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44 killed in 9-hour firefight at Afghan government buildings
By Ben Brumfield and Masoud Popalzai, CNN April 3, 2013
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Insurgents wearing Afghan National Army uniforms killed at least 44 people and wounded nearly 100 others Wednesday in a nearly nine-hour attack on Afghan government buildings in the southwestern province of Farah, said Mohammad Akram Ekhpelwak, the province's governor.
The firefight has ended. Of the dead, 34 are civilians and 10 are Afghan security forces, according to Ekhpelwak. Nine armed attackers are dead, he added.
The attackers drove army vehicles to gain access to the area, said police chief Noor Agha Kantoz.
The militants began their attack by detonating a vehicle laden with explosives, said Abdul Rahman Ezhwandai, a spokesman for the governor.
The blast wrecked the targeted buildings and others nearby in the capital city of Farah. The main targets appeared to be the courthouse and the attorney general's office.
Kantoz said that two suicide attackers detonated explosives while storming the buildings.
Soldiers from the Afghan National Army engaged the enemy, killing at least two, he said. They continue to battle fighters who have taken cover in the courthouse.
The wounded have been taken to a local hospital, Ekhpelwak said.
CNN's Masoud Popalzai reported from Kabul; CNN's Ben Brumfield reported from Atlanta.
Taliban attack Afghan courthouse, killing 21
By AMIR SHAH | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Suicide bombers disguised as Afghan soldiers stormed a courthouse Wednesday in a failed bid to free more than a dozen Taliban prisoners in western Afghanistan, officials said. At least 21 civilians and nine attackers were reported killed in the fighting.
The assault in Farah province was the latest example of the Taliban's ability to strike official institutions despite tight security measures. The persistent violence has undermined confidence in President Hamid Karzai's government as it tries to take over its own security ahead of the withdrawal of international combat forces by the end of 2014.
Nine men wearing suicide vests drove into the center of the provincial capital, which has the same name, in Afghan national army vehicles that allowed them to bypass checkpoints, provincial police chief Agha Noor Kemtoz said.
Two of the attackers blew themselves up inside one of the vehicles while the others jumped out of the second and ran toward the courthouse and prosecutor's office, he said. Guards opened fire, killing one of the attackers, while the others engaged in a fierce gunbattle that left civil servants and government officials holed up in their offices.
Kemtoz, who gave the death toll, said the attack aimed to free 15 Taliban prisoners who were being transferred to the courthouse for trial, which had not yet started.
"Definitely the plan was to free the prisoners with this attack, but thank God, they did not succeed," he said. "All the prisoners are accounted for."
Dr. Abdul Hakim Rasouli, chief of the Farah hospital, said 80 people also were wounded.
Deputy provincial governor Yonus Rasouli said the explosion damaged many government buildings in the area.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message sent to reporters.
Farah province, which is bordered by Iran to the west and Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province to the east, has seen an uptick in attacks against the local government in recent months as militants seek to disrupt efforts to stabilize the area.
In Kabul, meanwhile, Afghanistan's intelligence chief Asadullah Khalid returned to Kabul nearly four months after he was seriously wounded by a Taliban suicide bomber posing as a messenger of peace.
Billboards in the capital welcomed home the director of the National Directorate of Security on Wednesday, saying he has fully recovered and "is ready to continue his duty to provide peace, security and prosperity to his homeland."
In other violence, Taliban gunmen attacked a local police patrol late Tuesday in southeastern Paktika province and six insurgents were killed in the fighting, according to a statement from the governor's office. A roadside bomb then struck a police vehicle as it was leaving the area, killing four patrollers, it said.
Four police officers also were killed and one wounded Tuesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in northeastern Kunar province during an operation to clear the area of explosives, government spokesman Wasifullah Wasifi said.
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Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.
4 policemen, 6 militants killed in eastern Afghan clash
SHARAN, Afghanistan, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Up to four Afghan policemen and six militants were killed in a clash in the county's eastern province of Paktika overnight, an official said Wednesday.
"The militants ambushed the Afghan Local Police (ALP) patrol in Babo Khail area of Jani Khail district and the ALP repelled, killing six militants late Tuesday night," the provincial government spokesman Mukhlis Afghan told Xinhua.
He said following the clash, an ALP vehicle touched off a roadside bomb and the explosion left five ALP members dead in the province 155 km south of Kabul.
The NATO and U.S.-funded ALP or community police was established in August 2010 to protect villages and districts around the insurgency-hit country where Afghan army and police have limited presence.
The Taliban insurgents, who have been waging an insurgency of more than a decade, have recently intensified their attacks across the country as spring and summer known as the fighting season is drawing near.
On Tuesday evening, four Afghan army soldiers were killed when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bombing in eastern Kunar province 180 km east of Kabul.
The Taliban-led insurgency and conflicts claimed the lives of more than 2,800 Afghan security forces and over 400 foreign soldiers besides leaving 2,750 civilians dead last year in the central Asian state.
Karzai says history to judge his record
Aljazeera
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has said history will judge his track record in office as his country prepares for foreign troop withdrawal in 2014.
"My place in history will be judged by Afghan history; by what I have done and it will be judged better after 2014 when I am no longer the president," Karzai told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
"Let's leave it to then, and I hope it will be good."
Karzai, who is barred by the Afghan constitution from seeking a third term in office, listed several achievements, including making Afghanistan "home for all Afghans once again".
He said all Afghans who had been "fighting one another and running away from each other" were now living side by side.
A democratic government has been put in place as well as freedom of the press, freedom of speech and education, Karzai said.
Karzai became Afghan president in 2001 after the US launched a military offensive that removed the Taliban from power.
That offensive sought to neutralise cells of al-Qaeda, whose leader Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, the deadliest assault on US soil in decades.
Corruption and attacks
Afghanistan has since been mired in corruption and suffered regular attacks by the Taliban, sometimes on key government and NATO installations in the capital Kabul.
Karzai denied he had failed to rein in the Taliban and to restore security across the country.
