards.
The rest of the detainees were freed after initial screening.
Mr Smith said the ADF had captured 10 people who were subsequently released, then recaptured.
Five were released as there was insufficient evidence to warrant their continued detention.
There was sufficient evidence to hold and prosecute the remaining five.
Two were handed over to US authorities and three were transferred to Afghan custody at a detention facility in Tarin Kowt.
Mr Smith said last month's commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks was a sober reminder that there would be serious and horrifying consequences if international terrorists were allowed to operate unchecked.
"It is therefore imperative that we remain focused on our goal to help prepare the Afghan National Security Forces to take lead responsibility for providing security for the Afghan people," Mr Smith said.
"To do so we must continue in our efforts to stabilise the security situation and to mentor and train the Afghan security forces.
"To leave now would be to put at risk the gains so hard fought for."
Mr Smith said Afghan and coalition forces had stalled, then reversed, the Taliban's momentum. Over the summer "fighting season" the Taliban had been unable to retake any ground in Oruzgan Province, where the Australians are based, or across Afghanistan.
Mr Smith said the government had agreed to allow some Australian instructors who were mentoring the 6th Kandak of the Afghan National Army to move with that battalion to neighbouring Kandahar Province.
Australian Special Forces and their Afghan partners, the Provincial Response Company (PRC) and the National Interdiction Unit (NIU), also continue to disrupt the insurgency in and around Oruzgan Province by taking insurgent leaders and bomb-makers off the battlefield and reducing the insurgency revenue stream from narcotics.
This has helped create the environment necessary for ISAF forces to finalise their training mission and to create a safer environment for the Afghan people.
Brendan Nicholson is The Australian's defence editor
Why political activism isn't working in Afghanistan
Despite the billions of dollars of international money spent to develop a democratic culture in Afghanistan, few understand what one politician is trying to accomplish by her hunger strike.
Christian Science Monitor By Tom A. Peter, Correspondent October 12, 2011
Kabul, Afghanistan - For 11 days now, a female politician has been on hunger strike in a small tent set up in a parking lot outside the Afghan Parliament building.
Formerly a member of parliament from Herat province, Simin Barakzai was among nine parliamentarians removed from office in late August to settle an electoral dispute that dragged on for more than a year.
Rejecting allegations of fraud, Ms. Barakzai launched a campaign to regain her seat and called on the government to review its decision. When all efforts failed she started the strike designed to cast light on the broader problem of corruption and insufficient government transparency in Afghanistan.
Barakzai’s hunger strike may stand as a stark example of how far Afghanistan has to go before it’s ready for civic activism. Despite billions of dollars of international money that has been spent to develop a democratic culture here, few understand what Barakzai is trying to accomplish or even trust her stated motives.
Many people see this as a personal issue, not a democratic cause says Mohammad Hassan Walasmal, an independent political analyst in Kabul. “If she is called fraudulent and kicked out of the parliament people think it’s a personal issue.”
Think you know Asia? Take our geography quiz.
Over the past four decades, Mr. Walasmal has conducted three hunger strikes. Although each one of them supported an Afghan cause, he says, he never once received any encouragement from other Afghans, even from Afghan expatriates, when he went without food for 50 days in Norway to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
“In Afghanistan people really don’t know about these kinds of things,” he says. “It’s impossible in this situation and with this condition of the Afghans to have a bigger movement grow out of Mrs. Barakzai’s hunger strike.” The key issue
Government corruption is one of the most important issues to Afghans. In the recently released Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, Afghanistan tied for second as the nation where residents perceived the most corruption within their society.
But turning frustration into action is something very difficult for Afghans. A predominately rural society, most politicking for everyday people takes place at the community level and the actions of the national government are perceived as beyond the influence of normal people.
“Without experience with a strong democratic society in Afghanistan, people here don’t have a lot of experience with political activism and they still don’t know its importance,” says Muhammad Hassan Haqyar, an independent political analyst in Kabul. “People are frustrated, but they know that as much as they criticize the system and complain there will be no solution.”
