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Roadside bomb kills 9 people in Afghanistan
By AMIR SHAH | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A roadside bomb killed nine people, mostly border policemen, Thursday in Afghanistan where militants continue to target government security forces taking over from withdrawing international troops.
No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the Taliban and other insurgents have stepped up attacks against Afghan policemen and soldiers in a bid to undermine the Western-backed government. Afghans are increasingly taking the lead in operations as U.S. and other foreign combat forces prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014.
The afternoon blast occurred in Dangam district of Kunar province, near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, according to a spokesman for the provincial government. Wasifullah Wasifi said seven border policemen and two civilians were killed, and two women were wounded in the attack.
President Hamid Karzai insists his forces are ready to take control of the country's security and has pushed for a faster handover by the international forces.
On Thursday, he demanded control of clandestine Afghan armed groups that are linked to U.S.-led forces amid complaints of abuses by the units.
His office ordered a delegation to identify all armed units that work with coalition forces and operate independently from the Afghan government. It gave international forces three months to hand them over.
Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said the order does not refer to the Afghan Local Police, which are village defense units overseen by the Interior Ministry. Faizi said Karzai was referring to "parallel structures" created by U.S. special operations forces, the CIA and other military branches.
The U.S.-led coalition did not issue an immediate response to Thursday's order.
The issue surfaced after Afghans in restive Wardak province complained of torture, illegal detentions and other abuses at the hands of such units. That prompted Karzai to issue an order on Sunday calling for U.S. special forces to be expelled from the province within two weeks despite fears that the move would leave the area and the neighboring Afghan capital more vulnerable to al-Qaida and other insurgents.
Gen. Joseph Dunford, the commander of all U.S. and allied forces, met with Karzai on Wednesday to discuss the issue. They agreed to work together to address the security concerns of the people of Wardak, a coalition statement said.
The coalition said earlier this week that it has found no evidence to support allegations that U.S. special forces were involved in the abuse of Afghan civilians in the area. It did not comment on the Afghans allegedly linked to the American troops.
Karzai seeks control of all Afghan armed units
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — President Hamid Karzai is demanding control of clandestine Afghan armed groups that are linked to U.S.-led forces amid complaints of abuses by the units.
Thursday's statement from Karzai's office orders a delegation to identify all armed units that work with coalition forces and operate independently from the government. It gives international forces three months to hand them over.
Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi says the order does not refer to the Afghan Local Police, which are village defense units overseen by the Interior Ministry. Faizi says Karzai is referring to "parallel structures" created by U.S. special operations forces, the CIA and other military branches.
Afghans in the restive Wardak province have complained of torture, illegal detentions and other abuses at the hands of such units.
Did U.S. Special Forces Commit Atrocities in a Key Afghan Province?
By John Wendle / Maidan Wardak | Time.com
A cold wind blew through the bomb-shattered windows of the provincial governor’s offices, wetting with snow the woolen shawls and eyelashes of the men packed into the meeting room. Around 200 elders from some of the most embattled districts of Afghanistan‘s strategic Wardak Province had gathered there to show their support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai‘s decree earlier this week that NATO Special Forces must halt operations in the province.
Tightly wedged into the snowy room, they shouted chants against the U.S. Special Forces. In the center of the villagers a young man carried pictures of a university student recently found dead under a bridge in the province and of nine men who had disappeared–and whom they believe were unjustly detained by the commandos. The anger and frustration was palpable–but less obvious were details on the implementation of Karzai’s order, and exactly which units were being accused of the abuses and what had specifically happened to the men in the pictures.
What is known, through all of the confusion, is that Kabul has put yet another NATO commanding general on his back foot, that the move–if implemented—could jeopardize security in nearby Kabul, that Afghans are sharply divided on the value of the Special Forces, and that the decree brings into question America’s strategic plans for counterterrorism operations here after conventional troops leave by the end of 2014.
Although the recent death of the student and the disappearance of the nine men finally triggered the Karzai government to act, Afghans in the province have lodged numerous complaints in the past. “We have received more than 500 complaints from people, by telephone and by people coming in to the provincial governor’s office,” Mohammed Rafiq Wardak, head of the Provincial Council, tells TIME.
In a statement from Karzai’s National Security Council, the government said that, “It became clear that armed individuals named as U.S. special force stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people. A recent example in the province is an incident in which nine people were disappeared in an operation by this suspicious force and in a separate incident a student was taken away at night from his home, whose tortured body with throat cut was found two days laterunder a bridge. However, Americans reject having conducted any such operation and any involvement of their special force.”
The council stated that the Ministry of Defense would be responsible for ensuring that U.S. Special Forces are “out of the province within two weeks,” that Afghan forces would be responsible for “effectively stopping and bringing to justice any groups that enter peoples’ homes in the name of Special Forces” and that NATO would have to stop all its Special Forces operations in Wardak immediately.
In a hurriedly convened press conference after the meeting, government spokesman Aimal Faizi clarified that it was not specifically US Special Forces, saying that, “There are some individuals, some Afghans, who are working within these cells, within these [U.S.] Special Forces groups” in Wardak province. “But they are part of U.S. special forces according to our sources and according to our local officials working in the province,” he said.
The U.S. and NATO have denied any wrongdoing. NATO officials on Monday said they had found “no evidence connecting U.S. troops to allegations of abuse, torture, harassment and murder of innocent Afghans in the region,” while on Tuesday Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said that a joint commission made up of Afghan and NATO officials would be formed to review Kabul’s accusations.
“It is very difficult to get beyond the level of rumor on this stuff. There’s enough smoke so that it looks like there certainly must be some fire. But the U.S. government has been anything but forthcoming,” says Heather Barr, Afghanistan Researcher for Human Rights Watch. “What the government seems to be alleging is that these are forces under U.S. government control. The Afghan government seems to think that they are under the Special Operations Command,” says Barr. “So, it’s very difficult to untangle, but this is certainly not the first time that there’s been evidence that these kinds of forces are operating. Forces that are, in a sense, vigilante forces assembled by the U.S. And since there is so little transparency it is very difficult to know even which part of the U.S. government would be involved: whether these are a child of special operations forces, or whether potentially there is a situation where they are operating without the knowledge of the U.S. military and are supported by the CIA, for example.”
And the shadowy nature of the situation may only be a herald of more to come. “It’s pretty much inevitable that, as we move towards the 2014 deadline and the drawdown of conventional forces, rather than actually seeing a disengagement from Afghanistan by the international military forces, by the U.S. military, what we are actually going to see is the conflict here sort of change from being a conventional conflict to being an unconventional conflict,” says Barr. “Meaning that the U.S. will be replacing their soldiers with drones, CIA and contractors. What all of this adds up to, obviously, is a serious drop off in transparency and accountability. And this [incident] is kind of an example of that. Is this group really operating? Was it set up by the U.S. government? Was it funded by the U.S. government? If so, is it under military control? It’s very, very hard to imagine that were really going to get clear answers to those questions. And that may well be part of a situation of a total lack of transparency that seems likely to come up more and more in the years ahead.”
The decree may shed light on the government’s stance toward future counterterrorism operations on its territory after 2014, but with so many uncertainties remaining, the order may prove to be an instance of Karzai forcing General Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, into a weaker role, rather than any indication of a future path. “The style in which Karzai has decided to deal with the issue, which has taken the form of a public shaming of NATO, fits in with the way that that relationship has been going in the last year or two. But I don’t think that that is necessarily a reason to discount the possibility that this violence really has happened,” says Barr.
Afghans, too, are worried about the situation – though for different reasons, reasons that could have an impact on security in Kabul, come the summer fighting season. In an upstairs room of the provincial governor’s offices, elders had gathered from Chak, one of the embattled districts who had mobilized to support Karzai’s decree. Holding forth over the rest of the elders, Senator Samir Shirzada, had a warning for NATO. “The Special Forces in Chak district are causing a lot of insecurity. They are causing problems for the people. In the winter there is no insurgency in our area. The insurgents go back to Pakistan or Iran or wherever they come from. But the Special Forces in the winter still arrest people,” says Shirzada. “They cause problems for the families and so the young men go and join the insurgency. Because the Special Forces disturb the people, this causes the people to join the insurgency. They are killing people, they are arresting people, and so the family members get angry and they go and join the insurgents.”
Yet some Afghans disagree with Karzai’s decree and with Senator Shirzada’s analysis. “Most of the time when we work together with the Special Forces, we do not arrest anyone without evidence, without any reports,” says Lt. Mashouq of the Afghan National Army, who, like many Afghans goes by only one name. “Most of the time, people make problems for themselves by keeping in touch with insurgents, and then, when we arrest them, they say they are innocent. I think the presence of Special Forces is very important for us in Wardak because the Afghan army and other Afghan security forces are not that well equipped. If the Special Forces leave the province tomorrow, Nerkh, where I am right now, will fall the next day to the Taliban. We need the support of the Special Forces in Wardak,” says Lt. Mashouq.
If Lt. Mashouq’s analysis proves correct, Kabul could be in trouble. “First, Wardak is only 25 km from Kabul. If there is security in Wardak, then there will be security in Kabul. If Wardak is not secure, then Kabul will not be secure. Secondly, parts of Wardak province are very mountainous and there are many infiltration routes for insurgents to use and there are no Afghan army or police in these places. The Taliban are in power in many of these areas, so it would be easy for insurgents to attack Kabul.” With Afghan forces spread thin and special operations forces possibly on their way out, Kabul could be more threatened than it has been in more than a year.
In the end, regardless of who has been carrying out these attacks, the people of Wardak feel a lack of justice. In the jostling crowd one man reaches out to us and tells us that he too has lost family. In a quiet office upstairs with plastic sheets flapping in the place of windows, Sher Mohammed tells us that his 23-year-old son, Sayeed Mohammad, was riding his motorcycle home after visiting relatives in Nerkh, when he was taken from the road in broad daylight. He has been missing for three months.
“I have been to every prison, to every lockup, asking about him. No one has any information. No one can help me,” says Sher Mohammad. “If he was guilty, he should be in prison – I’m not trying to get him out if he is guilty. But just tell me where he is. If he is not guilty and he is missing, the security forces are responsible. They should give me his dead body or tell me where he is, if he is alive.” Before tears welled in his old man’s eyes and he choked up and could not speak any further, he adds, “For three months I have been looking for my son. There is no justice.”
