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US wants 'more active' India in Afghanistan
By Dan De Luce | AFP – Tue, Jun 5, 2012
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta encouraged India to play a "more active role" in Afghanistan during talks Tuesday in New Delhi, US officials said.
Washington has previously worried about India antagonising its arch-foe Pakistan and preferred New Delhi retain a modest profile in the Afghan conflict, restricted to troop training and infrastructure development.
But officials briefing reporters before Panetta arrived on a two-day visit to New Delhi said US policy has evolved as the NATO-led force prepares to withdraw combat troops by the end of 2014.
"Over the last 10 years, for a variety of reasons, India has not played a particularly active role in Afghanistan," a senior defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters aboard Panetta's plane.
"We welcome India playing a more active role in Afghanistan, a more active political and economic role," the official said, adding that the US hoped India would expand its training of Afghan security forces.
India has "trained army and police before but on a relatively small scale."
Panetta discussed the issue, as well as a new US strategic tilt towards Asia and expanding military ties, when he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday, officials said.
"In both meetings, Secretary Panetta discussed the US rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region and the importance the United States places on India," his spokesman George Little said in a statement.
In October, India and Afghanistan signed a "strategic partnership" deal aiming at deepening their security and economic links, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai also keen to elevate India's involvement.
New Delhi, fearful of the return of an Islamist regime in Kabul, has ploughed about $2.0 billion of aid into the country to gain influence, but is extremely wary of over-stepping.
The US official acknowledged the hostility and distrust between India and Pakistan, but said both countries had a common interest in seeing peace take root in Afghanistan.
Shashank Joshi, an expert on South Asia security and an associate fellow at the London-based think-tank Royal United Services Institute, said the Indians are afraid of what will happen once NATO combat troops pull out in 2014.
"They are convinced the Afghan state is more brittle than the Americans and the British think and fear they will end up picking up the pieces with the jihadis heading east and their interests in danger," he told AFP.
The suggestion India bolster its presence in Afghanistan might be an attempt by Washington to press Pakistan to open its border to NATO supply convoys, which Islamabad has blocked since a US air strike in November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
The United States has had to rely since then on a more costly, cumbersome route to the north through Central Asia.
Any enhanced role for India would alarm Islamabad, which views New Delhi's activities in Afghanistan with deep suspicion, fearing India could effectively encircle Pakistan through its proxies.
Apart from the Afghanistan war, Tuesday's talks touched on America's much-publicised "rebalance" towards Asia as well as expanding US defence ties between the two countries, officials said.
After Panetta's meeting, officials said India agreed to allow US teams to resume a search for the remains of missing American service members at crash sites from World War II in the country's northeast.
The Pentagon estimates there are about 400 missing troops from some 90 aircraft crashes in the area.
Panetta, who was due to deliver a speech here on Wednesday, flew to India after a stop in Vietnam as part of a nine-day tour of Asia designed to underscore a US "pivot" to Asia after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The emphasis on the Asia-Pacific partly reflects a growing rivalry between China and the United States, with the Americans worried that Beijing could eventually dominate the crossroads of the global economy -- the South China Sea.
India eyeing Afghanistan oil & gas blocks sans bids
Economic Times MEERA MOHANTY & Rajeev 05 Jun, 2012
NEW DELHI - India is hoping to secure oil and gas exploration blocks in Afghanistan on the basis of its goodwill with the country, while it may also participate in the upcoming auction of six blocks to the north of Mazar-i-Sharif, officials said.
An Indian delegation, including officials from state-run explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp, is expected to visit Afghanistan soon on invitation from its mines minister, two Indian officials said on condition of anonymity.
Officials said they were hoping to get some prospective blocks in Afghanistan without participating in the bidding process because of the goodwill that India has generated in the country. It is also expected that Indian firms will commit investments in Afghanistan to get blocks on nomination basis, they added.
India, one of the largest aid donors to war-ravaged Afghanistan, has lagged behind China in the race for acquiring oil and gas assets in the region. Last year, China bagged three energy blocks in the Amu Darya basin after promising to invest in a refinery there.
New Delhi is keen on lie near the border to Turkmenistan, which has the world's fourth largest reserve of natural gas. "The block is very close to Turkmenistan's gas-rich region and experts say the gas reservoirs could be extended to the Afghanistan side," one official said.
Turkmenistan has proven gas reserves of about 265 trillion cubic feet. The oil and gas potential of Afghanistan is not fully established yet.
India is also keen on joining the second round of bidding for energy blocks this time in the Afghan-Tajik-basin, having missed the first. ONGC's foreign arm, ONGC Videsh, is considering participating in the auction of the six exploration blocks offered, the officials said.The last date for submission of expression of interest is June 30.
Announcing the new blocks it was putting up for grabs at a conference in London in March, Afghanistan's Mines Minister, Wahidullah Shahrani said that there were over 60 potential hydrocarbon-bearing structures in these.
China sees role for regional bloc in Afghanistan
AFP – Tue, Jun 5, 2012
China, Russia and four Central Asian countries have vowed to play a bigger role in Afghanistan, Chinese President Hu Jintao said in comments published Wednesday, as NATO forces prepare to pull out.
He said the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) -- a group intended as a counterweight to US influence in Central Asia and dominated by China and Russia -- had also decided to strengthen Afghanistan's role in the organisation.
The comments came as leaders of the SCO member states met in Beijing for a two-day summit on security and economic issues across the region.
"We will... play a greater role in the peaceful reconstruction process in Afghanistan," Hu said in an interview published in the People's Daily newspaper, the ruling Communist Party mouthpiece.
"The SCO supports Afghanistan becoming an independent, peaceful, prosperous, neighbourly country, free from terrorism and drugs," he said.
The SCO -- which groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan -- was formed in 2001 with the view of counterbalancing US and NATO influence in the region. India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia are observers.
Hu said the organisation -- which has invited Afghanistan as a guest at this year's summit -- had decided to grant the troubled country observer status, amid general concern as NATO forces prepare to pull out by the end of 2014.
Russia has criticised the withdrawal timeline, and President Vladimir Putin -- who is currently attending the SCO summit in Beijing -- has cited the stability of Afghanistan as an issue of "common concern".
India, meanwhile, has voiced fear that Islamic radicals will gain strength once Western forces pull out of the country.
Liu Weimin, spokesman for China's foreign ministry, confirmed Wednesday that Afghanistan had been given observer status, saying the development of the situation in the country was of concern to the SCO member states.
"The two sides will be able to enhance their cooperation in security, economy and social areas," he told reporters.
"The SCO has experience and capacity in fighting terrorism, narcotics, transnational crimes as well as economic development, and it is ready to strengthen cooperation with Afghanistan."
Eight Suspects Arrested Over Afghan Schoolgirls' Poisoning
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan June 5, 2012
A security official in Afghanistan’s northern Takhar Province says eight suspects have been arrested over alleged links to the recent poisoning of schoolgirls.
The official told RFE/RL on June 5 that preliminary investigations pointed to the detained suspects having links with Taliban fighters and the militant Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
Health officials in Takhar have said some 800 schoolgirls recently fell ill after allegedly inhaling poisonous gas that was released at six schools in the region.
The Taliban has denied any involvement in attacks on schools and demanded punishment for those responsible for the gas attacks.
In 1996-2001, when it held power over most of Afghanistan, the Taliban barred girls from attending schools, deeming female school attendance un-Islamic.
Feature: Poisoning girl pupils, a new dilemma for Afghan parents
By Abdul Haleem, Chen Xin
KABUL, June 5 (Xinhua) -- "It really disappointed me to see my girl laid down unconscious on a bed in hospital to receive medical treatment. It is a matter of concern for me and other parents sending their kids to school," Abdul Qayum, father of an affected girl, said in a hospital in the northern Takhar province.
The relatively peaceful Takhar, 245 km north of Afghan capital Kabul, has experienced a few cases of poisoning girl at schools over the past one month causing panic among the residents especially the parents.
"It is a new evil phenomenon added to our suffering. My daughter left home healthily for school in the morning but now is unconscious," the upset Qayum told Xinhua.
He also called on the government to bring to justice those behind the attack to ensure security in schools.
For at least six times, according to local officials, the girl schools have been mysteriously attacked with toxic substance, leaving hundreds of innocent pupils affected.
The latest such attack was on Sunday and according to Hafizullah Safi, director of the public health department in Takhar's provincial capital Taluqan city, 40 students from Nahid Shahid Girl School had been taken to hospital for medical treatment.
Earlier, 97 students were sent to hospital after similar attack on the Bashir Abad Girl School. However, the authorities have not identified the substance used in poisoning the girl pupils and no one has claimed responsibility for it.
Local officials blamed the enemies of peace, a term used against Taliban militants, for attacking the girl schools.
But Taliban militants have rejected their involvement in targeting girl students. In a statement over the weekend the outfit said attacking schools is not the work of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the name of ousted Taliban regime).