"We never planned to eliminate the Taliban. Not me, not the Afghan people, not the Afghan government," he said in the interview that was conducted in the Qatari capital, Doha, where an office to co-ordinate talks with the Taliban has been set up.
"The moment I was declared the head of the interim government in Bonn, Germany, I was in Kandahar, Afghanistan, [and] I declared a complete amnesty to Taliban and Afwa, to the Taliban, from the leadership to everybody else."
Karzai said his plan was to bring the Taliban and have them reintegrated into Afghan society "like all other Afghans".
"I'm still calling them brothers. I'm still trying to have them be part of the country again and participate in the Afghan life, as we all do, the Afghans," Karzai said.
He said Afghan security problems had persisted because of "the war on terror", a reference to the US-led military campaign that began weeks after the 9/11 attacks.
US and NATO forces will begin a phased withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014 but there are fears the security situation could get worse as Afghan forces - still being trained by foreign forces - are still powerless to rein in the Taliban.
Top U.S. commander talks extending Afghanistan mission
By Elizabeth Palmer April 2, 2013 7:10 PM
(CBS News) KABUL -- The war in Afghanistan is entering an uncertain and dangerous phase. The Obama administration is trying to figure out how to bring most U.S. forces home by the end of next year, but still leave enough to be sure Afghanistan does not slip back into chaos.
The new man in charge of that is a Marine Corps general known as "Fighting Joe" Dunford. He took over command of U.S. and NATO forces two months ago.
"Transitions, by definition, are very, very difficult times," he told us. "They're filled with friction. They're filled with challenges. And that's what we're seeing. We're seeing the emergence of democracy over time."
We met Joseph Dunford at his headquarters just as he's preparing to tell President Obama how many Americans he'll need past 2014. The U.S. -- unofficially -- has hinted at around 9,000.
"In these next couple of months, I expect those decisions to be made, and I think -- I believe we'll know by the summer, generally speaking, what the future is," he said. "And the president of the United States and the president of Afghanistan are certainly committed to try to get this bilateral security agreement done by the May-June time frame."
The Americans who stay will be trainers for Afghanistan's military and special operations forces for counterterrorism.
Asked how many personnel will stay, Dunford said, "I haven't yet provided my advice for the president on this."
"I have a feel for it, but not one I'm willing to discuss," he said with a smile. "I would not tell you before President Obama."
Dunford commands more than 100,000 NATO troops. Pulling a large number out - what the military calls "retrograding" -- will be a monumental operation.
"The things I lay awake at night worrying about -- retrograde is not at the top of the list," he said. "What's at the top of the list is probably not providing the kind of leadership that the young men and women in the coalition deserve to have."
Dunford said he worries he won't provide that leadership.
"I just -- when I go to bed at night, I wonder -- that's exactly what I wonder," he said. "I just want to make sure the next day that's exactly what I do."
Asked to name the second thing on his list, he said, "I think the confidence of the Afghan people is very important to me. As I mentioned, there's a dynamic of uncertainty, so what I want to make sure we're demonstrating the kind of commitment that will lead to Afghan confidence."
But he has little more than 600 days left to make Afghanistan confident and stable enough to go it largely on its own.
"We came here because there was a threat of international terrorism from this region," Dunford says when asked what he can do in the time he has left to justify the cost -- in dollars and lives -- to America. "And we haven't yet set the conditions where that won't occur again."
We asked Dunford whether America is winning in Afghanistan. He told us U.S. forces have given the country an opportunity. And by that measure, he said, yes, we're winning.
Afghanistan peace deal: Taliban talks hit deadlock
Western hopes fade for agreement before 2014 pullout as negotiations in Qatar stall
Guardian.co.uk By Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul and Julian Borger Tuesday 2 April 2013
Western hopes of leaving Afghanistan within reach of a peace deal when Nato troops pull out in 2014 are dimming, with planned negotiations in Qatar at a stalemate and Pakistan cutting back on support for talks.
Afghans and foreigners across the political spectrum have been pushing hard for negotiations for several years, driven by concerns that the already-bloody insurgency could spiral into full-blown civil war when foreign forces have left.
But as western generals and politicians who once dreamed of crushing the Taliban militarily have reconciled themselves to the idea of negotiating instead, the insurgents themselves have remained more elusive, attacking top government negotiators and refusing to publicly embrace talks.
The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, visited the Qatari capital, Doha, at the weekend, where a handful of Taliban and their families have set up base since 2011, with the blessing of Washington, as diplomats seek neutral ground for potential negotiations.
The emir of the tiny state, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, pledged his support for the peace process and unveiled plans for a Qatari embassy in Kabul, helping allay some Afghan suspicions about where the Gulf nation's loyalties lie.
But notably absent from the two-day trip was any meeting with some of the Qatar-based Taliban themselves, who have denounced Karzai as the head of a "stooge administration". "Nobody from the Taliban side met with Karzai," the spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said bluntly after the visit, which also included a trip to an art museum to see an exhibition of Afghan handicrafts.
Also looming over both Karzai's weekend travels and wider Afghan and western efforts to get around a table with the Taliban is the ambivalence of the Pakistani government, which in recent weeks appears to have backed away from support for the process.
"Unfortunately Pakistan today is changing the goalposts on its support for the peace process once again," said the Afghan foreign ministry spokesman, Janan Mosazai. "Pakistan somehow decided now to put down certain preconditions for its support for the peace process which are completely unacceptable to Afghanistan and to any other independent country."
The Afghan government says the demands are that ties with India be severed, that army officers be sent to Pakistan for training and that a strategic partnership deal be signed immediately. The deterioration in ties has already had an impact: one senior Afghan source said flights organised by Pakistan for militants to Doha had already been halted.
Without transport for negotiators, talks are unlikely to get very far, and even if some do find a way to shuttle back and forth, the wider Taliban movement would be likely to struggle to directly oppose a government it relies on for shelter and other support.