U.N. Report Flags Afghanistan Fraud
Wall Street Journal By NATHAN HODGE February 27, 2013
KABUL - The United Nations agency that administers a trust fund bankrolling Afghanistan's police allowed procurement fraud to flourish for several years, according to an internal U.N. report seen by The Wall Street Journal.
The report, which hasn't been made public, casts new light on possible mismanagement at a U.N. office that has channeled billions of dollars into the country since 2002. It also raises new questions about the international community's role in Afghanistan at a delicate moment: U.S. and international troops are departing next year, just as the country is bracing for a high-stakes election to pick President Hamid Karzai's successor.
At issue is the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, or Lotfa, a fund administered by the U.N. Development Program that covers payroll and benefits for the Afghan National Police. Started in 2002, Lotfa has overseen the delivery of around $2.5 billion to help bankroll and build the Afghan police force.
Last year, international monitors raised concerns about suspected fraud at the fund, allegations first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The reports caused a major credibility problem for the U.N. in Afghanistan: Lotfa had previously been touted as a model for international assistance. At the time, the European Union put tens of millions of dollars in anticipated donations to Lotfa on hold amid the investigation.
Late last year, the UNDP sent a high-level team to review the management of the program. The review, concluded in mid-December, confirmed procurement fraud, saying some Lotfa staff colluded with suppliers to inflate the cost of contracts over several years. More important, it pointed to wider problems with the management of the UNDP country office.
"The fact that procurement fraud occurred and continued undetected for so long was only possible due to the failure of UNDP management, in particular the country office, to provide the necessary oversight, guidance, support and quality assurance to the Lotfa project and staff," the management report states.
The UNDP initially denied the allegations, but then launched an internal investigation of the fund, dismissing some staffers and putting others on administrative leave.
"While it is very important to note that appropriate actions began to be taken by UNDP when the allegations came to light, there was still an unfortunate tendency to minimize the problem as 'involving only a small amount of funds,' " the management report states. "The central question was not the amount but rather implications and responsibility."
UNDP spokesman Satinder Bindra described the review as an internal document that was supposed to help tighten oversight.
"It was very helpful in repositioning our work on Lotfa and was endorsed by UNDP's senior management and partners," he said. "The recommendations are currently under implementation."
Mr. Bindra said Lotfa continues to have the required funding to implement the project. "Our operations in Afghanistan remain under the highest scrutiny and UNDP has taken the necessary measures reinforcing management, processes, and oversight to minimize program and operational risk in a very challenging environment."
The internal U.N. review said fraud didn't appear to have been a problem with police payrolls themselves, and was mostly in procurement. Still, the report could give ammunition to critics of the U.N., which is also heavily involved in the planning next year's elections.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, or MEC, the anticorruption group composed of high-level Afghan and international officials that first expressed concerns about Lotfa, now plans to recommend an assessment of another U.N. agency in Afghanistan, said Seema Ghani, executive director of the MEC secretariat.
Lotfa was initially created because war-torn Afghanistan was seen as lacking trained and competent administrators who could manage such large sums of money.
Now, the Afghan government is looking to exercise greater control over aid funding.
In late December, Mr. Karzai ordered his national security council to scrutinize foreign-aid programs—particularly Lotfa—and report back on recommendations to strengthen Afghan institutions.
A Jan. 16 letter, sent by UNDP Afghanistan Country Director Alvaro Rodriguez, promises that the next phase of Lotfa—originally set to begin this spring—"will set clear timelines for the transfer of project responsibilities to the government of Afghanistan."
Mr. Rodriguez said investigators probing Lotfa had interviewed 80 witnesses and reviewed 1,500 procurement files for irregularities. —Habib Khan Totakhil contributed to this article.
Write to Nathan Hodge at nathan.hodge@wsj.com
UN trust fund agency allowed procurement fraud in Afghanistan
By Meena Haseeb - 28 Feb 2013, 11:50 am Khaama Press
According to an internal U.N. report, the United Nations agency that administers a trust fund bankrolling Afghanistan’s police allowed procurement fraud to flourish for several years.
The report seen by The Wall Street Journal, which hasn’t been made public, casts new light on possible mismanagement at a U.N. office that has channeled billions of dollars into the country since 2002.
The international community’s role in Afghanistan has also been under the question following the report amid delicate moment when U.S. and international troops are departing next year.
LOTFA, the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan which is administered by the UN Development Program is at the issue which covers payroll and benefits for the Afghan National Police.
Around $2.5 billion has reportedly been delivered by Lotfa which was established in 2002 to help bankroll and build the Afghan police force.
This comes as the international monitors last year raised concerns about suspected fraud at the fund, allegations first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Lotfa had previously been touted as a model for international assistance however the reports casued a major credibility problem for the UN in Afghanistan. The European Union at that put tens of millions of dollars in anticipated donations on hold amid the investigation.
The United Nations Development Program sent a high-level team last year to review the management of the program which confirmed last December procurement fraud.
The report declared some Lotfa staff colluded with suppliers to inflate the cost of contracts over several years. More important, it pointed to wider problems with the management of the UNDP country office.
A number of the staffers were dismissed by UN after an internal investigation was launched despite UNDP initially denied the allegations.
Afghan's marathon efforts against corruption
DW 27/02/2013
Afghan Tariq Eqtidari has a very unusual way of fighting corruption - by arranging marathons. Participants win no prize or a title, but they do make their voices heard against embezzlement and bribery.
Tariq Eqtidari has participated in many talent shows in Afghanistan and received many awards, but it was is his struggle against corruption that gave the 25-year old recognition and fame in Afghanistan and abroad. Eqtidari sees sports as the best way to spread awareness among Afghan youth, so he organized his first big marathon against corruption.
The team were able to gather around 500 young Afghan boys and girls in one of Kabul's many dusty streets. Their message was loud and clear: "Don't pay or accept bribes."
More than 500 people appeared for the first ever anti-corruption marathon in Kabul. Eqtidari's team distributed t-shirts with printed slogans against corruption. "We wanted to run and spread a message. The message was ‘let us start the year with the goal to fight corruption.'" Eqtidari says he started his campaign by issuing statements which condemned bribes. But in an attempt to reach more people in his fight, he came up with the idea to organize anti-corruption marathons.
The participants did not run a long distance, but a large crowd noticed the group. Eqtidari had involved local radio stations in his campaign. They covered the marathon live and interviewed the participants. This helped them convey their message to an even larger audience.
Eqtidari's first struggle in Afghan capital was a success which encouraged him to extend his campaign to other provinces. In addition to Kabul, the team arranged marathons in six Afghan provinces which included Balkh, Kandahar, Herat, Badakhshan, Bamyan and Nangarhar.
"More than 3,000 people attended in these marathons. It showed that at least there are 3,000 young Afghans who can get together and raise their voices against corruption," said Eqtidari.
A tough job
Eqtidari struggles hard to overcome traditional habits: He lives in a country where most often elders have the last word. In the traditional Afghan society, young people are not allowed to speak up in the presence of their elders. It is considered extremely impolite and a sign of bad upbringing if a young boy or girl goes against a decision made by their elders. Such traditions make the job even more difficult.
Adding to the task, it is often the powerful - Afghan warlords and high-ranking Afghan government officials - who are accused of involvement in corruption. However, Eqtidari remains determined and says he will not stop his campaign. "I wanted to start my work to tackle the biggest problem in Afghanistan. I think corruption is the main problem in this country, creating many other problems."
In its annual Corruption Perceptions Index In 2012, Transparency International ranked Afghanistan as one of the three most corrupt countries in the world. Somalia and North Korea were two other countries in the same rank as Afghanistan. Meanwhile a 2012 UN survey showed that almost 50 per cent of Afghans paid bribes when receiving public services. According to the survey, in this year alone, Afghans paid over 3.9 billion dollars in bribes.
Big plans for the future
In a recent interview on one of Afghanistan's local TV stations, Eqtidari urged the Afghan government to fight corruption. He warned that, if the government does not take measures, he will arrange larger marathons and protests.
"Arranging social events used to be my part time job - more of a hobby, but now it is changing into my full time job," explains the young Afghan.
Eqtidari has even taken his zeal for public life abroad, and beyond the realm of solely fighting corruption. He represented Afghan youth in the NATO summit in Chicago last year and is also set to attend the World Youth Conference in South Africa in October.
Afghan police officer drugs, kills 17 colleagues
KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan police officer drugged 17 colleagues and shot them dead on Wednesday with the aid of the Taliban, police said, the latest in a series of so-called "insider" attacks involving Afghan security forces and the Taliban.
The attacks have undermined trust between coalition and Afghan forces who are under mounting pressure to contain the Taliban insurgency before most NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.
The killings, the worst in a string of similar attacks in recent months, occurred at a remote Afghan Local Police (ALP) outpost in the eastern province of Ghazni.
"An infiltrated local policeman first drugged all 17 of his comrades, and then called the Taliban and they together shot them all," the chief police detective for Ghazni, Mohammad Hassan, told Reuters.
Seven of the dead were new recruits still undergoing training, officials said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
The rapidly growing ALP program is an American-designed initiative designed to recruit local men as security officers for their area.
The force has been beset by allegations of abuse and widespread corruption.
In September, Afghanistan suspended the training of new ALP recruits following a spate of insider attacks on foreign soldiers.
(Reporting by Mirwais Harooni and Mustafa Andalib; Writing by Dylan Welch; Editing by Nick Macfie)
(This story was corrected to drop the mention of "green on blue" in the first paragraph)
Afghans worry about international aid vacuum after 2014 troop withdrawal
Associated Press February 27 , 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan street children are packed into classrooms, raising their hands to answer math questions and bending their heads over art projects as part of a program funded by the European Union.
But the money is about to disappear after a four-year grant expires next month, and the Afghan government isn’t ready to fill the gap. That leaves thousands of poor children who spend most of their days hawking goods on the street poised to lose their only access to an education.
The impending withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign combat forces means more than a loss of firepower. International aid is also on the decline because of donor fatigue and fears of deteriorating security after nearly 12 years of war.
The pullout of most international troops by the end of 2014 will leave many areas without the protection required for foreign aid workers. Even those workers who have more freedom of movement are concerned violence will increase as Afghan troops take over and the Taliban push to regain control.
