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Taliban kill 1,100 members of Afghan security forces in six months
Casualties have doubled and desertion rates spiked over past year as Nato steps back, figures reveal
Guardian.co.uk By Nick Hopkins Wednesday 23 January 2013
The Taliban have killed 1,100 members of the Afghan security forces in the past six months as Nato troops have stepped back and left the local army and police to fight the insurgency, it has emerged.
Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, admitted there had been a doubling of casualties among Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) over the past year, as well as spikes in desertion rates from the army.
The previously classified figures were given to the Ministry of Defence by commanders at Nato's International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) to help Hammond and Lieutenant General Richard Barrons prepare for questions from MPs.
Asked about Afghan casualties, Hammond said the evidence pointed to a sharp increase.
"We have to enter caveats about the quality of data and baseline data, but as the Afghans have taken over the leading role in security, clearly their casualties have gone up very significantly. Possibly they have doubled over the last year or so."
Barrons said the ANSF had suffered badly from attacks by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the past six months. Without the same medical and logistical support of western forces, the Afghans had been hit hard, he said.
"In the last six months, there has been an increase in IED attacks on the ANSF, and they are taking substantial casualties, roughly 1,100 fatalities. It is a significant issue, but the [Afghans'] ability to deal with it is getting better."
Later, the MoD confirmed the 1,100 referred to deaths across Afghanistan among forces that now have the prime responsibilty to take on the Taliban.
The general admitted the attrition rate for the 350,000-strong ANSF – the number of personnel deserting and not returning to their posts – was also higher than it should be.
The target was to keep the levels to 1.6% of the force deserting every month. But the monthly average was 2.6% – and last October it peaked at 3.1%.
The general said the key to stopping desertions was "good leadership, decent pay, decent food and the end of corruption".
Hammond told the defence select committee an Afghan food supplier had recently been jailed for supplying substandard rice to the Afghan National Army.
He denied the insurgency was making ground, and said two recent Taliban attacks in the capital Kabul had highlighted how desperate the insurgents had become.
One was against the intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), and the second was against the Afghan traffic police.
"All the evidence I see is that the Taliban is struggling to maintain the momentum of the insurgency and there is absolutely no evidence to suggest they have the reserves to press a button and significantly increase the tempo of the insurgency," said Hammond.
"The two incidents that occurred in Kabul were both attempts at spectacular attacks in an area that is pretty safe. The first on the NDS was a failure. The second was on a very soft target, unarmed Afghan traffic police.
"This doesn't look to me like an insurgency with a lot of reserve firepower."
Hammond predicted that when international troops end their combat role next year, Afghan forces would be able to "effectively hold the important parts of the country", such as cities, towns and key infrastructure.
"I would expect the situation to be messier than it is today, but I sense that there is a growing recognition on both sides of this fight that neither side can win outright. The government cannot defeat the Taliban and secure every inch of Afghan space.
"The Taliban sense, and we have some evidence of acknowledgement of this, that they cannot defeat the government in military terms. So I think both sides will want to make progress ultimately to some kind of political accommodation."
Hammond added: "Our own experience suggests that might not be a smooth process. It might go in fits and starts. But I would expect slow and messy progress."
Karzai's Brother Renounces U.S. Citizenship To Enter Afghan Politics
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan January 24, 2013
KABUL -- Mahmud Karzai, a brother of Afghanistan's president, has told RFE/RL he has renounced his U.S. citizenship to launch a political career.
He would not confirm on January 24 whether he intended to run in Afghanistan's 2014 presidential election.
Karzai, 57, is a wealthy entrepreneur whose business interests include banking, mining, and real estate.
He lived in the United States for many years and reportedly has owned restaurants in San Francisco, Boston, and Baltimore.
Media reports say Karzai controls a 7 percent stake in Kabul Bank, Afghanistan's largest private bank.
Last year, an independent audit found that Kabul Bank was involved in a fraud that sent nearly $900 million outside Afghanistan.
Karzai has denied any wrongdoing.
His brother, President Hamid Karzai, finishes his second and final term in 2014.
IEC Advocates Use of Old Election Cards
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Ahbrimkhil Wednesday, 23 January 2013
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has retreated from its demand for a new registration of voters countrywide in the lead up to the 2014 presidential election, saying Wednesday that the old registration cards will be used instead.
New cards will only be issued to those citizens who were not registered in the last election, officials said.
"Based on our new plan, the people with the previous cards can vote – their cards are valid. And we will give new cards to those whom do not have card," IEC Secretariat chief Zia-ul-Haq Amarkhel said at a press conference in Kabul.
The shift comes after months of IEC insistence that new registrations for all voting citizens were necessary to reduce fraud in the 2014 election. Its two previous drafts on the matter were rejected by the government.
President Hamid Karzai spoke out against the IEC plan on his return from the US this month, saying that there was no budget to re-register all voters and issue new cards.
Amarkhel said the commission will give the list of 7000 polling stations to security organisations in one month. The organisations will have three months to secure the stations and then registrations of newly-qualified voters will begin.
Registration voters will start end of April 2013 and will continue until two weeks before the election on 5 April 2014.
"The commission aims to share the list of polling stations with security organisations in one month," Amarkhel said.
Amarkhel rejected rumours that the IEC chief Fazil Ahmad Manawi does not support the new draft, saying that the international community, government and other organisations have agreed with the draft.
News Analysis: Peace in Afghanistan remains elusive amid continued Taliban attacks
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The successive deadly attacks in the fortified Afghan capital Kabul over the past weeks which the Taliban has claimed responsibility has dashed hopes for peace and national reconciliation in the country, local observers here said.
The brazen attacks occurred despite the government's decision to release Taliban detainees from Pakistani jails.
The government was also able to take control of Bagram prison from the U.S. military as part of its efforts to bolster the peace process and bring the armed militants into the political mainstream.
Afghan analysts said that "one-sided efforts for peace" would never yield the desired results, adding that the two bold attacks in Kabul over the past two weeks only illustrate that the Taliban does not believe in the peace process.
"Consecutive bold attacks on security apparatus in Kabul demonstrate security lapses on the part of the government," a political analyst Jawed Kohistani said in a television panel discussion.
Releasing more Taliban detainees from Afghan, U.S. and Pakistani jails, according to Kohistani, would only further boost the Taliban morale to carry more attacks.
He said this was what happened when Mullah Samad Achakzai was released because the freed Taliban leader is now reported to be commanding the insurgent fighters in Spinboldak, in the province of Kandahar.
Another political observer and parliamentarian Arif Rahmani warned that "anyone who kills our people and destroy our country is our enemy, no matter if he is our brother or if he belongs to our clan and tribe."
President Hamid Karzai has time and again called on Taliban militants to give up fighting and join the government in the rebuilding process of Afghanistan.
However, the olive branch has been repeatedly rebuffed by the Taliban branding it as "trick to divide" tactic of the government. They said that there will be no talks with the government as long as there are foreign troops in the country.
The Taliban had in fact demanded the immediate pullout of NATO- led coalition forces from Afghanistan as a precondition for any dialogue with the government.
It is almost six years now since the Afghan government called on the Taliban to sever ties with al-Qaida, accept the country's Constitution and join the peace process.
Despite the peace overtures of the Karzai administration, no ranking Taliban military or political leader has switched side to the government.
More than two dozen Taliban detainees, including senior commanders Mullah Nurudin Turabi and Anwarul Haq Mujahid, have been released from Pakistani jails over the past few months but none has joined the government in Kabul and no one knows their whereabouts now.
Reports said that the released Taliban, instead of joining the peace process have rejoined their comrades and are playing key roles in the group's protracted war against the Afghan government and NATO-led troops based in Afghanistan.
The brazen attack by the Taliban against the police in Kabul on Jan. 21 had left eight people dead, including five suicide attackers and three traffic police, and injured over a dozen others.
In the previous attack in the compound of the National Directorate for Security (NDS), the country's intelligence agency, which occurred on Jan. 16, six people, presumably all attackers, were killed and 30 others, all civilians, were injured.
The militant group also critically wounded the head of intelligence Assadullah Khalid in a suicide bomb attack in his highly protected guest house in Kabul about a month ago.
According to observers the prospects for peace in Afghanistan appears to be dim after the government failed to win the support of any Taliban leader with only a year before the pullout of U.S.- led NATO forces in 2014.
Roshan Officially Recognized For Quality In Afghanistan
Technology and Network and Sales Organization Awarded Global ISO 9001:2008 Certification—Two Firsts for Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Roshan, Afghanistan's leading total communications provider, today announced that the company has been awarded the highest quality recognition of ISO 9001:2008 for its technology, network and sales operations. ISO is gained by organizations that focus on improving company operations through utilizing performance principles such as strong customer focus, leadership, involvement of people, governance, factual approach to decision making and continual improvement.¹ Recognized in over 150 countries, the two certifications,—a first for any telecommunications operator in Afghanistan—were awarded to Roshan after a year-long rigorous evaluation process conducted by ISO certified auditors.