A string of initiatives including Pakistani releases of Taliban prisoners and plans for a meeting of senior clerics from both countries meant the year began in a haze of enthusiasm that now looks premature; behind the scenes, little has changed in a country determined to ensure a friendly regime across its eastern borders.
"When optimism was prevailing about Pakistani attitudes, our human intelligence suggested that – on the ground – this optimism was not well-founded, and unfortunately we were proved right," the official said.
Many western diplomats say they are convinced that the Pakistani military chief General Ashfaq Kayani, often seen as more powerful in security affairs than the civilian government, genuinely believes it is more important to have a stable Afghanistan than one that is compliant with Islamabad's interests. But they also questioned whether that change in attitude had made much real difference.
A US source with long experience of negotiating with Pakistan said: "Part of the problem is that when Kayani gives an order, is it followed three levels down?"
The Taliban in 2011 seized the chance to set up a base beyond their risky Pakistani headquarters, vulnerable to both pressure from Islamabad and cross-border raids by US forces. Qatar was attractive, not least because the movement has long looked to the Gulf for funding and, in the past, political support.
Around 10 men have set up home with their families, a source with knowledge of the process said, and others come and go. But there has been no official confirmation that they plan to open an office or are willing to talk peace, despite expectations a few months ago that they would confirm their intentions with a statement welcoming peace talks.
That would have been a huge step for an often fractured movement that has sworn it won't talk either to Karzai or while foreign forces are still on Afghan soil. The Taliban leadership is still smarting from rank-and-file anger over a failed prisoner exchange initiative with the US more than year ago.
But the lack of any official embrace of the process is fuelling US and Afghan fears about the Taliban's true intentions in a place close to potential donors and convenient for putting out diplomatic feelers in an often sympathetic region.
Karzai tacitly acknowledged the problem in a meeting with Qatari businessmen during the trip. "The Taliban peace process, when it is officially announced, the opportunities will multiply hugely," Afghanistan's Tolo TV channel quoted him telling the exclusive group.
The Afghan government, which has been open about the fact that it would prefer Turkey or Saudi Arabia as a mediator, reacted badly to initial plans for an office in Doha. Karzai recalled his ambassador to Qatar and denounced the venture as scheming behind his back.
He has softened his stance since then, but his government has repeatedly warned that it will tolerate the Taliban office strictly as an address for peace talks, and only if it is not used for fundraising or diplomatic activities.
Western diplomats have also said their support for a Taliban presence in Qatar will be strained if the movement does not take more concrete steps towards embracing the idea of talks publicly, although they remain confident of behind-the-scenes support for negotiations.
"There isn't anyone who doesn't think that a significant majority of them want to take part in the peace process," a senior western official with knowledge of the talks said. The group's dispersed, fugitive leadership made for slow decision making, the official added, but longer term there was still real hope of a peace deal, although it would be likely to come on the brink of Nato's departure or later.
"It is conceivable that between 12 and 18 months from now the world could look different from a Taliban perspective," the official said.
"Once Karzai has left office, with western troops vanishing, and the Afghan police and army doing a relatively decent job providing security, it might be easier for the Taliban to sell negotiations to their foot soldiers."
Karzai’s old rival edges towards election
AFP 2 April 2013
As the one-year countdown to Afghan elections begins, the man who lost out last time in a corrupt and chaotic poll is weighing up whether to risk another shot at the presidency.
Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the second round of the 2009 election after massive vote-rigging by President Hamid Karzai’s supporters that badly shook the US-led international effort to rebuild Afghanistan.
The next election is due on April 5, 2014, but many doubt it will be held on schedule. There are no front-runners and foreign donors fear another flawed poll could bury gains secured since the fall of the Taleban in 2001.
Abdullah, an urbane former eye surgeon, remains embittered towards Karzai and doubts the president will step down without a fight — despite the fact he is barred from standing for a third term.
He accuses Karzai, 55, of plotting to deceive the electorate in spite of repeated pledges to step down next year.
“President Karzai will make an effort to extend his tenure,” the 52-year-old predicted in an interview at his heavily-guarded private residence in Kabul.
“The president’s best option is to create an emergency security situation so everyone says ‘under these circumstances how can we have elections?’, then he calls a jirga (tribal meeting) to support him staying on,” Abdullah said.
“He doesn’t show any signs of being someone who is now leaving in one year’s time.”
Abdullah served as Karzai’s foreign minister from 2001 to 2005, but is now leader of the National Coalition of Afghanistan, the closest thing to an opposition group in a country where central government is traditionally weak.
A former aide to the late anti-Soviet fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud, Abdullah commands support among minority Tajiks but not the Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group from which Karzai and most members of the Taleban hail.
Recalling the turbulent 2009 election, Abdullah said he was wary of campaigning again for the presidency.
The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) threw out around one third of votes — about half a million — cast for Karzai, sparking the run-off from which Abdullah ultimately withdrew “in the best interests of the nation”.
“I don’t want any candidate to go through what I did during the elections,” said Abdullah, who collected just over 30 percent of the first round vote.
“In one district 5,000 people voted one by one, while in the next district officials under the supervision of the police just provided 5,000 votes. If the elections are rigged this time, it is a recipe for a major crisis.”
Many observers suggest Abdullah offers few solutions to Afghanistan’s many problems and has not cultivated enough support to have a chance of winning.
But, with a year to go until the scheduled poll he said he was working hard behind the scenes and — if he were to stand — would not this time back down in the event of a run-off.
“It would not be like the last time when I said I would swallow this bitter pill for the sake of the country,” he said.
“I haven’t said I am a candidate. I am doing what candidates do — talking to people, networking, expanding supporters, but a decision has not happened yet.”
While it is not yet clear who will run in 2014, the lengthy list of possible candidates includes Karzai’s brother Qayyum, warlord turned provincial governor Atta Mohammad Noor, and former interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali.