Worried about losing hard-won gains, many Afghan and international aid organizations are racing to finish projects or find new sources of funding to provide basic services such as health care, education and electricity that the weak central government has been unable to deliver.
“The situation in Afghanistan is day by day becoming critical, but the international community is less interested,” said Mohammad Yousef, founder of the children’s program Aschiana.
Afghanistan has received $60 billion in international civilian assistance since 2002. In a bid to defuse concerns about a mass exodus, international donors last year pledged $16 billion in development aid for Afghanistan through 2015, but they also promised to channel half of that through the Afghan government despite concerns about corruption and mismanagement.
The money that has flowed into Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S. invasion that ousted the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies has led to drastic improvements, with nearly 8 million children, some 40 percent of them girls, enrolled in school — up from just over 1 million when girls were banned from school under the Taliban.
The U.S. Agency for International Development in Afghanistan also has built or refurbished more than 680 schools, and child mortality has been halved with improved health facilities and other services.
But Afghan and international activists are worried projects could be abandoned and progress reversed.
“There is the prospect of a lot of white elephants being left behind. That’s a really sad prospect,” said Louise Hancock, head of policy and advocacy for Oxfam in Afghanistan.
“People are fed up with Afghanistan,” she said. “A lot of people are worried they haven’t got value for what’s been put in.”
With its own development budget for Afghanistan slashed nearly in half, the U.S. has shifted its priorities from quick-fix projects showing immediate results such as building schools, clinics and other infrastructure to trying to help the Afghan government operate and maintain the facilities and develop programs.
The European Union is maintaining its development aid levels at about 250 million euros ($330 million) a year, but it too is increasingly channeling that money through the Afghan government.
Afghan officials insist the shift may mean more money but that it will be used more efficiently after years of uncoordinated spending.
“The government of Afghanistan has been working hard to face the challenge,” Economics Minister Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal said. “Sooner or later the government has to be able to provide these services.”
Jonathan Crickx, the EU’s media adviser in Afghanistan, said the Aschiana grant had been scheduled to end in 2012 but already was extended once.
“The reason why this project is not going to be renewed is that the Afghan government asked the European Union to concentrate its funding on specific sectors, increase alignment with national priorities and deliver more aid on budget, through relevant Afghan ministries,” Crickx said.
In line with that request, the 27-nation EU is “phasing out its social protection projects and strengthening its action in the health sector,” he added.
The Aschiana program, founded in 1995 by Yousef, an Afghan engineer who was touched by the story of a boy shining his shoes, provides educational and vocational programs as well as an emergency shelter and assistance for displaced children. Those activities, along with programs in the cities of Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif, will stop on March 31, when the EU funding comes to an end, the organization said.
“Kids don’t get enough focus even though they ... face danger of falling prey to drug dealers, prostitution and international trafficking,” Yousef said during an interview in his second-floor office, heated with a wood stove in a Dickensian complex on the edge of Kabul.
Abdul Qadir, a 14-year-old who makes about 150 Afghanis (about $3) per day selling plastic bags to drivers and people buying fruit and vegetables at outdoor markets in the afternoons, spends his mornings practicing carpentry at Aschiana.
He said he dropped out of school to help earn money for his family.
“When I’m working on the street, I don’t feel comfortable because of the dust and pollution,” he said. “I’m doing this now because my father needs my help. In the future, I want to be a good carpenter.”
While the bulk of international financial assistance goes to military costs, more than $6 billion a year, or nearly 40 percent of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product, has been spent on civilian aid, the World Bank said in a report last May.
“Such aid dependency is almost unique,” the World Bank said, adding that only a few smaller entities such as Liberia and the Palestinian territories have on occasion received more aid per capita.
The World Bank and activists have urged international donors to pull back gradually.
“The economic system we have created is not a real economy. It’s a fake economy,” said Mohammad Zafar Salehi of the Afghan women’s rights group Young Women for Change. “If the international community withdraws too suddenly, all this hard work that they did over the last 10 years will vanish.”
Super Tucano once again wins US bid for Afghan air force
By Sayed Jawad - 28 Feb 2013, 10:14 am Khaama Press
United States of Department has announced that the Afghan military will receive 20 of the A-29 Super Tucano as their new light air support vehicle.
The contract has been awarded to the Super Tucano, a joint program from U.S. firm Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) and Brazil’s Embraer, after beating out competitor Beechcraft and its ATS.
According to reports the firm-fixed-price contract is worth $427,459,708, and has a maximum amount $950 million that can be ordered under the contract.
The first delivery of the aircrafts is expected to be completed by April 2015 while the entire work will be completed by February 26, 2019.
Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) in addition to the delivery of 20 planes will also provide “one computer based trainer, one basic aviation training device, one flight training device, six mission planning stations, six mission debrief systems, long lead spares for interim contractor support, outside the continental United States base activation, site surveys, flight certification to U.S. Air Force military type certification standards, and data.”
This was second time A-29 has won the contract after the Air Force was forced to recompete the program after Hawker Beechcraft lodged a formal complaint with the Government Accountability Office and filed a lawsuit in federal court.
The competition was relanched by Air Force in April last year although Super Tucano and the AT-6 were the only competitors. The Air Force picked the plane early last year as its choice for the contract.
Taco Gilbert, vice president of Integrated Tactical Solutions for SNC’s Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance business area following a statement said, “The Light Air Support program is essential to the United States’ objectives in Afghanistan and to our national security. It is a great honor to serve our country by providing the aircraft, training and support for this program.”
“We are glad to provide the U.S. government with the best aircraft for the LAS program and to aid American warfighters and partners in successfully concluding their mission in Afghanistan,” Luiz Carlos Aguiar, president and CEO of Embraer Defense and Security, wrote in the same statement.
Missed Opportunity in Afghanistan: We Forgot to Pay the Preachers
By Mujib Mashal / KapisaFeb. 27, 2013 time.com
The assailants first came for Mullah Mohamed Hatif two years ago. It was a snowy winter night and he was making his way home after leading the evening prayer at his mosque. Two men, their faces covered, clubbed him in between his shoulders. He fell face down on the snow. They took his book ofsermons with thirty years of notes on its margins.
Hatif’s back hurt for 15 days, but undeterred, he continued to preach the kind of sermons many in his home district of Kohistan, in northeastern Afghanistan, believes made him a target. “Don’t blow up the bridge, the road,” the 63-year old would tell his congregation of roughly 800, his voice echoing in the village through the two sky-blue loudspeakers mounted on top of the one-story building. “Study chemistry, study biology, study English because we have huge mines that are untapped yet we can barely produce a plastic jug.” With a degree in education in 1960s, Hatif has taught science and literature in local high schools for nearly four decades. “I haven’t taken my hand off the chalk all these years,” he says proudly. He became a preacher by pursuing part-time religious studies for nearly 20 years.
Hatif personifies the moderate Afghanistan that the United States has been trying to foster. However, many observers fear that goal is slipping away as the U.S. and its coalition wind down their involvement in the country. Hatif is practically a self-starter, unsupported by NATO and a beleaguered government. Instead, a new, well-networked, technologically savvy radicalism has emerged across the country in recent years. Through effective networking, TV and radio evangelism, and the use of mass communication platforms, they have won unprecedented reach across the country in the past decade. The movement is now targeting urban, educated youth largely outside the traditional sphere of radicalization, the madrassas.
While the U.S. and its international allies have poured billions into infrastructure and security over the last 11 years, they may have missed a key investment in the attempt to stabilize the country and address the root causes of extremism. They failed to win over the Afghanistan’s preachers. “It’s a shame that in a traditional, Islamic country like ours the preacher gets the lowest pay,” says Abdul Malik Ziyaee, director general of mosques in the Karzai government. Preachers are a sector of society that has remained economically marginalized and at the mercy of charity from their congregations, even though the clerics, according to Ziyaee, often possess, at minimum, the equivalent of bachelors or masters. “They feel degraded, they feel begrudged.”
There are believed to be about 120,000 mosques in Afghanistan, butonly 3,200 are registered on the government payroll — just 2.6%. In return for a $70 monthly salary, the registered preachers become government employees subject to policy and sermon directives. Observers say that in light of the more than $600 billion that has been spent by the U.S. on its Afghan mission, $70 a month per preacher could have gone a long in containing anger by incentivizing loyalty.
Davood Moradian, the director of Afghanistan Institute for Strategic Studies says the United States has stayed away from the religious sector because of its sensitivity. Meanwhile, its Afghan partner, President Hamid Karzai‘s government, has its bureaucratic ranks two thirds filled with Islamists of some degree who don’t see a reason to fight the radical elements among the preachers. But, more crucially, he says both partners have failed to realize the “Theo-strategic” importance of Afghanistan as a hub for religion and religious ideas. During the past 10 years, all of the important Islamic actors — Al Azhar (the 1,000-year old fount of Islamic learning in Cairo), the Saudi Wahabbis, the Iranian Shi’a, the Deobandi (the type of Sunni Islam that dominates in South Asia), the Turkish — have invested heavily to promote their brand of Islam in Afghanistan. “The Islam that prevails in Kabul, that will be the Islam that would dominate central Asia,” he says. “The Islam that prevails in Kabul would impact the Islam that is practiced in the sub-continent, in the middle-east.”
Radical ideas have moved into the vacuum, not only to inspire the underfunded preachers but the still traditional youth. In contrast, the government efforts seem doddering. President Karzai has increasingly relied on his National Ulema Council, a group of 3,000 elderly clerics, for his religious legitimacy, which does little but issue an occasional statement largely aligned with Karzai’s politics. “There is thirst among our youth for religiosity and godliness, but a central authority to meet that thirst is lacking,” says Ziaee, director general of mosques. “If we can’t fulfill that ideological thirst, imported ideas fill in the vacuum.”
All of that provides growth opportunities for the kind of radicalism that energizes the Taliban. “We know that the Taliban are a rural-based clerical movement,” says Moradian. “Now we are seeing the resurgence of an urbanized, or semi-urbanized, type of insurgency based on ideology, which is active among relatively educated population. If these two come together, then no one will be able to resist their powers.” Moradian co-chaired a focus group of national and international experts last year to discuss the findings of a research on radicalization carried out by QARA Consulting Inc, which was commissioned by Karzai’s national security council. The focus group was aimed at providing policy recommendations for the Afghan government and the international coalition. As part of his on-going research on the subject, Moradian says he has seen evidence that radical groups are investing heavily on the mid-ranking officers of the Afghan security forces — in Herat, in the north, and even in Kabul.