Over the last ten years, Roshan has been committed to bringing the best-in-class services to Afghanistan while focusing on quality and the overall customer experience. In September of 2011, the company's three time award-winning Customer Care Centre achieved ISO status—making it Afghanistan's first-ever ISO certification. The Customer Care Centre responds to over 30,000 calls per day in Dari, Pashto and English, and also offers a "Ladies Customer Centre" for Roshan's female subscribers.
"The company's guiding principle has been to provide all Afghans with access to mobile telephony, as well as to play a key role in the country's economic development, reconstruction, and redevelopment process," Karim Khoja, Roshan Chief Executive Officer, said. "As we embark on our ten year anniversary, with over half a billion dollars invested in our network including upgrading it to provide 3G services Roshan continues to deliver on the promise of providing quality to ensure the highest level of service through all customer touch points. Our customers tell us they consistently choose Roshan for the superior performance of our wide reaching network that, today, provides coverage to almost 65 percent of the population in all 34 provinces," Khoja added.
Roshan remains focused on delivering innovative products and services to meet the unique demands of the Afghan market. The company pioneered mobile data services in Afghanistan, becoming the first operator to introduce BlackBerry and data products. Roshan's data packages are differentiated to meet the varying needs of consumers, large corporate clients, and small business owners, alike. And, for the growing youth market Roshan introduced Kahkahshaan, an interactive content portal with robust local music, video and news content as well as access to social media.
About Roshan
Roshan (Telecom Development Company Afghanistan Ltd) is Afghanistan's leading total communications provider with over six million active subscribers and a network that covers over 230 cities and towns in all of the country's 34 provinces.
Roshan is a true Afghanistan success story, serving as a catalyst for economic growth and actively contributing to the country's long-term development. Since its inception eight years ago, Roshan has invested over $550 million in Afghanistan and is the country's single largest investor and taxpayer, contributing approximately five percent of the Afghan government's overall domestic revenue. Roshan directly employs more than 1,300 people, 20 percent of whom are women, and provides indirect employment to more than 35,000 people.
Roshan is deeply committed to Afghanistan's reconstruction and development. The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), part of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), is a major shareholder of Roshan and promotes private initiatives and building economically sound enterprises in the developing world. Also owned in part by Monaco Telecom International (MTI) and TeliaSonera, Roshan brings international expertise to the country and is committed to the highest standards of network quality and coverage for the people of Afghanistan.
Russia probes dangerous aircraft incident in Afghan airspace
By Sajad - January 24 2013, 5:47 pm Khaama Press
According Russian air transport officials a Russian passenger airplane faced a dangerous incident in Afghan airspace after a mysterious and unresponsive plane was flying close to the aircraft.
The incident was first reported in Russian media on Wednesday after the Boeing 767 plane chartered by a major Russian tour operator and carrying 285 people from Bali landed at its destination in the Urals’ Yekaterinburg, Channel News Asia reported.
In the meantime Channel One television on Wednesday aired computerised footage of the plane in a near brush-off with a fighter jet, implying it could be a NATO plane as Afghanistan does not have its own fighter planes.
A spokesman of Rosaviatsia, Russia’s air transport agency said, according to the captain of the plane, the warning system went off when it was flying over Kabul, “indicating a dangerous approach of another plane.”
The plane, which belongs to charter airline Nordwind Airlines, was travelling above Kabul’s vicinity at an altitude of 10,800 metres (35,000 feet), the official said. The second plane was 330 metres (1,000 feet) away from the Boeing and was not responding to its calls.
Meanwhile a senior Russian official quoted by Interfax on Thursday said the fighter jet “had military colours similar to a plane from NATO’s air base” although this was not yet confirmed by Rosaviatsia.
“We don’t have information about whether it was a fighter plane,” Rosaviatsia’s spokesman said, but the agency is required to check such reports per Russia’s air transport rules.
He added that it is not in the agency’s power to send requests for information to NATO or Afghanistan.
If the incident above Afghanistan is confirmed, it would be the first in “several years,” he said.
Afghanistan in Retrograde: America Prepares to Withdraw
TIME.com By Nate Rawlings Jan. 23, 2013
Logar Province, Afghanistan - For the past few years, American troops in Afghanistan have used the winter months to make progress in counterinsurgency before the next fighting season. But with the end in sight for the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, American forces have a different kind of mission this winter. This is the first in a series of stories by Nate Rawlings, assigned to document the dismantling of the U.S. installations in Afghanistan in the walk-up to the withdrawal of troops by the end of 2014.You can be forgiven, upon landing in Kabul, for initially forgetting you’ve entered a war zone. Leaving the city’s slightly shoddy airport, I descended into its frenetically congested streets and saw thousands of people go about their daily lives, seemingly unaware that the rest of the world always attached the word war next to their country.
But quickly, reality sets in. Within a few miles of the airport, you see the blast walls, those towering slabs of concrete that surround the government agencies and upscale hotels. In just the past few months, Kabul suffered a suicide bombing that killed 12 people and an hours-long gun battle at the Spozhmai Hotel, a resort not far from Kabul. The New Year hadn’t started much better. There had been a bombing barely a week before I arrived.
On the morning of Jan. 21, two days after I flew into the city, a loud boom and rattling windows shook me from my sleep about 10 minutes before my alarm went off. Insurgents had attacked the headquarters of the city’s traffic police, detonating a suicide bomb and a car bomb, before taking refuge in the police building. After a nine-hour operation, Afghan security forces finally rooted out the last of the militants; three policemen and five insurgents were dead.
Despite the ongoing chaos at the traffic police headquarters, business in Kabul continued as usual. The drive north from the city to Bagram Airfield took the usual estimated time: one hour. Once a staging ground for the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Bagram is now one of the three largest NATO bases in the country and the main hub for all operations in the north and the east of Afghanistan. In the coming months, Bagram will play an even larger roll in the American withdrawal, becoming one of the main centers for “retrograde,” the military term for returning to the U.S. all of the vehicles, weapons and equipment that have accumulated in Afghanistan during 11 years of war.
According to a recent report to Congress by the Government Accountability Office, the U.S. military has an estimated 90,000 20-ft.-long containers of equipment scattered throughout Afghanistan. All together, this equipment is worth more than $36 billion, and it will cost more than $5.5 billion to return it to the U.S. or simply transfer for the use of Afghan government forces.
But the expense of retrograde is perhaps the least of the military’s worries. With a firm date set for nearly all American troops to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the clock is ticking to inventory, consolidate and move that equipment. Nowhere is that more difficult than in Regional Command-East, which comprises most of the northeast of the country, mountainous areas along the border with Pakistan and which has seen some of the heaviest fighting throughout the war. Bagram is the largest base in RC-East and its logistical and transport hub.
For the past several years, American troops have operated out of dozens of large and medium-size forward operating bases and dozens more combat outposts scattered throughout the mountainous areas along the Pakistan border. Bagram Airfield is the final stop for much of that equipment before it is flown out of the country, but to see where this process begins, one must navigate through the Byzantine airlift system, hopscotching out to smaller and smaller bases.
The first leg on my journey to the American outposts came aboard a 30-seat Dash-8 prop plane, operated by a company called AAR Airlift. Long before the sun could burn through the morning haze and raise the temperature anywhere near freezing, I joined 11 soldiers and contractors who climbed aboard the white, slightly weathered airplane. The crew — a pilot, co-pilot and crew chief — wore a uniform of matching tan pants, combat boots and black fleeces. It was a far cry from a flight I took two years ago in Kandahar province in an ancient Sikorsky helicopter, where the bearded, hulking crew chief, dressed in insulated overalls and a T-shirt, asked passengers to come up one at a time for fear that the stairs — held by two rickety cables — might collapse.
On this plane flight from Bagram to Forward Operating Base Shank, the crew chief gave a preflight speech that was one part combat briefing one part standard preflight talk. After explaining what to do in case of ground fire and the location of a medical kit if we were shot down, he finished by saying, “Please ensure that all personal items are stowed and that your seat backs and tray tables are in the full upright and locked position.” And with that, we took off into the frigid fog.
After a 20-minute flight south over the snowcapped mountains, we landed at Forward Operating Base Shank, the third largest base in Afghanistan by square mileage. Shank is one of the major collection points for equipment headed to Bagram, a process already under way, as row after row of giant metal containers flank the base’s dusty roads. The retrograde operation at Shank is a kind of laboratory for what works and what doesn’t as the troops of the 173rd Airborne Brigade try to clear out as much equipment as they can in the last few weeks before they rotate home. Their efforts may prove to be a battle plan for other units as they try to balance their core mission — assisting the Afghan forces — with retrograde: battling Afghanistan’s terrain, weather and attacks by a resilient insurgency to take everything home. It is now less than two years before the final troops will leave Afghanistan. The clock is ticking on a mission that is a logistician’s nightmare, one that will require precise execution, a little bit of improvisation and drastic changes in mind-set if it has any hope of succeeding.
UN probe into rights violations in U.S. drone strikes: Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Thursday confirmed that the United Nations Special Rapporteur is undertaking an inquiry into human rights violations in the U.S. drone strikes in the country's tribal regions, local media reported.
Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Ahmad Khan said the exercise is part of a broader mandate given to the Rapporteur by the UN Human Rights Council to examine abuse of human rights while countering terrorism.