Local media reported Tuesday that five people had been arrested on charges of involving in poisoning girl school students in Takhar province.
Several schools have already been closed down in Andar district of Ghazni province due to security threats posed by Taliban outfit, according to officials.
Afghan minister for education Farooq Wardak admitted last month that 530 schools have remained closed due to security reasons, mostly in the southern region where Taliban are active. As a result, 300,000 students have been deprived of their right for education.
In Afghanistan, some 5 million school-aged children cannot go to school because of security reasons, traditional restrictions and poverty.
In relatively more conservative region in Afghanistan, especially in tribal areas where the old tradition is deeply rooted, the parents often do not like young girls to go out of home.
"My dream was to become a gynecologist but unfortunately my father stopped me from going to school when I was in grade 7," a girl from northern Baghlan province said.
INSIGHT - As Afghan exit looms, U.S. debate rages over Haqqani militants
Reuters By Missy Ryan and Mark Hosenball Tue Jun 5, 2012
WASHINGTON - Five days after Afghan militants showered the U.S. embassy in Kabul last September with rockets and bullets in a bold, nearly 20-hour assault, top U.S. officials pointedly pressed the Pakistani government to take action against the Haqqani network, the Taliban-allied militant group.
A handful of American officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Marc Grossman, President Barack Obama's envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, laid out during the meeting in New York what they knew about the attack, which they traced back to the town of Miranshah, where the network has a base in northwest Pakistan.
The Americans walked away from the 3-1/2 hour encounter much as they have from many others that preceded and have followed it - with Pakistani promises to support U.S. goals but little else.
Now, as the United States and other NATO nations prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan and their time grows short to cripple a still-potent insurgency, debate is raging within the Obama administration about how to confront the threat posed by Haqqani militants - and about how actively Pakistan is supporting them.
"There are troubling links between elements of the Pakistani government and the Haqqanis," said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "How high those links go is an open question."
The September 18, 2011 meeting, on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly, was an important moment in the Obama administration's nearly four-year-long bid to persuade Pakistan to take decisive action against the Haqqanis. The group's tenacious guerrilla tactics - more than those of the rest of the Afghan Taliban - may represent the future Afghan insurgency.
Whether or not the United States can convince Pakistan to act may help determine the legacy of the war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001. With most American troops due to be out of Afghanistan in 2014, the United States appears to have limited options to confront the Haqqanis.
"The Haqqanis are currently the strongest horse in the race ... for influence in a post-U.S. Afghanistan. The Pakistani security services plan to ride that horse as far as it will take them," said Jeffrey Dressler of the Institute for the Study of War think tank, a leading U.S. scholar on the Haqqani network.
'GOODNESS PERSONIFIED'
The Haqqani network, founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, with varying levels of support from Pakistani, Saudi and U.S. officials. His son Sirajuddin Haqqani now plays an increasingly prominent role in a network that operates both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Influential U.S. congressman Charlie Wilson once called Jalaluddin Haqqani, in his days as a U.S. ally against Moscow in the 1980s, "goodness personified."
"They went from 'goodness personified' to terrorists," said former CIA operations officer Arturo Munoz.
Dressler said current and retired elements of Pakistani security forces, including the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), at times gave the Haqqani network financial, logistical and possibly more direct support. Occasionally, he said, they help them plan or carry out attacks.
Some current and former U.S. officials say that a handful of sophisticated attacks by the Haqqani network have shown direct support from elements of Pakistani intelligence, including a 2008 suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul. Some U.S. officials believe such links were evident in the 2011 assault on the U.S. embassy in Kabul but other American officials disagree.
Pakistan vehemently denies such links and points out that thousands of its own soldiers have died battling militants.
U.S. officials assert that Pakistan, riven by tensions between weak elected leaders and a powerful military, has allowed the Haqqani network to fester. Beyond that, U.S. officials say the picture of the relationship between the ISI and Haqqani militants becomes more murky.
"The longer this case goes on, it is impossible to say that there is not a large degree of (Pakistani government) complicity, if not overt assistance, to the Haqqani network," a senior U.S. intelligence source said on condition of anonymity.
Speaking in the September 2011 New York meeting, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar repeated her government's long-standing denials of institutional support from the ISI for Haqqani militants, Reuters has learned. Show us the evidence of such links, she said, and Pakistan will act on it.
Jalaluddin Haqqani made his name as a revered anti-Soviet commander in the area of southeast Afghanistan known as "Loya Paktia," seen by the Haqqanis as their rightful homeland. The United States and Gulf nations also supported Haqqani indirectly as they funneled money and weapons to the Afghans rebels' fight.
A counterpart to Mullah Omar, the one-eyed Muslim cleric who became the Taliban leader, Haqqani in 1995 joined the Taliban, which went on to rule Afghanistan until being ousted in 2001 in the U.S.-led invasion. Eventually named a minister, he stayed on the margins of Taliban decision-making as it fought to impose a hard-line version of Islam before 2001 and, later, expel foreign troops.
Some experts say the Haqqani group appears to have evolved beyond the goal of controlling its Afghan homeland, embracing more ambitious aspirations closer to those of al Qaeda. That shift has taken place as Sirajuddin, who grew up around foreign militants who flocked to the region, has gained prominence.
For years, the Haqqanis and the Taliban barely registered as a major military threat for most U.S. officials, as the United States under former President George W. Bush sought to limit the degree of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan to focus on Iraq, which U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003.
Attacks by the Taliban and its allies began to pick up in 2006 and increased sharply in 2008. Over time, attacks by Haqqani insurgents showed increasing military sophistication.
The Haqqani insurgents have been blamed for some of the most daring, complex attacks in Afghanistan, including a 2011 truck bombing in Wardak province, a 2008 attack on a Kabul parade ground where Afghan President Hamid Karzai was present, and major assaults on Kabul's most important hotels.
After the suicide bombing on the Indian embassy, which killed nearly 60 people, U.S. officials said they intercepted telephone calls between militants carrying out the attack and individuals in Pakistan associated with the ISI.
Some intelligence sources say cell phones or testimony collected after the 2011 U.S. embassy attack also point back to individuals in Pakistan linked to the ISI. That assertion is rejected by Pakistan and is disputed by some U.S. officials.
The extent of disagreement within the Obama administration about such links was evident days after Clinton's meeting in New York. Admiral Mike Mullen, speaking to Congress just before he retired as the top U.S. military officer, described the Haqqani network as a "veritable arm" of the ISI.
Mullen, incensed that such attacks continued despite his long effort to court Pakistani Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, also suggested the ISI supported the group as it launched the U.S. embassy assault and similar high-profile attacks.
The testimony not only triggered heated denials from Pakistan but angered officials in the White House and State Department, who believed the evidence was not so clear.
'WENT TOO FAR'
Reviewing Mullen's testimony in advance, the State Department had urged the Pentagon to delete some of the stronger accusations against Pakistan. It did not do so.
"He went too far," another U.S. official said of the exchange, which has not previously been reported.
Mullen has since stood by what he said. And many in the military cheered his parting shot.
"They're killing our people," a third U.S. official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. "They're able to do that to some degree because they're allowed to have safe havens ... and in some cases given tacit support."
The debate over the Haqqani network also manifests itself in tensions between the State Department, Congress and the Pentagon over whether it should be officially listed as a "terrorist" group by the United States.
The State Department, leading a push for a peace deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban, has resisted pressure to list the group. U.S. diplomats appear to be hoping the Haqqanis can be part of a deal - if one is possible.
Last summer, U.S. negotiators met with Ibrahim Haqqani, Jalaluddin's brother, in an encounter brokered by Pakistan. Such contacts could make a terrorist listing awkward.
The United States has pressed Pakistan to mount a military offensive targeting the network. Pakistani officials have expressed uncertainty about how well their forces would fare against a group entrenched and well-armed in North Waziristan.
Robert Grenier, a former senior U.S. intelligence official who was CIA station chief in Pakistan until 2002, said the Haqqanis could create major problems for Pakistan's government.
"It's not just a client-master relationship," Grenier said.
Clinton, during an October 2011 visit to Islamabad, said Pakistan's own security was at risk. "You can't keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors," she said. "Eventually, those snakes are going to turn.
The United States also has sought to use millions of dollars in civilian and military aid to Pakistan as leverage, to little avail. That leverage might disappear if Congress follows through with moves to cut aid, the latest in a series of bilateral crises including the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers last November in a U.S. air attack along the Afghan border.
The United States has continued a campaign of drone strikes in North Waziristan that has accelerated in recent weeks. It also has taken steps to target the group's financing.
While U.S. military commanders have expressed concern about a simmering threat in areas of eastern Afghanistan that are home to Haqqani militants, there are no current plans to shift the bulk of remaining foreign troops there. That means much of the fight would fall to the inexperienced Afghan army in those areas.
U.S. officials should keep in mind that Pakistan is already looking past the departure of most U.S. troops, said Jonah Blank, a foreign policy expert at the RAND Corp. research group.