“The fear that we have, if we are not careful in the next ten years, we would have an Islamist leadership in the Afghan security forces … aligned with Pakistan’s geostrategic priorities,” he says. Spokesmen for the Afghan police and army deny that they are seeing a similar threat. “It’s natural that such attempts may have happened, but we have seen no evidence of these groups having any influence on our soldiers,” Major General Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan ministry of defense, said.
The new radical groups range from those that want the return of the transnational Islamic caliphate, to those who focus inwards on “social correction” and the revival of a fundamentalist society run by Sharia law. For example, Hizb u Tahrir is an international movement founded in 1953 that demands the return of the caliphate system. The Afghanistan chapter of the movement has a countdown clock on its website, marking seconds since the fall of the last caliph — the Ottoman Abdulmecid II deposed in 1924. Hizb u Tahrir has gained prominence in Afghanistan since the 2009 presidential election, when its members publicly declared the vote as haram, or religiously forbidden. About 50 arrested for attempting to derail the elections. The group is believed to be particularly active in north and northeast of the country.
“Not only they [Hizb u Tahrir] have roots in Kapisa, but also in Panjshir and other places,” says Ziyaee. “They have created nests in strategic places and are working very actively. With the intensity that these anti-government parties are working, if we give them the time we will face a crisis that will require another 30 years of cleaning up.”
While it posts videos of its meetings online, Hizb u Tahrir is not registered with the Afghan government and works somewhat clandestinely. Another radical group, Jamiat e Eslah, is formally registered with the Karzai government. Founded in 2003 with headquarters in Kabul and offices around the country, the organization holds free of cost courses on the Koran and events commemorating major Islamic holidays. Eslah has had a robust media campaign. For several years, it has been beaming its messages through an FM radio station in Kabul and Nangrahar. It recently launched a television channel, out of Herat. It also has major online presence — with about 200 videos on their YouTube page, and a cumulative viewing of over 370,000.
While only a small portion of Afghans have access to the Internet, the videos are widely distributed through CD sales as well as Bluetooth sharing. Additionally, Eslah distributes PDFs and publishes magazines as well as ready-made PowerPoint slideshows, and pamphlets such as “Heaven is ready, are you?” or “How to defend the Koran?” The poster-boy for their TV and internet evangelism is Mullah Abdul Sallam Abed, whose passionate sermons are aired on their radio and its videos often packaged online. A search for YouTube videos brings up more than 300 videos of Abed’s sermons. In one such Friday sermon, he calls Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and the U.N., the “big Satan and slave.” The video has gotten over 11,000 views. In another with over 7,000 views, addressing hundreds of students of Koranic studies, with the holy book open in front of him he declares that the U.S. will be toppled. “You should believe it with certainty that they will be toppled — faster than the Soviets.”
Then, there are personality-centered, local groups such as Qari Mujibur Rahman Ansari’s The Literary and Spiritual Association of Peer Herat, in western Afghanistan. The Association reportedly has about 40 Quranic centers affiliated with it. Nearly 10,000 male and female students study in these centers. Ansari championed the banning of a major concert in his home province in August last year. Local media reports summarized the threat he issued: if the concert went ahead, some youth were even ready for suicide attacks. Thesinger Shafiq Mureed was forced to issue an apology to his fans and cancel the event, because local authorities told him they couldn’t protect the event.
A firebrand speaker and a prodigy of sorts who reportedly began preaching at one of Herat’s central mosques when he was just 19, Ansari has been very critical of the media for allegedly leading the youth astray and corrupting society, all the while using the same tools to propagate his fundamentalist message. In a video recorded in 2010, he addressed a crowd of hundreds, attacking the popular reality TV show Afghan Star, an American Idol type reality program that has been a hit among youth. “Shame on that father, on that mother, on that brother, on that uncle that allows their daughter on the TV screen,” Ansari said. “Believe me, since I heard that there was a girl on the Afghan Star program, my heart has been bleeding.” The video of the sermon was watched about 19,000 times on YouTube.
While the radicals suck up all the oxygen in Afghanistan, preachers like Hatif struggle on in obscurity. Assailants would come for him three more times after that first attack in 2011. The fourth time they came for him, they tried to silence him — literally. At 4:45am on October 6, 2012 Hatif was riding his bicycle to lead the dawn prayer. Half way through the eight-minute ride, two men on a motorcycle pulled up next to him. The man on the back aimed his gun from close range at Hatif’s face and fired two rounds. One bullet burned his upper lip, shattered his teeth and tongue, and came out through his cheek. The other bullet was stuck in his throat. The force flung the old preacher several meters from his bicycle. The men disappeared into the morning darkness.
The preacher scrambled to find one of his shoes, got back on his bicycle and returned home drenched in blood. As his face swelled and his sons – two of them teachers at a local high schools and one of them a university professor – called for a doctor and the police, the old man spread his prayer rug, and prayed his morning prayer. The rug soaked up his blood. “We dumped out two buckets of blood during the ride to the hospital,” his son Kamran, the university professor, said.
Despite a metal brace holding up his jaw for two months, Hatif continued to show up for Friday sermons. But talking hurt, and his mumbled words were difficult for the congregation to comprehend. He finally asked to be replaced.
Abdul Azim Kohistani, the police chief of Kohistan’s District One, said four members of the radical group Hizb u Tahrir have been arrested as suspects in the case and they are held in custody. Hatif denies that, saying no one has been arrested and that the government that he stood by has failed to provide him justice. There has been some recompense. After that fourth attack, Hatif began to get a government stipend. Before that, his congregation would gather half-a-ton of wheat as a way to pay him for his service and dedication.
Embraer wins U.S. Air Force deal for Afghan planes
Reuters By Jim Wolf and Brad Haynes Thu Feb 28, 2013
WASHINGTON/SAO PAULO - Brazil's Embraer SA (EMBR3.SA) won a U.S. Air Force deal on Wednesday to supply 20 light attack planes for counterinsurgency missions in Afghanistan, tightening U.S.-Brazilian defense ties after a politically charged bidding process.
Embraer and its privately held partner, Sierra Nevada, beat out U.S.-based Hawker Beechcraft for the $428 million deal, the Brazilian planemaker's first with the U.S. armed forces.
With the "seal of quality" from the world's biggest defense spender, the head of Embraer's defense unit Carlos Aguiar said he anticipated more demand for the single-engine turboprop Super Tucano from potential clients in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
"We know other countries were waiting for the result," Aguiar said in a telephone interview. "With the United States itself, as we show we can deliver on the contract, this order can definitely grow and there will be other needs we can meet."
The contract was also good news for Chicago-based Boeing Co (BA.N), which is bidding to overhaul Brazil's Air Force with more than 36 new fighter jets worth at least $4 billion, in a closely watched race against France's Dassault Aviation (AVMD.PA) and Sweden's Saab (SAABb.ST).
"This is obviously a very good development for Boeing. It's the best thing that's happened to them in months (in the fighter jet race)," said a senior Brazilian official on condition of anonymity. The official did not elaborate.
Brazilian officials had expressed dismay last year, when the U.S. scrapped the Afghan contract originally awarded to Embraer in December 2011. Hawker challenged that process in court and political fallout from the Kansas-based company losing out to a Brazilian one seeped into the U.S. presidential campaign.
After Embraer clinched the rebid on Wednesday, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter called Brazil's Defense Minister Celso Amorim to congratulate him on the results.
Amorim called it a "big victory" for Brazilian industry that will open new business opportunities for Embraer, according to a statement from the ministry.
For Hawker, which emerged from a Chapter 11 restructuring this month, the lost contract is another setback on the road to recovery.
"We will meet with the (U.S. Air Force) for a full debrief of the award and determine our next steps forward at that time," Nicole Alexander, a company spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.
(Additional reporting by Brian Winter; Editing by Carol Bishopric and David Gregorio)
IEC Selects 2014 Election Polling Centers
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Wednesday, 27 February 2013
The Independent Elections Commission (IEC) sent to the ministries of interior and defense a list of 17,000 polling centers it has chosen for the 2014 presidential election, officials said.
The IEC has asked the security institutions to specify within four months the areas they are capable of securing so that the final precinct list can be finalized prior to the elections, IEC Spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said.
"[The security institutions] should specify the areas that they can't secure so that the commission could consider alternative options," Noor said.
This is the first time the Afghan ministries of interior and defense are responsible for providing security for the elections.
"With the increase in the capacities and capabilities of the Afghan forces, and with our experiences from previous elections, the forces are capable of providing security for the elections," said General Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense.
The Ministry of Interior expressed confidence in the capabilities of the Afghan police and said it will promptly begin inspecting the voting center sites and report to IEC.
"We will begin our inspections to see which areas are facing security threats. We will report our conclusions to the [election] commission," said Seddiq Seddiqi, spokesman of the Ministry of Interior Affairs.
"Considering the capabilities of the Afghan forces, they will be able to provide security for the elections," he added.
According to the IEC, voter registration will start in late April and finish by late July. Voting cards will be provided to people who do not have one already, either because they have lost their cards or have recently returned to Afghanistan from abroad.
Kunar Insecurity Hampers Polio Vaccination
TOLOnews.com By Milad Sekandari Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Thousands of children under the age of five across the eastern province of Kunar couldn't be vaccinated due to insecurity, health officials said.
Farooq Sahak, head of Kunar's central hospital, said 20-25,000 children were not vaccinated because workers are unable to carry out the polio campaigns in areas where the government's control remains contested.
But the provincial governor contradicted Mr. Sahak's assertion about insecurity and said snowfall was the main reason behind the vaccination impediments.
"The health department started the vaccine programme at a time when there was snowfall, and I also think that the figures they provided are inaccurate," said Governor Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi.
Afghanistan, along with Pakistan and Nigeria, are the only countries where polio remains endemic.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By AMIR SHAH | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A roadside bomb killed nine people, mostly border policemen, Thursday in Afghanistan where militants continue to target government security forces taking over from withdrawing international troops.
