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Bomber posing as peace envoy wounds Afghan spy chief
By Michael Georgy
KABUL (Reuters) - A Taliban suicide bomber posing as a peace messenger wounded Afghanistan's intelligence chief in Kabul on Thursday, another sign that the government is struggling to improve security ahead of a NATO pullout in 2014.
Asadullah Khalid was wounded when the bomber struck in a meeting at a guesthouse used by the National Directorate of Security (NDS).
"The bomber was a peace messenger sent by the Taliban to the Afghan government, around 3 p.m. in a meeting with the head of NDS, detonated his explosives," said NDS spokesman Shafiqullah Tahiri.
"Right now the head of the NDS is in good condition. The surgery was a success."
The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, which highlighted Afghanistan's ongoing instability as U.S.-led NATO troops prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014.
After more than 10 years of war against Western forces as well as Afghan troops, militants are capable of striking in the heart of the capital.
The attack was almost a carbon copy of last year's assassination of Afghanistan's chief peace negotiator, Burhanuddin Rabbani.
He died at his Kabul home when an insurgent posing as a peace envoy detonated explosives concealed in a turban.
The Afghan government has failed to draw the Taliban into face-to-face talks.
In a video message released by his office, President Hamid Karzai said:
"The head of the NDS is now undergoing surgery ... the chief of the hospital has told me he is in a good condition and now we hope he will recover and he will be sent for further treatment elsewhere."
TOUGH ALLY OF KARZAI
Afghanistan's parliament approved the nomination of Khalid as the new head of the NDS in September, an appointment that alarmed human rights groups who have long accused the agency of torturing detainees, allegations it denies.
"We will see more similar attacks in order to further increase uncertainty about 2014. It's part of the psychological warfare by the Taliban," said Davood Moradian, a former presidential adviser and head of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank.
Moradian said Khalid was a powerful ally for Karzai since he had built up a formidable network of contacts among the Pashtun community in the south and east of the country, where the insurgency is strongest.
He said Khalid was renowned for his tough stance against the Taliban and his belief that the Afghan government needed to take a tough line with the insurgents in any negotiations.
Human rights groups have been troubled by allegations that Khalid, a close aide of Karzai, ran a torture prison while he was governor of Kandahar. He denies any wrongdoing.
Khalid built a formidable intelligence network to infiltrate the Taliban while serving in previous posts as governor of Kandahar and Ghazni provinces, both hotbeds of insurgency, said Michael Semple, an expert on the Taliban at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard.
"He had access to significant operational funds and used these to run agents deep inside the Taliban in Quetta," Semple said, referring to the city in southwest Pakistan where many of the Taliban's leaders are believed to be based.
"He also has a reputation for conducting black operations, bombings and assassinations, which is why the Taliban fear him," Semple added.
Khalid is seen as one of the most effective operators in Afghanistan's security hierarchy.
Diplomats saw Khalid as an instrumental figure in a systematic attempt to rig the 2009 presidential election in favor of Karzai, which sparked a protracted showdown with Washington before Karzai was eventually returned to power.
As one of the most influential members of Karzai's circle, Khalid was poised to play a critical role in the fraught process of political transition before the next elections in April, 2014, when Karzai is bound by the constitution to step down.
(Additional reporting by Matthew Green in Islamabad; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Afghan Intelligence Chief Wounded In Bombing
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan December 6, 2012
KABUL -- The head of Afghanistan's intelligence service has been wounded in a bomb attack in Kabul.
A senior Afghan official told RFE/RL on December 6 that Asadullah Khalid had been targeted in a suicide bombing.
The National Directorate of Security (NDS) released a statement saying the agency's chief survived what it called a "cowardly terrorist attack."
Reports say Khalid was wounded while receiving a visitor in the afternoon at a guesthouse run by the Afghan intelligence service.
A senior Afghan official told the Associated Press that Khalid suffered injuries to the lower part of his body. The spy chief was rushed to a hospital run by the NDS.
"Our intelligence director who was injured in a cowardly terrorist attack is now undergoing surgery. The doctor treating him gave me the details. They are positive," Afghan President Hamid Karzai told journalists after visiting Khalid in the hospital.
"For now we have great hopes for his full recovery."
Journalists later received an e-mail, said to be from the Taliban, claiming responsibility for the attack.
In August, Khalid was nominated by Karzai to head the NDS. The Afghan parliament confirmed the appointment in September.
Accusations From Time As Governor
The 43-year-old spy chief is an ethnic Pashtun from the central Ghazni Province.
He is considered close to Afghan lawmaker Abdur Rab Rasul Sayyaf, a veteran of the fight against Soviet forces in the 1980s.
Khalid was the governor of Ghazni and Kandahar provinces between 2005 and 2008. He was later appointed to run the Border and Tribal Affairs Ministry -- a post he held until his appointment to the NDS in August.
International human rights organizations have accused him of torture, unlawful killings, and running private prisons. They objected to his appointment as NDS chief and called for an investigation into the allegations against him.
In September, Amnesty International said that there were credible allegations that Khalid was "involved in the bombing of a vehicle that killed five UN workers in Kandahar in April 2007."
Khalid is considered a close confidant of Karzai and a staunch enemy of the Taliban. He survived a suicide bombing in Kandahar in 2007.
With reporting by AP and Reuters
EXCLUSIVE - New Pakistan Taliban chief emerging, will focus on Afghan fight
By Mehreen Zahra-Malik
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan's Taliban, one of the world's most feared militant groups, are preparing for a leadership change that could mean less violence against the state but more attacks against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, Pakistani military sources said.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a ruthless commander who has led the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the last three years, has lost operational control of the movement and the trust of his fighters, said a senior Pakistan army official based in the South Waziristan tribal region, the group's stronghold.
The organisation's more moderate deputy leader, Wali-ur-Rehman, 40, is poised to succeed Mehsud, whose extreme violence has alienated enough of his fighters to significantly weaken him, the military sources told Reuters.
"Rehman is fast emerging as a consensus candidate to formally replace Hakimullah," said the army official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. "Now we may see the brutal commander replaced by a more pragmatic one for whom reconciliation with the Pakistani government has become a priority."
The TTP, known as the Pakistan Taliban, was set up as an umbrella group of militants in 2007.
Its main aim is to topple the U.S.-backed government in Pakistan and impose its austere brand of Islam across the country of 185 million people, although it has also carried out attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The militants intensified their battle against the Pakistani state after an army raid on Islamabad's Red Mosque in 2007, which had been seized by allies of the group.
Mehsud, believed to be in his mid-30s, took over the Pakistan Taliban in August 2009. He rose to prominence in 2010 when U.S. prosecutors charged him with involvement in an attack that killed seven CIA employees at a U.S. base in Afghanistan. His profile was raised further when he appeared in a farewell video with the Jordanian suicide bomber who killed the employees.
Reuters interviewed several senior Pakistan military officials as well as tribal elders and locals during a three-day trip with the army in South Waziristan last week, getting rare access to an area that has been a virtual no-go zone for journalists since an army offensive was launched in October 2009.
Three senior military officials said informers in the Pakistan Taliban told them Mehsud was no longer steering the group.
Pakistan Taliban commanders did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the possible leadership change.
U.S. officials said that while Rehman was Mehsud's natural successor, they cautioned about expecting an imminent transition. Mehsud's standing in the Pakistan Taliban might have weakened, but he still had followers, they said.
Washington has offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to the capture of either Mehsud or Rehman.
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One Pakistan military official, who has served in South Waziristan for more than two years, said his Pakistan Taliban contacts first alerted him to Mehsud's waning power six months ago, when constant pressure from the Pakistan military, U.S. drone strikes and poor health had hurt his ability to lead.
"Representing the moderate point of view, there is a probability that under Rehman, TTP will dial down its fight against the Pakistani state, unlike Hakimullah who believes in wanton destruction here," said the military official based in the South Waziristani capital of Wana.
The official said this might lead to more attacks across the border in Afghanistan because Rehman has been pushing for the group's fighters to turn their guns on Western forces.
Other factions within the Pakistan Taliban such as the Nazir group in South Waziristan and the Hekmat Gul Bahadur faction in North Waziristan have struck peace deals with the Pakistani military while focusing attacks on Western and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.
A change in the Pakistan Taliban's focus would complicate Western efforts to stabilise Afghanistan before most NATO troops leave by the end of 2014, said Riaz Mohammad Khan, a Pakistani diplomat who has held several posts dealing with Afghanistan.
The United States is already fighting the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network, which is based along the unruly frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan and which is perhaps Washington's deadliest foe in Afghanistan.
The last thing U.S.-led NATO troops need is a new, formidable enemy in the approach to 2014.
Such a shift in emphasis, however, could reduce the number of suicide bombings that have plagued Pakistan in recent years, scaring off investment needed to prop up an economy that has barely managed to grow since 2007.
AT EACH OTHER'S THROATS
The Pakistan Taliban, who are close to al Qaeda, remain resilient despite a series of military offensives. They took part in a number of high-profile operations, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases, and the attempted assassination of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai in October, who had campaigned for girls' education.
The Pakistan Taliban were also blamed for the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad which killed more than 50 people.
Under Mehsud, the organisation formed complex alliances with other militant groups spread across Pakistan.
But it has long been strained by internal rivalries over strategy. Mehsud has pushed the war with the Pakistani state, while others such as Rehman want the battle to be against U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan.
"Rehman has even held secret negotiations with the Pakistani government in the past but Hakimullah always stood in his way, wanting to carry on fighting the Pakistani military," a second Wana-based military official said.
The two were at each other's throats earlier this year and hostilities were close to open warfare, Taliban sources said.
"Differences within the ranks have only gotten worse, not better, rendering the TTP a much weaker force today than a few years ago," the second military official said.
A source close to the Taliban told Reuters there had been months of internal talks on the Pakistan Taliban's decreasing support among locals and fighters in tribal areas where the group has assassinated many pro-government elders.
"The Taliban know they are fighting a public relations war, and under someone like Hakimullah, they will only lose it," added the source, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
It isn't clear whether Mehsud will hand over the leadership to Rehman without a fight.
A power struggle could split the group, making it more difficult to recruit young fighters and also disrupt the safe havens in Pakistan used by Afghan militants.
According to accepted practice, a leadership council, or shura, will ultimately decide whether to formally replace Mehsud with Rehman.
Intelligence officials said Mehsud had not commanded any recent operations, including an August 16 attack on the Minhas Airbase in Pakistan and a suicide attack on a street market in May that killed 24 people.
Military sources said Rehman planned the April 15 jail break in Bannu in Pakistan that freed 384 prisoners, including an estimated 200 Taliban members and an al Qaeda-linked militant who had attempted to assassinate former president Pervez Musharraf.
FALL FROM GRACE
Intelligence officials in the area said Mehsud's brutality had turned his own subordinates against him, while the more measured Rehman had emerged as the group's primary military strategist.
"If a leader doesn't behave like a leader, he loses support. For the longest time now, Hakimullah has done the dirty work while Wali-ur-Rehman is the thinker. Taliban fighters recognise this," said the first Pakistani military source.
A local elder described Mehsud as "short-tempered and trigger-happy".
"(Mehsud) used to work 24 hours a day, tirelessly. But he would also put a gun to anyone's head and kill them for his cause," said a local shopkeeper who has family members involved in the Pakistan Taliban.
Mehsud gained his reputation fighting with the Afghan Taliban against U.S. and allied forces in Helmand province in Afghanistan. He was later given command of Taliban factions in the Bajaur, Orakzai, Khyber and Kurram regions.
He took over the Pakistan Taliban after a weeks-long succession battle with Rehman following the death of Baitullah Mehsud in a drone strike. The two Mehsuds were not related.
(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; Editing by Randy Fabi, Michael Georgy and Dean Yates)
Karzai blames NATO, U.S. for violence, corruption in Afghanistan
By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | The Ticket
Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed the U.S. and NATO forces on Thursday for some of the violence and the brunt of corruption that is rampant in his war-torn country. Karzai bluntly criticized allied tactics, declaring that terrorists won't be beaten "by attacking Afghan villages and Afghan homes."
Speaking in an exclusive interview with NBC News, Karzai also said he had written a letter to President Barack Obama warning that Afghans will not permit American and NATO troops to stay past 2014 unless the U.S. turns over hundreds of detainees held at Bagram Air Base and a nearby facility.
"I have written to President Obama that the Afghan people will not allow its government to enter into a security agreement while the United States continues to violate Afghan sovereignty," he said. "Part of the insecurity is definitely coming to us from terrorism, and the attacks of the Taliban. Part of the insecurity is coming to us from the structures that NATO and America created in Afghanistan."
NATO-led forces are currently scheduled to withdraw by the end of 2014, but the Obama administration has entered into negotiations with the government in Kabul on a security pact that would allow some as-yet undisclosed number of troops to remain beyond that point. Their mission would be to train Afghan security forces and carry out counterterrorism missions. White House press secretary Jay Carney recently said that Obama has not yet settled on the size of that residual force. The spokesman also suggested that no troops might remain.
National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden confirmed to Yahoo News that Obama had received Karzai's letter, but said, "We're not going to discuss the contents." She added that the U.S. and Afghanistan were working out "some remaining issues" regarding the transfer of detainees to Afghan custody. Hayden also said the administration hoped to wrap up the negotiations on the post-2014 agreement "within a year."
Obama made the American withdrawal from Iraq and planned withdrawal from Afghanistan key planks of his re-election platform. But the pullout from Iraq came about in part because of the collapse of negotiations over maintaining an American presence there. The Iraqi government refused to give U.S. forces immunity from prosecution—a deal-breaker for Washington. Karzai's comments raise the specter of another possible deal-breaker.
Would Afghanistan consider giving American forces immunity?
"We can consider that question. I can go to the Afghan people and argue for it," said Karzai. "But before I do that, the United States of America must make absolutely sure that they respect Afghanistan's sovereignty, that they respect Afghanistan's laws, that no Afghan is hurt or his or her rights violated by U.S. soldiers."
Karazi has regularly denounced NATO night raids and strikes that have killed civilians in Afghanistan. But he also aims to secure billions of dollars in long-term aid for his country's military and economy. (At a farewell press conference with then-President George W. Bush in December 2008, Karzai said: "Afghanistan will not allow the international community to leave it before we are fully on our feet, before we are strong enough to defend our country, before we are powerful enough to have a good economy and before we have taken from President Bush and the next administration billions and billions of more dollars—no way that [we] can let you go.")
Karzai also cited "tensions" in the U.S.-Afghan relationship, which he described as "businesslike" and "not based on sentiments."
The Afghan president, who has signaled that he will not run for re-election in 2014, said he "absolutely" felt safe enough to stay in Afghanistan and that he looked forward to being out of office.
"I feel absolutely safe. I will be staying in Afghanistan. This is my country," he told NBC, adding with a laugh: "I'll be very happy to be an ex-president." Still, "there is more corruption than ever before in Afghanistan," he added, citing Afghan officials who take bribes, but placing the lion's share of the blame on the U.S.
"The bigger corruption is the corruption in contracts. The contracts are not issued by the Afghan government. The contracts are issued by the international community, mainly by the United States," he said. "Now whether this corruption in Afghanistan is an accident, a byproduct of the situation in the past 10 years or is it perpetrated also on purpose is today my main question.
"There is, for a number of years now, a growing perception in Afghanistan that a significant part of insecurity in Afghanistan is caused by the way the United States and some of its allies promoted lawlessness in Afghanistan by spreading corruption in Afghanistan by employing private security firms," he charged.
"We have to wait for 2014 for the withdrawal of international forces, for the reduction in the amount of contracts. Then you will see that Afghanistan will definitely be a lot less a corrupt government and country," he predicted.
"The issue of corruption is one of concern and has been in Afghanistan," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters when asked about Karzai's comment. "We share President Karzai's concern about that, and we work with the government of Afghanistan on this issue regularly. We know it's a problem and has been a problem, and we continue to work with the government on that problem."
"The U.S. government takes the issue of accountability of development assistance in Afghanistan seriously," Hayden also said. "We have a system in place for monitoring and auditing Afghanistan assistance funding, and we are always looking for ways to improve our implementation and oversight."
More than 3,000 American and allied military personnel have been killed in the decade-long conflict launched to catch or kill Osama bin Laden, whom Navy SEALS shot dead in a dramatic May 2011 raid inside Pakistan.
Afghanistan: For ex-Taliban, it's peace or death
Former members of the Taliban are desperate for peace. Their lives may depend on it.