"Pakistan, along with other like-minded countries, had called for examining the extra-judicial and targeted killing including through drone strikes resulting in death of civilians and non- combatants," the spokesman said at the weekly news briefing in Islamabad.
The U.S. uses its spy aircraft to launch attacks in Pakistan's Waziristan tribal region, claiming that they target the remnants of al-Qaida and Taliban militants, who are blamed for cross-border attacks in Afghanistan.
Pakistan and tribesmen insisted that the American unmanned aircraft kill innocent people and Islamabad also said the attacks provoke anti-U.S. sentiments in the country.
To another question, the spokesman said Pakistan regards drone strikes as violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. "These have no legality and are counter-productive. This issue has been a constant source of concern for Pakistan and we have been communicating this to the U.S. administration at every level."
The spokesman said President Asif Ali Zardari would visit United Kingdom in the first week of next month to attend trilateral summit there along with British Prime Minister David Cameron and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.
Replying to a question, he said that Pakistan has initiated a process of release of all Afghan Taliban detainees to help facilitate the reconciliation process in Afghanistan. He, however, said he would not give names or numbers.
UN to examine UK and US drone strikes
Strikes will be studied to assess extent of any civilian casualties, identity of militants targeted and legality of actions
Guardian.co.uk By Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent Thursday 24 January 2013
A United Nations investigation into targeted killings will examine drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, according to the British lawyer heading the inquiry.
Ben Emmerson QC, a UN special rapporteur, will reveal the full scope of his review which will include checks on military use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in UK operations in Afghanistan, US strikes in Pakistan, as well as in the Sahel region of Africa where the conflict in Mali has erupted. It will also take evidence on Israeli drone attacks in Palestinian territories.
About 20 or 30 strikes – selected as representative of different types of attacks – will be studied to assess the extent of any civilian casualties, the identity of militants targeted and the legality of strikes in countries where the UN has not formally recognised there is a conflict.
The inquiry will report to the UN general assembly in New York this autumn. Depending on its findings, it may recommend further action. Emmerson has previously suggested some drone attacks – particularly those known as "double tap" strikes where rescuers going to the aid of a first blast have become victims of a follow-up strike – could possibly constitute a "war crime".
The inquiry will be co-ordinated through Emmerson's UN office in Geneva. Among the team of experts working with him will be the former director of public prosecutions, Lord Macdonald QC, a former prosecutor at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, and Dr Nat Cary, one of the UK's most experienced pathologists who specialises in the interpretation of injuries caused by explosions.
The inquiry is the result of a request by several nations, including Pakistan and two permanent members of the UN security council.
Staff in Geneva have already begun to examine details of individual drone strikes. Emmerson says that, when assembled, his dossier of evidence may not lead to direct "attribution of legal liability" but will enable him to put allegations to the states responsible and obtain a response.
The Ministry of Defence, he said, had assured him of its willingness to co-operate. The influential US Council on Foreign Relations recently recommended that the US president should: "provide information to the public, Congress, and UN special rapporteurs – without disclosing classified information – on what procedures exist to prevent harm to civilians".
Despite many US officials justifying drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia as acceptable as part of the global war on terrorism, others in the Washington administration have more recently acknowledged a need to demonstrate legal justification for targeted killings to the international community.
Emmerson told the Guardian: "One of the fundamental questions is whether aerial targeting using drones is an appropriate method of conflict where the individuals are embedded in a local community.
"One of the questions we will be looking at is whether, given the local demography, aerial attacks carry too high a risk of a disproportionate number of civilian casualties." "The explosion of drone technology [raises the question whether] the military dependence on UAVs carries an unacceptably high risk of civilian casualties."
Between June 2004 and September 2012, according to research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, drone strikes killed between 2,562 and 3,325 people in Pakistan, of whom between 474 and 881 were civilians, including 176 children.
Lawsuit: Kabul Embassy Guards Told To Lie About Long Hours
The saga of U.S. diplomatic security in Afghanistan continues.
Foreign Policy BY ADAM ZAGORIN, DAVID HILZENRATH JANUARY 23, 2013
The company responsible for providing security at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan has at times directed guards to underreport the number of hours they worked to avoid revealing that they have been on the job up to 18 hours per day, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week on behalf of people who have served on the guard force.
In addition, supervisors at the company, Aegis Defense Services, "regularly edited employees' timesheets so that they did not reveal any work beyond the Regular Schedule," the lawsuit says.
Aegis employees in Kabul are supposed to work 72 hours per week but have regularly exceeded that, on many occasions working 14- to 18-hour days for six or seven days per week, the lawsuit says.
While the extra hours allowed Aegis to meet its staffing obligations to the State Department, the employees were not paid for that time, the suit alleges.
The civil suit seeks money allegedly owed to affected guards and says "the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million." Filed as a class action, it accuses Aegis of breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
The four plaintiffs named in the lawsuit are described as a former senior guard, a dog handler, and two former emergency medical technicians. The lawsuit estimates that the class has at least 200 members.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Hillary Schwab, told the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) that those she represents were "overworked, fatigued, and exhausted, which made them unable to carry out their assigned duties protecting the embassy."
"No one whom I've interviewed...failed to make this point of their own accord. They just couldn't do the job," Schwab said.
News of the lawsuit comes as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is testifying on Capitol Hill today about the Sept. 11, 2012 attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya. In addition, President Obama's nominee to succeed Clinton, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), is scheduled to appear for a confirmation hearing tomorrow.
Clinton is fielding questions from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on diplomatic security, and Kerry is expected to face similar questions.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, dovetails with allegations that the private security force responsible for protecting the embassy in Kabul has been stretched dangerously thin by long hours for days on end.
As POGO reported last week, people who have worked for Aegis in Kabul allege that security weaknesses have left the embassy -- perhaps the most at-risk U.S. diplomatic post in the world -- vulnerable to attack.
Former congressman Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), who co-chaired the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, said that if that commission were still in business it would be holding hearings on the allegations. In an interview Sunday, Shays said congressional oversight committees should investigate.
"Those are serious concerns and they can't be ignored," Shays said.
"If the accusations are accurate, you've got a management problem. If they are not accurate, you've got a problem with those who are doing the work," he said. "But in either case you've got a problem."
Speaking before the lawsuit was filed and without knowledge of it, Shays said if a company under contract to provide embassy security systematically asked employees to misrepresent their hours worked, that company should be replaced, and if individuals within the company gave such directions, they should be fired.
Through a spokesman, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri), a key watchdog of diplomatic security in her role as chairman of a Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight, called the allegations in POGO's report "disturbing."
"Years after hearings I chaired highlighted problems at the Embassy in Kabul, the State Department's management and oversight of private security contractors is still woefully inadequate," she said in a statement. "I plan to have a serious conversation -- one that includes Senator Kerry -- about what kinds of changes need to be made to ensure that our embassy personnel are protected," she added.
In interviews and written communications with POGO, people who have served on the embassy guard force in Kabul said problems persisted there even after the deadly attack in Benghazi put diplomatic security in the spotlight.
Last July, dozens of guards signed a petition submitted to Aegis and the State Department expressing a vote of no confidence in three guard force leaders. Soon after that, two guards who helped organize the petition were fired in what they said was retaliation for their whistleblowing.
A July 18, 2012 State Department memo obtained by POGO appeared to allude to the guards' protest when it said a "mutiny" within the protective force "put the security of the Embassy at risk." The memo, which called the mutiny "baseless," did not mention the petition explicitly.
Spokesmen for Aegis and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit today.
Aegis declined to answer questions for the POGO report published last week. "Per our contractual obligations, all questions and inquiries regarding this contract should be directed to the Department of State's Public Affairs Office," company spokesman Joshua C. Huminski wrote.
The State Department last week told POGO that "no guard is scheduled to work more than 12 hours per shift."
"[S]ome contract personnel were required to work additional days, partly due to the need for intensive in-service training," the department said in a written response to questions.
"Through Government oversight, contract adjustments, and Aegis' adherence to contract requirements, the number of hours and days the guards worked were limited to contract requirements, and the Department maintained its primary objective of ensuring the safety and security of the Embassy," the department said.
The State Department denied that it sought the removal of any contract workers for raising concerns and said individuals had been removed "for other reasons."
A senior State Department official testified last month that after the killings in Benghazi the government sent teams to assess security at 19 posts in 13 countries. The department later told POGO that the teams were not sent to the embassy in Kabul.
"[D]ue to its location in a non-permissive environment," the department said, security was already heightened there and "it was determined that the inter-agency assessment teams would be best utilized at other locations."
Brooke Sammon, a spokeswoman for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that in the wake of the attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities last September, "it is essential that the State Department review the security of all posts overseas, particularly those we know are in dangerous parts of the world."
Pakistan admits to holding 700 militants without charge
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan is holding 700 suspected Islamist militants without charge under a law that has come under fire from human rights groups, its attorney general said on Thursday.
The admission marked the first time that the strategic U.S. ally detailed how many militants it is holding in the tribal areas of the northwest under the Actions in Aid of Civil Power Regulations law.
"There is a military operation in Waziristan. Under the law we cannot try these 700 people, nor can we release them, unless the operation is over," Attorney General Irfan Qadir told the Supreme Court, referring to a tribal area near the Afghan border.