At least 26 people were killed in sporadic attacks on polling day in 2009, and Karzai was only declared the winner 10 weeks later, after fraud investigations, delayed results and Abdullah’s eventual withdrawal.
Recent visitors to Kabul including US Secretary of State John Kerry have stressed that Afghanistan must hold a legitimate vote or risk being abandoned by Western governments after foreign combat troops withdraw next year.
One growing concern has been Karzai’s plan to scrap the UN-backed ECC, which includes foreign representatives, in favour of a new all-Afghan tribunal.
Last week the UN called for an impartial electoral dispute body to be set up at once and for a respected figure to be appointed head of the Independent Electoral Commission, which is currently leaderless.
“Either we have rule of law or we are a failed state. This election is an opportunity and a real test ahead of us,” Abdullah said.
Taliban Fighters Reportedly Forced Out Of Afghan Border District
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan and RFE/RL's Tajik Service April 3, 2013
KABUL -- Taliban fighters have been reportedly forced out of Afghanistan's Warduj district, which borders Tajikistan.
Badakhshan Province's police chief, General Imomuddin Mutmain, told RFE/RL late on April 2 that some 60 Taliban fighters were killed and some 200 wounded in the month-long operation.
He did not give details on casualties among Afghan security forces.
Mutmain added that one Uzbek citizen was among the wounded Taliban fighters.
Afghan officials stated earlier that a suspected member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) was arrested in the area.
Since January 1, Tajik border guards have killed two people trying to cross their border with Afghanistan and detained a number of drug traffickers and suspected IMU members.
Pakistan rejects unilateral military construction in Durand Line
By MEENA HASEEB - 03 Apr 2013, 9:51 am Khaama Press
Pakistani government officials on Tuesday announced denied the latest allegations by Afghan officials accusing Pakistan for constructing new check posts along the Durand line.
The officials rejecting Afghanistan’s comments said Pakistani military was only renovating an old post inside its territory.
Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin earlier this week called on Pakistan to immediately halt unilateral construction and physical reinforcement activities along the Durand Line.
Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, spokesman for the foreign office of Pakistan said an old post called Gursal well inside Pakistani territory bordering the Afghan province of Nangarhar, which is under routine renovation.
This comes as the Afghanistan and Pakistan has signed a tripartite border SOP agreement which insists that both sides must inform inform any new construction in the border areas.
Mr. Chaudhry quoted by The Express Tribune said, “The renovation of the post is primarily meant to interdict terrorists and criminals as well as better manage the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
He maintained that Ludin’s recent concerns were “therefore not in keeping with the spirit of the understanding on good border management and the recently signed Tripartite Border SOP.”
According to reports Afghan ambassador in Islamabad flew to Kabul to lessen the diplomatic strain after holding talks with the Pakistani foreing ministry officials.
Ambassador Umer Daudzai rushed to Kabul to talk to senior Afghan officials, following accusations against Pakistani forces of firing rockets into Afghan areas, sources said.
Afghans seek their own exit strategy
The wealthy are buying homes abroad and moving money out of Afghanistan amid concern about what will happen after foreign troops leave in 2014. The less wealthy sometimes go the illegal route.
Los Angeles Times By Alexandra Zavis April 2, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Nabil Ahmad was at his desk at a logistics support firm last spring when an explosion ripped through the office.
Windows shattered. The ceiling collapsed. "I thought it was an earthquake — or the end of the world," the Kabul native said.
At 26, Ahmad, who favors Western suits and now works for a cellphone service provider, has never known a time when his country was not at war. But he's a father now, with a 2-year-old and an infant to think about.
"I don't want to put my sons in the position that I was growing up," he said. "I want to get my family out."
Like many Afghans, Ahmad is desperately seeking an exit strategy before most foreign troops leave next year.
A recent study warned of a "contagious pessimism" among Afghan business and political leaders and the urban middle class. "Crucially, there are indications of a self-fulfilling prophecy: Fear of instability in 2014 is driving emigration of the very people and money that could prevent instability," says the report by the development consultant STATT.
The wealthy are buying second homes abroad and moving huge amounts of money out of Afghanistan, fearing that security will deteriorate and the economy will collapse. Others are applying to study overseas, seeking invitations from relatives abroad or risking their lives trying to get into countries illegally.
If he can get his wife and children to safety, Ahmad would like to keep working here. He has been trying to arrange a trip to Europe and figures the family can apply for asylum once they get there. But obtaining visas is almost impossible.
Some travel agents say they can arrange invitation letters from families in far-off countries to support visa applications. Others claim to have embassy contacts who will issue visas under the table. But it's expensive and they don't always deliver.
Decades of conflict and natural disasters have driven waves of Afghans to depart in search of safer, more prosperous lives. In one of the most dramatic refugee crises of the 20th century, millions fled to neighboring Pakistan and Iran during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and the 1990s civil war that eventually gave rise to the repressive Taliban regime. Those migrating included much of the country's intellectual elite, some of whom resettled in the United States and Europe.
Although a large number have returned to Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces drove the Islamist militants from power in 2001, the rate has slowed. For the first time in a decade, officials with the International Organization for Migration believe that more Afghans left their country last year than moved back.
Prices for high-end real estate in Kabul have plummeted by as much as 50% as members of the business and political elite scramble to move their families and assets out of the country.
"Everything has stopped," said Elyas Faizi of Blue House Real Estate. "No one can sell. No one is buying."
Some of his clients are snapping up apartments and villas in Dubai on the Persian Gulf, where wealthy Afghans have long sought sanctuary. The number of Afghans buying property there jumped in 2011 and 2012, many paying in cash, according to local brokers.
"I think they wanted to have a Plan B in place," said Parvees Gafur, chief executive of Propsquare Real Estate in the United Arab Emirates.
At least $4.6 billion in cash, the equivalent of about a quarter of Afghanistan's annual economic output, was carried out of the country on flights to Dubai and elsewhere in 2011, according to the central bank.