Global Post By Chris Sands December 5, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - When he was a Taliban member, Mawlawi Pir Mohammed Rohani feared America and its allies. For years, he was scared even to visit his local mosque.
Now estranged from the group, out of hiding and living in the Afghan capital, he fears his former colleagues.
"The big threat is that if they arrest me, they will behead me from the back of the neck," he said, laughing.
Rohani is just one of several former Taliban leaders who left the movement after the US-led invasion only to see it flourish without him. Still fond of their old associates and sympathetic toward the insurgency, they find themselves caught in a dangerous limbo.
Despite reconciling with the Afghan government, they do not fully accept it. Nor do they trust the warlords within its ranks who previously fought them as part of the Northern Alliance.
Yet some in the Taliban — particularly the younger, more radical members —view them as traitors.
Now with security deteriorating and NATO troops withdrawing, it is getting harder for them to walk this tightrope.
And so they are scrambling to broker a peace deal.
Should they fail, a civil war appears destined to begin. Their decision to break from the resistance may cost them their lives.
Rohani comes from the southeastern province of Khost. He joined the Taliban even before the movement took control of the government in 1996. For him and many others it was the best chance to bring law and order to a country then in the grip of anarchy.
A religious scholar, he was later appointed director of Kabul University in what was then known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
When the United States invaded in 2001, Rohani initially wanted to fight. But after the sheer ferocity of American airpower became apparent, he changed his mind and fled to Pakistan.
He stayed there until 2005, hardly leaving his house in Miranshah, a town in North Waziristan that is these days regularly pummeled by American drones. He claims most Taliban at that time sought a quiet life away from the battlefield, but were pushed into taking up arms because they were hunted down regardless.
"I could not go and pray in the mosque next door to my house in case the Americans arrested me, so all the time I prayed with my wife inside the house. When the Americans forced us, we tried to organize ourselves to fight against them until the war came to this point," he said.
Rohani is now a member of the High Peace Council, which was established with international backing in 2010 to help encourage talks between the Afghan government and militant groups.
Although the organization has not achieved any major breakthroughs so far, he believes the withdrawal of foreign troops will satisfy one of the Taliban’s key demands and leave them with few reasons to continue their resistance. In the meantime, he cannot visit Miranshah or Khost.
"The people who are fighting right now are very emotional, so if they find us they will kill us," he said.
In May, gunmen in Kabul assassinated Arsalan Rahmani, another High Peace Council member and former deputy minister of the Taliban. Exactly who carried out the attack remains unclear, but it left a lingering atmosphere of suspicion and resentment in some quarters.
Not everyone who broke with the militants is convinced that Afghan and foreign officials are serious about negotiating an end to the conflict. Compounded by an obvious concern for their own safety, they are now speaking with an anger not seen before.
Abdul Hakim Mujahid was the Taliban regime's representative at the United Nations. Also on the peace council, he blamed the government for the death of Rahmani, claiming it had failed to thoroughly investigate the case.
"Any person who is working for peace is under threat from different sides, not only from one side," he said.
Mujahid criticized the United States for not freeing the remaining Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and for designating a militant faction known internationally as the Haqqani Network as a terrorist organization. He insisted that senior members of the Taliban were in favor of reconciliation and should not be isolated.
"The other type are inexperienced youths, the zealous ones," he said. "They are not counting [down] the years when the American forces will leave and they will capture the government, they are counting [down] the weeks and months."
Both Mujahid and Rohani were interviewed before Pakistan released a handful of Taliban detainees last month in an apparent effort to kick start talks. Since then, however, the Afghan government is reported to have executed a number of its own Taliban prisoners.
With all conventional foreign combat troops due to depart by the end of 2014, people here believe the Taliban's return to power is a genuine possibility.
Old rivals are re-arming in preparation for the battle ahead. Young educated Afghans who have grown accustomed to the relative freedom of life in urban centers during the last decade are now escaping abroad.
For others, this is a time of mixed emotions. Those who previously served with the Islamists realize they are under threat, but they still have the utmost respect for their former organization.
"The Taliban government was necessary because this is an Islamic nation and we needed everything it was implementing," said one former Taliban member, summing up the lingering reverence felt among of his colleagues.
Afghan, Tajik forces launch major anti-drug raid
KABUL, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- The special police forces from Afghanistan and neighboring Tajikistan have carried out a major anti-drug operation, an Afghan official said here Thursday.
"The successful 6-day joint operation was launched in northern Afghan province of Badakhshan and Khatlan province in Tajikistan," Afghan Deputy Interior Minister Baz Mohammad Ahmadi told a press conference.
About 420 kg of drugs including heroin and opium was seized and two Tajik women kidnapped by the criminal gangs were released in Badakhshan during the raid from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4, he said. "The women were handed over to the Tajik side shortly after their release."
A total of 13 Afghans were detained for drug trafficking, Ahmadi added.
"It is obvious that the situation in Afghanistan is extremely serious and worrying, Afghanistan is still at the top of the list of the opium producing countries (in the world), no doubt about that," said Jean-Luc-Lemahieu, the United Nations Office on Drug and Crimes (UNODC) regional representative.
Lemahieu described the operation as a success and called for more cooperation between the two countries in fighting against drug in the region.
The opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan increased this year, said a report released by the UNODC on Nov. 20 in Kabul.
However, the poppy production fell due to plant diseases and unfriendly weather in the insurgency-hit country.
About 95 percent of poppy cultivation in 2012 was concentrated in the restive southern and eastern provinces where Taliban militants are active and organized crimes are rampant, the report said, noting this confirms the link between insecurity and poppy cultivation.
Since plant diseases and bad weather had damaged the crops, potential opium production fell 36 percent to 3,700 tons in 2012 from 5,800 tons last year, according to the report.
Up to 102 Afghan security personnel had lost their lives in eradicating poppy fields so far this year, according to Afghan officials.
US Tells Allies to Make Good on Afghan Pledges
Associated Press By By BRADLEY KLAPPER December 5, 2012
BRUSSELS - The Obama administration pressed its European allies on Wednesday to follow through on their pledges to Afghanistan's security after most international troops withdraw in 2014, fearful of being left with the check in an era of austerity budgets and defense cutbacks.
Donors pledged $4.1 billion a year to support Afghan forces from 2015 to 2017 at a May summit in Chicago — firming up a key plank of the U.S. strategy to leave behind a secure Afghanistan after battling insurgents for more than a decade. But many governments have yet to come through with the cash.
Speaking at NATO headquarters, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told allies it is "crucial for every nation to follow through on their commitments, and for those who haven't yet committed any funding to do so." To make her point, she invoked Afghanistan's troubled history of chasing out the Soviet Union in the 1980s only to descend into civil war and the oppression of an extremist Taliban government.
"All of us here have an interest in ensuring this region does not once again become a safe haven for international terrorists," Clinton said. "We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of 1989 and just disengage. That's why we made an enduring commitment, and it's why we have to follow through on it — today, tomorrow and for years to come."
For the United States, supporting Afghanistan's army of about 230,000 men is also an issue of economics. Hoping to map the way out of an unpopular war, the U.S. and NATO brought in dozens of other countries earlier this year to build as broad a funding base as possible for Afghanistan's still-developing army. The argument was straightforward: Even $4 billion a year to prop up the Afghan military comes out far cheaper than maintaining a foreign army in the country, and a lot easier for war-weary publics to swallow.
Together, the U.S. and governments outside the fighting force promised to come up with the bulk of the money. But having repeatedly guaranteed the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai that his country won't be abandoned, Washington doesn't want to be left covering even more because of unfulfilled pledges.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO and other coalition partners agreed Wednesday to develop a mechanism so funds are managed accountably and transparently. Widespread corruption in Afghanistan has prompted reservations by several governments.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said his government was aware of the fiscal constraints cash-strapped European nations are facing, but he expressed confidence in all pledges being met.
The money "is an investment not only in the security of Afghanistan, but also in the security of the region and the wider world," Mosazai told reporters at NATO. "So in our view, that is an efficient, cost-effective investment in long-term security."
Beating Sparks Outcry Against Militia Commanders In Afghan Government
December 5, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Sayaed Jan Sabawoon and Frud Bezhan
KABUL -- When news broke of a suicide bombing at an international military complex in Kabul last month, local police officer Mohammad Ismail was promptly dispatched to the scene.
Ismail's orders were to prevent traffic from entering the area and to redirect locals to safety. But not long after arriving with several other officers, a black SUV with tinted windows approached the checkpoint. Ismail refused the driver's request to be allowed to pass through and repeatedly told him to turn around.
In a matter of seconds, Ismail says, a number of men brandishing AK-47s stepped out of the vehicle.
The armed men -- bodyguards for parliament deputy and former militia commander Haji Zahir Qadir -- cursed and then attacked Ismail as his fellow officers fled the scene.
After picking the injured Ismail up from the side of the road, local residents delivered the 28-year-old officer to a hospital.
"For no reason, they grabbed me by the shirt and attacked me," he said. "One of them told the other bodyguards to attack me. I was surrounded by the bodyguards, who pressed their guns against my side, chest, and back. I looked back and saw that they had released the safeties on their guns. One of them hit me on the shoulder. After that, I can't remember what happened."
Social-Media Backlash
The assault on Ismail, which occurred on November 21 in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan district, has caused an uproar against Qadir and triggered a backlash against the presence of former militia leaders who are now in government. Anger spread after pictures of the assault went viral on social-media sites.
The outcry prompted the Afghan Interior Ministry to launch an investigation on November 23 and detain Qadir's bodyguards. But just a week later, on December 1, the guards were promptly freed after Qadir and several other lawmakers visited Ismail's precinct and personally apologized to him.
In a statement issued on the day of the visit, the Interior Ministry quoted Qadir as saying he regretted the behavior of his guards and vowed it would never happen again.
For the ministry's part, it simply warned politicians not to intervene in police business. "Political figures should not create problems for Afghan security forces during sensitive situations in the city and should instead assist them," the ministry statement read.
Despite the apology, the head of the Kabul police department's crimes investigation unit, General Mohammad Zaher, said on December 2 that he would refer the case to the Attorney-General's Office. Zaher also said he planned to press charges against Ismail's colleagues who fled the scene.
Powerful Militia Leaders
Ismail, who is still recovering from the injuries he sustained, reluctantly accepted the apology. But he says the incident is symptomatic of the significant power and influence wielded by the country's former militia leaders, including Qadir, who was a senior commander in the Northern Alliance.
The former strongmen, who once waged war against the ruling Taliban as leaders of the mujahedin, still exert significant influence on the country's political affairs.
Many Afghans view former militia commanders who have carved out high-ranking roles within the government as war criminals, and have accused them of using their power to extort money, grab land, and attack their opponents.
Ismail, an officer with the 10th District Force in Kabul, believes the attack should not been seen as one against him, but against the entire country. "When my police cap and badge fell on the ground, I couldn't even pick it up [out of shame]," he says. "More importantly, when my badge was disrespected so was the Interior Ministry, the security commander in Kabul, and the Afghan president himself."
On social-media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, the response has been equally critical.
Shafiqa Ahmadi, who commented on Facebook, referred to Qadir and other former militia leaders in the government as "criminals," and said the incident showed that many of them think they are above the law.
"Who gives these warlords, who are traitors and thieves, the right to attack and almost kill a member of our security forces?" Ahmadi wrote. "Why does the Interior Ministry protect these fundamentalists instead of protecting the police who have been attacked? If the government does not act we will seek action."
Another Facebook user, Ahmad Seir Nassiri, criticized the Interior Ministry, which oversees the national police force, for taking the side of "criminals" instead of an officer who was merely following orders.
"If we have a system which cannot defend its own police," Nassiri wrote, "then how can it defend people in our country? Shame to all those in the Interior Ministry."
Written by Frud Bezhan based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Sayed Sabawoon in Kabul
U.S. reducing plans for large civilian force in post-2014 Afghanistan
The Washington Post By Karen DeYoung December 5 , 2012
The Obama administration has ordered significant cutbacks in initial plans for a robust U.S. civilian presence in Afghanistan after U.S. combat troops withdraw two years from now, according to U.S. officials.
Learning from Iraq, where postwar ambitions proved unsustainable, the White House and top State Department officials are confronting whether the United States needs — and can protect — a large diplomatic compound in Kabul, four consulates around the country and other civilian outposts to oversee aid projects and monitor Afghanistan’s political pulse.
Planners were recently told to reduce personnel proposals by at least 20 percent, a senior administration official said. Projects once considered crucial are being divided into lists of those considered sustainable and those that will not be continued.
“As we saw in the Iraq exercise, you need to be very tough on the numbers going in,” the official said. “We need to have enough civilians to achieve the goals we’ve laid out,” within “a finite amount of money we have to spend.”
Officials declined to identify specific projects that might end. But the inevitable decrease in eyes and ears across Afghanistan could threaten a range of long-term U.S. investments and priorities, such as women’s rights, education, health care and infrastructure.
The challenge of balancing the American civilian presence of what are now about 1,000 officials and thousands of contractors with reasonable resources goes beyond pocketbook and personnel issues, according to several senior officials, who discussed the planning on condition of anonymity because it is at an early stage.
On one side of the simmering internal debate are fiscal constraints, diminished hopes for progress and national weariness with the Afghanistan effort. On the other side are formal U.S. pledges of development support, moral and political commitments to a country where nearly 2,200 U.S. troops have died and $590 billion has been spent, and fears Afghanistan could again become a terrorist haven.
Looming over the debate is the determination to avoid a repeat of the September attack on a poorly defended U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
Last month, the administration began what is likely to be a year-long negotiation with the Afghan government over how many troops the U.S. military will leave behind when combat ends in 2014. A key sticking point is whether remaining troops will be subject to Afghan law, which doomed similar talks with Iraq last year.
Even if the negotiations succeed and a sizable American force remains, the U.S. military is certain to curtail or stop the security and other services it provides U.S. government civilians in Afghanistan.
“How do you do security? How do you do mobility? These are expensive propositions when State has to do it all itself,” Ryan Crocker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan until last summer, said in an interview.
Those concerns were echoed by Sarah Chayes, who has spent years in Afghanistan and was an adviser to the U.S. military command there. “There is a significant risk that the conditions in Afghanistan are going to be too hostile for an influx of civilians to be able to function,” she said.
The mega-embassy problem
The mega-embassy concept was born in Iraq as the State Department tried to hold its own with a U.S. military whose counterinsurgency strategy included development and governance tasks once reserved for diplomats and civilians. When the military withdrew, the diplomats tried to continue the noncombat work without the military’s massive budget or the protection provided by up to 150,000 troops.
As the State Department assumed many of the military’s tasks, including training Iraq’s national police, the diplomatic mission grew to nearly 20 support personnel for each official, including more than 6,000 contract security guards. With a $6 billion budget, the department set up its own domestic Iraqi air service and staffed three hospital facilities. The rolls of civilians and contractors topped 20,000.
Today, the world’s biggest diplomatic mission employs about 13,000 government and contract workers, but the goal is to reach fewer than 8,000, officials said. The police program, originally planned with 350 U.S. trainers at 22 sites, has been reduced to about 40 trainers at two sites. Plans to build seven consulates have shrunk to two.
As hard as Iraq has been, Afghanistan poses far more difficult security and logistical problems. There is little optimism that the war against the Taliban will be over before U.S. combat troops leave or that Afghan security forces will prove an able substitute.
“The problem with Afghanistan is, it’s not going to look like success,” James F. Jeffrey, who until September was U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said in an interview. “It’s still going to be backward and totally corrupt, with not enough government infrastructure and a huge burning insurgency. This is terribly complicated and hard stuff under the best of circumstances, and these are the worst.”
U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials outside Kabul are housed at military at bases large and small. They depend on the military to protect and transport them, and provide medical care. They consume imported food and water brought in massive military convoys.
The bases are disappearing, and plans for the Afghans to provide security leave many Americans nervous.
Where Iraq has been kept afloat by oil revenue, Afghanistan depends on handouts. International donors have promised a post-2014 annual supplement of $4 billion for Afghan security forces and an equal amount in development and economic assistance. More than half of the $8 billion will come from the United States.
U. S. Agency for International Development officials say that every development project started in recent years has been approved only if the Afghans can eventually sustain it without U.S. help.
“We want to have an appropriate [civilian] footprint,” the senior official said. “We just have to be smart about it.”
The official declined to specify a final number of civilians but said there had already been “lots of cutting” and it would be well below the current level.
Some worry that the zeal to cut may get out of hand.