In December, Amnesty International condemned the law, saying it "provided a framework for widespread human rights violations to occur with impunity".
"Many of the men held by the Armed Forces are subjected to enforced disappearance, tortured or otherwise ill-treated while in custody," said the report.
Pakistan's military has denied allegations of abuses.
Pakistan's Taliban, which is close to al Qaeda, is waging a violent campaign to topple the government and impose its radical interpretation of Islam. It has carried out suicide bombings and assaults which have killed both civilians and security forces.
Pakistani intelligence services and security forces have come under closer scrutiny by the Supreme Court, which has challenged intelligence agencies and ordered investigations into missing persons.
The Supreme Court is currently hearing a case of seven suspected militants held without charge since May 2010.
Pakistan's intelligence agency produced the men in court last February on judicial order. Several were in terrible physical condition and could barely walk.
The Supreme Court is calling for their release and has asked intelligence agencies to explain why the men are being held.
(Reporting by Nasir Iqbal; Editing by Ron Popeski)
Govt Rejects Amnesty Report on Refugee Deaths
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 23 January 2013
The Afghan government has dismissed as baseless an Amnesty International report that blames the deaths of 17 Afghans, mostly children, in displaced person camps on poor government management.
Afghanistan's National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) deputy chief said the report was baseless and the government has provided adequate resources to the displaced.
"The government and non-government organisations have provided food and fuel for the refugees in the country," ANDMA deputy Mohammad Aslam Sayas said Wednesday.
Amnesty said in the report that the deaths occurred in the first two weeks of January in Kabul and Herat provinces where most of the country's half a million internally-displaced people live in makeshift camps.
"These deaths were a preventable tragedy," Amnesty's Deputy Asia Pacific Director Polly Truscott said in a statement.
Last winter about 100 people, mostly children and the elderly, died in the camps. The Afghan government and international donors had been urged to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.
The latest deaths show "the inadequate co-ordination of winter assistance to hundreds of thousands of people living in displacement camps across the country," Truscott said.
"The fact that children and the elderly are among the dead highlights the need to protect those groups that are most vulnerable to the harsh winter conditions," she added.
In Herat, assistance reached refugees returning to Afghanistan from abroad, but aid to the internally displaced was apparently blocked after pressure from the provincial governor's office, Amnesty said.
Local authorities are said to be concerned that offering aid to displaced people will encourage them to stay in camps instead of returning to their home provinces.
Herat Students Selected for Global Law Competition
TOLOnews.com By Azim Arash Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Five students from Herat province will head to Washington DC to take part in an international moot court competition after beating students from eight universities from across Afghanistan in a selection exam.
Stephen McFarland, US Embassy's Coordinating Director for Rule of Law and Law Enforcement in Kabul, addressed the students attending the exam saying that the US will continue to support Afghanistan until it reaches its goals.
"We will continue to work with Afghanistan," he said. "We will continue to support those in Afghanistan who seek to strengthen the rule of law, that will encourage equal justice for all, men and women, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of political persuasion."
"You are all a part of that effort and we look forward to working with all of you," he added.
The qualifying exam was held in Kabul as part of the International Philip C. Jessup Law Moot Court Competition.
The five who qualified will attend the international competition with students from more than 100 other countries.
Abdullah Atayee, Chief of Administrative of Judiciary at Supreme Court, said the selection showed Afghanistan's judiciary improvements.
"More than a hundred countries participate in this competition, and this is the third time Afghanistan has selected. This shows that Afghanistan has found its judiciary position," Atayee said.
Controversy Over Afghan-US Deal
President Karzai's opponents say he should not allow US forces to stay on, while others see this as essential to Afghanistan’s future.
IWPR By Mina Habib 23 Jan 13, ARR Issue 447
President Hamed Karzai returned from his latest trip to Washington with a series of concessions on the timetable for withdrawing international forces from Afghanistan and the transfer of American-held detainees.
But his critics at home were left unsatisfied, with some saying he should have secured a pledge that all foreign troops would be gone by the end of 2014, and other voices raised against granting United States troops immunity from prosecution.
On his return from talks with President Barack Obama in Washington, Karzai set out the agreements they had reached at a Kabul press conference on January 14.
The NATO-led international force will begin pulling troops back from the Afghan countryside in three months’ time – earlier than anticipated, although their withdrawal from the country remains scheduled for 2014. Also this spring, US forces will focus on training their Afghan counterparts, an effort that Karzai said would not end until 2017, with a possible extension to 2024.
He also said he had obtained a promise that US-run prisons in Afghanistan and all detained persons in the country would be handed over to Afghan jurisdiction within two weeks. That is one of several issues that has been an irritant in US-Afghan relations, and it is no coincidence that both Obama and Karzai made remarks underlining the importance of Afghan sovereignty.
Another contentious point, and one that Karzai had to concede at his Washington talks, was the issue of US servicemen being immune from prosecution under Afghan law.
For the US, this is a non-negotiable condition if a small contingent of American troops is to remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014. When a similar question arose in Iraq, the Baghdad government’s refusal to grant immunity led to the US pulling out all military personnel at the end of 2011.
In Afghanistan, many oppose any exemption from the rule that foreign and local nationals alike are subject to the country’s own legal system when they commit offences.
On his return, Karzai distanced himself from a final decision on the immunity question, and said a “loya jirga” or traditional assembly would have to be convened to rule on the matter.
“A decision on judicial immunity for American soldiers, on its nature, extent and terms, and on whether it should happen or not is something the Afghan government cannot take,” he said. “A loya jirga of the Afghan people will decide whether to grant immunity and – if it does – under what conditions.”
Afghan political analyst Satar Saadat believes the president is shirking his duty to deal with this controversial matter himself.
“Karzai has taken this decision in order to evade responsibility. Yet decisions made at a jirga are advisory only, and do not have legal status,” he said.
Saadat said any deal on immunity would need to be carefully crafted.
“We must set limits for them. For instance, they could have immunity while on their bases, but not outside them. Another solution would be to hold joint trials [when Americans are prosecuted]. A third option would involve monitoring – the Afghan government would monitor the process when a foreign suspect went on trial.”
Sayed Fazel Hussein Sancharaki, spokesman for the opposition National Coalition, agrees that this was not a matter for a loose assembly of local elders to deal with.
“Decisions about judicial immunity for the Americans, signing security pacts and the like are not a task for people who come in from the districts and villages to gather for a loya jirga. They have no knowledge of such issues,” he said. “What’s needed is to gather together the political, economic, military, legal and social elites rather than these people.”
Assuming a deal is reached and a limited contingent of US forces remains in the country past 2014, they would operate under a new security agreement, which Karzai and Obama also touched on during their talks. Back in Kabul, Karzai said it would take eight or nine months to nail down the content of this document.
Once again, Karzai’s domestic critics wanted more detail on the specifics of the agreement, over and above the framework Enduring Strategic Partnership Agreement which Washington and Kabul signed in 2012. (See Afghan Parliament Approves US Partnership.)
“The president should have consulted with all sides in the country,” Sancharaki said. “A security agreement could have as many negative as positive implications for us. We don’t know what the conditions of the pact the president will sign are.”
Many politicians are opposed to a continued US military presence even in a reduced form.
Member of parliament Nazir Ahmad Hanafi, for example, argues that “the foreigners are the reason for the war and lack of security”.
“In areas where they have withdrawn, fighting has receded and security has been established,” he continued. “I am certain that if the foreigners leave Afghanistan, the roots of war will dry up.”
Former parliamentarian Hajji Farid expressed similar views in stronger terms, saying that NATO commanders had “admitted that most al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan have been eliminated and that the terrorist bases are located outside Afghanistan.”
“So what’s the purpose of them remaining in Afghanistan?” he asked. “The US has failed to create stability in Afghanistan over the last ten years despite the presence of NATO and ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] troops. It systematised corruption to world-record levels, it breached the constitution and other Afghan laws, it showed no respect for Afghan culture and beliefs, it killed tens of thousands of innocent people. After this experience, do they need to stay?”
Others, however, insist that continued US involvement is essential to Afghanistan’s future.
“We need a legalised US presence in order to uphold our national interests, to ensure stability and security and to maintain the achievements of the past ten years,” said Asef Ashna of the Truth and Justice Party. “We must not sacrifice these opportunities because of the judicial immunity issue.”
Saadat warned that Afghanistan would face a range of geopolitical and economic threats if it cut its security ties with Washington.
“Signing such pacts is an imperative of the times, provided they are based on our national interest, and on respect for Afghans’ culture, beliefs and national sovereignty,” he said.
As for the specific terms of a deal, Saadat said it should have a clear end date, be monitored by a bilateral committee, and set out explicit obligations for both parties. He recalled that after the strategic partnership agreement was signed last year, eastern border areas of Afghanistan suffered a spate of shell and rocket fire from Pakistan. In his view, the US “ignored” these attacks instead of applying pressure to get them stopped.
Mina Habib is an IWPR-trained contributor in Kabul.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
Casualties have doubled and desertion rates spiked over past year as Nato steps back, figures reveal
Guardian.co.uk By Nick Hopkins Wednesday 23 January 2013
The Taliban have killed 1,100 members of the Afghan security forces in the past six months as Nato troops have stepped back and left the local army and police to fight the insurgency, it has emerged.
Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, admitted there had been a doubling of casualties among Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) over the past year, as well as spikes in desertion rates from the army.
The previously classified figures were given to the Ministry of Defence by commanders at Nato's International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) to help Hammond and Lieutenant General Richard Barrons prepare for questions from MPs.
Asked about Afghan casualties, Hammond said the evidence pointed to a sharp increase.
"We have to enter caveats about the quality of data and baseline data, but as the Afghans have taken over the leading role in security, clearly their casualties have gone up very significantly. Possibly they have doubled over the last year or so."
Barrons said the ANSF had suffered badly from attacks by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in the past six months. Without the same medical and logistical support of western forces, the Afghans had been hit hard, he said.
"In the last six months, there has been an increase in IED attacks on the ANSF, and they are taking substantial casualties, roughly 1,100 fatalities. It is a significant issue, but the [Afghans'] ability to deal with it is getting better."
Later, the MoD confirmed the 1,100 referred to deaths across Afghanistan among forces that now have the prime responsibilty to take on the Taliban.
The general admitted the attrition rate for the 350,000-strong ANSF – the number of personnel deserting and not returning to their posts – was also higher than it should be.
The target was to keep the levels to 1.6% of the force deserting every month. But the monthly average was 2.6% – and last October it peaked at 3.1%.
The general said the key to stopping desertions was "good leadership, decent pay, decent food and the end of corruption".
Hammond told the defence select committee an Afghan food supplier had recently been jailed for supplying substandard rice to the Afghan National Army.
He denied the insurgency was making ground, and said two recent Taliban attacks in the capital Kabul had highlighted how desperate the insurgents had become.
One was against the intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), and the second was against the Afghan traffic police.
"All the evidence I see is that the Taliban is struggling to maintain the momentum of the insurgency and there is absolutely no evidence to suggest they have the reserves to press a button and significantly increase the tempo of the insurgency," said Hammond.
"The two incidents that occurred in Kabul were both attempts at spectacular attacks in an area that is pretty safe. The first on the NDS was a failure. The second was on a very soft target, unarmed Afghan traffic police.
"This doesn't look to me like an insurgency with a lot of reserve firepower."
Hammond predicted that when international troops end their combat role next year, Afghan forces would be able to "effectively hold the important parts of the country", such as cities, towns and key infrastructure.
"I would expect the situation to be messier than it is today, but I sense that there is a growing recognition on both sides of this fight that neither side can win outright. The government cannot defeat the Taliban and secure every inch of Afghan space.
"The Taliban sense, and we have some evidence of acknowledgement of this, that they cannot defeat the government in military terms. So I think both sides will want to make progress ultimately to some kind of political accommodation."
Hammond added: "Our own experience suggests that might not be a smooth process. It might go in fits and starts. But I would expect slow and messy progress."
Karzai's Brother Renounces U.S. Citizenship To Enter Afghan Politics
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan January 24, 2013
KABUL -- Mahmud Karzai, a brother of Afghanistan's president, has told RFE/RL he has renounced his U.S. citizenship to launch a political career.
He would not confirm on January 24 whether he intended to run in Afghanistan's 2014 presidential election.
Karzai, 57, is a wealthy entrepreneur whose business interests include banking, mining, and real estate.
He lived in the United States for many years and reportedly has owned restaurants in San Francisco, Boston, and Baltimore.
Media reports say Karzai controls a 7 percent stake in Kabul Bank, Afghanistan's largest private bank.
Last year, an independent audit found that Kabul Bank was involved in a fraud that sent nearly $900 million outside Afghanistan.
Karzai has denied any wrongdoing.
His brother, President Hamid Karzai, finishes his second and final term in 2014.
IEC Advocates Use of Old Election Cards
TOLOnews.com By Shakeela Ahbrimkhil Wednesday, 23 January 2013
The Independent Election Commission (IEC) has retreated from its demand for a new registration of voters countrywide in the lead up to the 2014 presidential election, saying Wednesday that the old registration cards will be used instead.
New cards will only be issued to those citizens who were not registered in the last election, officials said.
"Based on our new plan, the people with the previous cards can vote – their cards are valid. And we will give new cards to those whom do not have card," IEC Secretariat chief Zia-ul-Haq Amarkhel said at a press conference in Kabul.
The shift comes after months of IEC insistence that new registrations for all voting citizens were necessary to reduce fraud in the 2014 election. Its two previous drafts on the matter were rejected by the government.
President Hamid Karzai spoke out against the IEC plan on his return from the US this month, saying that there was no budget to re-register all voters and issue new cards.
Amarkhel said the commission will give the list of 7000 polling stations to security organisations in one month. The organisations will have three months to secure the stations and then registrations of newly-qualified voters will begin.
Registration voters will start end of April 2013 and will continue until two weeks before the election on 5 April 2014.
"The commission aims to share the list of polling stations with security organisations in one month," Amarkhel said.
Amarkhel rejected rumours that the IEC chief Fazil Ahmad Manawi does not support the new draft, saying that the international community, government and other organisations have agreed with the draft.
News Analysis: Peace in Afghanistan remains elusive amid continued Taliban attacks
by Abdul Haleem
KABUL, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- The successive deadly attacks in the fortified Afghan capital Kabul over the past weeks which the Taliban has claimed responsibility has dashed hopes for peace and national reconciliation in the country, local observers here said.
The brazen attacks occurred despite the government's decision to release Taliban detainees from Pakistani jails.
The government was also able to take control of Bagram prison from the U.S. military as part of its efforts to bolster the peace process and bring the armed militants into the political mainstream.
Afghan analysts said that "one-sided efforts for peace" would never yield the desired results, adding that the two bold attacks in Kabul over the past two weeks only illustrate that the Taliban does not believe in the peace process.
"Consecutive bold attacks on security apparatus in Kabul demonstrate security lapses on the part of the government," a political analyst Jawed Kohistani said in a television panel discussion.
Releasing more Taliban detainees from Afghan, U.S. and Pakistani jails, according to Kohistani, would only further boost the Taliban morale to carry more attacks.
He said this was what happened when Mullah Samad Achakzai was released because the freed Taliban leader is now reported to be commanding the insurgent fighters in Spinboldak, in the province of Kandahar.
Another political observer and parliamentarian Arif Rahmani warned that "anyone who kills our people and destroy our country is our enemy, no matter if he is our brother or if he belongs to our clan and tribe."
President Hamid Karzai has time and again called on Taliban militants to give up fighting and join the government in the rebuilding process of Afghanistan.
However, the olive branch has been repeatedly rebuffed by the Taliban branding it as "trick to divide" tactic of the government. They said that there will be no talks with the government as long as there are foreign troops in the country.
The Taliban had in fact demanded the immediate pullout of NATO- led coalition forces from Afghanistan as a precondition for any dialogue with the government.
It is almost six years now since the Afghan government called on the Taliban to sever ties with al-Qaida, accept the country's Constitution and join the peace process.
Despite the peace overtures of the Karzai administration, no ranking Taliban military or political leader has switched side to the government.
More than two dozen Taliban detainees, including senior commanders Mullah Nurudin Turabi and Anwarul Haq Mujahid, have been released from Pakistani jails over the past few months but none has joined the government in Kabul and no one knows their whereabouts now.
Reports said that the released Taliban, instead of joining the peace process have rejoined their comrades and are playing key roles in the group's protracted war against the Afghan government and NATO-led troops based in Afghanistan.
The brazen attack by the Taliban against the police in Kabul on Jan. 21 had left eight people dead, including five suicide attackers and three traffic police, and injured over a dozen others.
In the previous attack in the compound of the National Directorate for Security (NDS), the country's intelligence agency, which occurred on Jan. 16, six people, presumably all attackers, were killed and 30 others, all civilians, were injured.
The militant group also critically wounded the head of intelligence Assadullah Khalid in a suicide bomb attack in his highly protected guest house in Kabul about a month ago.
According to observers the prospects for peace in Afghanistan appears to be dim after the government failed to win the support of any Taliban leader with only a year before the pullout of U.S.- led NATO forces in 2014.
Roshan Officially Recognized For Quality In Afghanistan
Technology and Network and Sales Organization Awarded Global ISO 9001:2008 Certification—Two Firsts for Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan, Jan. 23, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Roshan, Afghanistan's leading total communications provider, today announced that the company has been awarded the highest quality recognition of ISO 9001:2008 for its technology, network and sales operations. ISO is gained by organizations that focus on improving company operations through utilizing performance principles such as strong customer focus, leadership, involvement of people, governance, factual approach to decision making and continual improvement.¹ Recognized in over 150 countries, the two certifications,—a first for any telecommunications operator in Afghanistan—were awarded to Roshan after a year-long rigorous evaluation process conducted by ISO certified auditors.
Over the last ten years, Roshan has been committed to bringing the best-in-class services to Afghanistan while focusing on quality and the overall customer experience. In September of 2011, the company's three time award-winning Customer Care Centre achieved ISO status—making it Afghanistan's first-ever ISO certification. The Customer Care Centre responds to over 30,000 calls per day in Dari, Pashto and English, and also offers a "Ladies Customer Centre" for Roshan's female subscribers.