"We are asking them to turn against an outfit they consider a valuable asset - and make an enemy out of a group that will be in the region forever," Blank said.
(Editing by Warren Strobel and Will Dunham)
Iran Restricts Afghan Refugees Education Access
TOLOnews.com Monday, 04 June 2012
Iran's National Organisation for Educational Testing has issued a list of university courses which prohibits Afghan refugees to study, a western news website reported.
The universities include Atomic physics, nuclear engineering, aerospace engineering, chemical engineering and military sciences.
The report also said that Afghan refugees are only allowed to apply at the universities in the areas where they live.
The prohibited areas included a dozen of provinces and many cities in different parts of Iran.
A spokesman for the Afghan embassy in Iran Mohammad Dehqani said that banned universities is not only for Afghan refugees but for all foreign nationals living in Iran.
"The Ban order is not only for Afghan refugees but it covers other foreign nationals too. Such limitations even exist in western countries, its not related to the political issues. As you know Iran has always supported education for Afghan refugees," Dehqani said.
Meanwhile, Nader Farhard, UNCHR commissioner believes that Iran should provide other facilities such as good living conditions, employment opportunities, education for kids and so on.
"According to UNCHR demands, if an area is declared prohibited, the legal refugees should have other options to live with honour and peace. They should have employment opportunities, their kids should be allowed to attend schools and should have access to other facilities," Mr Farhad said.
"We haven't witnessed forced deportation of any legal Afghans, but we are concerned about those 400 to 800 illegal Afghans expelled from Iran."
A Kabul university professor, Nasrullah Istanikzai, believes that as these universities are the main educational resources of Iran, they are not allowing Afghan and other countries' nationals to study.
"Because these universities are their main education treasures, they banned Afghan and other foreign nationals to study there. This proves that Iran is trying to enrich uranium," He added without elaborating.
NATO strikes deals with Central Asian nations for withdrawal of equipment from Afghanistan
Associated Press 04/06/2012
BRUSSELS - NATO has concluded agreements with Central Asian nations allowing it to evacuate vehicles and other military equipment from Afghanistan and completely bypass Pakistan, which once provided the main supply route for coalition forces.
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday that Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan had agreed to allow the reverse transport of alliance equipment. Since NATO already has an agreement with Russia, the deal will allow it to ship back to Europe tens of thousands of vehicles, containers and other items through the overland route when the evacuation picks up pace later this year.
Pakistan shut down the southern supply routes six months ago after U.S. airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two border posts, forcing NATO to switch almost completely to the so-called Northern Distribution Network.
After months of stalemate, Pakistani leaders last month signaled that negotiations on the supply routes were progressing, just in time to secure an invitation to the weekend NATO summit in Chicago. But since then the two sides have made little progress in the talks, officials said.
The announcement on Monday appears to indicate that Washington and the allies are now preparing for the possibility that the supply link through Pakistan, said to be about six times cheaper than its northern alternative, may not be reopened at all. It is also likely to put pressure on Pakistan to ease its negotiating stance, which has been stuck in part on how much money the U.S. and NATO should pay to transport the trucks through Pakistani territory.
NATO plans to hand over lead responsibility for the war against the Taliban to the Afghan army and police by the middle of next year, and withdraw its troops by the end of 2014. The alliance already has started drawing down its forces, which reached a peak of about 140,000 last year.
The Afghan security forces will have more than 350,000 members in the next few months. The international withdrawal is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2014.
“These agreements will give us a range of new options and the robust and flexible transport network we need,” Fogh Rasmussen told reporters.
He said the new deals would make “the use of the Russian transit arrangements even more effective. “
Moscow also has proposed allowing NATO to set up a logistics facility at the air base in Ulyanovsk, Russia, for troops and cargo heading in and out of Afghanistan.
___
Rebecca Santana in Islamabad contributed to this report.
US Officials Say Drone Strike Targeted Al-Qaida's No. 2
VOA News June 5, 2012
U.S. officials say a drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region targeted al-Qaida's second in command, but they do not know if the militant leader survived.
The officials, speaking to U.S. media on condition of anonymity, said the airstrike Monday in Hesokhel targeted Abu Yahia al-Libi. They said his death, if confirmed, would be a major blow to the terror group.
Pakistani officials said the attack killed at least 15 people - one of several airstrikes in recent days that killed at least 27 people overall.
The country's foreign ministry on Monday strongly condemned the U.S. drone strikes, calling them "illegal attacks" that violate Pakistan's sovereignty and "go against international law."
Christopher Snedden, a South Asia analyst with the Melbourne-based security consultancy Asia Calling says the United States is likely to continue the drone strikes because they are an effective way to go after militants without endangering U.S. forces.
"I expect that they will do that because it's such an efficient way of running an operation," he said. "It may be reduced if Islamabad and Washington can actually improve their relationship but there's nothing in the short term that suggests that's going to happen."
The Libyan-born al-Libi has been running al-Qaida's day-to-day operations in Pakistan's tribal regions as well as its links to regional affiliates. He escaped prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in 2005 and appeared in a series of propaganda videos before rising to become the terror group's deputy leader last year.
Relations between Washington and Islamabad have reached a new low over a series of events, including the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan by U.S. special forces in May 2011 and the accidental killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers last November in a NATO air strike.
Pakistan's parliament has demanded a U.S. apology for the deadly cross-border attack and an end to the U.S. drone strikes. Washington refused to end the missions, saying drone strikes are a vital tool in the war against al-Qaida and the Taliban. Islamabad responded by blocking NATO supply routes into Afghanistan and the two sides have yet to reach an agreement on reopening them.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said Monday that "the strategic disadvantages of such attacks far outweigh their tactical advantages, and are therefore, totally counterproductive."
The continued strikes could further sour diplomatic ties between the two countries, but there is no indication that Washington intends to stop them.
Acting Assistant U.S. Secretary of Defense for Asia and Pacific Security Affairs Peter Lavoy is set to hold talks with Pakistani officials in Islamabad this week to try and break the deadlock over the supply routes.
Also Monday, police in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar briefly detained three U.S. diplomats after weapons were found in their vehicle.
Police said the diplomats, accompanied by a Pakistani body guard and two drivers, were stopped for a routine check, during which police found several rifles, pistols and ammunition. Police said the Americans also had been questioned because they left Peshawar on a trip and returned without proper documents.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
No. 2 Al Qaeda leader reportedly targeted in Pakistan, as drone strikes escalate
FoxNews.com June 04, 2012
Abu Yahya Al-Libi is a rock star in the jihadist world. With his videos and lectures going viral on the Web, he is Al Qaeda's Mr. YouTube.
On Monday, the top Al Qaeda operative reportedly was the intended target of the latest U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, strikes that have been increasingly unpopular among Pakistanis but successful in recent years at taking out terrorist leaders.
The latest strike reportedly killed eight militants in the tribal region of North Waziristan. U.S. and Pakistani government sources told Reuters that Al-Libi was the intended target, but they could not confirm whether he had been hit.
It was the third strike in three days in Pakistan, with a Taliban leader killed in the first strike. And it was said to be the eighth strike in the last two weeks.
The target zone, Mir Ali, is described by sources as a terrorist haven that is a "crossroads" for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and the latest strike, according to Pakistani officials, is believed to have killed foreign fighters -- code for Arab members of Al Qaeda or Western recruits.
As for Al-Libi, he made his name in July 2005 when he escaped from this high security U.S. prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, along with three other Al Qaeda members. In keeping with his reputation, Al-Libi made a 54-minute video documenting his capture by the Pakistanis, his handover to U.S. authorities and escape from the prison.
Al-Libi is known as a preacher and scholar who more recently took the second-in-command spot when Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri took charge of Al Qaeda after Usama bin Laden's death. As Al Qaeda's de facto general manager, al-Libi oversaw the group's day-to-day operations in Pakistan's tribal areas and managed outreach to Al Qaeda's regional affiliates.
The State Department's Rewards for Justice program had set a $1 million reward for information leading to the Libyan-born fugitive.
Despite the progress in taking out Al Qaeda leadership, the U.S. drone campaign had been in a holding pattern before the NATO summit in Chicago last month in an effort to mend fences. When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was unable to reach a deal with the Pakistanis to re-open supply lines for NATO forces, the drone program resumed.
"This is one of the more prominent names" among the targets of drone strikes in Pakistan, which helps bolster the CIA's push to continue the drone program despite the continued political resistance from Pakistan and collateral damage, added former CIA officer Paul Pillar.
FoxNews.com's Catherine Herridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
83 militants surrender to government in northern Afghan province
PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, June 5 (Xinhua) -- More than 80 anti-government militants gave up fighting and surrendered to the government in Baghlan province 160 km north of capital Kabul on Tuesday, according to police.
"Today 83 dissident brothers who were unhappy with the government laid down their arms and surrendered," provincial police chief Assadullah Shirzad said in his remark to welcome the former militants.