No one claimed responsibility for the bombing, but the Taliban and other insurgents have stepped up attacks against Afghan policemen and soldiers in a bid to undermine the Western-backed government. Afghans are increasingly taking the lead in operations as U.S. and other foreign combat forces prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014.
The afternoon blast occurred in Dangam district of Kunar province, near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan, according to a spokesman for the provincial government. Wasifullah Wasifi said seven border policemen and two civilians were killed, and two women were wounded in the attack.
President Hamid Karzai insists his forces are ready to take control of the country's security and has pushed for a faster handover by the international forces.
On Thursday, he demanded control of clandestine Afghan armed groups that are linked to U.S.-led forces amid complaints of abuses by the units.
His office ordered a delegation to identify all armed units that work with coalition forces and operate independently from the Afghan government. It gave international forces three months to hand them over.
Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi said the order does not refer to the Afghan Local Police, which are village defense units overseen by the Interior Ministry. Faizi said Karzai was referring to "parallel structures" created by U.S. special operations forces, the CIA and other military branches.
The U.S.-led coalition did not issue an immediate response to Thursday's order.
The issue surfaced after Afghans in restive Wardak province complained of torture, illegal detentions and other abuses at the hands of such units. That prompted Karzai to issue an order on Sunday calling for U.S. special forces to be expelled from the province within two weeks despite fears that the move would leave the area and the neighboring Afghan capital more vulnerable to al-Qaida and other insurgents.
Gen. Joseph Dunford, the commander of all U.S. and allied forces, met with Karzai on Wednesday to discuss the issue. They agreed to work together to address the security concerns of the people of Wardak, a coalition statement said.
The coalition said earlier this week that it has found no evidence to support allegations that U.S. special forces were involved in the abuse of Afghan civilians in the area. It did not comment on the Afghans allegedly linked to the American troops.
Karzai seeks control of all Afghan armed units
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — President Hamid Karzai is demanding control of clandestine Afghan armed groups that are linked to U.S.-led forces amid complaints of abuses by the units.
Thursday's statement from Karzai's office orders a delegation to identify all armed units that work with coalition forces and operate independently from the government. It gives international forces three months to hand them over.
Presidential spokesman Aimal Faizi says the order does not refer to the Afghan Local Police, which are village defense units overseen by the Interior Ministry. Faizi says Karzai is referring to "parallel structures" created by U.S. special operations forces, the CIA and other military branches.
Afghans in the restive Wardak province have complained of torture, illegal detentions and other abuses at the hands of such units.
Did U.S. Special Forces Commit Atrocities in a Key Afghan Province?
By John Wendle / Maidan Wardak | Time.com
A cold wind blew through the bomb-shattered windows of the provincial governor’s offices, wetting with snow the woolen shawls and eyelashes of the men packed into the meeting room. Around 200 elders from some of the most embattled districts of Afghanistan‘s strategic Wardak Province had gathered there to show their support for Afghan President Hamid Karzai‘s decree earlier this week that NATO Special Forces must halt operations in the province.
Tightly wedged into the snowy room, they shouted chants against the U.S. Special Forces. In the center of the villagers a young man carried pictures of a university student recently found dead under a bridge in the province and of nine men who had disappeared–and whom they believe were unjustly detained by the commandos. The anger and frustration was palpable–but less obvious were details on the implementation of Karzai’s order, and exactly which units were being accused of the abuses and what had specifically happened to the men in the pictures.
What is known, through all of the confusion, is that Kabul has put yet another NATO commanding general on his back foot, that the move–if implemented—could jeopardize security in nearby Kabul, that Afghans are sharply divided on the value of the Special Forces, and that the decree brings into question America’s strategic plans for counterterrorism operations here after conventional troops leave by the end of 2014.
Although the recent death of the student and the disappearance of the nine men finally triggered the Karzai government to act, Afghans in the province have lodged numerous complaints in the past. “We have received more than 500 complaints from people, by telephone and by people coming in to the provincial governor’s office,” Mohammed Rafiq Wardak, head of the Provincial Council, tells TIME.
In a statement from Karzai’s National Security Council, the government said that, “It became clear that armed individuals named as U.S. special force stationed in Wardak province engage in harassing, annoying, torturing and even murdering innocent people. A recent example in the province is an incident in which nine people were disappeared in an operation by this suspicious force and in a separate incident a student was taken away at night from his home, whose tortured body with throat cut was found two days laterunder a bridge. However, Americans reject having conducted any such operation and any involvement of their special force.”
The council stated that the Ministry of Defense would be responsible for ensuring that U.S. Special Forces are “out of the province within two weeks,” that Afghan forces would be responsible for “effectively stopping and bringing to justice any groups that enter peoples’ homes in the name of Special Forces” and that NATO would have to stop all its Special Forces operations in Wardak immediately.
In a hurriedly convened press conference after the meeting, government spokesman Aimal Faizi clarified that it was not specifically US Special Forces, saying that, “There are some individuals, some Afghans, who are working within these cells, within these [U.S.] Special Forces groups” in Wardak province. “But they are part of U.S. special forces according to our sources and according to our local officials working in the province,” he said.
The U.S. and NATO have denied any wrongdoing. NATO officials on Monday said they had found “no evidence connecting U.S. troops to allegations of abuse, torture, harassment and murder of innocent Afghans in the region,” while on Tuesday Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said that a joint commission made up of Afghan and NATO officials would be formed to review Kabul’s accusations.
“It is very difficult to get beyond the level of rumor on this stuff. There’s enough smoke so that it looks like there certainly must be some fire. But the U.S. government has been anything but forthcoming,” says Heather Barr, Afghanistan Researcher for Human Rights Watch. “What the government seems to be alleging is that these are forces under U.S. government control. The Afghan government seems to think that they are under the Special Operations Command,” says Barr. “So, it’s very difficult to untangle, but this is certainly not the first time that there’s been evidence that these kinds of forces are operating. Forces that are, in a sense, vigilante forces assembled by the U.S. And since there is so little transparency it is very difficult to know even which part of the U.S. government would be involved: whether these are a child of special operations forces, or whether potentially there is a situation where they are operating without the knowledge of the U.S. military and are supported by the CIA, for example.”
And the shadowy nature of the situation may only be a herald of more to come. “It’s pretty much inevitable that, as we move towards the 2014 deadline and the drawdown of conventional forces, rather than actually seeing a disengagement from Afghanistan by the international military forces, by the U.S. military, what we are actually going to see is the conflict here sort of change from being a conventional conflict to being an unconventional conflict,” says Barr. “Meaning that the U.S. will be replacing their soldiers with drones, CIA and contractors. What all of this adds up to, obviously, is a serious drop off in transparency and accountability. And this [incident] is kind of an example of that. Is this group really operating? Was it set up by the U.S. government? Was it funded by the U.S. government? If so, is it under military control? It’s very, very hard to imagine that were really going to get clear answers to those questions. And that may well be part of a situation of a total lack of transparency that seems likely to come up more and more in the years ahead.”
The decree may shed light on the government’s stance toward future counterterrorism operations on its territory after 2014, but with so many uncertainties remaining, the order may prove to be an instance of Karzai forcing General Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the new commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, into a weaker role, rather than any indication of a future path. “The style in which Karzai has decided to deal with the issue, which has taken the form of a public shaming of NATO, fits in with the way that that relationship has been going in the last year or two. But I don’t think that that is necessarily a reason to discount the possibility that this violence really has happened,” says Barr.
Afghans, too, are worried about the situation – though for different reasons, reasons that could have an impact on security in Kabul, come the summer fighting season. In an upstairs room of the provincial governor’s offices, elders had gathered from Chak, one of the embattled districts who had mobilized to support Karzai’s decree. Holding forth over the rest of the elders, Senator Samir Shirzada, had a warning for NATO. “The Special Forces in Chak district are causing a lot of insecurity. They are causing problems for the people. In the winter there is no insurgency in our area. The insurgents go back to Pakistan or Iran or wherever they come from. But the Special Forces in the winter still arrest people,” says Shirzada. “They cause problems for the families and so the young men go and join the insurgency. Because the Special Forces disturb the people, this causes the people to join the insurgency. They are killing people, they are arresting people, and so the family members get angry and they go and join the insurgents.”
Yet some Afghans disagree with Karzai’s decree and with Senator Shirzada’s analysis. “Most of the time when we work together with the Special Forces, we do not arrest anyone without evidence, without any reports,” says Lt. Mashouq of the Afghan National Army, who, like many Afghans goes by only one name. “Most of the time, people make problems for themselves by keeping in touch with insurgents, and then, when we arrest them, they say they are innocent. I think the presence of Special Forces is very important for us in Wardak because the Afghan army and other Afghan security forces are not that well equipped. If the Special Forces leave the province tomorrow, Nerkh, where I am right now, will fall the next day to the Taliban. We need the support of the Special Forces in Wardak,” says Lt. Mashouq.
If Lt. Mashouq’s analysis proves correct, Kabul could be in trouble. “First, Wardak is only 25 km from Kabul. If there is security in Wardak, then there will be security in Kabul. If Wardak is not secure, then Kabul will not be secure. Secondly, parts of Wardak province are very mountainous and there are many infiltration routes for insurgents to use and there are no Afghan army or police in these places. The Taliban are in power in many of these areas, so it would be easy for insurgents to attack Kabul.” With Afghan forces spread thin and special operations forces possibly on their way out, Kabul could be more threatened than it has been in more than a year.
In the end, regardless of who has been carrying out these attacks, the people of Wardak feel a lack of justice. In the jostling crowd one man reaches out to us and tells us that he too has lost family. In a quiet office upstairs with plastic sheets flapping in the place of windows, Sher Mohammed tells us that his 23-year-old son, Sayeed Mohammad, was riding his motorcycle home after visiting relatives in Nerkh, when he was taken from the road in broad daylight. He has been missing for three months.
“I have been to every prison, to every lockup, asking about him. No one has any information. No one can help me,” says Sher Mohammad. “If he was guilty, he should be in prison – I’m not trying to get him out if he is guilty. But just tell me where he is. If he is not guilty and he is missing, the security forces are responsible. They should give me his dead body or tell me where he is, if he is alive.” Before tears welled in his old man’s eyes and he choked up and could not speak any further, he adds, “For three months I have been looking for my son. There is no justice.”