“There’s a point at which it would be too small, a point at which the message to Afghans would be that we actually didn’t learn the lesson in 1989-90,” said a second senior official, referring to the abrupt withdrawal of support after U.S.-backed Afghan guerrilla forces ended a decade of Soviet occupation.
Left to its own devices, Afghanistan sank into a civil war that opened the door to the Taliban, who ruled much of the country, and hosted al-Qaeda, until U.S. forces helped overthrow them in 2001.
Preliminary plans
Firm decisions on civilian numbers and locations cannot be made “until we resolve exactly what the military follow-on numbers are going to be,” one official said. “That will determine . . . where we locate, what kind of security, medical and other support we might be able to get.”
At its headquarters in Kabul, the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force is preparing recommendations for Obama on how fast to withdraw the 68,000 remaining U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan.
Plans for the follow-on military presence are being formulated in the Pentagon, where the largest of several preliminary options calls for about 10,000 troops, with several other NATO governments penciled in for several hundred each.
According to these preliminary plans, ISAF’s successor would be based in Kabul, officials said, with most U.S. training and counterterrorism troops probably stationed in Kandahar and at the air base at Bagram. Both locations are to be converted to Afghan ownership.
Smaller counterterrorism units of the Joint Special Operations Command would be positioned primarily in the eastern part of the country, where most of their activities take place.
Italy, in charge of the ISAF mission in Herat in western Afghanistan, would remain there to train Afghans. Germany would do the same in Mazar-e Sharif in the north. It is unclear what would happen at Camp Bastion, the British headquarters in Helmand province.
Officials say the NATO allies are waiting to see what sort of agreement is reached between the Americans and the Afghans, and how many U.S. troops will remain.
Although the Afghan government has agreed to a long-term foreign military presence in principle, negotiations over the size and terms have just begun. The main sticking point is likely to be the issue that led to the breakdown with Iraq — whether U.S. forces are immune from Afghan legal jurisdiction.
The size of the U.S. military will help determine the size of the civilian footprint. “If there’s no military medical capacity or medevac capability, then it’s going to be pretty pricey,” Crocker said. “That may mean downsizing. I hope it doesn’t mean eliminating any of the four posts” designated as U.S. consulates.
The fate of the consulates is a topic of debate between the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and planners in Washington. Crocker and others contend that the United States must be present in all four corners of Afghanistan.
Last June, the first consulate was opened in Herat, which is relatively peaceful. A location in Mazar-e Sharif was abandoned when it was determined to be insecure — after the State Department had signed a 10-year lease and spent $80 million.
For now, the other two facilities, in Kandahar and Jalalabad, remain on the drawing board.
Afghanistan Readies Pre-Withdrawal Tax Breaks
Wall Street Journal By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV And NATHAN HODGE December 5, 2012
KABUL - Afghanistan is planning major tax breaks and incentives to lure investors ahead of U.S.-led forces' withdrawal at the end of 2014, part of an effort to stem accelerating capital flight, the country's finance minister said.
A proposal drafted by the finance ministry and endorsed by President Hamid Karzai would grant a 10-year tax break and provide free land to companies that invest in Afghanistan over the next two years, Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal told The Wall Street Journal.
Concerns about the possibility of civil war once the foreign forces leave, coupled with diminishing Western aid, have undermined confidence in the country's economy. Several billion dollars in cash were smuggled to Dubai from Afghan airports this year alone, according to coalition estimates. Many projects have been put on hold as investors wait to see whether the Afghan government will be able to stave off a Taliban takeover on its own, and whether presidential elections, slated for April 2014, would provide a legitimate successor to Mr. Karzai.
Adding to these jitters is the uncertainty over the outcome of negotiations between the U.S. and Kabul over an enduring U.S. military presence here after 2014.
"We are aware that Afghans are taking money away from Afghanistan because of concerns about 2014," Mr. Zakhilwal said. "When we see half-finished buildings and we ask why, they say, well, we're waiting until 2014."
The incentives plan, which would have to be approved by the full cabinet and the government, is expected to be unveiled as soon as Saturday. Mr. Zakhilwal didn't specify the size of the tax breaks.
"The reason it will be two years is because if you make it long-term, they will just wait until 2014. And we say, if you wait until 2014, you won't have this," Mr. Zakhilwal said in the interview Wednesday.
He said the package would spur exporters and agricultural enterprises and also stimulate the construction sector, which has been particularly hard hit by the confidence crisis. The proposal calls for simplifying the process of issuing building permits, which he said currently takes "forever." The new plan would require municipalities to issue them within 21 days.
"The construction sector is not only good for job creation but also good for confidence," he said. "When there is a lot of construction work going on, it gives confidence to people."
Amid the political uncertainty, the country's real-estate market has been particularly hard hit. Rents and property prices in Kabul's toniest neighborhoods have fallen by more than one-third since the year began, real-estate agents say, as foreign contractors and aid groups go home. In some areas, every second building sports a "For Rent" sign.
"People are afraid that a civil war will erupt once the foreigners leave, and everyone who can is taking their money out of the country," said Ghulam Mohammad, co-owner of a property agency in central Kabul. "Business is slow."
Rahimullah Hamid, executive director of the Kabul Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said the government incentives are badly needed. "We try to convince people that things will change in a good way," he said. "But most of the public, after they see the news, have heavy concerns about 2014."
Mr. Zakhilwal said he expected the U.S. military drawdown's economic effect will be limited.
This year, the Afghan economy is growing at about 10%, with the forecast for 2013 at between 10% and 11%, Mr. Zakhilwal said. Once the U.S. military drawdown occurs, however, the growth rate will slip to between 5% and 6%, he estimated, assuming international spending on development won't be significantly affected.
Mr. Zakhilwal added that the drawdown's impact won't be as severe as many fear because a large percentage of the money spent on military contracts—perhaps as much as 80% or 90%—currently doesn't stay in Afghanistan, going instead to large overseas companies.
Still, over the past decade, many Afghan businesses sprang up to provide goods and services to U.S. and coalition forces. Afghan construction firms help build roads and bases, and Afghan logistics companies deliver fuel and supplies for international projects.
As the military-funded contracting boom winds down, the U.S. government is hoping that some of those firms will diversify to focus on local business opportunities. This week, the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Agency for International Development brought four U.S. companies to Kabul to promote franchising opportunities for Afghan businesses.
The companies—electronics retailer RadioShack, RSH +2.08% industrial and construction equipment supplier Hertz Equipment Rental, educational tutoring firm Tutor Doctor and printing services firm AlphaGraphics—held matchmaking sessions with Afghan businesspeople looking to invest in new opportunities.
"I quickly divide [Afghan] companies into three categories," said Walter Koenig, senior commercial officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. "There are the companies that are going to cut and run when it's done. There are the companies that hope things never change And there are those who are looking for the future, and are looking for a new way to respond to the new reality and be successful."
Most Afghan firms, Mr. Koenig reckoned, fall in the last category.
Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com and Nathan Hodge at nathan.hodge@wsj.com
Earthquake Strikes Near Iran-Afghanistan Border
December 5, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
An earthquake measuring 5.5 in magnitude has struck eastern Iran.
Iran's Fars news agency said eight people had been killed and 12 injured in the quake on December 5.
The agency said buildings had collapsed in areas impacted by the quake in the district of Zohan in South Khorasan Province.
Fars said Iran's Red Crescent Society had dispatched 15 rescue teams to affected areas to search for people trapped under rubble.
Doctors in the provincial capital of Birjand were put on alert to treat those injured.
Mohammad Sarvar, Tehran's deputy emergency services director, said with emergency workers reaching some areas the death toll could rise.
There were no early reports indicating damages or injuries in nearby areas across the border in Afghanistan.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa
Clinton says crucial countries meet Afghan funding pledges
Reuters By David Brunnstrom and Adrian Croft Dec 5, 2012
* Billions of dollars pledged for Afghan forces after 2014
* Ministers want to create body to manage foreign funds
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday it was crucial that NATO allies stick to their commitments to fund Afghanistan's security forces after Western forces end their combat role in the country in 2014.
Afghanistan's foreign backers have pledged $4.1 billion per year to fund Afghan security forces after 2014, but there are concerns that European countries hit by austerity cutbacks may not be able to meet their commitments.
"It will be crucial for every nation to follow through on their commitments, and for those who haven't yet committed any funding to do so," Clinton told a meeting in Brussels of NATO foreign ministers and countries contributing to the NATO-led military mission in Afghanistan.
Clinton said it was essential to focus on economic and political transition in Afghanistan for which countries have pledged $16 billion, and stressed the importance of regional support.
"Every nation in the region has a stake in Afghanistan's future and a responsibility to step up and help secure it," she said.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle stressed the importance of European countries delivering on aid commitments.
"Of course that is not easy during times of tightening purse strings. But it is in the interest of European citizens. That is why I am making sure that the commitments made are kept," he told reporters.
Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told reporters in Brussels that the Kabul government was fully aware of the financial pressures on countries.
"But we believe that the $4.1 billion annual funding commitment to the Afghan National Security Forces post-2014 is an investment, not only in the security of Afghanistan but also in the security of the broader region and the wider world," he said.
The ministers also discussed setting up a mechanism to oversee spending of the billions of dollars of foreign funding for the Afghan forces after 2014.
HANDLE OWN FINANCES
The Afghan government wants to handle its own finances but with Western concerns over corruption running high, NATO diplomats say the alliance is likely to get a strong role in managing international funding after 2014.
NATO diplomats said the new funding body will build on the existing Afghan National Army Trust Fund, set up to finance the rapid expansion of the Afghan army over the last few years, and will include international donors and the Afghan government.
Mosazai said Afghanistan wanted to deal with other countries after 2014 as an independent, sovereign country.
"But at the same time we want to ensure we have structures in place that will (reassure) everybody about the accountable, transparent, effective and efficient expenditure of those funds," he said.
Afghanistan is ranked as one of the world's most corrupt countries. The theft of about $935 million from the Kabulbank two years ago and the subsequent foot-dragging in prosecuting those responsible underlined concerns about Afghanistan's ability to manage its finances and enforce the rule of law.
Afghanistan Says U.S. Has Right to Seek Taliban Prisoner Swap
Bloomberg By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan December 05, 2012
Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin said his government supports U.S. efforts to secure the release of an American soldier thought to be held hostage by the Haqqani insurgent network that’s allied with the Taliban.
“We have no problem in the U.S. government engaging the Taliban directly to secure that objective,” Ludin said in an interview on the sidelines of today’s NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels. He sought to dispel reports that the Afghan government was displeased with U.S. efforts to establish a direct channel in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar to talk to the Taliban about the missing soldier.
As long as U.S. diplomats are trying to secure the American soldier’s release, there’s no conflict with larger negotiations about peace and stability in his country, he said. “But when it comes to direct negotiations with the Taliban in the context of the peace process, any direct negotiations will have to be and can only be between the Afghan government and the Taliban,” he said.
U.S. officials have engaged in behind-the-scenes exploratory contacts with the Taliban and the Haqqani insurgent network. Negotiations with Taliban representatives in Qatar broke down in March. The two sides were seeking a possible swap of five Taliban prisoners held in the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay for the 26-year-old American sergeant detained since June 2009.
Privately, U.S. foreign policy, intelligence and military officials have said they are pessimistic that negotiations with the Taliban over the soldier’s release might lead to a broader peace agreement between the Afghan government and the Islamic extremist group.
Still Unreliable
The Afghan government remains plagued by security forces that remain unreliable despite NATO training efforts, by continued opium trafficking, and by persistent official corruption and diversion of foreign aid, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke about the private talks on condition of anonymity.
At the meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels today, North Atlantic Treaty Organization members discussed mechanisms to ensure the transparent and efficient use of funds from NATO and coalition partners to support Afghan security forces before and after the withdrawal of international combat forces by the end of 2014.
The 28-member alliance and several non-NATO countries have pledged $4.1 billion in annual support for Afghan security and stability through 2017.
President Barack Obama in May signed a security partnership agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that commits the U.S. to supporting the South Asian nation’s security for 10 years.
‘Solidly Committed’
Today, Ludin said, Afghanistan was told that NATO and coalition partners are “all firmly and solidly committed in their pledges, in their continued assistance and support” for Afghanistan “until 2014 and beyond 2014.”
Ludin called the $4.1 billion in annual pledges “an investment in our common security.” If Afghanistan is left without support, he warned, there could be “grievous consequences that we witnessed with 9/11 and with other international terrorist attacks.”
The U.S. is planning to maintain some non-combat military presence to collect intelligence on militants and continue training Afghan security forces after the alliance withdraws most combat forces by 2014. Negotiations with Afghanistan on a Status of Forces Agreement to govern the actions and liability of U.S. forces are on track, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today at a NATO press briefing.
The failure to negotiate a similar agreement with the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki forced the Obama administration to withdraw all American forces from that country by the end of 2011.
The Senate yesterday approved a non-binding amendment to a defense authorization bill calling on Obama to speed the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and require a congressional review of any bilateral security agreement.
To contact the reporter on this story: Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net
Govt Decision on ECC 'Ridiculous': MPs
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Wednesday, 05 December 2012
Lawmakers have lambasted the Council of Minister's decision to do away with the independent Election Complaints Commission in its redraft of Afghanistan's election law, hailing it as a surefire move towards a fraudulent presidential election.
The Council of Ministers on Monday decided to remove the existence of the ECC and hand its election supervision responsibilities to the Supreme Court following months of top-level disagreements over whether two foreign experts will be allowed to sit on its seven-person board.
"It's very ridiculous that President [Hamid] Karzai removed the Election Complaints Commission from the election draft. He's not confident enough to launch an election," Kandahar MP Mohammad Naim Lalai Hamidzai said Wednesday.
"Everyone knows that the courts are involved in corruption. How we could trust them to announce the correct results of the election?" Ghor MP Sima Joyenda said.
Parliament in October approved the draft election law including an ECC with two foreign commissioners, but the decision was criticised by Karzai as a violation of Afghanistan's sovereignty.
The Senate approved the election law but rejected the article allowing foreign commissioners.
The Council of Minister's decision will require Parliament approval. The Council has recommended that the Karzai-appointed Supreme Court form a new election body to oversee the poll results.
The presidential election is slated for April 5 2014.
Beating Sparks Outcry Against Militia Commanders In Afghan Government
RFE/RL By Sayaed Jan Sabawoon and Frud Bezhan December 05, 2012
KABUL - When news broke of a suicide bombing at an international military complex in Kabul last month, local police officer Mohammad Ismail was promptly dispatched to the scene.
Ismail's orders were to prevent traffic from entering the area and to redirect locals to safety. But not long after arriving with several other officers, a black SUV with tinted windows approached the checkpoint. Ismail refused the driver's request to be allowed to pass through and repeatedly told him to turn around.
In a matter of seconds, Ismail says, a number of men brandishing AK-47s stepped out of the vehicle.
The armed men -- bodyguards for parliament deputy and former militia commander Haji Zahir Qadir -- cursed and then attacked Ismail as his fellow officers fled the scene.
After picking the injured Ismail up from the side of the road, local residents delivered the 28-year-old officer to a hospital.
"For no reason, they grabbed me by the shirt and attacked me," he said. "One of them told the other bodyguards to attack me. I was surrounded by the bodyguards, who pressed their guns against my side, chest, and back. I looked back and saw that they had released the safeties on their guns. One of them hit me on the shoulder. After that, I can't remember what happened."
Social-Media Backlash
The assault on Ismail, which occurred on November 21 in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan district, has caused an uproar against Qadir and triggered a backlash against the presence of former militia leaders who are now in government. Anger spread after pictures of the assault went viral on social-media sites.
The outcry prompted the Afghan Interior Ministry to launch an investigation on November 23 and detain Qadir's bodyguards. But just a week later, on December 1, the guards were promptly freed after Qadir and several other lawmakers visited Ismail's precinct and personally apologized to him.
In a statement issued on the day of the visit, the Interior Ministry quoted Qadir as saying he regretted the behavior of his guards and vowed it would never happen again.
For the ministry's part, it simply warned politicians not to intervene in police business. "Political figures should not create problems for Afghan security forces during sensitive situations in the city and should instead assist them," the ministry statement read.
Despite the apology, the head of the Kabul police department's crimes investigation unit, General Mohammad Zaher, said on December 2 that he would refer the case to the Attorney-General's Office. Zaher also said he planned to press charges against Ismail's colleagues who fled the scene.
Powerful Militia Leaders
Ismail, who is still recovering from the injuries he sustained, reluctantly accepted the apology. But he says the incident is symptomatic of the significant power and influence wielded by the country's former militia leaders, including Qadir, who was a senior commander in the Northern Alliance.