The government believes that some of the money was diverted from foreign assistance or was the product of illicit drug deals. It now limits to $20,000 the amount passengers can carry. But officials have also noted an increase in overseas bank transfers, said central bank Gov. Noorullah Delawari. No one knows how much more is leaving the country without being declared.
In one of Kabul's new shopping malls, Hajrat, who like many Afghans uses only one name, has been running a cosmetics store since high school. Now in his early 20s, he makes enough money to pay for a car and expensive holidays in Dubai.
He would seem to have every reason to stay. But he plans to invest his savings in another country, one where he doesn't have to "worry about suicide attacks all the time."
"I'm happy until 2014," he said in between counting out a stack of cash for a supplier and offering spritzes of perfume to well-heeled customers. "After that, I don't know where I'm going but I'm sure I'm leaving."
As many as 40% of Afghan diplomats don't return from overseas postings, according to the parliament's Commission on International Affairs. (The Foreign Ministry says the figure is lower.) Students, athletes and others who travel in an official capacity have also failed to return.
The number of Afghan asylum applications to 44 industrialized countries surpassed 36,600 in 2012, according to provisional figures from the United Nations refugee agency, more than at any time since 2001. Many were trying to enter Europe, with Germany and Sweden among the most sought-after destinations. There were just 204 applications to the United States, which is much farther away and viewed as a more difficult place to obtain asylum.
Enterprising fraudsters sell fake letters purporting to contain threats from the Taliban to bolster asylum requests.
But many Afghans don't qualify for refugee status, said International Organization for Migration spokeswoman Aanchal Khurana. So they look for other ways out, both legal and illegal.
The U.S. Embassy, for example, is working through a backlog of applications for special immigrant visas, which are offered to Afghans whose work for the U.S. government puts them at risk. Others try for visitors' visas and hope they can hide out when they get there.
Mohammad Nasir, a 25-year-old Kabul travel agent, fields frequent inquiries — 10 or 20 a week — from would-be migrants.
Most of those seeking Nasir's help are young men hoping for a ticket to a new life in the West.
"2014 is becoming a very big problem in Afghanistan," said Nasir, who would like to get out himself. "Nobody knows what is going to happen. Some say the Taliban will come back, and the young generation is afraid. It was a dark time in Afghanistan."
Nasir said his agency won't do anything illegal, but can help clients obtain visas to India and Pakistan, where they may hire smugglers to get them to Australia, usually via Malaysia and Indonesia. Others, he said, fly to Turkey or Russia and try to sneak into the European Union.
Smugglers' rates vary but start around $15,000 for a trip that may include a perilous hike through the mountains of Iran to Turkey, before crossing by land through Eastern Europe or by sea to Greece or Italy. Scores, if not hundreds, have died in the attempt.
In one of the worst incidents, about 90 prospective asylum-seekers, including numerous Afghans, drowned in June when their overcrowded boat capsized in the Indian Ocean en route from Indonesia to the Australian territory of Christmas Island.
The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations has distributed brochures and broadcast appeals warning against attempting such "deadly paths."
"Crossing mountains, forests, rivers and deserts is not the right way ... for migration, but only add to the problems of our people," Minister Jamaher Anwari said in one televised appeal.
Ahmad isn't willing to take such risks. A local travel agent offered to get his wife a visa for job training in Italy for $15,000. But she would have been allowed to take only the baby with her. Ahmad decided to keep looking.
alexandra.zavis@latimes.com
Special correspondent Hashmat Baktash contributed to this report.
US troops in Afghanistan bid farewell to lobster, steak and salsa
Military scales back catering, morale, and recreation services as US embarks on $6bn withdrawal of 70,000-strong workforce
Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul The Guardian, Wednesday 3 April 2013
No more surf'n'turf overlooking the Hindu Kush, no more salsa classes on the Kandahar boardwalk or mocha frappes in the Helmand desert.
The US army has decided to cut back on catering, morale, welfare and recreation services as it starts the $6bn (£4bn) relocation of a nearly 70,000-strong force, who must all leave by the end of 2014.
Soldiers used to enjoying four hot meals a day, including a midnight snack, will have to replace two of them with ration packs by the autumn, the US military has said. Commanders can choose which meals to cut, but breakfast and late-night servings are the most likely to go as that would remove a whole shift of cooking duties.
The change is billed as key to slimming down a huge military operation supported by thousands of contract chefs and cleaners, going back to the "expeditionary footing" that the first troops to arrive, in 2001, had to endure.
"When we arrived in Afghanistan over 11 years ago, we were lean and expeditionary. We need to leave the way we came in, lean and expeditionary," said Jeffrey Hawk, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan.
But commanders are also keen to eat into huge stockpiles of rations built while there were more than 100,000 US troops fighting in tiny outposts around the country, which would otherwise be abandoned or shipped home at great expense. Hawk said there was a "need to reduce our current food stock in the Afghanistan area of operations".
The shift will begin on 1 May and be rolled out across Afghanistan by 1 October, although soldiers living in cramped conditions and working round the clock warned that the change, which could spell the end for treats including regular steak and lobster feasts at some bases, will dent morale.
"It's great for, I guess, saving money and cutting back on contractors … but there's a lot more things you can cut back," Sergeant Michael Day, a combat engineer at Kandahar air field, told the Stars and Stripes newspaper. "It's not fair to the soldiers doing the daily grind."
Among the other things to go in the shift to expeditionary living will be franchises such as Popeye's at Bagram airbase and TGIF at Kandahar. The PX shops for soldiers will also shrink, cutting back on stocks of goods including computers and high-end sunglasses to concentrate on toiletries and necessities.
"Franchise food, coffee and merchandise vendors will also close when expeditionary standards are implemented," Hawk said. "There will be less MWR-led events."
Medical services will not be affected, so anyone injured in battlefield can be taken to top-level hospitals within the "golden hour" vital for saving lives. And wireless internet will be switched on until bases close, allowing soldiers to stay in touch with friends and families back home.