U.N. Report Flags Afghanistan Fraud
Wall Street Journal By NATHAN HODGE February 27, 2013
KABUL - The United Nations agency that administers a trust fund bankrolling Afghanistan's police allowed procurement fraud to flourish for several years, according to an internal U.N. report seen by The Wall Street Journal.
The report, which hasn't been made public, casts new light on possible mismanagement at a U.N. office that has channeled billions of dollars into the country since 2002. It also raises new questions about the international community's role in Afghanistan at a delicate moment: U.S. and international troops are departing next year, just as the country is bracing for a high-stakes election to pick President Hamid Karzai's successor.
At issue is the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan, or Lotfa, a fund administered by the U.N. Development Program that covers payroll and benefits for the Afghan National Police. Started in 2002, Lotfa has overseen the delivery of around $2.5 billion to help bankroll and build the Afghan police force.
Last year, international monitors raised concerns about suspected fraud at the fund, allegations first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The reports caused a major credibility problem for the U.N. in Afghanistan: Lotfa had previously been touted as a model for international assistance. At the time, the European Union put tens of millions of dollars in anticipated donations to Lotfa on hold amid the investigation.
Late last year, the UNDP sent a high-level team to review the management of the program. The review, concluded in mid-December, confirmed procurement fraud, saying some Lotfa staff colluded with suppliers to inflate the cost of contracts over several years. More important, it pointed to wider problems with the management of the UNDP country office.
"The fact that procurement fraud occurred and continued undetected for so long was only possible due to the failure of UNDP management, in particular the country office, to provide the necessary oversight, guidance, support and quality assurance to the Lotfa project and staff," the management report states.
The UNDP initially denied the allegations, but then launched an internal investigation of the fund, dismissing some staffers and putting others on administrative leave.
"While it is very important to note that appropriate actions began to be taken by UNDP when the allegations came to light, there was still an unfortunate tendency to minimize the problem as 'involving only a small amount of funds,' " the management report states. "The central question was not the amount but rather implications and responsibility."
UNDP spokesman Satinder Bindra described the review as an internal document that was supposed to help tighten oversight.
"It was very helpful in repositioning our work on Lotfa and was endorsed by UNDP's senior management and partners," he said. "The recommendations are currently under implementation."
Mr. Bindra said Lotfa continues to have the required funding to implement the project. "Our operations in Afghanistan remain under the highest scrutiny and UNDP has taken the necessary measures reinforcing management, processes, and oversight to minimize program and operational risk in a very challenging environment."
The internal U.N. review said fraud didn't appear to have been a problem with police payrolls themselves, and was mostly in procurement. Still, the report could give ammunition to critics of the U.N., which is also heavily involved in the planning next year's elections.
The Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, or MEC, the anticorruption group composed of high-level Afghan and international officials that first expressed concerns about Lotfa, now plans to recommend an assessment of another U.N. agency in Afghanistan, said Seema Ghani, executive director of the MEC secretariat.
Lotfa was initially created because war-torn Afghanistan was seen as lacking trained and competent administrators who could manage such large sums of money.
Now, the Afghan government is looking to exercise greater control over aid funding.
In late December, Mr. Karzai ordered his national security council to scrutinize foreign-aid programs—particularly Lotfa—and report back on recommendations to strengthen Afghan institutions.
A Jan. 16 letter, sent by UNDP Afghanistan Country Director Alvaro Rodriguez, promises that the next phase of Lotfa—originally set to begin this spring—"will set clear timelines for the transfer of project responsibilities to the government of Afghanistan."
Mr. Rodriguez said investigators probing Lotfa had interviewed 80 witnesses and reviewed 1,500 procurement files for irregularities. —Habib Khan Totakhil contributed to this article.
Write to Nathan Hodge at nathan.hodge@wsj.com
UN trust fund agency allowed procurement fraud in Afghanistan
By Meena Haseeb - 28 Feb 2013, 11:50 am Khaama Press
According to an internal U.N. report, the United Nations agency that administers a trust fund bankrolling Afghanistan’s police allowed procurement fraud to flourish for several years.
The report seen by The Wall Street Journal, which hasn’t been made public, casts new light on possible mismanagement at a U.N. office that has channeled billions of dollars into the country since 2002.
The international community’s role in Afghanistan has also been under the question following the report amid delicate moment when U.S. and international troops are departing next year.
LOTFA, the Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan which is administered by the UN Development Program is at the issue which covers payroll and benefits for the Afghan National Police.
Around $2.5 billion has reportedly been delivered by Lotfa which was established in 2002 to help bankroll and build the Afghan police force.
This comes as the international monitors last year raised concerns about suspected fraud at the fund, allegations first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Lotfa had previously been touted as a model for international assistance however the reports casued a major credibility problem for the UN in Afghanistan. The European Union at that put tens of millions of dollars in anticipated donations on hold amid the investigation.
The United Nations Development Program sent a high-level team last year to review the management of the program which confirmed last December procurement fraud.
The report declared some Lotfa staff colluded with suppliers to inflate the cost of contracts over several years. More important, it pointed to wider problems with the management of the UNDP country office.
A number of the staffers were dismissed by UN after an internal investigation was launched despite UNDP initially denied the allegations.
Afghan's marathon efforts against corruption
DW 27/02/2013
Afghan Tariq Eqtidari has a very unusual way of fighting corruption - by arranging marathons. Participants win no prize or a title, but they do make their voices heard against embezzlement and bribery.
Tariq Eqtidari has participated in many talent shows in Afghanistan and received many awards, but it was is his struggle against corruption that gave the 25-year old recognition and fame in Afghanistan and abroad. Eqtidari sees sports as the best way to spread awareness among Afghan youth, so he organized his first big marathon against corruption.
The team were able to gather around 500 young Afghan boys and girls in one of Kabul's many dusty streets. Their message was loud and clear: "Don't pay or accept bribes."
More than 500 people appeared for the first ever anti-corruption marathon in Kabul. Eqtidari's team distributed t-shirts with printed slogans against corruption. "We wanted to run and spread a message. The message was ‘let us start the year with the goal to fight corruption.'" Eqtidari says he started his campaign by issuing statements which condemned bribes. But in an attempt to reach more people in his fight, he came up with the idea to organize anti-corruption marathons.
The participants did not run a long distance, but a large crowd noticed the group. Eqtidari had involved local radio stations in his campaign. They covered the marathon live and interviewed the participants. This helped them convey their message to an even larger audience.
Eqtidari's first struggle in Afghan capital was a success which encouraged him to extend his campaign to other provinces. In addition to Kabul, the team arranged marathons in six Afghan provinces which included Balkh, Kandahar, Herat, Badakhshan, Bamyan and Nangarhar.
"More than 3,000 people attended in these marathons. It showed that at least there are 3,000 young Afghans who can get together and raise their voices against corruption," said Eqtidari.
A tough job
Eqtidari struggles hard to overcome traditional habits: He lives in a country where most often elders have the last word. In the traditional Afghan society, young people are not allowed to speak up in the presence of their elders. It is considered extremely impolite and a sign of bad upbringing if a young boy or girl goes against a decision made by their elders. Such traditions make the job even more difficult.
Adding to the task, it is often the powerful - Afghan warlords and high-ranking Afghan government officials - who are accused of involvement in corruption. However, Eqtidari remains determined and says he will not stop his campaign. "I wanted to start my work to tackle the biggest problem in Afghanistan. I think corruption is the main problem in this country, creating many other problems."
In its annual Corruption Perceptions Index In 2012, Transparency International ranked Afghanistan as one of the three most corrupt countries in the world. Somalia and North Korea were two other countries in the same rank as Afghanistan. Meanwhile a 2012 UN survey showed that almost 50 per cent of Afghans paid bribes when receiving public services. According to the survey, in this year alone, Afghans paid over 3.9 billion dollars in bribes.
Big plans for the future
In a recent interview on one of Afghanistan's local TV stations, Eqtidari urged the Afghan government to fight corruption. He warned that, if the government does not take measures, he will arrange larger marathons and protests.
"Arranging social events used to be my part time job - more of a hobby, but now it is changing into my full time job," explains the young Afghan.
Eqtidari has even taken his zeal for public life abroad, and beyond the realm of solely fighting corruption. He represented Afghan youth in the NATO summit in Chicago last year and is also set to attend the World Youth Conference in South Africa in October.
Afghan police officer drugs, kills 17 colleagues
KABUL (Reuters) - An Afghan police officer drugged 17 colleagues and shot them dead on Wednesday with the aid of the Taliban, police said, the latest in a series of so-called "insider" attacks involving Afghan security forces and the Taliban.
The attacks have undermined trust between coalition and Afghan forces who are under mounting pressure to contain the Taliban insurgency before most NATO combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.
The killings, the worst in a string of similar attacks in recent months, occurred at a remote Afghan Local Police (ALP) outpost in the eastern province of Ghazni.
"An infiltrated local policeman first drugged all 17 of his comrades, and then called the Taliban and they together shot them all," the chief police detective for Ghazni, Mohammad Hassan, told Reuters.
Seven of the dead were new recruits still undergoing training, officials said.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message by spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
The rapidly growing ALP program is an American-designed initiative designed to recruit local men as security officers for their area.
The force has been beset by allegations of abuse and widespread corruption.
In September, Afghanistan suspended the training of new ALP recruits following a spate of insider attacks on foreign soldiers.
(Reporting by Mirwais Harooni and Mustafa Andalib; Writing by Dylan Welch; Editing by Nick Macfie)
(This story was corrected to drop the mention of "green on blue" in the first paragraph)
Afghans worry about international aid vacuum after 2014 troop withdrawal
Associated Press February 27 , 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan street children are packed into classrooms, raising their hands to answer math questions and bending their heads over art projects as part of a program funded by the European Union.
But the money is about to disappear after a four-year grant expires next month, and the Afghan government isn’t ready to fill the gap. That leaves thousands of poor children who spend most of their days hawking goods on the street poised to lose their only access to an education.
The impending withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign combat forces means more than a loss of firepower. International aid is also on the decline because of donor fatigue and fears of deteriorating security after nearly 12 years of war.
The pullout of most international troops by the end of 2014 will leave many areas without the protection required for foreign aid workers. Even those workers who have more freedom of movement are concerned violence will increase as Afghan troops take over and the Taliban push to regain control.