The former strongmen, who once waged war against the ruling Taliban as leaders of the mujahedin, still exert significant influence on the country's political affairs.
Many Afghans view former militia commanders who have carved out high-ranking roles within the government as war criminals, and have accused them of using their power to extort money, grab land, and attack their opponents.
Ismail, an officer with the 10th District Force in Kabul, believes the attack should not been seen as one against him, but against the entire country. "When my police cap and badge fell on the ground, I couldn't even pick it up [out of shame]," he says. "More importantly, when my badge was disrespected so was the Interior Ministry, the security commander in Kabul, and the Afghan president himself."
On social-media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, the response has been equally critical.
Shafiqa Ahmadi, who commented on Facebook, referred to Qadir and other former militia leaders in the government as "criminals," and said the incident showed that many of them think they are above the law.
"Who gives these warlords, who are traitors and thieves, the right to attack and almost kill a member of our security forces?" Ahmadi wrote. "Why does the Interior Ministry protect these fundamentalists instead of protecting the police who have been attacked? If the government does not act we will seek action."
Another Facebook user, Ahmad Seir Nassiri, criticized the Interior Ministry, which oversees the national police force, for taking the side of "criminals" instead of an officer who was merely following orders.
"If we have a system which cannot defend its own police," Nassiri wrote, "then how can it defend people in our country? Shame to all those in the Interior Ministry."
Written by Frud Bezhan based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Sayed Sabawoon in Kabul
Afghanistan may ink mining deal with SAIL-led consortium
By Indo Asian News Service | IANS – Wed, Dec 5, 2012
Kolkata, Dec 5 (IANS) Afghanistan is likely to sign an agreement with a SAIL-led consortium in January 2013 to mine Hajigak iron ore in Bamiyan province after getting cabinet clearance.
"A delegation of SAIL (Steel Authority of India) will visit Afghanistan in mid-December this year. Remaining issues will be sorted out and the deal will be concluded. After that our cabinet will clear it and a concession agreement will be signed in January 2013," Afghanistan Mines Minister Wahidullah Shahrani told reporters here Wednesday.
Shahrani said about 90 percent of the issues have already been sorted out.
The consortium had won three blocks at the Hajigak iron ore mines in Bamiyan province in Afghanistan.
The Afghan minister was in the city to attend the International Mining and Machinery Conference (IMMC) organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The Afghanistan mines ministry earlier had stated that SAIL-led AFISCO (Afghan Iron and Steel Consortium) risks losing mining licences in Afghanistan if it fails to meet production targets or fails to commence mining within six months of the licence being granted.
AFISCO consists of state-run majors, led by SAIL, NMDC and RINL, and private sector players like JSW Steel, JSW Ispat and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.
YouTube Ban, Spurred by Anti-Islamic Video, Is Met With Shrugs
New York Times By AZAM AHMED December 5, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - When it comes to YouTube, the government of Afghanistan intends to keep its hand on the switch for now.
More than two months after the Afghan government banned YouTube to prevent the spread of an anti-Islamic video, it has yet to restore access to the popular video Web site. While officials say they hope to lift the block “as soon as possible,” they have offered only a vague sense of what must happen before that can be done.
It is a measure of some of Afghanistan’s complexities, however, that even as Afghan rights advocates have worried about censorship, a common reaction on the street to the YouTube ban has been praise, or at worst ambivalence, even among some of the younger, Internet-savvy set in Kabul.
“That video dishonored our prophet,” said Syed Hamid, 19, a recent high school graduate, in comfortable English. “If YouTube isn’t going to remove the video, then our government is right to block access to it.”
He added: “I don’t need YouTube. I can watch videos on other Web sites.”
When a trailer for the video “Innocence of Muslims,” which portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a crass thug and a womanizer, began to circulate in September, the Afghan government reacted quickly to stem potential violence as riots broke out in other countries. In a move that senior Western officials in Afghanistan praised, the Afghan authorities reached out to religious leaders across the country, urging them to preach restraint and tolerance.
More controversially, officials also decided to impose the ban on YouTube after the company refused to remove the video from its site.
The country remained mostly peaceful, to the relief of the government and Western officials here. Past demonstrations related to religious insensitivity had quickly become deadly: In February, when NATO personnel were seen burning Korans near the Bagram Air Base, Afghans took to the streets in a violent outpouring of rage that led to dozens of deaths.
While Western countries, including most of the ones involved here, recoil at the idea of restricting free speech, the lesson is less clear in Afghanistan. In this case, censorship worked, and in conjunction with the government’s broader strategy almost certainly saved lives.
Still, some are asking the question: Where does the government draw the line on filtering information to its citizens? The answer has consistently been: Anywhere Islam is insulted.
“In the Islamic world, there are certain things that are untouchable,” said Jalal Noorani, senior adviser to the minister of culture and information, who initiated the ban. “We won’t be patient with anything disrespectful to our religion.”
Mr. Noorani said the government had no plans to ban other Web sites, so long as they did not disrespect Islam or incite ethnic violence.
The government had shown a willingness to censor offensive broadcasts before. In 2010, for instance, it shut down Emrooz TV after the local station showed a segment on Shiite Muslims that some Afghans found offensive. And a sustained war of words with Pakistan prompted Afghan officials to ban Pakistani newspapers from eastern Afghanistan in September, claiming they were little more than “propaganda tools for the Taliban.”
While Web sites that focus on vices like gambling and pornography have been banned for years, the government had never before blocked an entire media Web site for hosting an offensive video, officials said. Civil rights groups have argued that the censorship undermines President Hamid Karzai’s promises of transparency and openness.
But for all the controversy over the ban, it hardly seemed to register with many youths here in Kabul.
On a recent afternoon, hundreds of young men gathered in a plaza off the Pul-e-Khesti market, where a de facto cellphone emporium has taken root. Men waved phones as they barked out prices across the crowd. Merchants at makeshift tables charged nominal fees to download music and videos on mobile devices.
The market is just the sort of place the government feared could be a magnet for violence if the video — or even just news of its contents — spread from phone to phone. Although most Afghans do not have computers, cellphones have become ubiquitous over the past decade, and an estimated three-quarters of Afghans have access to mobile devices that allow them to watch videos.
“As long as this anti-prophet video is on YouTube, our government should keep their Web site blocked,” said Javeed Khawrin, 21, who was shopping at the market. “If I had power, I would have destroyed the whole area where this video was taped.”
Subhanullah, 24, an Afghan Army soldier who came to the market to get his phone fixed and who, like many Afghans, uses a single name, said the video “creates more haters among our national army soldiers toward the foreign troops here.”
Attitudes were similar at the city’s Women’s Garden, a sanctuary of roses, leafy trees and swing sets financed by Western aid.
Nilab Khursihid, 18, said she welcomed the government’s decision to keep the ban in place, and suggested even extending it to all material that is hurtful or disrespectful, including cartoons that lampoon Mr. Karzai.
“This is how our community is,” she said, sitting with friends in the garden. “The Internet has misled many of the youth.”
The garden, in the Shahrara neighborhood, boasts a library, a computer lab and a gymnasium for women. Small shops selling toys, lingerie and dresses line the inner wall of the compound. Nearby, a young woman sat uneasily behind the steering wheel of a Toyota, taking a driving lesson, a freedom unknown in the rest of the city.
One shopkeeper, Mariama Ahmadi, 23, who runs a dress store, offered a counterperspective. While she, too, thinks the video should have been taken down, she said, she thinks banning the Web site was a mistake. She said she preferred self-censorship, and the freedom to decide for oneself.
“We can all have our own choices and decide what to watch,” she said, her face framed by a black hijab. “The government shouldn’t be telling people what to do.”
Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting.
Afghan gunmen kill polio vaccination worker in latest attack on women
Taliban deny shooting dead health volunteer in Kapisa province, who had been warned twice to stop working outside the home
Guardian.co.uk By Emma Graham-Harrison Wednesday 5 December 2012
Kabul - A student and volunteer on a polio vaccination programme has been murdered by gunmen in an eastern Afghan village, leaving many women too frightened to attend work and school, according to a member of parliament for the area.
Anisa, who had just finished 10th grade at school, was shot outside her home in Kapisa province on Saturday morning and died later in hospital, with six bullets in her stomach. But although officials, activists and security forces agree she was shot dead, reports differ about who was responsible.
The victim had already survived a murder attempt the day before she died, taking shelter in a neighbour's house when gunmen opened fire on her in the street, said Sima Matim, a Kapisa provincial council member, who believes insurgents were behind the killing.
"She hadn't realised a group was following her and was very afraid," said Matim, who has herself been threatened for working outside the home, and says she often feels like she is being watched. "Two times these groups called me and told me to stop my job. They told me my address and described my home to me. They said 'we know everything about you and you have to stop your job'.
"I worry about when I will be killed and what my destiny will be. My husband always tells me to stop work, but still I am trying to continue."
The violent deaths of women often go unreported or unresolved in Afghanistan, a country where senior clerics this year described them as "secondary" to men.
Heather Barr, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: "The small number of cases of prosecution of violence against women speaks to a lack of enthusiasm on the part of police and prosecutors to get to the bottom of these cases."
Guidelines issued by the clerics said women were subordinate to men, that they should not mix in work or education, and must always have a male guardian when they travel. The edicts appeared in a statement that also encouraged insurgents to join peace talks, fuelling fears that any successful negotiations would come at a high cost to women.
Anisa was an orphan in her early 20s, old for her grade at school in part because she tried to support her family while studying, said Tahera Mojaddidi, a member of parliament and former teacher who knew her. War and poverty means it is not unusual for Afghan children to miss or repeat several years at school.
The morning she was murdered, Anisa got a phone call from her killers shortly before she left for work at the clinic where she volunteered on a polio eradication programme, Mojaddidi said.
Afghanistan is one of three countries where polio is still endemic, and only two thirds of children in Kapisa are vaccinated, according to United Nations figures.
When Anisa stepped outside, six bullets were pumped into her stomach, said the MP, who added that she had discussed the shooting with intelligence officials from her home province. She said she believed the Taliban were behind the killing.
"In the village, families are saying that from the time when Anisa was killed up until now, their girls cannot go to schools, women who are working for organisations, they do not dare go out, because they think if they do their destiny would be the same as Anisa's."
A Taliban spokesman denied any role in the shooting, and said the group was not against polio vaccines. The Pakistani Taliban this summer in effect banned polio eradication in South Waziristan, one of the most troubled areas of Pakistan.
Several Kapisa officials also denied a Taliban role in her killing. The provincial director of women's affairs, Saifoorah Kohistani, said there were no Taliban in Anisa's area and the government was looking into possible motives for the shooting. The provincial governor would say only that an investigation was under way.
Police said Anisa was caught in crossfire after a fight escalated in an area where most men carry guns. Mohammad Makhfous Walizada, deputy provincial police chief, said he had testimony from her brother, who carried the dying girl to hospital. Walizada said he had arrested a man, who was now being questioned.
He was backed up by another MP, Haji Agha Jan. "Someone told me it was two brothers or two cousins fighting. Everyone has Pakistani pistols there, one of them opened fire, the bullets mistakenly hit the girl and she was killed," said Jan.
Mojaddidi said officials were not interested in looking into such attacks; their insistence that the shooting was accidental was just an excuse, she said. "It's all some stories that the officials of Kapisa made up, to cover that there is violence against women."
Additional reporting by Mokhtar Amiri
Afghanistan Tops Most Corrupt Countries Index
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Ahbrimkhil Wednesday, 05 December 2012
Afghanistan is perceived to have one of the most corrupt public sectors in the world out of 176 countries surveyed, according to a report from Transparency International released Wednesday.
Afghanistan tops the Corruption Perception Index along with North Korea in Asia and Somalia in Africa.
The report said that one in seven Afghans has paid a bribe while the Kabul Bank scandal greatly increased perceptions of the vast corruption in the country.
The report said that government efforts to eliminate corruption have been in vain and that corruption has only increased in the country.
The Afghan government responded that major efforts are underway to bring the level of the corruption down.
"As the government and anti-corruption bodies increase, it helps to have the transparency watchdogs showing the increased level of corruption," Policy and Technical Deputy Director of the High Office of Oversight and Anti Corruption Mohammed Amin Khoramji told TOLOnews on Wednesday.
The average bribe paid by each Afghan amounts to one-third the normal salary of a government employee, or $150 month.
The Coalition of Afghan Women to Fight Corruption protested on Wednesday to oppose the rising corruption in the country and demanded a stable and corruption free Afghanistan in the future.
"We have started this effort and will continue it even if it costs us our lives," Amina Mustaqim, a member of the coalition, told TOLOnews.
"We want our children to live in a peaceful, secure and corruption free country."
The report said that weak governance, impunity, fraud in elections, government-dominated justice sector, unnecessary detentions, extortion, and illegal killing with impunity all contribute to the increase of corruption.
The report also said that as much as $8 billion has been embezzled in the past decade from Afghanistan as a result of the high level of corruption in the country.
Regionally, India was ranked 94, Iran 133, Pakistan 139, and Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were equal at 170.
Tracking the Elusive Snow Leopard of Afghanistan
ABC News By TJ WINICK and MARY COMPTON Dec 5, 2012
In Afghanistan, one of the most dangerous places in the world, Boone Smith is on a mission.
Not for the military, but for wildlife organizations that want to track down the most elusive big cat on the planet: The snow leopard of Afghanistan.
“This was my Holy Grail for animals I wanted to catch,” he said.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and USAID challenged Smith, a fourth-generation big-cat trapper from Idaho, to capture and collar a snow leopard in Afghanistan in just 20 days.
“They’re borderline mythical, legendary,” Smith said. “If you can’t look at a snow leopard and appreciate it for what it is and the terrain it survives in, you’re missing something.”
It’s estimated that only 100 to 200 snow leopards are left in Afghanistan and that only 2,000 are left in the entire world. Poachers target these highly-endangered predators for their pelts and farmers will kill them for attacking their livestock. Wildlife experts want to find and collect more data on the big cat’s movements to keep them from going extinct and to help Afghan villagers protect their farm animals.
“If they can’t manage that land and the wildlife and the resources that are found there, they can’t survive,” said Peter Zahler, the assistant director of WCS-Asia. “If they can’t survive, you can never have sustainability and stability in a country like Afghanistan.”
Smith traveled to the Wakhan Corridor, a mountainous border region in Northeastern Afghanistan — snow leopard country. His journey, in a film titled the “Snow Leopard of Afghanistan,” will be featured as part of Big Cat Week on Nat Geo WILD beginning on Sunday, Dec. 9.
Among those on his experienced team are a tracker named Hussain Ali and fellow trapper John Goodrich. The team set up humane traps with transmitters to alert them when an animal was caught.
“Trapping is a game of odds,” Smith said. “We’re trying to predict the exact spot a cat would put his foot.”
In the dead of night, after waiting only six hours, the team got a signal from the trap. They had caught a snow leopard.
Once the cat was hit with a tranquilizer dart, it was a race against time. The team only had one hour to complete a full exam of the animal and attach a satellite collar, which will collect valuable data and then fall off after 13 months.
“We feel a responsibility for an animal we’ve collared,” Smith said. “We’ve taken some liberties with it, obviously, and we’re justifying that because of what we’re going to gain back in the big picture of conservation.”
Over the next few days, Smith and his crew saw the data sent from the collar, tracking the animal’s movements, which has helped notify villagers of when the big cats are approaching.
In a country where 80 percent of people live off the land, understanding the snow leopard means understanding a volatile ecosystem, one of the keys to rebuilding Afghanistan.
Boy Raped, Murdered in Jawzjan
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 05 December 2012
An eight-year-old boy was raped and murdered in northern Jawzjan province on Tuesday night, local officials said Wednesday.
Three men have been arrested in relation to the case after being identified as possible suspects by the boy's father Shamsuddin, provincial police chief Abdul Aziz Ghairt said.
Afghan national police found the body of the boy, Farhar, in some ruins of the Faizabad district and took it to local hospital, he said.
"The examinations show that the boy was raped and afterwards was strangled," head of the government hospital Dr. Mirwais said.
However, Ghairt said that it is not yet clear whether there was any personal relationship or hostility between the detained men and the family.
The police investigation is continuing, he said.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By Michael Georgy
KABUL (Reuters) - A Taliban suicide bomber posing as a peace messenger wounded Afghanistan's intelligence chief in Kabul on Thursday, another sign that the government is struggling to improve security ahead of a NATO pullout in 2014.
Asadullah Khalid was wounded when the bomber struck in a meeting at a guesthouse used by the National Directorate of Security (NDS).