The only other thing that will still be on tap, for an army notoriously strict about appearances, is barber services. "Bases will see a reduction in MWR (morale, welfare and recreation) and personal care services, except haircuts," Hawk said.
The real road to an Afghan peace
The New York Post By AMIR TAHERI April 3, 2013
With snow starting to melt in the mountains of the Hindu Hush, Afghans are preparing for another season of fighting in the 34-year-long war that has ravaged their country. And, like every year this time, there is much talk about “peace talks” between the government of President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban.
This year’s talk about talks is hotter than previous seasons, for two reasons.
First, the Obama administration, preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan next year, has asked Qatar (now Washington’s closest Arab ally in the Middle East) to open a dialogue with the Taliban. The oil-rich state has obliged by contacting Taliban figures and promising to let the group open an “information office” in Doha. Last week, Qatar also hosted Karzai to discuss possible “peace talks” with Sheik Hamad, the emir.
Second, Afghanistan is to hold presidential elections next April, and Karzai now has nothing to run on. With a “peace in our time” paper in his hand, he might be able to win (or get away with stealing) another term.
Thus, the latest maneuvers may be less about finding a real peace, and more about providing Obama with a fig leaf to cover his premature retreat and giving Karzai a boost.
It’s not by talking to Taliban figures that the terrorist war would come to an end. From its inception in the 1990s, the Taliban has been a Pakistani creation; it remains under Islamabad’s control today.
This is not unique in the history of insurgencies. To survive, let alone achieve victory, every insurgency needs three things.
First, it needs a domestic base. For that, the Taliban used both ruthless repression and bribery in the 1990s when it imposed its rule over almost all of Afghanistan. Using the same mixture today, it has a base among several Pushtun tribes in the badlands bordering Pakistan.
With a cocktail of xenophobic, specifically anti-West, ideology and pan-Pushtun chauvinism, it also appeals to self-style nationalists. And it enjoys some support among jihadists dreaming of world conquest for Islam.
Second, an insurgency needs lots of money. The Taliban have never been short of cash because it controls much of Afghanistan’s heroin trade, and also receives money from well-wishers among rich Arabs and Pakistanis. The group has also found a new source of income in controlling smuggling routes from Pakistan while organizing raids on “humanitarian aid” stores, selling the booty on the black market under its control.
Third, and possibly most important, an insurgency needs a safe haven in a neighboring country in which to train, rest, organize operations and, when needed, hide. Pakistan has always satisfied that crucial need of the Taliban.
Today, most of the telephones used by Taliban operatives and “spokesmen” have Pakistani numbers. Taliban offices operate in the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Quetta behind thin covers. A whole neighborhood in southwest Quetta is dotted with safe houses used by Taliban leaders, including their Emir al-Momeneen (Commander of the Faithful), Mullah Muhammad Omar.
To bring peace to Afghanistan, one doesn’t need to talk to real or imagined Taliban leaders. Even the small slice of the Taliban that is close to the United Arab Emirates has ties to Islamabad. The only meaningful peace talks would be with Pakistan.
Yet Pakistan has so far opposed all such initiatives. Indeed, there are credible reports that a few Taliban figures who wanted to talk with Karzai have been murdered by elements close to Pakistan.
For Pakistan, Afghanistan is a strategic hinterland in the never-ending struggle with India. A hostile Afghanistan would leave Pakistan, a fragile state at the best of times, caught in a pincer controlled by mortal foes.
India has never forgotten or forgiven Pakistan’s secession in 1947. For its part, Afghanistan maintains a claim on Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province, where ethnic Pushtuns form a majority. If absorbed into a greater Afghanistan, the Pakistani Pushtuns would help create a new nation of some 50 million, in which they would be a majority.
To bring Pakistan on board, its legitimate security concerns with regard to Afghanistan must be addressed. The late Richard Holbrooke, appointed by Obama as point man on Afghanistan, realized this toward the end of his life. Needless to say, Obama didn’t listen to him then, and would have listened even less today.
Karzai has frightened Pakistan by forging alliances with India, Russia and Iran to fill the gap after the US and allies have left.
Pakistan will have a new government after the May 11 general election. That could provide an opportunity to persuade it to review its support for the Taliban.
But, with US influence on the wane, only three countries could still weigh on Pakistan to give peace in Afghanistan a chance — China, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Yet none has the power or the interest to promote meaningful peace talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Again, the American absence is sorely felt.
Obama Opacity on Afghanistan Seen Risking Strong Taliban
Bloomberg By Gopal Ratnam April 02, 2013
President Barack Obama’s failure to spell out his plans for Afghanistan is adding to the risk that some Afghans will start negotiating deals with the Taliban, according to former U.S. officials who visited the country.
“In Afghanistan right now there’s a huge amount of anxiety about the scale and nature of the U.S. commitment long-term,” Obama’s former Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy, who was on the trip last month and was the Pentagon’s third highest- ranking official, said in an interview.
She said spelling out U.S. intentions, including how many troops will stay, would “reduce counterproductive hedging behavior on the part of various parties in Afghanistan and in the broader region.”
While Obama has pledged to bring most U.S. troops home from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, he hasn’t said how many would remain afterward. That’s allowed other officials to voice their opinions, from a White House adviser who said no troops may remain to generals and Republican lawmakers who’ve argued that more than 13,000 will be needed.
“The president is still considering options for a potential post-2014 presence focused on two basic missions: targeting the remnants of al-Qaeda and training, advising and assisting Afghan forces,” Caitlin Hayden, a White House spokeswoman, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “Across the government, including the president himself, we have been very clear in public and private that we are committed to Afghanistan for the long-term.”
The president sent about 33,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan in 2009, putting his own stamp on a war he inherited from George W. Bush’s administration. Since then, Obama’s administration has trumpeted what officials have called signs of civil and military progress in Afghanistan.
Fragile Gains
A return of the Taliban’s Islamic militants to even limited power would risk reversing fragile gains in women’s rights, progress toward strengthening the central government and attempts to bolster Afghan security forces, said members of the group of outside advisers to the administration, who met in Afghanistan last month with officials and citizens.