Worried about losing hard-won gains, many Afghan and international aid organizations are racing to finish projects or find new sources of funding to provide basic services such as health care, education and electricity that the weak central government has been unable to deliver.
“The situation in Afghanistan is day by day becoming critical, but the international community is less interested,” said Mohammad Yousef, founder of the children’s program Aschiana.
Afghanistan has received $60 billion in international civilian assistance since 2002. In a bid to defuse concerns about a mass exodus, international donors last year pledged $16 billion in development aid for Afghanistan through 2015, but they also promised to channel half of that through the Afghan government despite concerns about corruption and mismanagement.
The money that has flowed into Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S. invasion that ousted the Taliban and their al-Qaida allies has led to drastic improvements, with nearly 8 million children, some 40 percent of them girls, enrolled in school — up from just over 1 million when girls were banned from school under the Taliban.
The U.S. Agency for International Development in Afghanistan also has built or refurbished more than 680 schools, and child mortality has been halved with improved health facilities and other services.
But Afghan and international activists are worried projects could be abandoned and progress reversed.
“There is the prospect of a lot of white elephants being left behind. That’s a really sad prospect,” said Louise Hancock, head of policy and advocacy for Oxfam in Afghanistan.
“People are fed up with Afghanistan,” she said. “A lot of people are worried they haven’t got value for what’s been put in.”
With its own development budget for Afghanistan slashed nearly in half, the U.S. has shifted its priorities from quick-fix projects showing immediate results such as building schools, clinics and other infrastructure to trying to help the Afghan government operate and maintain the facilities and develop programs.
The European Union is maintaining its development aid levels at about 250 million euros ($330 million) a year, but it too is increasingly channeling that money through the Afghan government.
Afghan officials insist the shift may mean more money but that it will be used more efficiently after years of uncoordinated spending.
“The government of Afghanistan has been working hard to face the challenge,” Economics Minister Abdul Hadi Arghandiwal said. “Sooner or later the government has to be able to provide these services.”
Jonathan Crickx, the EU’s media adviser in Afghanistan, said the Aschiana grant had been scheduled to end in 2012 but already was extended once.
“The reason why this project is not going to be renewed is that the Afghan government asked the European Union to concentrate its funding on specific sectors, increase alignment with national priorities and deliver more aid on budget, through relevant Afghan ministries,” Crickx said.
In line with that request, the 27-nation EU is “phasing out its social protection projects and strengthening its action in the health sector,” he added.
The Aschiana program, founded in 1995 by Yousef, an Afghan engineer who was touched by the story of a boy shining his shoes, provides educational and vocational programs as well as an emergency shelter and assistance for displaced children. Those activities, along with programs in the cities of Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif, will stop on March 31, when the EU funding comes to an end, the organization said.
“Kids don’t get enough focus even though they ... face danger of falling prey to drug dealers, prostitution and international trafficking,” Yousef said during an interview in his second-floor office, heated with a wood stove in a Dickensian complex on the edge of Kabul.
Abdul Qadir, a 14-year-old who makes about 150 Afghanis (about $3) per day selling plastic bags to drivers and people buying fruit and vegetables at outdoor markets in the afternoons, spends his mornings practicing carpentry at Aschiana.
He said he dropped out of school to help earn money for his family.
“When I’m working on the street, I don’t feel comfortable because of the dust and pollution,” he said. “I’m doing this now because my father needs my help. In the future, I want to be a good carpenter.”
While the bulk of international financial assistance goes to military costs, more than $6 billion a year, or nearly 40 percent of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product, has been spent on civilian aid, the World Bank said in a report last May.
“Such aid dependency is almost unique,” the World Bank said, adding that only a few smaller entities such as Liberia and the Palestinian territories have on occasion received more aid per capita.
The World Bank and activists have urged international donors to pull back gradually.
“The economic system we have created is not a real economy. It’s a fake economy,” said Mohammad Zafar Salehi of the Afghan women’s rights group Young Women for Change. “If the international community withdraws too suddenly, all this hard work that they did over the last 10 years will vanish.”
Super Tucano once again wins US bid for Afghan air force
By Sayed Jawad - 28 Feb 2013, 10:14 am Khaama Press
United States of Department has announced that the Afghan military will receive 20 of the A-29 Super Tucano as their new light air support vehicle.
The contract has been awarded to the Super Tucano, a joint program from U.S. firm Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) and Brazil’s Embraer, after beating out competitor Beechcraft and its ATS.
According to reports the firm-fixed-price contract is worth $427,459,708, and has a maximum amount $950 million that can be ordered under the contract.
The first delivery of the aircrafts is expected to be completed by April 2015 while the entire work will be completed by February 26, 2019.
Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) in addition to the delivery of 20 planes will also provide “one computer based trainer, one basic aviation training device, one flight training device, six mission planning stations, six mission debrief systems, long lead spares for interim contractor support, outside the continental United States base activation, site surveys, flight certification to U.S. Air Force military type certification standards, and data.”
This was second time A-29 has won the contract after the Air Force was forced to recompete the program after Hawker Beechcraft lodged a formal complaint with the Government Accountability Office and filed a lawsuit in federal court.
The competition was relanched by Air Force in April last year although Super Tucano and the AT-6 were the only competitors. The Air Force picked the plane early last year as its choice for the contract.
Taco Gilbert, vice president of Integrated Tactical Solutions for SNC’s Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance business area following a statement said, “The Light Air Support program is essential to the United States’ objectives in Afghanistan and to our national security. It is a great honor to serve our country by providing the aircraft, training and support for this program.”
“We are glad to provide the U.S. government with the best aircraft for the LAS program and to aid American warfighters and partners in successfully concluding their mission in Afghanistan,” Luiz Carlos Aguiar, president and CEO of Embraer Defense and Security, wrote in the same statement.
Missed Opportunity in Afghanistan: We Forgot to Pay the Preachers
By Mujib Mashal / KapisaFeb. 27, 2013 time.com
The assailants first came for Mullah Mohamed Hatif two years ago. It was a snowy winter night and he was making his way home after leading the evening prayer at his mosque. Two men, their faces covered, clubbed him in between his shoulders. He fell face down on the snow. They took his book ofsermons with thirty years of notes on its margins.
Hatif’s back hurt for 15 days, but undeterred, he continued to preach the kind of sermons many in his home district of Kohistan, in northeastern Afghanistan, believes made him a target. “Don’t blow up the bridge, the road,” the 63-year old would tell his congregation of roughly 800, his voice echoing in the village through the two sky-blue loudspeakers mounted on top of the one-story building. “Study chemistry, study biology, study English because we have huge mines that are untapped yet we can barely produce a plastic jug.” With a degree in education in 1960s, Hatif has taught science and literature in local high schools for nearly four decades. “I haven’t taken my hand off the chalk all these years,” he says proudly. He became a preacher by pursuing part-time religious studies for nearly 20 years.
Hatif personifies the moderate Afghanistan that the United States has been trying to foster. However, many observers fear that goal is slipping away as the U.S. and its coalition wind down their involvement in the country. Hatif is practically a self-starter, unsupported by NATO and a beleaguered government. Instead, a new, well-networked, technologically savvy radicalism has emerged across the country in recent years. Through effective networking, TV and radio evangelism, and the use of mass communication platforms, they have won unprecedented reach across the country in the past decade. The movement is now targeting urban, educated youth largely outside the traditional sphere of radicalization, the madrassas.
While the U.S. and its international allies have poured billions into infrastructure and security over the last 11 years, they may have missed a key investment in the attempt to stabilize the country and address the root causes of extremism. They failed to win over the Afghanistan’s preachers. “It’s a shame that in a traditional, Islamic country like ours the preacher gets the lowest pay,” says Abdul Malik Ziyaee, director general of mosques in the Karzai government. Preachers are a sector of society that has remained economically marginalized and at the mercy of charity from their congregations, even though the clerics, according to Ziyaee, often possess, at minimum, the equivalent of bachelors or masters. “They feel degraded, they feel begrudged.”
There are believed to be about 120,000 mosques in Afghanistan, butonly 3,200 are registered on the government payroll — just 2.6%. In return for a $70 monthly salary, the registered preachers become government employees subject to policy and sermon directives. Observers say that in light of the more than $600 billion that has been spent by the U.S. on its Afghan mission, $70 a month per preacher could have gone a long in containing anger by incentivizing loyalty.
Davood Moradian, the director of Afghanistan Institute for Strategic Studies says the United States has stayed away from the religious sector because of its sensitivity. Meanwhile, its Afghan partner, President Hamid Karzai‘s government, has its bureaucratic ranks two thirds filled with Islamists of some degree who don’t see a reason to fight the radical elements among the preachers. But, more crucially, he says both partners have failed to realize the “Theo-strategic” importance of Afghanistan as a hub for religion and religious ideas. During the past 10 years, all of the important Islamic actors — Al Azhar (the 1,000-year old fount of Islamic learning in Cairo), the Saudi Wahabbis, the Iranian Shi’a, the Deobandi (the type of Sunni Islam that dominates in South Asia), the Turkish — have invested heavily to promote their brand of Islam in Afghanistan. “The Islam that prevails in Kabul, that will be the Islam that would dominate central Asia,” he says. “The Islam that prevails in Kabul would impact the Islam that is practiced in the sub-continent, in the middle-east.”
Radical ideas have moved into the vacuum, not only to inspire the underfunded preachers but the still traditional youth. In contrast, the government efforts seem doddering. President Karzai has increasingly relied on his National Ulema Council, a group of 3,000 elderly clerics, for his religious legitimacy, which does little but issue an occasional statement largely aligned with Karzai’s politics. “There is thirst among our youth for religiosity and godliness, but a central authority to meet that thirst is lacking,” says Ziaee, director general of mosques. “If we can’t fulfill that ideological thirst, imported ideas fill in the vacuum.”
All of that provides growth opportunities for the kind of radicalism that energizes the Taliban. “We know that the Taliban are a rural-based clerical movement,” says Moradian. “Now we are seeing the resurgence of an urbanized, or semi-urbanized, type of insurgency based on ideology, which is active among relatively educated population. If these two come together, then no one will be able to resist their powers.” Moradian co-chaired a focus group of national and international experts last year to discuss the findings of a research on radicalization carried out by QARA Consulting Inc, which was commissioned by Karzai’s national security council. The focus group was aimed at providing policy recommendations for the Afghan government and the international coalition. As part of his on-going research on the subject, Moradian says he has seen evidence that radical groups are investing heavily on the mid-ranking officers of the Afghan security forces — in Herat, in the north, and even in Kabul.