"The bomber was a peace messenger sent by the Taliban to the Afghan government, around 3 p.m. in a meeting with the head of NDS, detonated his explosives," said NDS spokesman Shafiqullah Tahiri.
"Right now the head of the NDS is in good condition. The surgery was a success."
The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing, which highlighted Afghanistan's ongoing instability as U.S.-led NATO troops prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014.
After more than 10 years of war against Western forces as well as Afghan troops, militants are capable of striking in the heart of the capital.
The attack was almost a carbon copy of last year's assassination of Afghanistan's chief peace negotiator, Burhanuddin Rabbani.
He died at his Kabul home when an insurgent posing as a peace envoy detonated explosives concealed in a turban.
The Afghan government has failed to draw the Taliban into face-to-face talks.
In a video message released by his office, President Hamid Karzai said:
"The head of the NDS is now undergoing surgery ... the chief of the hospital has told me he is in a good condition and now we hope he will recover and he will be sent for further treatment elsewhere."
TOUGH ALLY OF KARZAI
Afghanistan's parliament approved the nomination of Khalid as the new head of the NDS in September, an appointment that alarmed human rights groups who have long accused the agency of torturing detainees, allegations it denies.
"We will see more similar attacks in order to further increase uncertainty about 2014. It's part of the psychological warfare by the Taliban," said Davood Moradian, a former presidential adviser and head of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank.
Moradian said Khalid was a powerful ally for Karzai since he had built up a formidable network of contacts among the Pashtun community in the south and east of the country, where the insurgency is strongest.
He said Khalid was renowned for his tough stance against the Taliban and his belief that the Afghan government needed to take a tough line with the insurgents in any negotiations.
Human rights groups have been troubled by allegations that Khalid, a close aide of Karzai, ran a torture prison while he was governor of Kandahar. He denies any wrongdoing.
Khalid built a formidable intelligence network to infiltrate the Taliban while serving in previous posts as governor of Kandahar and Ghazni provinces, both hotbeds of insurgency, said Michael Semple, an expert on the Taliban at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard.
"He had access to significant operational funds and used these to run agents deep inside the Taliban in Quetta," Semple said, referring to the city in southwest Pakistan where many of the Taliban's leaders are believed to be based.
"He also has a reputation for conducting black operations, bombings and assassinations, which is why the Taliban fear him," Semple added.
Khalid is seen as one of the most effective operators in Afghanistan's security hierarchy.
Diplomats saw Khalid as an instrumental figure in a systematic attempt to rig the 2009 presidential election in favor of Karzai, which sparked a protracted showdown with Washington before Karzai was eventually returned to power.
As one of the most influential members of Karzai's circle, Khalid was poised to play a critical role in the fraught process of political transition before the next elections in April, 2014, when Karzai is bound by the constitution to step down.
(Additional reporting by Matthew Green in Islamabad; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Afghan Intelligence Chief Wounded In Bombing
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan December 6, 2012
KABUL -- The head of Afghanistan's intelligence service has been wounded in a bomb attack in Kabul.
A senior Afghan official told RFE/RL on December 6 that Asadullah Khalid had been targeted in a suicide bombing.
The National Directorate of Security (NDS) released a statement saying the agency's chief survived what it called a "cowardly terrorist attack."
Reports say Khalid was wounded while receiving a visitor in the afternoon at a guesthouse run by the Afghan intelligence service.
A senior Afghan official told the Associated Press that Khalid suffered injuries to the lower part of his body. The spy chief was rushed to a hospital run by the NDS.
"Our intelligence director who was injured in a cowardly terrorist attack is now undergoing surgery. The doctor treating him gave me the details. They are positive," Afghan President Hamid Karzai told journalists after visiting Khalid in the hospital.
"For now we have great hopes for his full recovery."
Journalists later received an e-mail, said to be from the Taliban, claiming responsibility for the attack.
In August, Khalid was nominated by Karzai to head the NDS. The Afghan parliament confirmed the appointment in September.
Accusations From Time As Governor
The 43-year-old spy chief is an ethnic Pashtun from the central Ghazni Province.
He is considered close to Afghan lawmaker Abdur Rab Rasul Sayyaf, a veteran of the fight against Soviet forces in the 1980s.
Khalid was the governor of Ghazni and Kandahar provinces between 2005 and 2008. He was later appointed to run the Border and Tribal Affairs Ministry -- a post he held until his appointment to the NDS in August.
International human rights organizations have accused him of torture, unlawful killings, and running private prisons. They objected to his appointment as NDS chief and called for an investigation into the allegations against him.
In September, Amnesty International said that there were credible allegations that Khalid was "involved in the bombing of a vehicle that killed five UN workers in Kandahar in April 2007."
Khalid is considered a close confidant of Karzai and a staunch enemy of the Taliban. He survived a suicide bombing in Kandahar in 2007.
With reporting by AP and Reuters
EXCLUSIVE - New Pakistan Taliban chief emerging, will focus on Afghan fight
By Mehreen Zahra-Malik
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistan's Taliban, one of the world's most feared militant groups, are preparing for a leadership change that could mean less violence against the state but more attacks against U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, Pakistani military sources said.
Hakimullah Mehsud, a ruthless commander who has led the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) for the last three years, has lost operational control of the movement and the trust of his fighters, said a senior Pakistan army official based in the South Waziristan tribal region, the group's stronghold.
The organisation's more moderate deputy leader, Wali-ur-Rehman, 40, is poised to succeed Mehsud, whose extreme violence has alienated enough of his fighters to significantly weaken him, the military sources told Reuters.
"Rehman is fast emerging as a consensus candidate to formally replace Hakimullah," said the army official, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. "Now we may see the brutal commander replaced by a more pragmatic one for whom reconciliation with the Pakistani government has become a priority."
The TTP, known as the Pakistan Taliban, was set up as an umbrella group of militants in 2007.
Its main aim is to topple the U.S.-backed government in Pakistan and impose its austere brand of Islam across the country of 185 million people, although it has also carried out attacks in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The militants intensified their battle against the Pakistani state after an army raid on Islamabad's Red Mosque in 2007, which had been seized by allies of the group.
Mehsud, believed to be in his mid-30s, took over the Pakistan Taliban in August 2009. He rose to prominence in 2010 when U.S. prosecutors charged him with involvement in an attack that killed seven CIA employees at a U.S. base in Afghanistan. His profile was raised further when he appeared in a farewell video with the Jordanian suicide bomber who killed the employees.
Reuters interviewed several senior Pakistan military officials as well as tribal elders and locals during a three-day trip with the army in South Waziristan last week, getting rare access to an area that has been a virtual no-go zone for journalists since an army offensive was launched in October 2009.
Three senior military officials said informers in the Pakistan Taliban told them Mehsud was no longer steering the group.
Pakistan Taliban commanders did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the possible leadership change.
U.S. officials said that while Rehman was Mehsud's natural successor, they cautioned about expecting an imminent transition. Mehsud's standing in the Pakistan Taliban might have weakened, but he still had followers, they said.
Washington has offered a reward of $5 million for information leading to the capture of either Mehsud or Rehman.
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One Pakistan military official, who has served in South Waziristan for more than two years, said his Pakistan Taliban contacts first alerted him to Mehsud's waning power six months ago, when constant pressure from the Pakistan military, U.S. drone strikes and poor health had hurt his ability to lead.
"Representing the moderate point of view, there is a probability that under Rehman, TTP will dial down its fight against the Pakistani state, unlike Hakimullah who believes in wanton destruction here," said the military official based in the South Waziristani capital of Wana.
The official said this might lead to more attacks across the border in Afghanistan because Rehman has been pushing for the group's fighters to turn their guns on Western forces.
Other factions within the Pakistan Taliban such as the Nazir group in South Waziristan and the Hekmat Gul Bahadur faction in North Waziristan have struck peace deals with the Pakistani military while focusing attacks on Western and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.
A change in the Pakistan Taliban's focus would complicate Western efforts to stabilise Afghanistan before most NATO troops leave by the end of 2014, said Riaz Mohammad Khan, a Pakistani diplomat who has held several posts dealing with Afghanistan.
The United States is already fighting the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network, which is based along the unruly frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan and which is perhaps Washington's deadliest foe in Afghanistan.
The last thing U.S.-led NATO troops need is a new, formidable enemy in the approach to 2014.
Such a shift in emphasis, however, could reduce the number of suicide bombings that have plagued Pakistan in recent years, scaring off investment needed to prop up an economy that has barely managed to grow since 2007.
AT EACH OTHER'S THROATS
The Pakistan Taliban, who are close to al Qaeda, remain resilient despite a series of military offensives. They took part in a number of high-profile operations, including an attack on army headquarters in 2009, assaults on military bases, and the attempted assassination of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai in October, who had campaigned for girls' education.
The Pakistan Taliban were also blamed for the 2008 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad which killed more than 50 people.
Under Mehsud, the organisation formed complex alliances with other militant groups spread across Pakistan.
But it has long been strained by internal rivalries over strategy. Mehsud has pushed the war with the Pakistani state, while others such as Rehman want the battle to be against U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan.
"Rehman has even held secret negotiations with the Pakistani government in the past but Hakimullah always stood in his way, wanting to carry on fighting the Pakistani military," a second Wana-based military official said.
The two were at each other's throats earlier this year and hostilities were close to open warfare, Taliban sources said.
"Differences within the ranks have only gotten worse, not better, rendering the TTP a much weaker force today than a few years ago," the second military official said.
A source close to the Taliban told Reuters there had been months of internal talks on the Pakistan Taliban's decreasing support among locals and fighters in tribal areas where the group has assassinated many pro-government elders.
"The Taliban know they are fighting a public relations war, and under someone like Hakimullah, they will only lose it," added the source, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
It isn't clear whether Mehsud will hand over the leadership to Rehman without a fight.
A power struggle could split the group, making it more difficult to recruit young fighters and also disrupt the safe havens in Pakistan used by Afghan militants.
According to accepted practice, a leadership council, or shura, will ultimately decide whether to formally replace Mehsud with Rehman.
Intelligence officials said Mehsud had not commanded any recent operations, including an August 16 attack on the Minhas Airbase in Pakistan and a suicide attack on a street market in May that killed 24 people.
Military sources said Rehman planned the April 15 jail break in Bannu in Pakistan that freed 384 prisoners, including an estimated 200 Taliban members and an al Qaeda-linked militant who had attempted to assassinate former president Pervez Musharraf.
FALL FROM GRACE
Intelligence officials in the area said Mehsud's brutality had turned his own subordinates against him, while the more measured Rehman had emerged as the group's primary military strategist.
"If a leader doesn't behave like a leader, he loses support. For the longest time now, Hakimullah has done the dirty work while Wali-ur-Rehman is the thinker. Taliban fighters recognise this," said the first Pakistani military source.
A local elder described Mehsud as "short-tempered and trigger-happy".
"(Mehsud) used to work 24 hours a day, tirelessly. But he would also put a gun to anyone's head and kill them for his cause," said a local shopkeeper who has family members involved in the Pakistan Taliban.
Mehsud gained his reputation fighting with the Afghan Taliban against U.S. and allied forces in Helmand province in Afghanistan. He was later given command of Taliban factions in the Bajaur, Orakzai, Khyber and Kurram regions.
He took over the Pakistan Taliban after a weeks-long succession battle with Rehman following the death of Baitullah Mehsud in a drone strike. The two Mehsuds were not related.
(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; Editing by Randy Fabi, Michael Georgy and Dean Yates)
Karzai blames NATO, U.S. for violence, corruption in Afghanistan
By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | The Ticket
Afghan President Hamid Karzai blamed the U.S. and NATO forces on Thursday for some of the violence and the brunt of corruption that is rampant in his war-torn country. Karzai bluntly criticized allied tactics, declaring that terrorists won't be beaten "by attacking Afghan villages and Afghan homes."
Speaking in an exclusive interview with NBC News, Karzai also said he had written a letter to President Barack Obama warning that Afghans will not permit American and NATO troops to stay past 2014 unless the U.S. turns over hundreds of detainees held at Bagram Air Base and a nearby facility.
"I have written to President Obama that the Afghan people will not allow its government to enter into a security agreement while the United States continues to violate Afghan sovereignty," he said. "Part of the insecurity is definitely coming to us from terrorism, and the attacks of the Taliban. Part of the insecurity is coming to us from the structures that NATO and America created in Afghanistan."
NATO-led forces are currently scheduled to withdraw by the end of 2014, but the Obama administration has entered into negotiations with the government in Kabul on a security pact that would allow some as-yet undisclosed number of troops to remain beyond that point. Their mission would be to train Afghan security forces and carry out counterterrorism missions. White House press secretary Jay Carney recently said that Obama has not yet settled on the size of that residual force. The spokesman also suggested that no troops might remain.
National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden confirmed to Yahoo News that Obama had received Karzai's letter, but said, "We're not going to discuss the contents." She added that the U.S. and Afghanistan were working out "some remaining issues" regarding the transfer of detainees to Afghan custody. Hayden also said the administration hoped to wrap up the negotiations on the post-2014 agreement "within a year."
Obama made the American withdrawal from Iraq and planned withdrawal from Afghanistan key planks of his re-election platform. But the pullout from Iraq came about in part because of the collapse of negotiations over maintaining an American presence there. The Iraqi government refused to give U.S. forces immunity from prosecution—a deal-breaker for Washington. Karzai's comments raise the specter of another possible deal-breaker.
Would Afghanistan consider giving American forces immunity?
"We can consider that question. I can go to the Afghan people and argue for it," said Karzai. "But before I do that, the United States of America must make absolutely sure that they respect Afghanistan's sovereignty, that they respect Afghanistan's laws, that no Afghan is hurt or his or her rights violated by U.S. soldiers."
Karazi has regularly denounced NATO night raids and strikes that have killed civilians in Afghanistan. But he also aims to secure billions of dollars in long-term aid for his country's military and economy. (At a farewell press conference with then-President George W. Bush in December 2008, Karzai said: "Afghanistan will not allow the international community to leave it before we are fully on our feet, before we are strong enough to defend our country, before we are powerful enough to have a good economy and before we have taken from President Bush and the next administration billions and billions of more dollars—no way that [we] can let you go.")
Karzai also cited "tensions" in the U.S.-Afghan relationship, which he described as "businesslike" and "not based on sentiments."
The Afghan president, who has signaled that he will not run for re-election in 2014, said he "absolutely" felt safe enough to stay in Afghanistan and that he looked forward to being out of office.
"I feel absolutely safe. I will be staying in Afghanistan. This is my country," he told NBC, adding with a laugh: "I'll be very happy to be an ex-president." Still, "there is more corruption than ever before in Afghanistan," he added, citing Afghan officials who take bribes, but placing the lion's share of the blame on the U.S.
"The bigger corruption is the corruption in contracts. The contracts are not issued by the Afghan government. The contracts are issued by the international community, mainly by the United States," he said. "Now whether this corruption in Afghanistan is an accident, a byproduct of the situation in the past 10 years or is it perpetrated also on purpose is today my main question.
"There is, for a number of years now, a growing perception in Afghanistan that a significant part of insecurity in Afghanistan is caused by the way the United States and some of its allies promoted lawlessness in Afghanistan by spreading corruption in Afghanistan by employing private security firms," he charged.
"We have to wait for 2014 for the withdrawal of international forces, for the reduction in the amount of contracts. Then you will see that Afghanistan will definitely be a lot less a corrupt government and country," he predicted.
"The issue of corruption is one of concern and has been in Afghanistan," White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters when asked about Karzai's comment. "We share President Karzai's concern about that, and we work with the government of Afghanistan on this issue regularly. We know it's a problem and has been a problem, and we continue to work with the government on that problem."
"The U.S. government takes the issue of accountability of development assistance in Afghanistan seriously," Hayden also said. "We have a system in place for monitoring and auditing Afghanistan assistance funding, and we are always looking for ways to improve our implementation and oversight."
More than 3,000 American and allied military personnel have been killed in the decade-long conflict launched to catch or kill Osama bin Laden, whom Navy SEALS shot dead in a dramatic May 2011 raid inside Pakistan.
Afghanistan: For ex-Taliban, it's peace or death
Former members of the Taliban are desperate for peace. Their lives may depend on it.
Global Post By Chris Sands December 5, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - When he was a Taliban member, Mawlawi Pir Mohammed Rohani feared America and its allies. For years, he was scared even to visit his local mosque.
Now estranged from the group, out of hiding and living in the Afghan capital, he fears his former colleagues.