"The company's guiding principle has been to provide all Afghans with access to mobile telephony, as well as to play a key role in the country's economic development, reconstruction, and redevelopment process," Karim Khoja, Roshan Chief Executive Officer, said. "As we embark on our ten year anniversary, with over half a billion dollars invested in our network including upgrading it to provide 3G services Roshan continues to deliver on the promise of providing quality to ensure the highest level of service through all customer touch points. Our customers tell us they consistently choose Roshan for the superior performance of our wide reaching network that, today, provides coverage to almost 65 percent of the population in all 34 provinces," Khoja added.
Roshan remains focused on delivering innovative products and services to meet the unique demands of the Afghan market. The company pioneered mobile data services in Afghanistan, becoming the first operator to introduce BlackBerry and data products. Roshan's data packages are differentiated to meet the varying needs of consumers, large corporate clients, and small business owners, alike. And, for the growing youth market Roshan introduced Kahkahshaan, an interactive content portal with robust local music, video and news content as well as access to social media.
About Roshan
Roshan (Telecom Development Company Afghanistan Ltd) is Afghanistan's leading total communications provider with over six million active subscribers and a network that covers over 230 cities and towns in all of the country's 34 provinces.
Roshan is a true Afghanistan success story, serving as a catalyst for economic growth and actively contributing to the country's long-term development. Since its inception eight years ago, Roshan has invested over $550 million in Afghanistan and is the country's single largest investor and taxpayer, contributing approximately five percent of the Afghan government's overall domestic revenue. Roshan directly employs more than 1,300 people, 20 percent of whom are women, and provides indirect employment to more than 35,000 people.
Roshan is deeply committed to Afghanistan's reconstruction and development. The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), part of the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN), is a major shareholder of Roshan and promotes private initiatives and building economically sound enterprises in the developing world. Also owned in part by Monaco Telecom International (MTI) and TeliaSonera, Roshan brings international expertise to the country and is committed to the highest standards of network quality and coverage for the people of Afghanistan.
Russia probes dangerous aircraft incident in Afghan airspace
By Sajad - January 24 2013, 5:47 pm Khaama Press
According Russian air transport officials a Russian passenger airplane faced a dangerous incident in Afghan airspace after a mysterious and unresponsive plane was flying close to the aircraft.
The incident was first reported in Russian media on Wednesday after the Boeing 767 plane chartered by a major Russian tour operator and carrying 285 people from Bali landed at its destination in the Urals’ Yekaterinburg, Channel News Asia reported.
In the meantime Channel One television on Wednesday aired computerised footage of the plane in a near brush-off with a fighter jet, implying it could be a NATO plane as Afghanistan does not have its own fighter planes.
A spokesman of Rosaviatsia, Russia’s air transport agency said, according to the captain of the plane, the warning system went off when it was flying over Kabul, “indicating a dangerous approach of another plane.”
The plane, which belongs to charter airline Nordwind Airlines, was travelling above Kabul’s vicinity at an altitude of 10,800 metres (35,000 feet), the official said. The second plane was 330 metres (1,000 feet) away from the Boeing and was not responding to its calls.
Meanwhile a senior Russian official quoted by Interfax on Thursday said the fighter jet “had military colours similar to a plane from NATO’s air base” although this was not yet confirmed by Rosaviatsia.
“We don’t have information about whether it was a fighter plane,” Rosaviatsia’s spokesman said, but the agency is required to check such reports per Russia’s air transport rules.
He added that it is not in the agency’s power to send requests for information to NATO or Afghanistan.
If the incident above Afghanistan is confirmed, it would be the first in “several years,” he said.
Afghanistan in Retrograde: America Prepares to Withdraw
TIME.com By Nate Rawlings Jan. 23, 2013
Logar Province, Afghanistan - For the past few years, American troops in Afghanistan have used the winter months to make progress in counterinsurgency before the next fighting season. But with the end in sight for the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, American forces have a different kind of mission this winter. This is the first in a series of stories by Nate Rawlings, assigned to document the dismantling of the U.S. installations in Afghanistan in the walk-up to the withdrawal of troops by the end of 2014.You can be forgiven, upon landing in Kabul, for initially forgetting you’ve entered a war zone. Leaving the city’s slightly shoddy airport, I descended into its frenetically congested streets and saw thousands of people go about their daily lives, seemingly unaware that the rest of the world always attached the word war next to their country.
But quickly, reality sets in. Within a few miles of the airport, you see the blast walls, those towering slabs of concrete that surround the government agencies and upscale hotels. In just the past few months, Kabul suffered a suicide bombing that killed 12 people and an hours-long gun battle at the Spozhmai Hotel, a resort not far from Kabul. The New Year hadn’t started much better. There had been a bombing barely a week before I arrived.
On the morning of Jan. 21, two days after I flew into the city, a loud boom and rattling windows shook me from my sleep about 10 minutes before my alarm went off. Insurgents had attacked the headquarters of the city’s traffic police, detonating a suicide bomb and a car bomb, before taking refuge in the police building. After a nine-hour operation, Afghan security forces finally rooted out the last of the militants; three policemen and five insurgents were dead.
Despite the ongoing chaos at the traffic police headquarters, business in Kabul continued as usual. The drive north from the city to Bagram Airfield took the usual estimated time: one hour. Once a staging ground for the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Bagram is now one of the three largest NATO bases in the country and the main hub for all operations in the north and the east of Afghanistan. In the coming months, Bagram will play an even larger roll in the American withdrawal, becoming one of the main centers for “retrograde,” the military term for returning to the U.S. all of the vehicles, weapons and equipment that have accumulated in Afghanistan during 11 years of war.
According to a recent report to Congress by the Government Accountability Office, the U.S. military has an estimated 90,000 20-ft.-long containers of equipment scattered throughout Afghanistan. All together, this equipment is worth more than $36 billion, and it will cost more than $5.5 billion to return it to the U.S. or simply transfer for the use of Afghan government forces.
But the expense of retrograde is perhaps the least of the military’s worries. With a firm date set for nearly all American troops to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the clock is ticking to inventory, consolidate and move that equipment. Nowhere is that more difficult than in Regional Command-East, which comprises most of the northeast of the country, mountainous areas along the border with Pakistan and which has seen some of the heaviest fighting throughout the war. Bagram is the largest base in RC-East and its logistical and transport hub.
For the past several years, American troops have operated out of dozens of large and medium-size forward operating bases and dozens more combat outposts scattered throughout the mountainous areas along the Pakistan border. Bagram Airfield is the final stop for much of that equipment before it is flown out of the country, but to see where this process begins, one must navigate through the Byzantine airlift system, hopscotching out to smaller and smaller bases.
The first leg on my journey to the American outposts came aboard a 30-seat Dash-8 prop plane, operated by a company called AAR Airlift. Long before the sun could burn through the morning haze and raise the temperature anywhere near freezing, I joined 11 soldiers and contractors who climbed aboard the white, slightly weathered airplane. The crew — a pilot, co-pilot and crew chief — wore a uniform of matching tan pants, combat boots and black fleeces. It was a far cry from a flight I took two years ago in Kandahar province in an ancient Sikorsky helicopter, where the bearded, hulking crew chief, dressed in insulated overalls and a T-shirt, asked passengers to come up one at a time for fear that the stairs — held by two rickety cables — might collapse.
On this plane flight from Bagram to Forward Operating Base Shank, the crew chief gave a preflight speech that was one part combat briefing one part standard preflight talk. After explaining what to do in case of ground fire and the location of a medical kit if we were shot down, he finished by saying, “Please ensure that all personal items are stowed and that your seat backs and tray tables are in the full upright and locked position.” And with that, we took off into the frigid fog.
After a 20-minute flight south over the snowcapped mountains, we landed at Forward Operating Base Shank, the third largest base in Afghanistan by square mileage. Shank is one of the major collection points for equipment headed to Bagram, a process already under way, as row after row of giant metal containers flank the base’s dusty roads. The retrograde operation at Shank is a kind of laboratory for what works and what doesn’t as the troops of the 173rd Airborne Brigade try to clear out as much equipment as they can in the last few weeks before they rotate home. Their efforts may prove to be a battle plan for other units as they try to balance their core mission — assisting the Afghan forces — with retrograde: battling Afghanistan’s terrain, weather and attacks by a resilient insurgency to take everything home. It is now less than two years before the final troops will leave Afghanistan. The clock is ticking on a mission that is a logistician’s nightmare, one that will require precise execution, a little bit of improvisation and drastic changes in mind-set if it has any hope of succeeding.
UN probe into rights violations in U.S. drone strikes: Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan Thursday confirmed that the United Nations Special Rapporteur is undertaking an inquiry into human rights violations in the U.S. drone strikes in the country's tribal regions, local media reported.
Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Ahmad Khan said the exercise is part of a broader mandate given to the Rapporteur by the UN Human Rights Council to examine abuse of human rights while countering terrorism.