These people, he said, were active in Gazargah Noor district over the past couple of years and with their surrender to government the security situation will be further improved.
More than 3000 anti-government militants, according to officials, have laid down arms and resumed normal life over the past one year in Afghanistan. However, Taliban outfit, the main armed opposition group fighting Afghan government has rejected the claim as baseless.
Settling Afghan Disputes, Where Custom Holds Sway
The New York Times By ZACHARY BOOKMAN June 4, 2012
From the Chinook helicopter, I saw villages dotting valleys and hugging small brown streams. Every house in Shah Wali Kot district was constructed of mud, until more modern structures emerged on the approach to Kandahar Airfield. Rugged hills and steep passes divided villages. The challenge to Afghanistan’s stability appeared self-evident: How can the state project justice where it can’t reach?
In Kabul, at NATO headquarters and surrounding installations, rule of law efforts focus on the provision of formal justice. The coalition trains Afghan police officers, prosecutors, judges, even law students. Attorneys from the Department of Justice at the United States Embassy, British counterparts and members of the anticorruption task torce (where I work) press the Afghan government on major corruption cases.
In rural communities, where four-fifths of Afghans live, dispute resolution functions much as it did in the 20th century and before.
Elders use consensus, not trials. Where the international community applies Western legal models, shadow governments occasionally spring up. In some areas, Taliban judges ride in on motorbikes and administer swift decisions in a sort of circuit court.
When I arrived at the governor’s compound that day in north-central Kandahar, bearded men conducted a shura — a consensus-based, legislative meeting of local elders. They sat outside in a gravelly courtyard, eating chicken, potatoes, rice and naan bread. Although the Americans had provided a building, the men remarked that it was too cold in the winter and too warm in the summer.
No saranwal (prosecutor), judge or hoqooq (arbitrator) worked in Shah Wali Kot. I asked the governor how citizens among the 710 villages, which contain roughly 40,000 to 50,000 people, settle disputes there. The governor stated that he decided all major disputes. He explained that the provincial governor in Kandahar rejected his nomination for a hoqooq. The reason: the candidate lacked a high school diploma and therefore did not qualify under a merit-based hiring plan promoted by the coalition.
I asked if disputants ever disobeyed decisions. The governor said no, because the process seeks consensus and includes consultation with villagers. If participants are not happy with an order, the governor sends the disputants to Kandahar City. He referred 100 cases there last year. Local advisers told me that the court failed to decide any of the cases sent to it last year from Shah Wali Kot. There are long delays, they said, and judges turn litigants away without a hearing. I asked the governor if villagers ever refused to go to Kandahar City. He said that no one rejects his authority.
As we toured the governor’s compound, colleagues from the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development asked about internationally funded construction on future accommodations for judges. The main building where we had met and had lunch was ramshackle but functional. The building next to it, intended to house a forthcoming “formal justice center,” was in a similar state; a dozen Afghans were in the main room of the two-room building, praying and sleeping.
At the corner of the grounds stood a structure with wooden scaffolding hugging half-finished walls. Incoming judges and saranwals currently in training programs in Kabul were to live there. The governor worried that they will not show up for fear of poor security. We passed a garden with labels for cabbage, lettuce and tomatoes.
From a tactical operations center in an adjacent combat outpost, a company of Special Forces conducted rule of law “white zone” operations: clearing villages of Taliban, persuading elders to seek formal justice, and then handing the territory over to the army before moving on to new villages. I asked if their efforts endured. The results were mixed, I was told.
The day’s tour and the return flight over jutting snow-covered peaks left me unsettled. As evidenced by unused judicial buildings, international rule of law efforts seem disconnected from the needs and realities of rural Afghanistan.
Afghans already resolve the vast majority of their disputes through existing, nonadversarial systems. Communities have settled disputes for centuries with traditions and customary law. Decisions go uncodified, and human rights abuses persist, particularly against women. But rather than promote a formal, foreign system, the coalition might achieve more by incrementally improving these established methods.
Rural Afghans jealously guard their way of life against government encroachment. And after 35 years of war, they may want justice to grow from stability rather than the other way around.
Zachary Bookman is a civilian lawyer who serves on the Combined Joint Interagency Task Force – Shafafiyat (Transparency) at International Security Assistance Forces headquarters in Kabul. Before working in Afghanistan, he practiced trial litigation in San Francisco. The opinions expressed here are those of the author.
With war and neglect, Afghans suffer from environmental problems
Xinhua By Farid Behbud, Yangtze Yan June 4, 2012
KABUL - The war-weary Kabulis bear numerous challenges including environmental problems and ecological contamination besides the protracted war and insurgency.
"These brick kilns are sending thick black smoke to the sky regularly, 24 hours a day without any break," said Abdul Wodud, a resident of Deh Yaya, a sub-district in the northeastern outskirts of Kabul.
"There are more than 1,000 brick kilns in Dah Sabz district and surrounding areas which cause enormous environmental problems in Dah Sabz district and neighboring areas including Dah Yaya sub- district," Wodud told Xinhua on Monday ahead of the World Environment Day which is observed every year on June 5 to raise global awareness of the need to take positive environmental actions.
In Afghanistan, continued drought and protracted war added to the environmental problems. There is no modern garbage disposal center to digest the garbage produced by some 4 million people in Kabul or recycle factories in Kabul and other big cities.
"We have had a beautiful view in Dah Sabz 20 years ago with dozens of grape gardens around here but we have lost them all due to drought and conflicts. Nowadays those gardens have been changed to trenches and cavities and those grape trees have been changed to brick kilns," Wodud said.
The volume of pollution in Kabul city, where all political, military and diplomatic missions are located, can be gauged from the fact that a thick ply of cloud-like dust covers the city space almost every day.
"The environment and the air of our cities including Kabul are hugely polluted which is extremely hazardous to our health and even causes ailment and mortality," Ghulam Mohammad Malikyar, the deputy chief of Afghan Environment Directorate, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
The brick kilns have been denounced by environmentalists for a long period but the government has failed to close them down in the outskirts of Kabul and other areas nearby.
"We are being driven crazy with this situation, my children are sick, you know, those kilns burn rubber and old car tire, discharging poisonous gas to the area, causing the incidence of respiratory diseases in our neighborhood," Wodud went on to say.
Kabul, the capital of the war-torn but under-construction Central Asian nation, has not been spared, as poor civic amenities, battered streets and pitiable sewerage system have hugely contributed to the pollution there.
Environmental official Malikyar said that the rate of pollution in Kabul has reached the alarming level and warned "living in Kabul would be unsafe after five years if the status quo continues. "
Contrary to some developed and developing nations, Afghanistan faces no problem of greenhouse gases, rather the lack of drainage system and the surge of second-hand vehicles that have caused the air pollution.
And there is no chemical factory or plant in Afghan cities that produce carbon dioxide or other gases. However, burning tires in brick kilns, public baths, battered roads, congested streets, smoke emitting from vehicles and poor forestation campaign have been contributing to the polluting environment.
"Building unplanned houses, dense population and the lack of sewage system would gradually contaminate underground water in Kabul and eventually cause a variety of diseases," Malikyar warned.
More than 50 percent of Afghans are said to have no access to potable water.
Like security problems in the militancy-plagued Afghanistan, the high rate of pollution would also hurt people, said Abdullah Fahim, advisor to the Afghan Public Health Ministry.
"The polluted air in Kabul causes a variety of diseases including skin disease, eye problems and even lung cancer," Fahim told Xinhua in a telephone interview.
Fahim, who works as a medical practitioner, warned that the presence of lead in the polluted air would also cause brain ailment, affect digest system and cause heart problems.
"In the past we had nothing in this territory but a blue sky and limpid water in rivers in Kabul and across the country but at the present we have a gray sky and a river full of garbage and plastic bags here in Kabul," said Ghulam Hazrat, a Kabul resident.
"Since working in Kabul as a taxi driver over the past four years, I have gotten the respiratory problem," said taxi driver Farhad Mohammadi, complaining that "the Kabul municipality has set up a landfill on a saline area in northern edge of Kabul airport just beside a road which goes to Kasaba neighborhood where thousands of families live."
Mohammadi said the municipality authorities should have carried out a series of environmental recovery work in that saline area with salty mud, yet they changed it to a landfill and dozens of trucks discharge trash there every day.
"Several dozens of waste scavenger, including children, rush to the area to sort out for plastic, metal and other materials for selling. When I pass this area I close up my car windows but the malodorous garbage of the landfill drives me crazy," Mohammadi said.
Calling on Afghans to make efforts to keep the environment clean, a number of non-governmental organizations including a Kabul- based Green Club and Union of Afghanistan Youth, in addition to the government's support for greenery, plan to celebrate the International Environment Day by holding a number of programs.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By Dan De Luce | AFP – Tue, Jun 5, 2012
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta encouraged India to play a "more active role" in Afghanistan during talks Tuesday in New Delhi, US officials said.