"The big threat is that if they arrest me, they will behead me from the back of the neck," he said, laughing.
Rohani is just one of several former Taliban leaders who left the movement after the US-led invasion only to see it flourish without him. Still fond of their old associates and sympathetic toward the insurgency, they find themselves caught in a dangerous limbo.
Despite reconciling with the Afghan government, they do not fully accept it. Nor do they trust the warlords within its ranks who previously fought them as part of the Northern Alliance.
Yet some in the Taliban — particularly the younger, more radical members —view them as traitors.
Now with security deteriorating and NATO troops withdrawing, it is getting harder for them to walk this tightrope.
And so they are scrambling to broker a peace deal.
Should they fail, a civil war appears destined to begin. Their decision to break from the resistance may cost them their lives.
Rohani comes from the southeastern province of Khost. He joined the Taliban even before the movement took control of the government in 1996. For him and many others it was the best chance to bring law and order to a country then in the grip of anarchy.
A religious scholar, he was later appointed director of Kabul University in what was then known as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
When the United States invaded in 2001, Rohani initially wanted to fight. But after the sheer ferocity of American airpower became apparent, he changed his mind and fled to Pakistan.
He stayed there until 2005, hardly leaving his house in Miranshah, a town in North Waziristan that is these days regularly pummeled by American drones. He claims most Taliban at that time sought a quiet life away from the battlefield, but were pushed into taking up arms because they were hunted down regardless.
"I could not go and pray in the mosque next door to my house in case the Americans arrested me, so all the time I prayed with my wife inside the house. When the Americans forced us, we tried to organize ourselves to fight against them until the war came to this point," he said.
Rohani is now a member of the High Peace Council, which was established with international backing in 2010 to help encourage talks between the Afghan government and militant groups.
Although the organization has not achieved any major breakthroughs so far, he believes the withdrawal of foreign troops will satisfy one of the Taliban’s key demands and leave them with few reasons to continue their resistance. In the meantime, he cannot visit Miranshah or Khost.
"The people who are fighting right now are very emotional, so if they find us they will kill us," he said.
In May, gunmen in Kabul assassinated Arsalan Rahmani, another High Peace Council member and former deputy minister of the Taliban. Exactly who carried out the attack remains unclear, but it left a lingering atmosphere of suspicion and resentment in some quarters.
Not everyone who broke with the militants is convinced that Afghan and foreign officials are serious about negotiating an end to the conflict. Compounded by an obvious concern for their own safety, they are now speaking with an anger not seen before.
Abdul Hakim Mujahid was the Taliban regime's representative at the United Nations. Also on the peace council, he blamed the government for the death of Rahmani, claiming it had failed to thoroughly investigate the case.
"Any person who is working for peace is under threat from different sides, not only from one side," he said.
Mujahid criticized the United States for not freeing the remaining Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and for designating a militant faction known internationally as the Haqqani Network as a terrorist organization. He insisted that senior members of the Taliban were in favor of reconciliation and should not be isolated.
"The other type are inexperienced youths, the zealous ones," he said. "They are not counting [down] the years when the American forces will leave and they will capture the government, they are counting [down] the weeks and months."
Both Mujahid and Rohani were interviewed before Pakistan released a handful of Taliban detainees last month in an apparent effort to kick start talks. Since then, however, the Afghan government is reported to have executed a number of its own Taliban prisoners.
With all conventional foreign combat troops due to depart by the end of 2014, people here believe the Taliban's return to power is a genuine possibility.
Old rivals are re-arming in preparation for the battle ahead. Young educated Afghans who have grown accustomed to the relative freedom of life in urban centers during the last decade are now escaping abroad.
For others, this is a time of mixed emotions. Those who previously served with the Islamists realize they are under threat, but they still have the utmost respect for their former organization.
"The Taliban government was necessary because this is an Islamic nation and we needed everything it was implementing," said one former Taliban member, summing up the lingering reverence felt among of his colleagues.
Afghan, Tajik forces launch major anti-drug raid
KABUL, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- The special police forces from Afghanistan and neighboring Tajikistan have carried out a major anti-drug operation, an Afghan official said here Thursday.
"The successful 6-day joint operation was launched in northern Afghan province of Badakhshan and Khatlan province in Tajikistan," Afghan Deputy Interior Minister Baz Mohammad Ahmadi told a press conference.
About 420 kg of drugs including heroin and opium was seized and two Tajik women kidnapped by the criminal gangs were released in Badakhshan during the raid from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4, he said. "The women were handed over to the Tajik side shortly after their release."
A total of 13 Afghans were detained for drug trafficking, Ahmadi added.
"It is obvious that the situation in Afghanistan is extremely serious and worrying, Afghanistan is still at the top of the list of the opium producing countries (in the world), no doubt about that," said Jean-Luc-Lemahieu, the United Nations Office on Drug and Crimes (UNODC) regional representative.
Lemahieu described the operation as a success and called for more cooperation between the two countries in fighting against drug in the region.
The opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan increased this year, said a report released by the UNODC on Nov. 20 in Kabul.
However, the poppy production fell due to plant diseases and unfriendly weather in the insurgency-hit country.
About 95 percent of poppy cultivation in 2012 was concentrated in the restive southern and eastern provinces where Taliban militants are active and organized crimes are rampant, the report said, noting this confirms the link between insecurity and poppy cultivation.
Since plant diseases and bad weather had damaged the crops, potential opium production fell 36 percent to 3,700 tons in 2012 from 5,800 tons last year, according to the report.
Up to 102 Afghan security personnel had lost their lives in eradicating poppy fields so far this year, according to Afghan officials.
US Tells Allies to Make Good on Afghan Pledges
Associated Press By By BRADLEY KLAPPER December 5, 2012
BRUSSELS - The Obama administration pressed its European allies on Wednesday to follow through on their pledges to Afghanistan's security after most international troops withdraw in 2014, fearful of being left with the check in an era of austerity budgets and defense cutbacks.
Donors pledged $4.1 billion a year to support Afghan forces from 2015 to 2017 at a May summit in Chicago — firming up a key plank of the U.S. strategy to leave behind a secure Afghanistan after battling insurgents for more than a decade. But many governments have yet to come through with the cash.
Speaking at NATO headquarters, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told allies it is "crucial for every nation to follow through on their commitments, and for those who haven't yet committed any funding to do so." To make her point, she invoked Afghanistan's troubled history of chasing out the Soviet Union in the 1980s only to descend into civil war and the oppression of an extremist Taliban government.
"All of us here have an interest in ensuring this region does not once again become a safe haven for international terrorists," Clinton said. "We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of 1989 and just disengage. That's why we made an enduring commitment, and it's why we have to follow through on it — today, tomorrow and for years to come."
For the United States, supporting Afghanistan's army of about 230,000 men is also an issue of economics. Hoping to map the way out of an unpopular war, the U.S. and NATO brought in dozens of other countries earlier this year to build as broad a funding base as possible for Afghanistan's still-developing army. The argument was straightforward: Even $4 billion a year to prop up the Afghan military comes out far cheaper than maintaining a foreign army in the country, and a lot easier for war-weary publics to swallow.
Together, the U.S. and governments outside the fighting force promised to come up with the bulk of the money. But having repeatedly guaranteed the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai that his country won't be abandoned, Washington doesn't want to be left covering even more because of unfulfilled pledges.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said NATO and other coalition partners agreed Wednesday to develop a mechanism so funds are managed accountably and transparently. Widespread corruption in Afghanistan has prompted reservations by several governments.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said his government was aware of the fiscal constraints cash-strapped European nations are facing, but he expressed confidence in all pledges being met.
The money "is an investment not only in the security of Afghanistan, but also in the security of the region and the wider world," Mosazai told reporters at NATO. "So in our view, that is an efficient, cost-effective investment in long-term security."
Beating Sparks Outcry Against Militia Commanders In Afghan Government
December 5, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty By Sayaed Jan Sabawoon and Frud Bezhan
KABUL -- When news broke of a suicide bombing at an international military complex in Kabul last month, local police officer Mohammad Ismail was promptly dispatched to the scene.
Ismail's orders were to prevent traffic from entering the area and to redirect locals to safety. But not long after arriving with several other officers, a black SUV with tinted windows approached the checkpoint. Ismail refused the driver's request to be allowed to pass through and repeatedly told him to turn around.
In a matter of seconds, Ismail says, a number of men brandishing AK-47s stepped out of the vehicle.
The armed men -- bodyguards for parliament deputy and former militia commander Haji Zahir Qadir -- cursed and then attacked Ismail as his fellow officers fled the scene.
After picking the injured Ismail up from the side of the road, local residents delivered the 28-year-old officer to a hospital.
"For no reason, they grabbed me by the shirt and attacked me," he said. "One of them told the other bodyguards to attack me. I was surrounded by the bodyguards, who pressed their guns against my side, chest, and back. I looked back and saw that they had released the safeties on their guns. One of them hit me on the shoulder. After that, I can't remember what happened."
Social-Media Backlash
The assault on Ismail, which occurred on November 21 in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan district, has caused an uproar against Qadir and triggered a backlash against the presence of former militia leaders who are now in government. Anger spread after pictures of the assault went viral on social-media sites.
The outcry prompted the Afghan Interior Ministry to launch an investigation on November 23 and detain Qadir's bodyguards. But just a week later, on December 1, the guards were promptly freed after Qadir and several other lawmakers visited Ismail's precinct and personally apologized to him.
In a statement issued on the day of the visit, the Interior Ministry quoted Qadir as saying he regretted the behavior of his guards and vowed it would never happen again.
For the ministry's part, it simply warned politicians not to intervene in police business. "Political figures should not create problems for Afghan security forces during sensitive situations in the city and should instead assist them," the ministry statement read.
Despite the apology, the head of the Kabul police department's crimes investigation unit, General Mohammad Zaher, said on December 2 that he would refer the case to the Attorney-General's Office. Zaher also said he planned to press charges against Ismail's colleagues who fled the scene.
Powerful Militia Leaders
Ismail, who is still recovering from the injuries he sustained, reluctantly accepted the apology. But he says the incident is symptomatic of the significant power and influence wielded by the country's former militia leaders, including Qadir, who was a senior commander in the Northern Alliance.
The former strongmen, who once waged war against the ruling Taliban as leaders of the mujahedin, still exert significant influence on the country's political affairs.
Many Afghans view former militia commanders who have carved out high-ranking roles within the government as war criminals, and have accused them of using their power to extort money, grab land, and attack their opponents.
Ismail, an officer with the 10th District Force in Kabul, believes the attack should not been seen as one against him, but against the entire country. "When my police cap and badge fell on the ground, I couldn't even pick it up [out of shame]," he says. "More importantly, when my badge was disrespected so was the Interior Ministry, the security commander in Kabul, and the Afghan president himself."
On social-media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, the response has been equally critical.
Shafiqa Ahmadi, who commented on Facebook, referred to Qadir and other former militia leaders in the government as "criminals," and said the incident showed that many of them think they are above the law.
"Who gives these warlords, who are traitors and thieves, the right to attack and almost kill a member of our security forces?" Ahmadi wrote. "Why does the Interior Ministry protect these fundamentalists instead of protecting the police who have been attacked? If the government does not act we will seek action."
Another Facebook user, Ahmad Seir Nassiri, criticized the Interior Ministry, which oversees the national police force, for taking the side of "criminals" instead of an officer who was merely following orders.
"If we have a system which cannot defend its own police," Nassiri wrote, "then how can it defend people in our country? Shame to all those in the Interior Ministry."
Written by Frud Bezhan based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Sayed Sabawoon in Kabul
U.S. reducing plans for large civilian force in post-2014 Afghanistan
The Washington Post By Karen DeYoung December 5 , 2012
The Obama administration has ordered significant cutbacks in initial plans for a robust U.S. civilian presence in Afghanistan after U.S. combat troops withdraw two years from now, according to U.S. officials.
Learning from Iraq, where postwar ambitions proved unsustainable, the White House and top State Department officials are confronting whether the United States needs — and can protect — a large diplomatic compound in Kabul, four consulates around the country and other civilian outposts to oversee aid projects and monitor Afghanistan’s political pulse.
Planners were recently told to reduce personnel proposals by at least 20 percent, a senior administration official said. Projects once considered crucial are being divided into lists of those considered sustainable and those that will not be continued.
“As we saw in the Iraq exercise, you need to be very tough on the numbers going in,” the official said. “We need to have enough civilians to achieve the goals we’ve laid out,” within “a finite amount of money we have to spend.”
Officials declined to identify specific projects that might end. But the inevitable decrease in eyes and ears across Afghanistan could threaten a range of long-term U.S. investments and priorities, such as women’s rights, education, health care and infrastructure.
The challenge of balancing the American civilian presence of what are now about 1,000 officials and thousands of contractors with reasonable resources goes beyond pocketbook and personnel issues, according to several senior officials, who discussed the planning on condition of anonymity because it is at an early stage.
On one side of the simmering internal debate are fiscal constraints, diminished hopes for progress and national weariness with the Afghanistan effort. On the other side are formal U.S. pledges of development support, moral and political commitments to a country where nearly 2,200 U.S. troops have died and $590 billion has been spent, and fears Afghanistan could again become a terrorist haven.
Looming over the debate is the determination to avoid a repeat of the September attack on a poorly defended U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
Last month, the administration began what is likely to be a year-long negotiation with the Afghan government over how many troops the U.S. military will leave behind when combat ends in 2014. A key sticking point is whether remaining troops will be subject to Afghan law, which doomed similar talks with Iraq last year.
Even if the negotiations succeed and a sizable American force remains, the U.S. military is certain to curtail or stop the security and other services it provides U.S. government civilians in Afghanistan.
“How do you do security? How do you do mobility? These are expensive propositions when State has to do it all itself,” Ryan Crocker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan until last summer, said in an interview.
Those concerns were echoed by Sarah Chayes, who has spent years in Afghanistan and was an adviser to the U.S. military command there. “There is a significant risk that the conditions in Afghanistan are going to be too hostile for an influx of civilians to be able to function,” she said.
The mega-embassy problem
The mega-embassy concept was born in Iraq as the State Department tried to hold its own with a U.S. military whose counterinsurgency strategy included development and governance tasks once reserved for diplomats and civilians. When the military withdrew, the diplomats tried to continue the noncombat work without the military’s massive budget or the protection provided by up to 150,000 troops.
As the State Department assumed many of the military’s tasks, including training Iraq’s national police, the diplomatic mission grew to nearly 20 support personnel for each official, including more than 6,000 contract security guards. With a $6 billion budget, the department set up its own domestic Iraqi air service and staffed three hospital facilities. The rolls of civilians and contractors topped 20,000.
Today, the world’s biggest diplomatic mission employs about 13,000 government and contract workers, but the goal is to reach fewer than 8,000, officials said. The police program, originally planned with 350 U.S. trainers at 22 sites, has been reduced to about 40 trainers at two sites. Plans to build seven consulates have shrunk to two.
As hard as Iraq has been, Afghanistan poses far more difficult security and logistical problems. There is little optimism that the war against the Taliban will be over before U.S. combat troops leave or that Afghan security forces will prove an able substitute.
“The problem with Afghanistan is, it’s not going to look like success,” James F. Jeffrey, who until September was U.S. ambassador to Iraq, said in an interview. “It’s still going to be backward and totally corrupt, with not enough government infrastructure and a huge burning insurgency. This is terribly complicated and hard stuff under the best of circumstances, and these are the worst.”
U.S. diplomats and other civilian officials outside Kabul are housed at military at bases large and small. They depend on the military to protect and transport them, and provide medical care. They consume imported food and water brought in massive military convoys.
The bases are disappearing, and plans for the Afghans to provide security leave many Americans nervous.
Where Iraq has been kept afloat by oil revenue, Afghanistan depends on handouts. International donors have promised a post-2014 annual supplement of $4 billion for Afghan security forces and an equal amount in development and economic assistance. More than half of the $8 billion will come from the United States.
U. S. Agency for International Development officials say that every development project started in recent years has been approved only if the Afghans can eventually sustain it without U.S. help.
“We want to have an appropriate [civilian] footprint,” the senior official said. “We just have to be smart about it.”
The official declined to specify a final number of civilians but said there had already been “lots of cutting” and it would be well below the current level.
Some worry that the zeal to cut may get out of hand.
“There’s a point at which it would be too small, a point at which the message to Afghans would be that we actually didn’t learn the lesson in 1989-90,” said a second senior official, referring to the abrupt withdrawal of support after U.S.-backed Afghan guerrilla forces ended a decade of Soviet occupation.