Popular and political support for continuing the 12-year war is eroding in the U.S. In a March poll by ABC News and the Washington Post, 56 percent said the war hasn’t been worth the effort, up from 47 percent in early 2009 when Obama took office. The latest poll of 1,001 adults had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The Afghan war has cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $557 billion so far, according to the Congressional Research Service. It’s also cost 2,184 American lives, according to Defense Department data, a growing number of them from attacks by their supposed Afghan allies.
Karzai’s Comments
Afghan President Hamid Karzai hasn’t helped bolster U.S. support for the mission in his country. Distancing himself from the U.S., he last month suggested America was colluding with the Taliban and delayed acting on cooperative measures.
Faced with what some administration officials privately call a no-win choice between quitting the fight and continuing it, Obama hasn’t made his intentions clear.
After months of speculation about how many U.S. troops might remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser, said in January that Obama was considering leaving no troops unless differences with Karzai’s government could be resolved.
In February, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told NATO allies in Brussels that the Obama administration foresees a combined allied presence of 8,000 to 12,000 troops remaining in Afghanistan after 2014.
Generals’ Stance
In a public display of dissent, some U.S. military officials and members of Congress have publicly said that 13,600 American troops and 7,000 from other countries will be necessary.
Among those who have been pressing for that big a force are Marine General James Mattis, who retired last month as head of the U.S. Central Command, Marine General Joseph Dunford, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan; James Cunningham, the American ambassador to Afghanistan; and Republican Representatives Duncan Hunter and Howard P. “Buck” McKeon of California, members of the House Armed Services Committee.
Such conflicting statements have the Afghans worried, said Ronald Neumann, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007 under Bush and was among the group that visited Afghanistan. Flournoy, who is now a senior adviser with the Boston Consulting Group Inc., served at the Pentagon under Presidents Bill Clinton and Obama.
Needing Reassurance
“The Afghan audience is paranoid,” Neumann said in an interview, invoking the memory of the Soviet invasion and withdrawal from the country. “They’ve lived through catastrophe that followed abandonment, and people who have gone through that need a lot of reassurance.”
Afghans are looking for details of the U.S. commitment beyond the general assurances reached by Obama and Karzai, said Neumann, who is president of the American Academy of Diplomacy in Washington.
In the absence of a clearly stated U.S. position, Afghans are likely to reach agreements with the Taliban and local criminal groups, and tribal and ethnic groups will rearm, Neumann said. “All these hedging and survival behaviors are counterproductive to strengthening the state and the Army,” he said.
The U.S. has called for peace talks between Karzai’s government and the Taliban that would require the group to lay down arms.
Strategic Agreement
A strategic agreement between Obama and Karzai that was signed in May outlined a broad framework for military, economic and social cooperation between their countries while leaving the details to be negotiated. Since then, the two sides have been discussing a bilateral security agreement that, among other provisions, would guarantee U.S. troops immunity from prosecution under Afghan laws.
“Our negotiators are working to complete the negotiations as soon as possible and will hold another round of negotiations in Kabul in the near future,” Hayden, the White House spokeswoman, said.
Failure to obtain a similar Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq led to the withdrawal of all American troops from that country by the end of 2011.
Comments by Afghan officials such as one last month by Minister of Energy and Water Ismail Khan, who said Afghanistan should refrain from reaching such an accord with the U.S., reflect the hedging behavior that’s starting to emerge in the country, said Omar Samad, a former Afghan ambassador to France.
‘Wandering, Miserable’
“We shouldn’t sign a document by which we would remain dependent, wandering, miserable and at the same time have no other option but to accept foreigners,” Khan said in Herat on March 22, Tolo News of Afghanistan reported. “We shouldn’t sign this pact.”
To forestall such comments and prevent Taliban and “other elements backed by outside forces” from manipulation, “clarity from both Kabul and Washington is essential,” said Samad, who runs Silk Road Consulting, a Washington-based geopolitical advisory firm. The two sides must state what the “strategic agreement is all about and give all stakeholders a conclusive message about what’s going to happen after 2014.”
The rising number of Afghan asylum seekers is another probable indication of increasing unease among the country’s citizens, said Thomas Ruttig, a co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a nonprofit policy group.
Seeking Asylum
The number of Afghans seeking asylum in the 27 European Union nations that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development rose 36 percent in 2011 from the previous year, the latest period for which data is available, according the group.
“There are also some reports of Afghan officers and families seeking asylum in India,” Ruttig said in a phone interview.
The absence of a clear message from Obama about a continuing U.S. military presence in Afghanistan may be an indication that the president hasn’t made up his mind, said Michael O’Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington who also was in the group that traveled to Afghanistan.
“Obviously Obama was of two minds” about keeping U.S. troops in Iraq after the war there ended, O’Hanlon said in an interview. “He may have similar ambivalence” about Afghanistan.
Contingent on Immunity
If Obama favors keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, negotiations with Afghanistan on the bilateral security agreement “would be more effective if we said, ‘We’d like to stay, here’s the force package we’ll stay with, but it’s contingent’” on Afghanistan granting immunity to U.S. troops and promising that presidential elections scheduled for April 2014 “are not hijacked,” O’Hanlon said.
Concerns about a lack of U.S. clarity may be overblown, said retired Marine Corps General John Allen, who headed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan until December.
“We have been very clear that we intend to stay,” Allen said in an interview. “The question is what are the numbers going to be? I think explanations have been made that the nature of the force that will remain will be sufficient to conduct the training and advising as well as counterterrorism operations.”
Allen, who retired from the Marine Corps in March, declined to say what troop strength he favored or what the Obama administration might decide.
Asking the Afghan government to agree to a bilateral security agreement without specifying how many U.S. troops will remain in their country after 2014 is like asking a customer to sign a contract to buy a car without saying what options are included, former ambassador Neumann said.