Washington has previously worried about India antagonising its arch-foe Pakistan and preferred New Delhi retain a modest profile in the Afghan conflict, restricted to troop training and infrastructure development.
But officials briefing reporters before Panetta arrived on a two-day visit to New Delhi said US policy has evolved as the NATO-led force prepares to withdraw combat troops by the end of 2014.
"Over the last 10 years, for a variety of reasons, India has not played a particularly active role in Afghanistan," a senior defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters aboard Panetta's plane.
"We welcome India playing a more active role in Afghanistan, a more active political and economic role," the official said, adding that the US hoped India would expand its training of Afghan security forces.
India has "trained army and police before but on a relatively small scale."
Panetta discussed the issue, as well as a new US strategic tilt towards Asia and expanding military ties, when he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon on Tuesday, officials said.
"In both meetings, Secretary Panetta discussed the US rebalance to the Asia-Pacific region and the importance the United States places on India," his spokesman George Little said in a statement.
In October, India and Afghanistan signed a "strategic partnership" deal aiming at deepening their security and economic links, with Afghan President Hamid Karzai also keen to elevate India's involvement.
New Delhi, fearful of the return of an Islamist regime in Kabul, has ploughed about $2.0 billion of aid into the country to gain influence, but is extremely wary of over-stepping.
The US official acknowledged the hostility and distrust between India and Pakistan, but said both countries had a common interest in seeing peace take root in Afghanistan.
Shashank Joshi, an expert on South Asia security and an associate fellow at the London-based think-tank Royal United Services Institute, said the Indians are afraid of what will happen once NATO combat troops pull out in 2014.
"They are convinced the Afghan state is more brittle than the Americans and the British think and fear they will end up picking up the pieces with the jihadis heading east and their interests in danger," he told AFP.
The suggestion India bolster its presence in Afghanistan might be an attempt by Washington to press Pakistan to open its border to NATO supply convoys, which Islamabad has blocked since a US air strike in November killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
The United States has had to rely since then on a more costly, cumbersome route to the north through Central Asia.
Any enhanced role for India would alarm Islamabad, which views New Delhi's activities in Afghanistan with deep suspicion, fearing India could effectively encircle Pakistan through its proxies.
Apart from the Afghanistan war, Tuesday's talks touched on America's much-publicised "rebalance" towards Asia as well as expanding US defence ties between the two countries, officials said.
After Panetta's meeting, officials said India agreed to allow US teams to resume a search for the remains of missing American service members at crash sites from World War II in the country's northeast.
The Pentagon estimates there are about 400 missing troops from some 90 aircraft crashes in the area.
Panetta, who was due to deliver a speech here on Wednesday, flew to India after a stop in Vietnam as part of a nine-day tour of Asia designed to underscore a US "pivot" to Asia after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The emphasis on the Asia-Pacific partly reflects a growing rivalry between China and the United States, with the Americans worried that Beijing could eventually dominate the crossroads of the global economy -- the South China Sea.
India eyeing Afghanistan oil & gas blocks sans bids
Economic Times MEERA MOHANTY & Rajeev 05 Jun, 2012
NEW DELHI - India is hoping to secure oil and gas exploration blocks in Afghanistan on the basis of its goodwill with the country, while it may also participate in the upcoming auction of six blocks to the north of Mazar-i-Sharif, officials said.
An Indian delegation, including officials from state-run explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp, is expected to visit Afghanistan soon on invitation from its mines minister, two Indian officials said on condition of anonymity.
Officials said they were hoping to get some prospective blocks in Afghanistan without participating in the bidding process because of the goodwill that India has generated in the country. It is also expected that Indian firms will commit investments in Afghanistan to get blocks on nomination basis, they added.
India, one of the largest aid donors to war-ravaged Afghanistan, has lagged behind China in the race for acquiring oil and gas assets in the region. Last year, China bagged three energy blocks in the Amu Darya basin after promising to invest in a refinery there.
New Delhi is keen on lie near the border to Turkmenistan, which has the world's fourth largest reserve of natural gas. "The block is very close to Turkmenistan's gas-rich region and experts say the gas reservoirs could be extended to the Afghanistan side," one official said.
Turkmenistan has proven gas reserves of about 265 trillion cubic feet. The oil and gas potential of Afghanistan is not fully established yet.
India is also keen on joining the second round of bidding for energy blocks this time in the Afghan-Tajik-basin, having missed the first. ONGC's foreign arm, ONGC Videsh, is considering participating in the auction of the six exploration blocks offered, the officials said.The last date for submission of expression of interest is June 30.
Announcing the new blocks it was putting up for grabs at a conference in London in March, Afghanistan's Mines Minister, Wahidullah Shahrani said that there were over 60 potential hydrocarbon-bearing structures in these.
China sees role for regional bloc in Afghanistan
AFP – Tue, Jun 5, 2012
China, Russia and four Central Asian countries have vowed to play a bigger role in Afghanistan, Chinese President Hu Jintao said in comments published Wednesday, as NATO forces prepare to pull out.
He said the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) -- a group intended as a counterweight to US influence in Central Asia and dominated by China and Russia -- had also decided to strengthen Afghanistan's role in the organisation.
The comments came as leaders of the SCO member states met in Beijing for a two-day summit on security and economic issues across the region.
"We will... play a greater role in the peaceful reconstruction process in Afghanistan," Hu said in an interview published in the People's Daily newspaper, the ruling Communist Party mouthpiece.
"The SCO supports Afghanistan becoming an independent, peaceful, prosperous, neighbourly country, free from terrorism and drugs," he said.
The SCO -- which groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan -- was formed in 2001 with the view of counterbalancing US and NATO influence in the region. India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia are observers.
Hu said the organisation -- which has invited Afghanistan as a guest at this year's summit -- had decided to grant the troubled country observer status, amid general concern as NATO forces prepare to pull out by the end of 2014.
Russia has criticised the withdrawal timeline, and President Vladimir Putin -- who is currently attending the SCO summit in Beijing -- has cited the stability of Afghanistan as an issue of "common concern".
India, meanwhile, has voiced fear that Islamic radicals will gain strength once Western forces pull out of the country.
Liu Weimin, spokesman for China's foreign ministry, confirmed Wednesday that Afghanistan had been given observer status, saying the development of the situation in the country was of concern to the SCO member states.
"The two sides will be able to enhance their cooperation in security, economy and social areas," he told reporters.
"The SCO has experience and capacity in fighting terrorism, narcotics, transnational crimes as well as economic development, and it is ready to strengthen cooperation with Afghanistan."
Eight Suspects Arrested Over Afghan Schoolgirls' Poisoning
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan June 5, 2012
A security official in Afghanistan’s northern Takhar Province says eight suspects have been arrested over alleged links to the recent poisoning of schoolgirls.
The official told RFE/RL on June 5 that preliminary investigations pointed to the detained suspects having links with Taliban fighters and the militant Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
Health officials in Takhar have said some 800 schoolgirls recently fell ill after allegedly inhaling poisonous gas that was released at six schools in the region.
The Taliban has denied any involvement in attacks on schools and demanded punishment for those responsible for the gas attacks.
In 1996-2001, when it held power over most of Afghanistan, the Taliban barred girls from attending schools, deeming female school attendance un-Islamic.
Feature: Poisoning girl pupils, a new dilemma for Afghan parents
By Abdul Haleem, Chen Xin
KABUL, June 5 (Xinhua) -- "It really disappointed me to see my girl laid down unconscious on a bed in hospital to receive medical treatment. It is a matter of concern for me and other parents sending their kids to school," Abdul Qayum, father of an affected girl, said in a hospital in the northern Takhar province.
The relatively peaceful Takhar, 245 km north of Afghan capital Kabul, has experienced a few cases of poisoning girl at schools over the past one month causing panic among the residents especially the parents.
"It is a new evil phenomenon added to our suffering. My daughter left home healthily for school in the morning but now is unconscious," the upset Qayum told Xinhua.
He also called on the government to bring to justice those behind the attack to ensure security in schools.
For at least six times, according to local officials, the girl schools have been mysteriously attacked with toxic substance, leaving hundreds of innocent pupils affected.
The latest such attack was on Sunday and according to Hafizullah Safi, director of the public health department in Takhar's provincial capital Taluqan city, 40 students from Nahid Shahid Girl School had been taken to hospital for medical treatment.
Earlier, 97 students were sent to hospital after similar attack on the Bashir Abad Girl School. However, the authorities have not identified the substance used in poisoning the girl pupils and no one has claimed responsibility for it.
Local officials blamed the enemies of peace, a term used against Taliban militants, for attacking the girl schools.
But Taliban militants have rejected their involvement in targeting girl students. In a statement over the weekend the outfit said attacking schools is not the work of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the name of ousted Taliban regime).
Local media reported Tuesday that five people had been arrested on charges of involving in poisoning girl school students in Takhar province.