Left to its own devices, Afghanistan sank into a civil war that opened the door to the Taliban, who ruled much of the country, and hosted al-Qaeda, until U.S. forces helped overthrow them in 2001.
Preliminary plans
Firm decisions on civilian numbers and locations cannot be made “until we resolve exactly what the military follow-on numbers are going to be,” one official said. “That will determine . . . where we locate, what kind of security, medical and other support we might be able to get.”
At its headquarters in Kabul, the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force is preparing recommendations for Obama on how fast to withdraw the 68,000 remaining U.S. combat troops in Afghanistan.
Plans for the follow-on military presence are being formulated in the Pentagon, where the largest of several preliminary options calls for about 10,000 troops, with several other NATO governments penciled in for several hundred each.
According to these preliminary plans, ISAF’s successor would be based in Kabul, officials said, with most U.S. training and counterterrorism troops probably stationed in Kandahar and at the air base at Bagram. Both locations are to be converted to Afghan ownership.
Smaller counterterrorism units of the Joint Special Operations Command would be positioned primarily in the eastern part of the country, where most of their activities take place.
Italy, in charge of the ISAF mission in Herat in western Afghanistan, would remain there to train Afghans. Germany would do the same in Mazar-e Sharif in the north. It is unclear what would happen at Camp Bastion, the British headquarters in Helmand province.
Officials say the NATO allies are waiting to see what sort of agreement is reached between the Americans and the Afghans, and how many U.S. troops will remain.
Although the Afghan government has agreed to a long-term foreign military presence in principle, negotiations over the size and terms have just begun. The main sticking point is likely to be the issue that led to the breakdown with Iraq — whether U.S. forces are immune from Afghan legal jurisdiction.
The size of the U.S. military will help determine the size of the civilian footprint. “If there’s no military medical capacity or medevac capability, then it’s going to be pretty pricey,” Crocker said. “That may mean downsizing. I hope it doesn’t mean eliminating any of the four posts” designated as U.S. consulates.
The fate of the consulates is a topic of debate between the U.S. Embassy in Kabul and planners in Washington. Crocker and others contend that the United States must be present in all four corners of Afghanistan.
Last June, the first consulate was opened in Herat, which is relatively peaceful. A location in Mazar-e Sharif was abandoned when it was determined to be insecure — after the State Department had signed a 10-year lease and spent $80 million.
For now, the other two facilities, in Kandahar and Jalalabad, remain on the drawing board.
Afghanistan Readies Pre-Withdrawal Tax Breaks
Wall Street Journal By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV And NATHAN HODGE December 5, 2012
KABUL - Afghanistan is planning major tax breaks and incentives to lure investors ahead of U.S.-led forces' withdrawal at the end of 2014, part of an effort to stem accelerating capital flight, the country's finance minister said.
A proposal drafted by the finance ministry and endorsed by President Hamid Karzai would grant a 10-year tax break and provide free land to companies that invest in Afghanistan over the next two years, Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal told The Wall Street Journal.
Concerns about the possibility of civil war once the foreign forces leave, coupled with diminishing Western aid, have undermined confidence in the country's economy. Several billion dollars in cash were smuggled to Dubai from Afghan airports this year alone, according to coalition estimates. Many projects have been put on hold as investors wait to see whether the Afghan government will be able to stave off a Taliban takeover on its own, and whether presidential elections, slated for April 2014, would provide a legitimate successor to Mr. Karzai.
Adding to these jitters is the uncertainty over the outcome of negotiations between the U.S. and Kabul over an enduring U.S. military presence here after 2014.
"We are aware that Afghans are taking money away from Afghanistan because of concerns about 2014," Mr. Zakhilwal said. "When we see half-finished buildings and we ask why, they say, well, we're waiting until 2014."
The incentives plan, which would have to be approved by the full cabinet and the government, is expected to be unveiled as soon as Saturday. Mr. Zakhilwal didn't specify the size of the tax breaks.
"The reason it will be two years is because if you make it long-term, they will just wait until 2014. And we say, if you wait until 2014, you won't have this," Mr. Zakhilwal said in the interview Wednesday.
He said the package would spur exporters and agricultural enterprises and also stimulate the construction sector, which has been particularly hard hit by the confidence crisis. The proposal calls for simplifying the process of issuing building permits, which he said currently takes "forever." The new plan would require municipalities to issue them within 21 days.
"The construction sector is not only good for job creation but also good for confidence," he said. "When there is a lot of construction work going on, it gives confidence to people."
Amid the political uncertainty, the country's real-estate market has been particularly hard hit. Rents and property prices in Kabul's toniest neighborhoods have fallen by more than one-third since the year began, real-estate agents say, as foreign contractors and aid groups go home. In some areas, every second building sports a "For Rent" sign.
"People are afraid that a civil war will erupt once the foreigners leave, and everyone who can is taking their money out of the country," said Ghulam Mohammad, co-owner of a property agency in central Kabul. "Business is slow."
Rahimullah Hamid, executive director of the Kabul Chamber of Commerce and Industries, said the government incentives are badly needed. "We try to convince people that things will change in a good way," he said. "But most of the public, after they see the news, have heavy concerns about 2014."
Mr. Zakhilwal said he expected the U.S. military drawdown's economic effect will be limited.
This year, the Afghan economy is growing at about 10%, with the forecast for 2013 at between 10% and 11%, Mr. Zakhilwal said. Once the U.S. military drawdown occurs, however, the growth rate will slip to between 5% and 6%, he estimated, assuming international spending on development won't be significantly affected.
Mr. Zakhilwal added that the drawdown's impact won't be as severe as many fear because a large percentage of the money spent on military contracts—perhaps as much as 80% or 90%—currently doesn't stay in Afghanistan, going instead to large overseas companies.
Still, over the past decade, many Afghan businesses sprang up to provide goods and services to U.S. and coalition forces. Afghan construction firms help build roads and bases, and Afghan logistics companies deliver fuel and supplies for international projects.
As the military-funded contracting boom winds down, the U.S. government is hoping that some of those firms will diversify to focus on local business opportunities. This week, the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Agency for International Development brought four U.S. companies to Kabul to promote franchising opportunities for Afghan businesses.
The companies—electronics retailer RadioShack, RSH +2.08% industrial and construction equipment supplier Hertz Equipment Rental, educational tutoring firm Tutor Doctor and printing services firm AlphaGraphics—held matchmaking sessions with Afghan businesspeople looking to invest in new opportunities.
"I quickly divide [Afghan] companies into three categories," said Walter Koenig, senior commercial officer at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. "There are the companies that are going to cut and run when it's done. There are the companies that hope things never change And there are those who are looking for the future, and are looking for a new way to respond to the new reality and be successful."
Most Afghan firms, Mr. Koenig reckoned, fall in the last category.
Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com and Nathan Hodge at nathan.hodge@wsj.com
Earthquake Strikes Near Iran-Afghanistan Border
December 5, 2012 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
An earthquake measuring 5.5 in magnitude has struck eastern Iran.
Iran's Fars news agency said eight people had been killed and 12 injured in the quake on December 5.
The agency said buildings had collapsed in areas impacted by the quake in the district of Zohan in South Khorasan Province.
Fars said Iran's Red Crescent Society had dispatched 15 rescue teams to affected areas to search for people trapped under rubble.
Doctors in the provincial capital of Birjand were put on alert to treat those injured.
Mohammad Sarvar, Tehran's deputy emergency services director, said with emergency workers reaching some areas the death toll could rise.
There were no early reports indicating damages or injuries in nearby areas across the border in Afghanistan.
Based on reporting by Reuters, AFP, and dpa
Clinton says crucial countries meet Afghan funding pledges
Reuters By David Brunnstrom and Adrian Croft Dec 5, 2012
* Billions of dollars pledged for Afghan forces after 2014
* Ministers want to create body to manage foreign funds
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday it was crucial that NATO allies stick to their commitments to fund Afghanistan's security forces after Western forces end their combat role in the country in 2014.
Afghanistan's foreign backers have pledged $4.1 billion per year to fund Afghan security forces after 2014, but there are concerns that European countries hit by austerity cutbacks may not be able to meet their commitments.
"It will be crucial for every nation to follow through on their commitments, and for those who haven't yet committed any funding to do so," Clinton told a meeting in Brussels of NATO foreign ministers and countries contributing to the NATO-led military mission in Afghanistan.
Clinton said it was essential to focus on economic and political transition in Afghanistan for which countries have pledged $16 billion, and stressed the importance of regional support.
"Every nation in the region has a stake in Afghanistan's future and a responsibility to step up and help secure it," she said.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle stressed the importance of European countries delivering on aid commitments.
"Of course that is not easy during times of tightening purse strings. But it is in the interest of European citizens. That is why I am making sure that the commitments made are kept," he told reporters.
Afghan foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai told reporters in Brussels that the Kabul government was fully aware of the financial pressures on countries.
"But we believe that the $4.1 billion annual funding commitment to the Afghan National Security Forces post-2014 is an investment, not only in the security of Afghanistan but also in the security of the broader region and the wider world," he said.
The ministers also discussed setting up a mechanism to oversee spending of the billions of dollars of foreign funding for the Afghan forces after 2014.
HANDLE OWN FINANCES
The Afghan government wants to handle its own finances but with Western concerns over corruption running high, NATO diplomats say the alliance is likely to get a strong role in managing international funding after 2014.
NATO diplomats said the new funding body will build on the existing Afghan National Army Trust Fund, set up to finance the rapid expansion of the Afghan army over the last few years, and will include international donors and the Afghan government.
Mosazai said Afghanistan wanted to deal with other countries after 2014 as an independent, sovereign country.
"But at the same time we want to ensure we have structures in place that will (reassure) everybody about the accountable, transparent, effective and efficient expenditure of those funds," he said.
Afghanistan is ranked as one of the world's most corrupt countries. The theft of about $935 million from the Kabulbank two years ago and the subsequent foot-dragging in prosecuting those responsible underlined concerns about Afghanistan's ability to manage its finances and enforce the rule of law.
Afghanistan Says U.S. Has Right to Seek Taliban Prisoner Swap
Bloomberg By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan December 05, 2012
Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin said his government supports U.S. efforts to secure the release of an American soldier thought to be held hostage by the Haqqani insurgent network that’s allied with the Taliban.
“We have no problem in the U.S. government engaging the Taliban directly to secure that objective,” Ludin said in an interview on the sidelines of today’s NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels. He sought to dispel reports that the Afghan government was displeased with U.S. efforts to establish a direct channel in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar to talk to the Taliban about the missing soldier.
As long as U.S. diplomats are trying to secure the American soldier’s release, there’s no conflict with larger negotiations about peace and stability in his country, he said. “But when it comes to direct negotiations with the Taliban in the context of the peace process, any direct negotiations will have to be and can only be between the Afghan government and the Taliban,” he said.
U.S. officials have engaged in behind-the-scenes exploratory contacts with the Taliban and the Haqqani insurgent network. Negotiations with Taliban representatives in Qatar broke down in March. The two sides were seeking a possible swap of five Taliban prisoners held in the U.S. military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay for the 26-year-old American sergeant detained since June 2009.
Privately, U.S. foreign policy, intelligence and military officials have said they are pessimistic that negotiations with the Taliban over the soldier’s release might lead to a broader peace agreement between the Afghan government and the Islamic extremist group.
Still Unreliable
The Afghan government remains plagued by security forces that remain unreliable despite NATO training efforts, by continued opium trafficking, and by persistent official corruption and diversion of foreign aid, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke about the private talks on condition of anonymity.
At the meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels today, North Atlantic Treaty Organization members discussed mechanisms to ensure the transparent and efficient use of funds from NATO and coalition partners to support Afghan security forces before and after the withdrawal of international combat forces by the end of 2014.
The 28-member alliance and several non-NATO countries have pledged $4.1 billion in annual support for Afghan security and stability through 2017.
President Barack Obama in May signed a security partnership agreement with Afghan President Hamid Karzai that commits the U.S. to supporting the South Asian nation’s security for 10 years.
‘Solidly Committed’
Today, Ludin said, Afghanistan was told that NATO and coalition partners are “all firmly and solidly committed in their pledges, in their continued assistance and support” for Afghanistan “until 2014 and beyond 2014.”
Ludin called the $4.1 billion in annual pledges “an investment in our common security.” If Afghanistan is left without support, he warned, there could be “grievous consequences that we witnessed with 9/11 and with other international terrorist attacks.”
The U.S. is planning to maintain some non-combat military presence to collect intelligence on militants and continue training Afghan security forces after the alliance withdraws most combat forces by 2014. Negotiations with Afghanistan on a Status of Forces Agreement to govern the actions and liability of U.S. forces are on track, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today at a NATO press briefing.
The failure to negotiate a similar agreement with the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki forced the Obama administration to withdraw all American forces from that country by the end of 2011.
The Senate yesterday approved a non-binding amendment to a defense authorization bill calling on Obama to speed the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and require a congressional review of any bilateral security agreement.
To contact the reporter on this story: Indira A.R. Lakshmanan in Washington at ilakshmanan@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott at jwalcott9@bloomberg.net
Govt Decision on ECC 'Ridiculous': MPs
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Wednesday, 05 December 2012
Lawmakers have lambasted the Council of Minister's decision to do away with the independent Election Complaints Commission in its redraft of Afghanistan's election law, hailing it as a surefire move towards a fraudulent presidential election.
The Council of Ministers on Monday decided to remove the existence of the ECC and hand its election supervision responsibilities to the Supreme Court following months of top-level disagreements over whether two foreign experts will be allowed to sit on its seven-person board.
"It's very ridiculous that President [Hamid] Karzai removed the Election Complaints Commission from the election draft. He's not confident enough to launch an election," Kandahar MP Mohammad Naim Lalai Hamidzai said Wednesday.
"Everyone knows that the courts are involved in corruption. How we could trust them to announce the correct results of the election?" Ghor MP Sima Joyenda said.
Parliament in October approved the draft election law including an ECC with two foreign commissioners, but the decision was criticised by Karzai as a violation of Afghanistan's sovereignty.
The Senate approved the election law but rejected the article allowing foreign commissioners.
The Council of Minister's decision will require Parliament approval. The Council has recommended that the Karzai-appointed Supreme Court form a new election body to oversee the poll results.
The presidential election is slated for April 5 2014.
Beating Sparks Outcry Against Militia Commanders In Afghan Government
RFE/RL By Sayaed Jan Sabawoon and Frud Bezhan December 05, 2012
KABUL - When news broke of a suicide bombing at an international military complex in Kabul last month, local police officer Mohammad Ismail was promptly dispatched to the scene.
Ismail's orders were to prevent traffic from entering the area and to redirect locals to safety. But not long after arriving with several other officers, a black SUV with tinted windows approached the checkpoint. Ismail refused the driver's request to be allowed to pass through and repeatedly told him to turn around.
In a matter of seconds, Ismail says, a number of men brandishing AK-47s stepped out of the vehicle.
The armed men -- bodyguards for parliament deputy and former militia commander Haji Zahir Qadir -- cursed and then attacked Ismail as his fellow officers fled the scene.
After picking the injured Ismail up from the side of the road, local residents delivered the 28-year-old officer to a hospital.
"For no reason, they grabbed me by the shirt and attacked me," he said. "One of them told the other bodyguards to attack me. I was surrounded by the bodyguards, who pressed their guns against my side, chest, and back. I looked back and saw that they had released the safeties on their guns. One of them hit me on the shoulder. After that, I can't remember what happened."
Social-Media Backlash
The assault on Ismail, which occurred on November 21 in Kabul's Wazir Akbar Khan district, has caused an uproar against Qadir and triggered a backlash against the presence of former militia leaders who are now in government. Anger spread after pictures of the assault went viral on social-media sites.
The outcry prompted the Afghan Interior Ministry to launch an investigation on November 23 and detain Qadir's bodyguards. But just a week later, on December 1, the guards were promptly freed after Qadir and several other lawmakers visited Ismail's precinct and personally apologized to him.
In a statement issued on the day of the visit, the Interior Ministry quoted Qadir as saying he regretted the behavior of his guards and vowed it would never happen again.
For the ministry's part, it simply warned politicians not to intervene in police business. "Political figures should not create problems for Afghan security forces during sensitive situations in the city and should instead assist them," the ministry statement read.
Despite the apology, the head of the Kabul police department's crimes investigation unit, General Mohammad Zaher, said on December 2 that he would refer the case to the Attorney-General's Office. Zaher also said he planned to press charges against Ismail's colleagues who fled the scene.