“The fear that we have, if we are not careful in the next ten years, we would have an Islamist leadership in the Afghan security forces … aligned with Pakistan’s geostrategic priorities,” he says. Spokesmen for the Afghan police and army deny that they are seeing a similar threat. “It’s natural that such attempts may have happened, but we have seen no evidence of these groups having any influence on our soldiers,” Major General Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Afghan ministry of defense, said.
The new radical groups range from those that want the return of the transnational Islamic caliphate, to those who focus inwards on “social correction” and the revival of a fundamentalist society run by Sharia law. For example, Hizb u Tahrir is an international movement founded in 1953 that demands the return of the caliphate system. The Afghanistan chapter of the movement has a countdown clock on its website, marking seconds since the fall of the last caliph — the Ottoman Abdulmecid II deposed in 1924. Hizb u Tahrir has gained prominence in Afghanistan since the 2009 presidential election, when its members publicly declared the vote as haram, or religiously forbidden. About 50 arrested for attempting to derail the elections. The group is believed to be particularly active in north and northeast of the country.
“Not only they [Hizb u Tahrir] have roots in Kapisa, but also in Panjshir and other places,” says Ziyaee. “They have created nests in strategic places and are working very actively. With the intensity that these anti-government parties are working, if we give them the time we will face a crisis that will require another 30 years of cleaning up.”
While it posts videos of its meetings online, Hizb u Tahrir is not registered with the Afghan government and works somewhat clandestinely. Another radical group, Jamiat e Eslah, is formally registered with the Karzai government. Founded in 2003 with headquarters in Kabul and offices around the country, the organization holds free of cost courses on the Koran and events commemorating major Islamic holidays. Eslah has had a robust media campaign. For several years, it has been beaming its messages through an FM radio station in Kabul and Nangrahar. It recently launched a television channel, out of Herat. It also has major online presence — with about 200 videos on their YouTube page, and a cumulative viewing of over 370,000.
While only a small portion of Afghans have access to the Internet, the videos are widely distributed through CD sales as well as Bluetooth sharing. Additionally, Eslah distributes PDFs and publishes magazines as well as ready-made PowerPoint slideshows, and pamphlets such as “Heaven is ready, are you?” or “How to defend the Koran?” The poster-boy for their TV and internet evangelism is Mullah Abdul Sallam Abed, whose passionate sermons are aired on their radio and its videos often packaged online. A search for YouTube videos brings up more than 300 videos of Abed’s sermons. In one such Friday sermon, he calls Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and the U.N., the “big Satan and slave.” The video has gotten over 11,000 views. In another with over 7,000 views, addressing hundreds of students of Koranic studies, with the holy book open in front of him he declares that the U.S. will be toppled. “You should believe it with certainty that they will be toppled — faster than the Soviets.”
Then, there are personality-centered, local groups such as Qari Mujibur Rahman Ansari’s The Literary and Spiritual Association of Peer Herat, in western Afghanistan. The Association reportedly has about 40 Quranic centers affiliated with it. Nearly 10,000 male and female students study in these centers. Ansari championed the banning of a major concert in his home province in August last year. Local media reports summarized the threat he issued: if the concert went ahead, some youth were even ready for suicide attacks. Thesinger Shafiq Mureed was forced to issue an apology to his fans and cancel the event, because local authorities told him they couldn’t protect the event.
A firebrand speaker and a prodigy of sorts who reportedly began preaching at one of Herat’s central mosques when he was just 19, Ansari has been very critical of the media for allegedly leading the youth astray and corrupting society, all the while using the same tools to propagate his fundamentalist message. In a video recorded in 2010, he addressed a crowd of hundreds, attacking the popular reality TV show Afghan Star, an American Idol type reality program that has been a hit among youth. “Shame on that father, on that mother, on that brother, on that uncle that allows their daughter on the TV screen,” Ansari said. “Believe me, since I heard that there was a girl on the Afghan Star program, my heart has been bleeding.” The video of the sermon was watched about 19,000 times on YouTube.
While the radicals suck up all the oxygen in Afghanistan, preachers like Hatif struggle on in obscurity. Assailants would come for him three more times after that first attack in 2011. The fourth time they came for him, they tried to silence him — literally. At 4:45am on October 6, 2012 Hatif was riding his bicycle to lead the dawn prayer. Half way through the eight-minute ride, two men on a motorcycle pulled up next to him. The man on the back aimed his gun from close range at Hatif’s face and fired two rounds. One bullet burned his upper lip, shattered his teeth and tongue, and came out through his cheek. The other bullet was stuck in his throat. The force flung the old preacher several meters from his bicycle. The men disappeared into the morning darkness.
The preacher scrambled to find one of his shoes, got back on his bicycle and returned home drenched in blood. As his face swelled and his sons – two of them teachers at a local high schools and one of them a university professor – called for a doctor and the police, the old man spread his prayer rug, and prayed his morning prayer. The rug soaked up his blood. “We dumped out two buckets of blood during the ride to the hospital,” his son Kamran, the university professor, said.
Despite a metal brace holding up his jaw for two months, Hatif continued to show up for Friday sermons. But talking hurt, and his mumbled words were difficult for the congregation to comprehend. He finally asked to be replaced.
Abdul Azim Kohistani, the police chief of Kohistan’s District One, said four members of the radical group Hizb u Tahrir have been arrested as suspects in the case and they are held in custody. Hatif denies that, saying no one has been arrested and that the government that he stood by has failed to provide him justice. There has been some recompense. After that fourth attack, Hatif began to get a government stipend. Before that, his congregation would gather half-a-ton of wheat as a way to pay him for his service and dedication.
Embraer wins U.S. Air Force deal for Afghan planes
Reuters By Jim Wolf and Brad Haynes Thu Feb 28, 2013
WASHINGTON/SAO PAULO - Brazil's Embraer SA (EMBR3.SA) won a U.S. Air Force deal on Wednesday to supply 20 light attack planes for counterinsurgency missions in Afghanistan, tightening U.S.-Brazilian defense ties after a politically charged bidding process.
Embraer and its privately held partner, Sierra Nevada, beat out U.S.-based Hawker Beechcraft for the $428 million deal, the Brazilian planemaker's first with the U.S. armed forces.
With the "seal of quality" from the world's biggest defense spender, the head of Embraer's defense unit Carlos Aguiar said he anticipated more demand for the single-engine turboprop Super Tucano from potential clients in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
"We know other countries were waiting for the result," Aguiar said in a telephone interview. "With the United States itself, as we show we can deliver on the contract, this order can definitely grow and there will be other needs we can meet."
The contract was also good news for Chicago-based Boeing Co (BA.N), which is bidding to overhaul Brazil's Air Force with more than 36 new fighter jets worth at least $4 billion, in a closely watched race against France's Dassault Aviation (AVMD.PA) and Sweden's Saab (SAABb.ST).
"This is obviously a very good development for Boeing. It's the best thing that's happened to them in months (in the fighter jet race)," said a senior Brazilian official on condition of anonymity. The official did not elaborate.
Brazilian officials had expressed dismay last year, when the U.S. scrapped the Afghan contract originally awarded to Embraer in December 2011. Hawker challenged that process in court and political fallout from the Kansas-based company losing out to a Brazilian one seeped into the U.S. presidential campaign.
After Embraer clinched the rebid on Wednesday, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter called Brazil's Defense Minister Celso Amorim to congratulate him on the results.
Amorim called it a "big victory" for Brazilian industry that will open new business opportunities for Embraer, according to a statement from the ministry.
For Hawker, which emerged from a Chapter 11 restructuring this month, the lost contract is another setback on the road to recovery.
"We will meet with the (U.S. Air Force) for a full debrief of the award and determine our next steps forward at that time," Nicole Alexander, a company spokeswoman, said in an emailed statement.
(Additional reporting by Brian Winter; Editing by Carol Bishopric and David Gregorio)
IEC Selects 2014 Election Polling Centers
TOLOnews.com By Saleha Soadat Wednesday, 27 February 2013
The Independent Elections Commission (IEC) sent to the ministries of interior and defense a list of 17,000 polling centers it has chosen for the 2014 presidential election, officials said.
The IEC has asked the security institutions to specify within four months the areas they are capable of securing so that the final precinct list can be finalized prior to the elections, IEC Spokesman Noor Mohammad Noor said.
"[The security institutions] should specify the areas that they can't secure so that the commission could consider alternative options," Noor said.
This is the first time the Afghan ministries of interior and defense are responsible for providing security for the elections.
"With the increase in the capacities and capabilities of the Afghan forces, and with our experiences from previous elections, the forces are capable of providing security for the elections," said General Zahir Azimi, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense.
The Ministry of Interior expressed confidence in the capabilities of the Afghan police and said it will promptly begin inspecting the voting center sites and report to IEC.
"We will begin our inspections to see which areas are facing security threats. We will report our conclusions to the [election] commission," said Seddiq Seddiqi, spokesman of the Ministry of Interior Affairs.
"Considering the capabilities of the Afghan forces, they will be able to provide security for the elections," he added.
According to the IEC, voter registration will start in late April and finish by late July. Voting cards will be provided to people who do not have one already, either because they have lost their cards or have recently returned to Afghanistan from abroad.
Kunar Insecurity Hampers Polio Vaccination
TOLOnews.com By Milad Sekandari Wednesday, 27 February 2013
Thousands of children under the age of five across the eastern province of Kunar couldn't be vaccinated due to insecurity, health officials said.
Farooq Sahak, head of Kunar's central hospital, said 20-25,000 children were not vaccinated because workers are unable to carry out the polio campaigns in areas where the government's control remains contested.
But the provincial governor contradicted Mr. Sahak's assertion about insecurity and said snowfall was the main reason behind the vaccination impediments.
"The health department started the vaccine programme at a time when there was snowfall, and I also think that the figures they provided are inaccurate," said Governor Sayed Fazlullah Wahidi.
Afghanistan, along with Pakistan and Nigeria, are the only countries where polio remains endemic.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com