Several schools have already been closed down in Andar district of Ghazni province due to security threats posed by Taliban outfit, according to officials.
Afghan minister for education Farooq Wardak admitted last month that 530 schools have remained closed due to security reasons, mostly in the southern region where Taliban are active. As a result, 300,000 students have been deprived of their right for education.
In Afghanistan, some 5 million school-aged children cannot go to school because of security reasons, traditional restrictions and poverty.
In relatively more conservative region in Afghanistan, especially in tribal areas where the old tradition is deeply rooted, the parents often do not like young girls to go out of home.
"My dream was to become a gynecologist but unfortunately my father stopped me from going to school when I was in grade 7," a girl from northern Baghlan province said.
INSIGHT - As Afghan exit looms, U.S. debate rages over Haqqani militants
Reuters By Missy Ryan and Mark Hosenball Tue Jun 5, 2012
WASHINGTON - Five days after Afghan militants showered the U.S. embassy in Kabul last September with rockets and bullets in a bold, nearly 20-hour assault, top U.S. officials pointedly pressed the Pakistani government to take action against the Haqqani network, the Taliban-allied militant group.
A handful of American officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Marc Grossman, President Barack Obama's envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, laid out during the meeting in New York what they knew about the attack, which they traced back to the town of Miranshah, where the network has a base in northwest Pakistan.
The Americans walked away from the 3-1/2 hour encounter much as they have from many others that preceded and have followed it - with Pakistani promises to support U.S. goals but little else.
Now, as the United States and other NATO nations prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan and their time grows short to cripple a still-potent insurgency, debate is raging within the Obama administration about how to confront the threat posed by Haqqani militants - and about how actively Pakistan is supporting them.
"There are troubling links between elements of the Pakistani government and the Haqqanis," said one U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "How high those links go is an open question."
The September 18, 2011 meeting, on the margins of the U.N. General Assembly, was an important moment in the Obama administration's nearly four-year-long bid to persuade Pakistan to take decisive action against the Haqqanis. The group's tenacious guerrilla tactics - more than those of the rest of the Afghan Taliban - may represent the future Afghan insurgency.
Whether or not the United States can convince Pakistan to act may help determine the legacy of the war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001. With most American troops due to be out of Afghanistan in 2014, the United States appears to have limited options to confront the Haqqanis.
"The Haqqanis are currently the strongest horse in the race ... for influence in a post-U.S. Afghanistan. The Pakistani security services plan to ride that horse as far as it will take them," said Jeffrey Dressler of the Institute for the Study of War think tank, a leading U.S. scholar on the Haqqani network.
'GOODNESS PERSONIFIED'
The Haqqani network, founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani, fought the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, with varying levels of support from Pakistani, Saudi and U.S. officials. His son Sirajuddin Haqqani now plays an increasingly prominent role in a network that operates both in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Influential U.S. congressman Charlie Wilson once called Jalaluddin Haqqani, in his days as a U.S. ally against Moscow in the 1980s, "goodness personified."
"They went from 'goodness personified' to terrorists," said former CIA operations officer Arturo Munoz.
Dressler said current and retired elements of Pakistani security forces, including the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), at times gave the Haqqani network financial, logistical and possibly more direct support. Occasionally, he said, they help them plan or carry out attacks.
Some current and former U.S. officials say that a handful of sophisticated attacks by the Haqqani network have shown direct support from elements of Pakistani intelligence, including a 2008 suicide attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul. Some U.S. officials believe such links were evident in the 2011 assault on the U.S. embassy in Kabul but other American officials disagree.
Pakistan vehemently denies such links and points out that thousands of its own soldiers have died battling militants.
U.S. officials assert that Pakistan, riven by tensions between weak elected leaders and a powerful military, has allowed the Haqqani network to fester. Beyond that, U.S. officials say the picture of the relationship between the ISI and Haqqani militants becomes more murky.
"The longer this case goes on, it is impossible to say that there is not a large degree of (Pakistani government) complicity, if not overt assistance, to the Haqqani network," a senior U.S. intelligence source said on condition of anonymity.
Speaking in the September 2011 New York meeting, Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar repeated her government's long-standing denials of institutional support from the ISI for Haqqani militants, Reuters has learned. Show us the evidence of such links, she said, and Pakistan will act on it.
Jalaluddin Haqqani made his name as a revered anti-Soviet commander in the area of southeast Afghanistan known as "Loya Paktia," seen by the Haqqanis as their rightful homeland. The United States and Gulf nations also supported Haqqani indirectly as they funneled money and weapons to the Afghans rebels' fight.
A counterpart to Mullah Omar, the one-eyed Muslim cleric who became the Taliban leader, Haqqani in 1995 joined the Taliban, which went on to rule Afghanistan until being ousted in 2001 in the U.S.-led invasion. Eventually named a minister, he stayed on the margins of Taliban decision-making as it fought to impose a hard-line version of Islam before 2001 and, later, expel foreign troops.
Some experts say the Haqqani group appears to have evolved beyond the goal of controlling its Afghan homeland, embracing more ambitious aspirations closer to those of al Qaeda. That shift has taken place as Sirajuddin, who grew up around foreign militants who flocked to the region, has gained prominence.
For years, the Haqqanis and the Taliban barely registered as a major military threat for most U.S. officials, as the United States under former President George W. Bush sought to limit the degree of U.S. military involvement in Afghanistan to focus on Iraq, which U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003.
Attacks by the Taliban and its allies began to pick up in 2006 and increased sharply in 2008. Over time, attacks by Haqqani insurgents showed increasing military sophistication.
The Haqqani insurgents have been blamed for some of the most daring, complex attacks in Afghanistan, including a 2011 truck bombing in Wardak province, a 2008 attack on a Kabul parade ground where Afghan President Hamid Karzai was present, and major assaults on Kabul's most important hotels.
After the suicide bombing on the Indian embassy, which killed nearly 60 people, U.S. officials said they intercepted telephone calls between militants carrying out the attack and individuals in Pakistan associated with the ISI.
Some intelligence sources say cell phones or testimony collected after the 2011 U.S. embassy attack also point back to individuals in Pakistan linked to the ISI. That assertion is rejected by Pakistan and is disputed by some U.S. officials.
The extent of disagreement within the Obama administration about such links was evident days after Clinton's meeting in New York. Admiral Mike Mullen, speaking to Congress just before he retired as the top U.S. military officer, described the Haqqani network as a "veritable arm" of the ISI.
Mullen, incensed that such attacks continued despite his long effort to court Pakistani Army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, also suggested the ISI supported the group as it launched the U.S. embassy assault and similar high-profile attacks.
The testimony not only triggered heated denials from Pakistan but angered officials in the White House and State Department, who believed the evidence was not so clear.
'WENT TOO FAR'
Reviewing Mullen's testimony in advance, the State Department had urged the Pentagon to delete some of the stronger accusations against Pakistan. It did not do so.
"He went too far," another U.S. official said of the exchange, which has not previously been reported.
Mullen has since stood by what he said. And many in the military cheered his parting shot.
"They're killing our people," a third U.S. official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. "They're able to do that to some degree because they're allowed to have safe havens ... and in some cases given tacit support."
The debate over the Haqqani network also manifests itself in tensions between the State Department, Congress and the Pentagon over whether it should be officially listed as a "terrorist" group by the United States.
The State Department, leading a push for a peace deal between the Afghan government and the Taliban, has resisted pressure to list the group. U.S. diplomats appear to be hoping the Haqqanis can be part of a deal - if one is possible.
Last summer, U.S. negotiators met with Ibrahim Haqqani, Jalaluddin's brother, in an encounter brokered by Pakistan. Such contacts could make a terrorist listing awkward.
The United States has pressed Pakistan to mount a military offensive targeting the network. Pakistani officials have expressed uncertainty about how well their forces would fare against a group entrenched and well-armed in North Waziristan.
Robert Grenier, a former senior U.S. intelligence official who was CIA station chief in Pakistan until 2002, said the Haqqanis could create major problems for Pakistan's government.
"It's not just a client-master relationship," Grenier said.
Clinton, during an October 2011 visit to Islamabad, said Pakistan's own security was at risk. "You can't keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors," she said. "Eventually, those snakes are going to turn.
The United States also has sought to use millions of dollars in civilian and military aid to Pakistan as leverage, to little avail. That leverage might disappear if Congress follows through with moves to cut aid, the latest in a series of bilateral crises including the killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers last November in a U.S. air attack along the Afghan border.
The United States has continued a campaign of drone strikes in North Waziristan that has accelerated in recent weeks. It also has taken steps to target the group's financing.
While U.S. military commanders have expressed concern about a simmering threat in areas of eastern Afghanistan that are home to Haqqani militants, there are no current plans to shift the bulk of remaining foreign troops there. That means much of the fight would fall to the inexperienced Afghan army in those areas.
U.S. officials should keep in mind that Pakistan is already looking past the departure of most U.S. troops, said Jonah Blank, a foreign policy expert at the RAND Corp. research group.