Barakzai’s display of civil disobedience follows closely on the heels of Anna Hazare’s 12-day hunger strike to protest government corruption in India, which grabbed headlines around the globe and forced parliamentary action. Lack of political culture?
But Afghanistan is not India. Though Barakzai has received a number of high-profile visitors and about 10 people started fasting with her on day 10, she has little popular support.
In part, the absence of supporters could be explained by the fact that she represents Herat Province, which is on the Western edge of the country. Her supporters would have to travel a considerable distance on a road with many security problems to reach Kabul.
Still, even her husband blames the lack of a political culture for the poor turn out.
“In other countries the people and the government know the rules and they really understand a democracy and respect its rules, but in Afghanistan it is not like that. People don’t know a lot about these kinds of things, and that’s maybe why people aren’t here,” says Barakzai’s husband Mohammad.
As Barakzai enters critical condition, the government has shown no signs of meeting her demands for a fair investigation. Additionally, the government’s religious council issued a decision saying hunger strikes are un-Islamic and dissuaded people from supporting her.
“We should not expect such a corrupt government to take a positive action. Our idea is that the international community should take part in this because this is the right time, “ says Ajmal Sohail, leader of the Afghan Liberal Party.
Those who’ve recently begun fasting say that while they intend to go up to 10 days without food, few seemed willing to give their lives in protest. As Barakzai, meanwhile, recently issued her will, blaming the government for her death and telling her family not to mourn her loss.
“Afghanistan has lots of problems after three decades of war and in this period we were hoping there would be rule of law, but it is clear this did not happen. She should realize this and she should stop,” says Najia, a member of parliament from Paktika province, who like many Afghans only has one name. “In Afghanistan the price for a human life is really low.”
Manawi Blamed for September Election Row
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives on Wednesday blamed chief of Independent Election Commission for election chaos while an unseated law maker continues her hunger strike for eleven days now.
Some parliamentarians alleged that Chief of IEC Fazl Ahmad Manawi has not dealt honestly with votes cast during last year's parliamentary elections.
Meanwhile, Council of Scholars decreed that going on a hunger strike is prohibited according to religious laws.
Going on a hunger strike is an act of blasphemy based on Islamic laws, Council of Scholars further said.
On Tuesday Afghanistan election commission called on Simin Barekzai, a woman MP who has gone on hunger strike, to end a 10-day hunger strike to protest against her disqualification from parliament.
Simin Barekzai, 30, is one of nine MPs expelled from the national assembly over allegations of fraud in vote.
"The commission is ready to release any kind of information to the public and relevant authorities to clarify her case. We hope Mrs Barekzai will end her strike soon," said IEC Chief Fazl Ahmad Manawai.
Health officials expressed concern about health of Mrs Barekzai.
Barekzai and eight other members of the House of Representatives were kicked out by the Independent Election Commission in August in an attempt to resolve nearly a year of disputes over widespread flaws in last year's September parliamentary polls.
To protest against her removal, Barekzai went on a hunger strike in a white tent in front of the national assembly.
U.S. troops in Afghanistan discover the charms of eyebrow-shaping
By Laura Rozen | The Envoy
Here's the latest--if unlikely--grooming craze for U.S. troops at a remote forward operating base in Shinwar, Afghanistan: eyebrow-shaping.
According to the Wall Street Journal's Michael Phillips, Afghan barbers--forbidden from practicing the fine arts of eyebrow-trimming, shaping, plucking and threading on their religiously observant Muslim countrymen--have eagerly added the service for American troops coming in for a hair cut and a shave. Sometimes, as Phillips recounts, the treatment comes as a bit of a shock to U.S. soldiers looking for a no-frills trim.
Private First Class Richard Guillemette's "first brow 'do was an accident," Phillips reported Thursday from the Afghan barbershop near U.S. Cavalry Forward Operating Base Joyce, not far from Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. Guillemette had asked the base's Afghan barber, Gulam Farooq, for the usual hair cut and a shave, and realized only "too late ... the barber was ... sculpt[ing] his eyebrows into thin arches, tapering into points at the flanks."