"Pakistan, along with other like-minded countries, had called for examining the extra-judicial and targeted killing including through drone strikes resulting in death of civilians and non- combatants," the spokesman said at the weekly news briefing in Islamabad.
The U.S. uses its spy aircraft to launch attacks in Pakistan's Waziristan tribal region, claiming that they target the remnants of al-Qaida and Taliban militants, who are blamed for cross-border attacks in Afghanistan.
Pakistan and tribesmen insisted that the American unmanned aircraft kill innocent people and Islamabad also said the attacks provoke anti-U.S. sentiments in the country.
To another question, the spokesman said Pakistan regards drone strikes as violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. "These have no legality and are counter-productive. This issue has been a constant source of concern for Pakistan and we have been communicating this to the U.S. administration at every level."
The spokesman said President Asif Ali Zardari would visit United Kingdom in the first week of next month to attend trilateral summit there along with British Prime Minister David Cameron and President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.
Replying to a question, he said that Pakistan has initiated a process of release of all Afghan Taliban detainees to help facilitate the reconciliation process in Afghanistan. He, however, said he would not give names or numbers.
UN to examine UK and US drone strikes
Strikes will be studied to assess extent of any civilian casualties, identity of militants targeted and legality of actions
Guardian.co.uk By Owen Bowcott, legal affairs correspondent Thursday 24 January 2013
A United Nations investigation into targeted killings will examine drone strikes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, according to the British lawyer heading the inquiry.
Ben Emmerson QC, a UN special rapporteur, will reveal the full scope of his review which will include checks on military use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in UK operations in Afghanistan, US strikes in Pakistan, as well as in the Sahel region of Africa where the conflict in Mali has erupted. It will also take evidence on Israeli drone attacks in Palestinian territories.
About 20 or 30 strikes – selected as representative of different types of attacks – will be studied to assess the extent of any civilian casualties, the identity of militants targeted and the legality of strikes in countries where the UN has not formally recognised there is a conflict.
The inquiry will report to the UN general assembly in New York this autumn. Depending on its findings, it may recommend further action. Emmerson has previously suggested some drone attacks – particularly those known as "double tap" strikes where rescuers going to the aid of a first blast have become victims of a follow-up strike – could possibly constitute a "war crime".
The inquiry will be co-ordinated through Emmerson's UN office in Geneva. Among the team of experts working with him will be the former director of public prosecutions, Lord Macdonald QC, a former prosecutor at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, and Dr Nat Cary, one of the UK's most experienced pathologists who specialises in the interpretation of injuries caused by explosions.
The inquiry is the result of a request by several nations, including Pakistan and two permanent members of the UN security council.
Staff in Geneva have already begun to examine details of individual drone strikes. Emmerson says that, when assembled, his dossier of evidence may not lead to direct "attribution of legal liability" but will enable him to put allegations to the states responsible and obtain a response.
The Ministry of Defence, he said, had assured him of its willingness to co-operate. The influential US Council on Foreign Relations recently recommended that the US president should: "provide information to the public, Congress, and UN special rapporteurs – without disclosing classified information – on what procedures exist to prevent harm to civilians".
Despite many US officials justifying drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia as acceptable as part of the global war on terrorism, others in the Washington administration have more recently acknowledged a need to demonstrate legal justification for targeted killings to the international community.
Emmerson told the Guardian: "One of the fundamental questions is whether aerial targeting using drones is an appropriate method of conflict where the individuals are embedded in a local community.
"One of the questions we will be looking at is whether, given the local demography, aerial attacks carry too high a risk of a disproportionate number of civilian casualties." "The explosion of drone technology [raises the question whether] the military dependence on UAVs carries an unacceptably high risk of civilian casualties."
Between June 2004 and September 2012, according to research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, drone strikes killed between 2,562 and 3,325 people in Pakistan, of whom between 474 and 881 were civilians, including 176 children.
Lawsuit: Kabul Embassy Guards Told To Lie About Long Hours
The saga of U.S. diplomatic security in Afghanistan continues.
Foreign Policy BY ADAM ZAGORIN, DAVID HILZENRATH JANUARY 23, 2013
The company responsible for providing security at the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan has at times directed guards to underreport the number of hours they worked to avoid revealing that they have been on the job up to 18 hours per day, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week on behalf of people who have served on the guard force.
In addition, supervisors at the company, Aegis Defense Services, "regularly edited employees' timesheets so that they did not reveal any work beyond the Regular Schedule," the lawsuit says.
Aegis employees in Kabul are supposed to work 72 hours per week but have regularly exceeded that, on many occasions working 14- to 18-hour days for six or seven days per week, the lawsuit says.
While the extra hours allowed Aegis to meet its staffing obligations to the State Department, the employees were not paid for that time, the suit alleges.
The civil suit seeks money allegedly owed to affected guards and says "the amount in controversy exceeds $5 million." Filed as a class action, it accuses Aegis of breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
The four plaintiffs named in the lawsuit are described as a former senior guard, a dog handler, and two former emergency medical technicians. The lawsuit estimates that the class has at least 200 members.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Hillary Schwab, told the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) that those she represents were "overworked, fatigued, and exhausted, which made them unable to carry out their assigned duties protecting the embassy."
"No one whom I've interviewed...failed to make this point of their own accord. They just couldn't do the job," Schwab said.
News of the lawsuit comes as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is testifying on Capitol Hill today about the Sept. 11, 2012 attack that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya. In addition, President Obama's nominee to succeed Clinton, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), is scheduled to appear for a confirmation hearing tomorrow.
Clinton is fielding questions from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on diplomatic security, and Kerry is expected to face similar questions.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, dovetails with allegations that the private security force responsible for protecting the embassy in Kabul has been stretched dangerously thin by long hours for days on end.
As POGO reported last week, people who have worked for Aegis in Kabul allege that security weaknesses have left the embassy -- perhaps the most at-risk U.S. diplomatic post in the world -- vulnerable to attack.
Former congressman Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), who co-chaired the federal Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, said that if that commission were still in business it would be holding hearings on the allegations. In an interview Sunday, Shays said congressional oversight committees should investigate.
"Those are serious concerns and they can't be ignored," Shays said.
"If the accusations are accurate, you've got a management problem. If they are not accurate, you've got a problem with those who are doing the work," he said. "But in either case you've got a problem."
Speaking before the lawsuit was filed and without knowledge of it, Shays said if a company under contract to provide embassy security systematically asked employees to misrepresent their hours worked, that company should be replaced, and if individuals within the company gave such directions, they should be fired.
Through a spokesman, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri), a key watchdog of diplomatic security in her role as chairman of a Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight, called the allegations in POGO's report "disturbing."
"Years after hearings I chaired highlighted problems at the Embassy in Kabul, the State Department's management and oversight of private security contractors is still woefully inadequate," she said in a statement. "I plan to have a serious conversation -- one that includes Senator Kerry -- about what kinds of changes need to be made to ensure that our embassy personnel are protected," she added.
In interviews and written communications with POGO, people who have served on the embassy guard force in Kabul said problems persisted there even after the deadly attack in Benghazi put diplomatic security in the spotlight.
Last July, dozens of guards signed a petition submitted to Aegis and the State Department expressing a vote of no confidence in three guard force leaders. Soon after that, two guards who helped organize the petition were fired in what they said was retaliation for their whistleblowing.
A July 18, 2012 State Department memo obtained by POGO appeared to allude to the guards' protest when it said a "mutiny" within the protective force "put the security of the Embassy at risk." The memo, which called the mutiny "baseless," did not mention the petition explicitly.
Spokesmen for Aegis and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit today.
Aegis declined to answer questions for the POGO report published last week. "Per our contractual obligations, all questions and inquiries regarding this contract should be directed to the Department of State's Public Affairs Office," company spokesman Joshua C. Huminski wrote.
The State Department last week told POGO that "no guard is scheduled to work more than 12 hours per shift."
"[S]ome contract personnel were required to work additional days, partly due to the need for intensive in-service training," the department said in a written response to questions.
"Through Government oversight, contract adjustments, and Aegis' adherence to contract requirements, the number of hours and days the guards worked were limited to contract requirements, and the Department maintained its primary objective of ensuring the safety and security of the Embassy," the department said.
The State Department denied that it sought the removal of any contract workers for raising concerns and said individuals had been removed "for other reasons."
A senior State Department official testified last month that after the killings in Benghazi the government sent teams to assess security at 19 posts in 13 countries. The department later told POGO that the teams were not sent to the embassy in Kabul.
"[D]ue to its location in a non-permissive environment," the department said, security was already heightened there and "it was determined that the inter-agency assessment teams would be best utilized at other locations."
Brooke Sammon, a spokeswoman for Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that in the wake of the attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities last September, "it is essential that the State Department review the security of all posts overseas, particularly those we know are in dangerous parts of the world."
Pakistan admits to holding 700 militants without charge
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan is holding 700 suspected Islamist militants without charge under a law that has come under fire from human rights groups, its attorney general said on Thursday.
The admission marked the first time that the strategic U.S. ally detailed how many militants it is holding in the tribal areas of the northwest under the Actions in Aid of Civil Power Regulations law.
"There is a military operation in Waziristan. Under the law we cannot try these 700 people, nor can we release them, unless the operation is over," Attorney General Irfan Qadir told the Supreme Court, referring to a tribal area near the Afghan border.