"We are asking them to turn against an outfit they consider a valuable asset - and make an enemy out of a group that will be in the region forever," Blank said.
(Editing by Warren Strobel and Will Dunham)
Iran Restricts Afghan Refugees Education Access
TOLOnews.com Monday, 04 June 2012
Iran's National Organisation for Educational Testing has issued a list of university courses which prohibits Afghan refugees to study, a western news website reported.
The universities include Atomic physics, nuclear engineering, aerospace engineering, chemical engineering and military sciences.
The report also said that Afghan refugees are only allowed to apply at the universities in the areas where they live.
The prohibited areas included a dozen of provinces and many cities in different parts of Iran.
A spokesman for the Afghan embassy in Iran Mohammad Dehqani said that banned universities is not only for Afghan refugees but for all foreign nationals living in Iran.
"The Ban order is not only for Afghan refugees but it covers other foreign nationals too. Such limitations even exist in western countries, its not related to the political issues. As you know Iran has always supported education for Afghan refugees," Dehqani said.
Meanwhile, Nader Farhard, UNCHR commissioner believes that Iran should provide other facilities such as good living conditions, employment opportunities, education for kids and so on.
"According to UNCHR demands, if an area is declared prohibited, the legal refugees should have other options to live with honour and peace. They should have employment opportunities, their kids should be allowed to attend schools and should have access to other facilities," Mr Farhad said.
"We haven't witnessed forced deportation of any legal Afghans, but we are concerned about those 400 to 800 illegal Afghans expelled from Iran."
A Kabul university professor, Nasrullah Istanikzai, believes that as these universities are the main educational resources of Iran, they are not allowing Afghan and other countries' nationals to study.
"Because these universities are their main education treasures, they banned Afghan and other foreign nationals to study there. This proves that Iran is trying to enrich uranium," He added without elaborating.
NATO strikes deals with Central Asian nations for withdrawal of equipment from Afghanistan
Associated Press 04/06/2012
BRUSSELS - NATO has concluded agreements with Central Asian nations allowing it to evacuate vehicles and other military equipment from Afghanistan and completely bypass Pakistan, which once provided the main supply route for coalition forces.
Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Monday that Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan had agreed to allow the reverse transport of alliance equipment. Since NATO already has an agreement with Russia, the deal will allow it to ship back to Europe tens of thousands of vehicles, containers and other items through the overland route when the evacuation picks up pace later this year.
Pakistan shut down the southern supply routes six months ago after U.S. airstrikes accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers at two border posts, forcing NATO to switch almost completely to the so-called Northern Distribution Network.
After months of stalemate, Pakistani leaders last month signaled that negotiations on the supply routes were progressing, just in time to secure an invitation to the weekend NATO summit in Chicago. But since then the two sides have made little progress in the talks, officials said.
The announcement on Monday appears to indicate that Washington and the allies are now preparing for the possibility that the supply link through Pakistan, said to be about six times cheaper than its northern alternative, may not be reopened at all. It is also likely to put pressure on Pakistan to ease its negotiating stance, which has been stuck in part on how much money the U.S. and NATO should pay to transport the trucks through Pakistani territory.
NATO plans to hand over lead responsibility for the war against the Taliban to the Afghan army and police by the middle of next year, and withdraw its troops by the end of 2014. The alliance already has started drawing down its forces, which reached a peak of about 140,000 last year.
The Afghan security forces will have more than 350,000 members in the next few months. The international withdrawal is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2014.
“These agreements will give us a range of new options and the robust and flexible transport network we need,” Fogh Rasmussen told reporters.
He said the new deals would make “the use of the Russian transit arrangements even more effective. “
Moscow also has proposed allowing NATO to set up a logistics facility at the air base in Ulyanovsk, Russia, for troops and cargo heading in and out of Afghanistan.
___
Rebecca Santana in Islamabad contributed to this report.
US Officials Say Drone Strike Targeted Al-Qaida's No. 2
VOA News June 5, 2012
U.S. officials say a drone strike in Pakistan's tribal region targeted al-Qaida's second in command, but they do not know if the militant leader survived.
The officials, speaking to U.S. media on condition of anonymity, said the airstrike Monday in Hesokhel targeted Abu Yahia al-Libi. They said his death, if confirmed, would be a major blow to the terror group.
Pakistani officials said the attack killed at least 15 people - one of several airstrikes in recent days that killed at least 27 people overall.
The country's foreign ministry on Monday strongly condemned the U.S. drone strikes, calling them "illegal attacks" that violate Pakistan's sovereignty and "go against international law."
Christopher Snedden, a South Asia analyst with the Melbourne-based security consultancy Asia Calling says the United States is likely to continue the drone strikes because they are an effective way to go after militants without endangering U.S. forces.
"I expect that they will do that because it's such an efficient way of running an operation," he said. "It may be reduced if Islamabad and Washington can actually improve their relationship but there's nothing in the short term that suggests that's going to happen."
The Libyan-born al-Libi has been running al-Qaida's day-to-day operations in Pakistan's tribal regions as well as its links to regional affiliates. He escaped prison at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan in 2005 and appeared in a series of propaganda videos before rising to become the terror group's deputy leader last year.
Relations between Washington and Islamabad have reached a new low over a series of events, including the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan by U.S. special forces in May 2011 and the accidental killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers last November in a NATO air strike.
Pakistan's parliament has demanded a U.S. apology for the deadly cross-border attack and an end to the U.S. drone strikes. Washington refused to end the missions, saying drone strikes are a vital tool in the war against al-Qaida and the Taliban. Islamabad responded by blocking NATO supply routes into Afghanistan and the two sides have yet to reach an agreement on reopening them.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said Monday that "the strategic disadvantages of such attacks far outweigh their tactical advantages, and are therefore, totally counterproductive."
The continued strikes could further sour diplomatic ties between the two countries, but there is no indication that Washington intends to stop them.
Acting Assistant U.S. Secretary of Defense for Asia and Pacific Security Affairs Peter Lavoy is set to hold talks with Pakistani officials in Islamabad this week to try and break the deadlock over the supply routes.
Also Monday, police in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar briefly detained three U.S. diplomats after weapons were found in their vehicle.
Police said the diplomats, accompanied by a Pakistani body guard and two drivers, were stopped for a routine check, during which police found several rifles, pistols and ammunition. Police said the Americans also had been questioned because they left Peshawar on a trip and returned without proper documents.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.
No. 2 Al Qaeda leader reportedly targeted in Pakistan, as drone strikes escalate
FoxNews.com June 04, 2012
Abu Yahya Al-Libi is a rock star in the jihadist world. With his videos and lectures going viral on the Web, he is Al Qaeda's Mr. YouTube.
On Monday, the top Al Qaeda operative reportedly was the intended target of the latest U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, strikes that have been increasingly unpopular among Pakistanis but successful in recent years at taking out terrorist leaders.
The latest strike reportedly killed eight militants in the tribal region of North Waziristan. U.S. and Pakistani government sources told Reuters that Al-Libi was the intended target, but they could not confirm whether he had been hit.
It was the third strike in three days in Pakistan, with a Taliban leader killed in the first strike. And it was said to be the eighth strike in the last two weeks.
The target zone, Mir Ali, is described by sources as a terrorist haven that is a "crossroads" for the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and the latest strike, according to Pakistani officials, is believed to have killed foreign fighters -- code for Arab members of Al Qaeda or Western recruits.
As for Al-Libi, he made his name in July 2005 when he escaped from this high security U.S. prison in Bagram, Afghanistan, along with three other Al Qaeda members. In keeping with his reputation, Al-Libi made a 54-minute video documenting his capture by the Pakistanis, his handover to U.S. authorities and escape from the prison.
Al-Libi is known as a preacher and scholar who more recently took the second-in-command spot when Egyptian-born Ayman al-Zawahri took charge of Al Qaeda after Usama bin Laden's death. As Al Qaeda's de facto general manager, al-Libi oversaw the group's day-to-day operations in Pakistan's tribal areas and managed outreach to Al Qaeda's regional affiliates.
The State Department's Rewards for Justice program had set a $1 million reward for information leading to the Libyan-born fugitive.
Despite the progress in taking out Al Qaeda leadership, the U.S. drone campaign had been in a holding pattern before the NATO summit in Chicago last month in an effort to mend fences. When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was unable to reach a deal with the Pakistanis to re-open supply lines for NATO forces, the drone program resumed.
"This is one of the more prominent names" among the targets of drone strikes in Pakistan, which helps bolster the CIA's push to continue the drone program despite the continued political resistance from Pakistan and collateral damage, added former CIA officer Paul Pillar.
FoxNews.com's Catherine Herridge and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
83 militants surrender to government in northern Afghan province
PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, June 5 (Xinhua) -- More than 80 anti-government militants gave up fighting and surrendered to the government in Baghlan province 160 km north of capital Kabul on Tuesday, according to police.