A month later, however "Pfc. Guillemette, a 20-year-old from Lyman, Maine, decided he liked the look, and he has had two touch-ups since then"--rivaling the high-maintenance beauty routines of even many of the most-disciplined civilian counterparts.
However, not every American soldier is on-board with the finer points of eyebrow-shaping.
"I don't get it, I just don't get it," Lt. Col. Jerry Turner, 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment commander tells the WSJ. "And you're not going to get me to get it."
And for the record, not every U.S. service branch seems to be keen on the practice. Marine Corps officials updated the Corps' 2007 regulations to stipulate that "excessive plucking or removal of eyebrows is not authorized, except for medical reasons," Phillips writes.
Nor is this the only unlikely male-grooming trend on the ground in Afghanistan. Photographer Thomas Dworzak has collected a striking series of photographs showing members of the Taliban--notorious for imposing ultra-stringent Islamist dress and grooming codes on subject populations--indulging an unlikely fondness for eyeliner.
Despite Karzai’s pledge, government graft eludes prosecution
Associated Press By Adam Goldman and Heidi Vogt Wednesday, October 12, 2011
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - A major investigation into an influential Afghan governor accused of taking bribes has been shut down and its top prosecutor transferred to a unit that doesn’t handle corruption cases, Afghan and U.S. officials said.
The closing of the investigation into the former governor of Kapisa province, Ghulam Qawis Abu Bakr, comes on the heels of a grim, unpublicized assessment by U.S. officials that no substantive corruption prosecutions were taking place in Afghanistan despite President Hamid Karzai’s pledge to root out graft.
The Abu Bakr investigation raises troubling questions yet again about how much U.S. taxpayer money is lining the pockets of powerful Afghan officials, and whether the U.S. is doing all it can to persuade Mr. Karzai to crack down on corruption.
It also suggests that the lax prosecution of corruption has pervaded all levels of government.
U.S. officials had hoped the case would be the first conviction of a relatively significant person in Afghan government.
While most of Mr. Abu Bakr’s influence is in Kapisa province, he also is connected to the Hizb-e-Islami political party, which the government has been trying to court in hopes of getting the group to cut its ties with militants.
Mr. Abu Bakr was suspended as governor after Gen. David H. Petraeus, then the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan and now CIA director, presented Mr. Karzai with documentation showing that he was colluding with the Taliban, according to an Afghan official in Kabul with direct knowledge of the incident.
In the two years since Mr. Karzai announced a new anti-corruption task force, powerful government figures have been accused of corruption and even investigated, but seldom brought to court. It appears that Mr. Abu Bakr will be no exception.
Most of the approximately 2,000 cases investigated by the anti-corruption unit since its birth in 2009 have stalled, said a NATO official familiar with the unit, who spoke anonymously in order to discuss sensitive matters.
The 28 convictions so far all have been of minor players. The attorney general’s office has been infiltrated by power brokers, ranging from lawmakers to warlords, who are blocking cases systematically, the NATO official said.
In general, little has come of Mr. Karzai’s promises after a fraud-marred 2009 election that he would make rooting out graft a priority.
In fact, a corruption scandal in the interim involving the country’s largest private bank has incriminated a number of Karzai allies, including relatives.
The first evidence that corruption was not being taken seriously in the attorney general’s office came in the summer of 2010, when a Karzai aide was arrested on charges of accepting a car in exchange for helping to thwart a corruption case. Mr. Karzai ordered the release of the aide, Mohammad Zia Salehi.
Because of the onslaught of negative publicity, Attorney General Mohammed Ishaq Aloko ordered his prosecutors not to discuss details of their cases with the U.S. officials advising them, saying that if they did, they would be considered U.S. spies, said an Afghan official who worked in the anti-corruption unit.
Both the attorney general and Mr. Abu Bakr declined to comment. The current head of the anti-corruption unit at the attorney general’s office said the case is ongoing.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com