Powerful Militia Leaders
Ismail, who is still recovering from the injuries he sustained, reluctantly accepted the apology. But he says the incident is symptomatic of the significant power and influence wielded by the country's former militia leaders, including Qadir, who was a senior commander in the Northern Alliance.
The former strongmen, who once waged war against the ruling Taliban as leaders of the mujahedin, still exert significant influence on the country's political affairs.
Many Afghans view former militia commanders who have carved out high-ranking roles within the government as war criminals, and have accused them of using their power to extort money, grab land, and attack their opponents.
Ismail, an officer with the 10th District Force in Kabul, believes the attack should not been seen as one against him, but against the entire country. "When my police cap and badge fell on the ground, I couldn't even pick it up [out of shame]," he says. "More importantly, when my badge was disrespected so was the Interior Ministry, the security commander in Kabul, and the Afghan president himself."
On social-media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, the response has been equally critical.
Shafiqa Ahmadi, who commented on Facebook, referred to Qadir and other former militia leaders in the government as "criminals," and said the incident showed that many of them think they are above the law.
"Who gives these warlords, who are traitors and thieves, the right to attack and almost kill a member of our security forces?" Ahmadi wrote. "Why does the Interior Ministry protect these fundamentalists instead of protecting the police who have been attacked? If the government does not act we will seek action."
Another Facebook user, Ahmad Seir Nassiri, criticized the Interior Ministry, which oversees the national police force, for taking the side of "criminals" instead of an officer who was merely following orders.
"If we have a system which cannot defend its own police," Nassiri wrote, "then how can it defend people in our country? Shame to all those in the Interior Ministry."
Written by Frud Bezhan based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan correspondent Sayed Sabawoon in Kabul
Afghanistan may ink mining deal with SAIL-led consortium
By Indo Asian News Service | IANS – Wed, Dec 5, 2012
Kolkata, Dec 5 (IANS) Afghanistan is likely to sign an agreement with a SAIL-led consortium in January 2013 to mine Hajigak iron ore in Bamiyan province after getting cabinet clearance.
"A delegation of SAIL (Steel Authority of India) will visit Afghanistan in mid-December this year. Remaining issues will be sorted out and the deal will be concluded. After that our cabinet will clear it and a concession agreement will be signed in January 2013," Afghanistan Mines Minister Wahidullah Shahrani told reporters here Wednesday.
Shahrani said about 90 percent of the issues have already been sorted out.
The consortium had won three blocks at the Hajigak iron ore mines in Bamiyan province in Afghanistan.
The Afghan minister was in the city to attend the International Mining and Machinery Conference (IMMC) organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The Afghanistan mines ministry earlier had stated that SAIL-led AFISCO (Afghan Iron and Steel Consortium) risks losing mining licences in Afghanistan if it fails to meet production targets or fails to commence mining within six months of the licence being granted.
AFISCO consists of state-run majors, led by SAIL, NMDC and RINL, and private sector players like JSW Steel, JSW Ispat and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.
YouTube Ban, Spurred by Anti-Islamic Video, Is Met With Shrugs
New York Times By AZAM AHMED December 5, 2012
KABUL, Afghanistan - When it comes to YouTube, the government of Afghanistan intends to keep its hand on the switch for now.
More than two months after the Afghan government banned YouTube to prevent the spread of an anti-Islamic video, it has yet to restore access to the popular video Web site. While officials say they hope to lift the block “as soon as possible,” they have offered only a vague sense of what must happen before that can be done.
It is a measure of some of Afghanistan’s complexities, however, that even as Afghan rights advocates have worried about censorship, a common reaction on the street to the YouTube ban has been praise, or at worst ambivalence, even among some of the younger, Internet-savvy set in Kabul.
“That video dishonored our prophet,” said Syed Hamid, 19, a recent high school graduate, in comfortable English. “If YouTube isn’t going to remove the video, then our government is right to block access to it.”
He added: “I don’t need YouTube. I can watch videos on other Web sites.”
When a trailer for the video “Innocence of Muslims,” which portrays the Prophet Muhammad as a crass thug and a womanizer, began to circulate in September, the Afghan government reacted quickly to stem potential violence as riots broke out in other countries. In a move that senior Western officials in Afghanistan praised, the Afghan authorities reached out to religious leaders across the country, urging them to preach restraint and tolerance.
More controversially, officials also decided to impose the ban on YouTube after the company refused to remove the video from its site.
The country remained mostly peaceful, to the relief of the government and Western officials here. Past demonstrations related to religious insensitivity had quickly become deadly: In February, when NATO personnel were seen burning Korans near the Bagram Air Base, Afghans took to the streets in a violent outpouring of rage that led to dozens of deaths.
While Western countries, including most of the ones involved here, recoil at the idea of restricting free speech, the lesson is less clear in Afghanistan. In this case, censorship worked, and in conjunction with the government’s broader strategy almost certainly saved lives.
Still, some are asking the question: Where does the government draw the line on filtering information to its citizens? The answer has consistently been: Anywhere Islam is insulted.
“In the Islamic world, there are certain things that are untouchable,” said Jalal Noorani, senior adviser to the minister of culture and information, who initiated the ban. “We won’t be patient with anything disrespectful to our religion.”
Mr. Noorani said the government had no plans to ban other Web sites, so long as they did not disrespect Islam or incite ethnic violence.
The government had shown a willingness to censor offensive broadcasts before. In 2010, for instance, it shut down Emrooz TV after the local station showed a segment on Shiite Muslims that some Afghans found offensive. And a sustained war of words with Pakistan prompted Afghan officials to ban Pakistani newspapers from eastern Afghanistan in September, claiming they were little more than “propaganda tools for the Taliban.”
While Web sites that focus on vices like gambling and pornography have been banned for years, the government had never before blocked an entire media Web site for hosting an offensive video, officials said. Civil rights groups have argued that the censorship undermines President Hamid Karzai’s promises of transparency and openness.
But for all the controversy over the ban, it hardly seemed to register with many youths here in Kabul.
On a recent afternoon, hundreds of young men gathered in a plaza off the Pul-e-Khesti market, where a de facto cellphone emporium has taken root. Men waved phones as they barked out prices across the crowd. Merchants at makeshift tables charged nominal fees to download music and videos on mobile devices.
The market is just the sort of place the government feared could be a magnet for violence if the video — or even just news of its contents — spread from phone to phone. Although most Afghans do not have computers, cellphones have become ubiquitous over the past decade, and an estimated three-quarters of Afghans have access to mobile devices that allow them to watch videos.
“As long as this anti-prophet video is on YouTube, our government should keep their Web site blocked,” said Javeed Khawrin, 21, who was shopping at the market. “If I had power, I would have destroyed the whole area where this video was taped.”
Subhanullah, 24, an Afghan Army soldier who came to the market to get his phone fixed and who, like many Afghans, uses a single name, said the video “creates more haters among our national army soldiers toward the foreign troops here.”
Attitudes were similar at the city’s Women’s Garden, a sanctuary of roses, leafy trees and swing sets financed by Western aid.
Nilab Khursihid, 18, said she welcomed the government’s decision to keep the ban in place, and suggested even extending it to all material that is hurtful or disrespectful, including cartoons that lampoon Mr. Karzai.
“This is how our community is,” she said, sitting with friends in the garden. “The Internet has misled many of the youth.”
The garden, in the Shahrara neighborhood, boasts a library, a computer lab and a gymnasium for women. Small shops selling toys, lingerie and dresses line the inner wall of the compound. Nearby, a young woman sat uneasily behind the steering wheel of a Toyota, taking a driving lesson, a freedom unknown in the rest of the city.
One shopkeeper, Mariama Ahmadi, 23, who runs a dress store, offered a counterperspective. While she, too, thinks the video should have been taken down, she said, she thinks banning the Web site was a mistake. She said she preferred self-censorship, and the freedom to decide for oneself.
“We can all have our own choices and decide what to watch,” she said, her face framed by a black hijab. “The government shouldn’t be telling people what to do.”
Sharifullah Sahak contributed reporting.
Afghan gunmen kill polio vaccination worker in latest attack on women
Taliban deny shooting dead health volunteer in Kapisa province, who had been warned twice to stop working outside the home
Guardian.co.uk By Emma Graham-Harrison Wednesday 5 December 2012
Kabul - A student and volunteer on a polio vaccination programme has been murdered by gunmen in an eastern Afghan village, leaving many women too frightened to attend work and school, according to a member of parliament for the area.
Anisa, who had just finished 10th grade at school, was shot outside her home in Kapisa province on Saturday morning and died later in hospital, with six bullets in her stomach. But although officials, activists and security forces agree she was shot dead, reports differ about who was responsible.
The victim had already survived a murder attempt the day before she died, taking shelter in a neighbour's house when gunmen opened fire on her in the street, said Sima Matim, a Kapisa provincial council member, who believes insurgents were behind the killing.
"She hadn't realised a group was following her and was very afraid," said Matim, who has herself been threatened for working outside the home, and says she often feels like she is being watched. "Two times these groups called me and told me to stop my job. They told me my address and described my home to me. They said 'we know everything about you and you have to stop your job'.
"I worry about when I will be killed and what my destiny will be. My husband always tells me to stop work, but still I am trying to continue."
The violent deaths of women often go unreported or unresolved in Afghanistan, a country where senior clerics this year described them as "secondary" to men.
Heather Barr, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: "The small number of cases of prosecution of violence against women speaks to a lack of enthusiasm on the part of police and prosecutors to get to the bottom of these cases."
Guidelines issued by the clerics said women were subordinate to men, that they should not mix in work or education, and must always have a male guardian when they travel. The edicts appeared in a statement that also encouraged insurgents to join peace talks, fuelling fears that any successful negotiations would come at a high cost to women.
Anisa was an orphan in her early 20s, old for her grade at school in part because she tried to support her family while studying, said Tahera Mojaddidi, a member of parliament and former teacher who knew her. War and poverty means it is not unusual for Afghan children to miss or repeat several years at school.
The morning she was murdered, Anisa got a phone call from her killers shortly before she left for work at the clinic where she volunteered on a polio eradication programme, Mojaddidi said.
Afghanistan is one of three countries where polio is still endemic, and only two thirds of children in Kapisa are vaccinated, according to United Nations figures.
When Anisa stepped outside, six bullets were pumped into her stomach, said the MP, who added that she had discussed the shooting with intelligence officials from her home province. She said she believed the Taliban were behind the killing.
"In the village, families are saying that from the time when Anisa was killed up until now, their girls cannot go to schools, women who are working for organisations, they do not dare go out, because they think if they do their destiny would be the same as Anisa's."
A Taliban spokesman denied any role in the shooting, and said the group was not against polio vaccines. The Pakistani Taliban this summer in effect banned polio eradication in South Waziristan, one of the most troubled areas of Pakistan.
Several Kapisa officials also denied a Taliban role in her killing. The provincial director of women's affairs, Saifoorah Kohistani, said there were no Taliban in Anisa's area and the government was looking into possible motives for the shooting. The provincial governor would say only that an investigation was under way.
Police said Anisa was caught in crossfire after a fight escalated in an area where most men carry guns. Mohammad Makhfous Walizada, deputy provincial police chief, said he had testimony from her brother, who carried the dying girl to hospital. Walizada said he had arrested a man, who was now being questioned.
He was backed up by another MP, Haji Agha Jan. "Someone told me it was two brothers or two cousins fighting. Everyone has Pakistani pistols there, one of them opened fire, the bullets mistakenly hit the girl and she was killed," said Jan.
Mojaddidi said officials were not interested in looking into such attacks; their insistence that the shooting was accidental was just an excuse, she said. "It's all some stories that the officials of Kapisa made up, to cover that there is violence against women."
Additional reporting by Mokhtar Amiri
Afghanistan Tops Most Corrupt Countries Index
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Ahbrimkhil Wednesday, 05 December 2012
Afghanistan is perceived to have one of the most corrupt public sectors in the world out of 176 countries surveyed, according to a report from Transparency International released Wednesday.
Afghanistan tops the Corruption Perception Index along with North Korea in Asia and Somalia in Africa.
The report said that one in seven Afghans has paid a bribe while the Kabul Bank scandal greatly increased perceptions of the vast corruption in the country.
The report said that government efforts to eliminate corruption have been in vain and that corruption has only increased in the country.
The Afghan government responded that major efforts are underway to bring the level of the corruption down.
"As the government and anti-corruption bodies increase, it helps to have the transparency watchdogs showing the increased level of corruption," Policy and Technical Deputy Director of the High Office of Oversight and Anti Corruption Mohammed Amin Khoramji told TOLOnews on Wednesday.
The average bribe paid by each Afghan amounts to one-third the normal salary of a government employee, or $150 month.
The Coalition of Afghan Women to Fight Corruption protested on Wednesday to oppose the rising corruption in the country and demanded a stable and corruption free Afghanistan in the future.
"We have started this effort and will continue it even if it costs us our lives," Amina Mustaqim, a member of the coalition, told TOLOnews.
"We want our children to live in a peaceful, secure and corruption free country."
The report said that weak governance, impunity, fraud in elections, government-dominated justice sector, unnecessary detentions, extortion, and illegal killing with impunity all contribute to the increase of corruption.
The report also said that as much as $8 billion has been embezzled in the past decade from Afghanistan as a result of the high level of corruption in the country.
Regionally, India was ranked 94, Iran 133, Pakistan 139, and Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan were equal at 170.
Tracking the Elusive Snow Leopard of Afghanistan
ABC News By TJ WINICK and MARY COMPTON Dec 5, 2012
In Afghanistan, one of the most dangerous places in the world, Boone Smith is on a mission.
Not for the military, but for wildlife organizations that want to track down the most elusive big cat on the planet: The snow leopard of Afghanistan.
“This was my Holy Grail for animals I wanted to catch,” he said.
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and USAID challenged Smith, a fourth-generation big-cat trapper from Idaho, to capture and collar a snow leopard in Afghanistan in just 20 days.
“They’re borderline mythical, legendary,” Smith said. “If you can’t look at a snow leopard and appreciate it for what it is and the terrain it survives in, you’re missing something.”
It’s estimated that only 100 to 200 snow leopards are left in Afghanistan and that only 2,000 are left in the entire world. Poachers target these highly-endangered predators for their pelts and farmers will kill them for attacking their livestock. Wildlife experts want to find and collect more data on the big cat’s movements to keep them from going extinct and to help Afghan villagers protect their farm animals.
“If they can’t manage that land and the wildlife and the resources that are found there, they can’t survive,” said Peter Zahler, the assistant director of WCS-Asia. “If they can’t survive, you can never have sustainability and stability in a country like Afghanistan.”
Smith traveled to the Wakhan Corridor, a mountainous border region in Northeastern Afghanistan — snow leopard country. His journey, in a film titled the “Snow Leopard of Afghanistan,” will be featured as part of Big Cat Week on Nat Geo WILD beginning on Sunday, Dec. 9.
Among those on his experienced team are a tracker named Hussain Ali and fellow trapper John Goodrich. The team set up humane traps with transmitters to alert them when an animal was caught.
“Trapping is a game of odds,” Smith said. “We’re trying to predict the exact spot a cat would put his foot.”
In the dead of night, after waiting only six hours, the team got a signal from the trap. They had caught a snow leopard.
Once the cat was hit with a tranquilizer dart, it was a race against time. The team only had one hour to complete a full exam of the animal and attach a satellite collar, which will collect valuable data and then fall off after 13 months.
“We feel a responsibility for an animal we’ve collared,” Smith said. “We’ve taken some liberties with it, obviously, and we’re justifying that because of what we’re going to gain back in the big picture of conservation.”
Over the next few days, Smith and his crew saw the data sent from the collar, tracking the animal’s movements, which has helped notify villagers of when the big cats are approaching.
In a country where 80 percent of people live off the land, understanding the snow leopard means understanding a volatile ecosystem, one of the keys to rebuilding Afghanistan.
Boy Raped, Murdered in Jawzjan
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 05 December 2012
An eight-year-old boy was raped and murdered in northern Jawzjan province on Tuesday night, local officials said Wednesday.
Three men have been arrested in relation to the case after being identified as possible suspects by the boy's father Shamsuddin, provincial police chief Abdul Aziz Ghairt said.
Afghan national police found the body of the boy, Farhar, in some ruins of the Faizabad district and took it to local hospital, he said.
"The examinations show that the boy was raped and afterwards was strangled," head of the government hospital Dr. Mirwais said.
However, Ghairt said that it is not yet clear whether there was any personal relationship or hostility between the detained men and the family.
The police investigation is continuing, he said.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com