"Today 83 dissident brothers who were unhappy with the government laid down their arms and surrendered," provincial police chief Assadullah Shirzad said in his remark to welcome the former militants.
These people, he said, were active in Gazargah Noor district over the past couple of years and with their surrender to government the security situation will be further improved.
More than 3000 anti-government militants, according to officials, have laid down arms and resumed normal life over the past one year in Afghanistan. However, Taliban outfit, the main armed opposition group fighting Afghan government has rejected the claim as baseless.
Settling Afghan Disputes, Where Custom Holds Sway
The New York Times By ZACHARY BOOKMAN June 4, 2012
From the Chinook helicopter, I saw villages dotting valleys and hugging small brown streams. Every house in Shah Wali Kot district was constructed of mud, until more modern structures emerged on the approach to Kandahar Airfield. Rugged hills and steep passes divided villages. The challenge to Afghanistan’s stability appeared self-evident: How can the state project justice where it can’t reach?
In Kabul, at NATO headquarters and surrounding installations, rule of law efforts focus on the provision of formal justice. The coalition trains Afghan police officers, prosecutors, judges, even law students. Attorneys from the Department of Justice at the United States Embassy, British counterparts and members of the anticorruption task torce (where I work) press the Afghan government on major corruption cases.
In rural communities, where four-fifths of Afghans live, dispute resolution functions much as it did in the 20th century and before.
Elders use consensus, not trials. Where the international community applies Western legal models, shadow governments occasionally spring up. In some areas, Taliban judges ride in on motorbikes and administer swift decisions in a sort of circuit court.
When I arrived at the governor’s compound that day in north-central Kandahar, bearded men conducted a shura — a consensus-based, legislative meeting of local elders. They sat outside in a gravelly courtyard, eating chicken, potatoes, rice and naan bread. Although the Americans had provided a building, the men remarked that it was too cold in the winter and too warm in the summer.
No saranwal (prosecutor), judge or hoqooq (arbitrator) worked in Shah Wali Kot. I asked the governor how citizens among the 710 villages, which contain roughly 40,000 to 50,000 people, settle disputes there. The governor stated that he decided all major disputes. He explained that the provincial governor in Kandahar rejected his nomination for a hoqooq. The reason: the candidate lacked a high school diploma and therefore did not qualify under a merit-based hiring plan promoted by the coalition.
I asked if disputants ever disobeyed decisions. The governor said no, because the process seeks consensus and includes consultation with villagers. If participants are not happy with an order, the governor sends the disputants to Kandahar City. He referred 100 cases there last year. Local advisers told me that the court failed to decide any of the cases sent to it last year from Shah Wali Kot. There are long delays, they said, and judges turn litigants away without a hearing. I asked the governor if villagers ever refused to go to Kandahar City. He said that no one rejects his authority.
As we toured the governor’s compound, colleagues from the State Department and the United States Agency for International Development asked about internationally funded construction on future accommodations for judges. The main building where we had met and had lunch was ramshackle but functional. The building next to it, intended to house a forthcoming “formal justice center,” was in a similar state; a dozen Afghans were in the main room of the two-room building, praying and sleeping.
At the corner of the grounds stood a structure with wooden scaffolding hugging half-finished walls. Incoming judges and saranwals currently in training programs in Kabul were to live there. The governor worried that they will not show up for fear of poor security. We passed a garden with labels for cabbage, lettuce and tomatoes.
From a tactical operations center in an adjacent combat outpost, a company of Special Forces conducted rule of law “white zone” operations: clearing villages of Taliban, persuading elders to seek formal justice, and then handing the territory over to the army before moving on to new villages. I asked if their efforts endured. The results were mixed, I was told.
The day’s tour and the return flight over jutting snow-covered peaks left me unsettled. As evidenced by unused judicial buildings, international rule of law efforts seem disconnected from the needs and realities of rural Afghanistan.
Afghans already resolve the vast majority of their disputes through existing, nonadversarial systems. Communities have settled disputes for centuries with traditions and customary law. Decisions go uncodified, and human rights abuses persist, particularly against women. But rather than promote a formal, foreign system, the coalition might achieve more by incrementally improving these established methods.
Rural Afghans jealously guard their way of life against government encroachment. And after 35 years of war, they may want justice to grow from stability rather than the other way around.
Zachary Bookman is a civilian lawyer who serves on the Combined Joint Interagency Task Force – Shafafiyat (Transparency) at International Security Assistance Forces headquarters in Kabul. Before working in Afghanistan, he practiced trial litigation in San Francisco. The opinions expressed here are those of the author.
With war and neglect, Afghans suffer from environmental problems
Xinhua By Farid Behbud, Yangtze Yan June 4, 2012
KABUL - The war-weary Kabulis bear numerous challenges including environmental problems and ecological contamination besides the protracted war and insurgency.
"These brick kilns are sending thick black smoke to the sky regularly, 24 hours a day without any break," said Abdul Wodud, a resident of Deh Yaya, a sub-district in the northeastern outskirts of Kabul.
"There are more than 1,000 brick kilns in Dah Sabz district and surrounding areas which cause enormous environmental problems in Dah Sabz district and neighboring areas including Dah Yaya sub- district," Wodud told Xinhua on Monday ahead of the World Environment Day which is observed every year on June 5 to raise global awareness of the need to take positive environmental actions.
In Afghanistan, continued drought and protracted war added to the environmental problems. There is no modern garbage disposal center to digest the garbage produced by some 4 million people in Kabul or recycle factories in Kabul and other big cities.
"We have had a beautiful view in Dah Sabz 20 years ago with dozens of grape gardens around here but we have lost them all due to drought and conflicts. Nowadays those gardens have been changed to trenches and cavities and those grape trees have been changed to brick kilns," Wodud said.
The volume of pollution in Kabul city, where all political, military and diplomatic missions are located, can be gauged from the fact that a thick ply of cloud-like dust covers the city space almost every day.
"The environment and the air of our cities including Kabul are hugely polluted which is extremely hazardous to our health and even causes ailment and mortality," Ghulam Mohammad Malikyar, the deputy chief of Afghan Environment Directorate, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
The brick kilns have been denounced by environmentalists for a long period but the government has failed to close them down in the outskirts of Kabul and other areas nearby.
"We are being driven crazy with this situation, my children are sick, you know, those kilns burn rubber and old car tire, discharging poisonous gas to the area, causing the incidence of respiratory diseases in our neighborhood," Wodud went on to say.
Kabul, the capital of the war-torn but under-construction Central Asian nation, has not been spared, as poor civic amenities, battered streets and pitiable sewerage system have hugely contributed to the pollution there.
Environmental official Malikyar said that the rate of pollution in Kabul has reached the alarming level and warned "living in Kabul would be unsafe after five years if the status quo continues. "
Contrary to some developed and developing nations, Afghanistan faces no problem of greenhouse gases, rather the lack of drainage system and the surge of second-hand vehicles that have caused the air pollution.
And there is no chemical factory or plant in Afghan cities that produce carbon dioxide or other gases. However, burning tires in brick kilns, public baths, battered roads, congested streets, smoke emitting from vehicles and poor forestation campaign have been contributing to the polluting environment.
"Building unplanned houses, dense population and the lack of sewage system would gradually contaminate underground water in Kabul and eventually cause a variety of diseases," Malikyar warned.
More than 50 percent of Afghans are said to have no access to potable water.
Like security problems in the militancy-plagued Afghanistan, the high rate of pollution would also hurt people, said Abdullah Fahim, advisor to the Afghan Public Health Ministry.
"The polluted air in Kabul causes a variety of diseases including skin disease, eye problems and even lung cancer," Fahim told Xinhua in a telephone interview.
Fahim, who works as a medical practitioner, warned that the presence of lead in the polluted air would also cause brain ailment, affect digest system and cause heart problems.
"In the past we had nothing in this territory but a blue sky and limpid water in rivers in Kabul and across the country but at the present we have a gray sky and a river full of garbage and plastic bags here in Kabul," said Ghulam Hazrat, a Kabul resident.
"Since working in Kabul as a taxi driver over the past four years, I have gotten the respiratory problem," said taxi driver Farhad Mohammadi, complaining that "the Kabul municipality has set up a landfill on a saline area in northern edge of Kabul airport just beside a road which goes to Kasaba neighborhood where thousands of families live."
Mohammadi said the municipality authorities should have carried out a series of environmental recovery work in that saline area with salty mud, yet they changed it to a landfill and dozens of trucks discharge trash there every day.
"Several dozens of waste scavenger, including children, rush to the area to sort out for plastic, metal and other materials for selling. When I pass this area I close up my car windows but the malodorous garbage of the landfill drives me crazy," Mohammadi said.
Calling on Afghans to make efforts to keep the environment clean, a number of non-governmental organizations including a Kabul- based Green Club and Union of Afghanistan Youth, in addition to the government's support for greenery, plan to celebrate the International Environment Day by holding a number of programs.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com