In December, Amnesty International condemned the law, saying it "provided a framework for widespread human rights violations to occur with impunity".
"Many of the men held by the Armed Forces are subjected to enforced disappearance, tortured or otherwise ill-treated while in custody," said the report.
Pakistan's military has denied allegations of abuses.
Pakistan's Taliban, which is close to al Qaeda, is waging a violent campaign to topple the government and impose its radical interpretation of Islam. It has carried out suicide bombings and assaults which have killed both civilians and security forces.
Pakistani intelligence services and security forces have come under closer scrutiny by the Supreme Court, which has challenged intelligence agencies and ordered investigations into missing persons.
The Supreme Court is currently hearing a case of seven suspected militants held without charge since May 2010.
Pakistan's intelligence agency produced the men in court last February on judicial order. Several were in terrible physical condition and could barely walk.
The Supreme Court is calling for their release and has asked intelligence agencies to explain why the men are being held.
(Reporting by Nasir Iqbal; Editing by Ron Popeski)
Govt Rejects Amnesty Report on Refugee Deaths
TOLOnews.com Wednesday, 23 January 2013
The Afghan government has dismissed as baseless an Amnesty International report that blames the deaths of 17 Afghans, mostly children, in displaced person camps on poor government management.
Afghanistan's National Disaster Management Authority (ANDMA) deputy chief said the report was baseless and the government has provided adequate resources to the displaced.
"The government and non-government organisations have provided food and fuel for the refugees in the country," ANDMA deputy Mohammad Aslam Sayas said Wednesday.
Amnesty said in the report that the deaths occurred in the first two weeks of January in Kabul and Herat provinces where most of the country's half a million internally-displaced people live in makeshift camps.
"These deaths were a preventable tragedy," Amnesty's Deputy Asia Pacific Director Polly Truscott said in a statement.
Last winter about 100 people, mostly children and the elderly, died in the camps. The Afghan government and international donors had been urged to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.
The latest deaths show "the inadequate co-ordination of winter assistance to hundreds of thousands of people living in displacement camps across the country," Truscott said.
"The fact that children and the elderly are among the dead highlights the need to protect those groups that are most vulnerable to the harsh winter conditions," she added.
In Herat, assistance reached refugees returning to Afghanistan from abroad, but aid to the internally displaced was apparently blocked after pressure from the provincial governor's office, Amnesty said.
Local authorities are said to be concerned that offering aid to displaced people will encourage them to stay in camps instead of returning to their home provinces.
Herat Students Selected for Global Law Competition
TOLOnews.com By Azim Arash Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Five students from Herat province will head to Washington DC to take part in an international moot court competition after beating students from eight universities from across Afghanistan in a selection exam.
Stephen McFarland, US Embassy's Coordinating Director for Rule of Law and Law Enforcement in Kabul, addressed the students attending the exam saying that the US will continue to support Afghanistan until it reaches its goals.
"We will continue to work with Afghanistan," he said. "We will continue to support those in Afghanistan who seek to strengthen the rule of law, that will encourage equal justice for all, men and women, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of political persuasion."
"You are all a part of that effort and we look forward to working with all of you," he added.
The qualifying exam was held in Kabul as part of the International Philip C. Jessup Law Moot Court Competition.
The five who qualified will attend the international competition with students from more than 100 other countries.
Abdullah Atayee, Chief of Administrative of Judiciary at Supreme Court, said the selection showed Afghanistan's judiciary improvements.
"More than a hundred countries participate in this competition, and this is the third time Afghanistan has selected. This shows that Afghanistan has found its judiciary position," Atayee said.
Controversy Over Afghan-US Deal
President Karzai's opponents say he should not allow US forces to stay on, while others see this as essential to Afghanistan’s future.
IWPR By Mina Habib 23 Jan 13, ARR Issue 447
President Hamed Karzai returned from his latest trip to Washington with a series of concessions on the timetable for withdrawing international forces from Afghanistan and the transfer of American-held detainees.
But his critics at home were left unsatisfied, with some saying he should have secured a pledge that all foreign troops would be gone by the end of 2014, and other voices raised against granting United States troops immunity from prosecution.
On his return from talks with President Barack Obama in Washington, Karzai set out the agreements they had reached at a Kabul press conference on January 14.
The NATO-led international force will begin pulling troops back from the Afghan countryside in three months’ time – earlier than anticipated, although their withdrawal from the country remains scheduled for 2014. Also this spring, US forces will focus on training their Afghan counterparts, an effort that Karzai said would not end until 2017, with a possible extension to 2024.
He also said he had obtained a promise that US-run prisons in Afghanistan and all detained persons in the country would be handed over to Afghan jurisdiction within two weeks. That is one of several issues that has been an irritant in US-Afghan relations, and it is no coincidence that both Obama and Karzai made remarks underlining the importance of Afghan sovereignty.
Another contentious point, and one that Karzai had to concede at his Washington talks, was the issue of US servicemen being immune from prosecution under Afghan law.
For the US, this is a non-negotiable condition if a small contingent of American troops is to remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014. When a similar question arose in Iraq, the Baghdad government’s refusal to grant immunity led to the US pulling out all military personnel at the end of 2011.
In Afghanistan, many oppose any exemption from the rule that foreign and local nationals alike are subject to the country’s own legal system when they commit offences.
On his return, Karzai distanced himself from a final decision on the immunity question, and said a “loya jirga” or traditional assembly would have to be convened to rule on the matter.
“A decision on judicial immunity for American soldiers, on its nature, extent and terms, and on whether it should happen or not is something the Afghan government cannot take,” he said. “A loya jirga of the Afghan people will decide whether to grant immunity and – if it does – under what conditions.”
Afghan political analyst Satar Saadat believes the president is shirking his duty to deal with this controversial matter himself.
“Karzai has taken this decision in order to evade responsibility. Yet decisions made at a jirga are advisory only, and do not have legal status,” he said.
Saadat said any deal on immunity would need to be carefully crafted.
“We must set limits for them. For instance, they could have immunity while on their bases, but not outside them. Another solution would be to hold joint trials [when Americans are prosecuted]. A third option would involve monitoring – the Afghan government would monitor the process when a foreign suspect went on trial.”
Sayed Fazel Hussein Sancharaki, spokesman for the opposition National Coalition, agrees that this was not a matter for a loose assembly of local elders to deal with.
“Decisions about judicial immunity for the Americans, signing security pacts and the like are not a task for people who come in from the districts and villages to gather for a loya jirga. They have no knowledge of such issues,” he said. “What’s needed is to gather together the political, economic, military, legal and social elites rather than these people.”
Assuming a deal is reached and a limited contingent of US forces remains in the country past 2014, they would operate under a new security agreement, which Karzai and Obama also touched on during their talks. Back in Kabul, Karzai said it would take eight or nine months to nail down the content of this document.
Once again, Karzai’s domestic critics wanted more detail on the specifics of the agreement, over and above the framework Enduring Strategic Partnership Agreement which Washington and Kabul signed in 2012. (See Afghan Parliament Approves US Partnership.)
“The president should have consulted with all sides in the country,” Sancharaki said. “A security agreement could have as many negative as positive implications for us. We don’t know what the conditions of the pact the president will sign are.”
Many politicians are opposed to a continued US military presence even in a reduced form.
Member of parliament Nazir Ahmad Hanafi, for example, argues that “the foreigners are the reason for the war and lack of security”.
“In areas where they have withdrawn, fighting has receded and security has been established,” he continued. “I am certain that if the foreigners leave Afghanistan, the roots of war will dry up.”
Former parliamentarian Hajji Farid expressed similar views in stronger terms, saying that NATO commanders had “admitted that most al-Qaeda members in Afghanistan have been eliminated and that the terrorist bases are located outside Afghanistan.”
“So what’s the purpose of them remaining in Afghanistan?” he asked. “The US has failed to create stability in Afghanistan over the last ten years despite the presence of NATO and ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] troops. It systematised corruption to world-record levels, it breached the constitution and other Afghan laws, it showed no respect for Afghan culture and beliefs, it killed tens of thousands of innocent people. After this experience, do they need to stay?”
Others, however, insist that continued US involvement is essential to Afghanistan’s future.
“We need a legalised US presence in order to uphold our national interests, to ensure stability and security and to maintain the achievements of the past ten years,” said Asef Ashna of the Truth and Justice Party. “We must not sacrifice these opportunities because of the judicial immunity issue.”
Saadat warned that Afghanistan would face a range of geopolitical and economic threats if it cut its security ties with Washington.
“Signing such pacts is an imperative of the times, provided they are based on our national interest, and on respect for Afghans’ culture, beliefs and national sovereignty,” he said.
As for the specific terms of a deal, Saadat said it should have a clear end date, be monitored by a bilateral committee, and set out explicit obligations for both parties. He recalled that after the strategic partnership agreement was signed last year, eastern border areas of Afghanistan suffered a spate of shell and rocket fire from Pakistan. In his view, the US “ignored” these attacks instead of applying pressure to get them stopped.
Mina Habib is an IWPR-trained contributor in Kabul.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com