For Related News and Information: Karzai Putting U.S. Support at Risk as Lawmakers See Histrionics
To contact the reporter on this story: Gopal Ratnam in Washington atgratnam1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott atjwalcott9@bloomberg.net
How A Female Photographer Sees Her Afghanistan
by Marie McGrory NPR April 02, 201311:52 AM
Born in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1984, photographer Farzana Wahidy was only a teenager when the Taliban took over the country in 1996. At age 13 she was beaten in the street for not wearing a burqa, she recalls, and she describes those years as a "very closed, very dark time." To carry a camera would have been unthinkable.
And yet, she says, "I felt lucky compared to other women at that time." Women were banned from continuing their education during Taliban rule. But some, like Farzana, found ways to keep studying. She would carry books under her burqa and attended what she calls an "underground school" with about 300 other students in a residential area of Kabul.
When U.S.-led forces ended Taliban rule in 2001, Wahidy was able to attend high school. A friend encouraged her to apply for a photojournalism program, knowing that she had hopes of sharing her experiences with the world.
"Day by day, as I started learning about photography, I fell more in love with it," she says. "There was a huge need for women photographers in Afghanistan."
Wahidy became the first Afghan female photographer to work for the AFP and later AP, two leading wire agencies, and eventually received a scholarship to continue studies in a photojournalism program in Canada. In 2010, Wahidy returned home to Afghanistan.
"I try to show the bigger image, not just show we have problems," she says. "And we do have a lot of problems, but I do want to show normal daily life."
Wahidy focuses on women. "This subject was important to me because I am a woman," she says, recognizing an advantage that gives her. When she wants to document their lives, "it's easier for a woman to get access," she says.
Her photos of daily life range from men selling balloons on the streets to the secret lives of female prostitutes. And Wahidy was not the only one to recognize the need for this type of photography in Afghanistan. She is now part of the recently created Afghan Photography Network.
"Many Afghan photographers are not well-connected," she explains. "We hope it will create a better connection and show Afghanistan by Afghan photographers."
It is a young website, still in development, but the Afghan Photography Network is already bringing increased visibility to the work of Afghan photographers.
Of the eight women in her original photojournalism program, Wahidy is the only one working as a full-time photographer. Some got married, and others stopped working for reasons unknown to Wahidy. Wahidy, meanwhile, plans to continue for a very long time.
"When I shoot and I get a good photo," she says, "that is a beautiful day."
85% of Insurgent Attacks Will Target Kabul: ANA
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Tuesday, 02 April 2013
An Afghan National Army commander said Tuesday that insurgents are planning to execute more of their attacks in Afghanistan's capital city over the next few months, suggesting that as many as 85 percent of its plans are focused on Kabul.
"85 percent of all the security threats of this year are focused on Kabul. The country's enemies are taking aim at Kabul as their big target," said Gen Qadam Shah Shaheem, commander of the ANA Kabul 111 unit. "They want to target many of the security organsiations," he added.
Head of National Directorate of Security (NDS) for Kabul province, Mirza Khan Rahimi, agreed with the remarks, saying that preparations to stop these plans are underway.
He disclosed the names and posts of a number of high-ranking Taliban members who are responsible mainly for the group's attacks in Kabul.
"There have been some alterations – as decreed by Mullah Omar – to the structure of the Taliban. Hafiz Mohibullah and Mawlawi Enayatullah have been selected as the Taliban's shadow provincial governor of Kabul and head of the suicide attacks in Kabul, for insurgent activities," he said.
The security officials met Tuesday in Kabul to discuss the capital's security ahead of the warmer seasons of spring and summer which are regarded as the peak of insurgent activity throughout the year.
Kabul police chief Gen Ayub Salangi who was present at the meeting spoke of the efforts to prevent weapons being brought into the capital for the attacks.
"The opposition groups are endeavoring to use the four main roads to Kabul and pedestrians to move in artillery and explosives to make Kabul insecure," he said.
Head of Kabul provincial council, however, expressed fear over lack of sufficient coordination between Afghan security organisations and the council.
"Our demand is for the security organisations to cooperate with us to provide security," Nesaruddin Bariyalai said.
"We are prepared to provide security and to cooperate with the security organisations," he added.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
By Ben Brumfield and Masoud Popalzai, CNN April 3, 2013
Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Insurgents wearing Afghan National Army uniforms killed at least 44 people and wounded nearly 100 others Wednesday in a nearly nine-hour attack on Afghan government buildings in the southwestern province of Farah, said Mohammad Akram Ekhpelwak, the province's governor.
The firefight has ended. Of the dead, 34 are civilians and 10 are Afghan security forces, according to Ekhpelwak. Nine armed attackers are dead, he added.
The attackers drove army vehicles to gain access to the area, said police chief Noor Agha Kantoz.
The militants began their attack by detonating a vehicle laden with explosives, said Abdul Rahman Ezhwandai, a spokesman for the governor.
The blast wrecked the targeted buildings and others nearby in the capital city of Farah. The main targets appeared to be the courthouse and the attorney general's office.
Kantoz said that two suicide attackers detonated explosives while storming the buildings.
Soldiers from the Afghan National Army engaged the enemy, killing at least two, he said. They continue to battle fighters who have taken cover in the courthouse.
The wounded have been taken to a local hospital, Ekhpelwak said.
CNN's Masoud Popalzai reported from Kabul; CNN's Ben Brumfield reported from Atlanta.
Taliban attack Afghan courthouse, killing 21
By AMIR SHAH | Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Suicide bombers disguised as Afghan soldiers stormed a courthouse Wednesday in a failed bid to free more than a dozen Taliban prisoners in western Afghanistan, officials said. At least 21 civilians and nine attackers were reported killed in the fighting.
The assault in Farah province was the latest example of the Taliban's ability to strike official institutions despite tight security measures. The persistent violence has undermined confidence in President Hamid Karzai's government as it tries to take over its own security ahead of the withdrawal of international combat forces by the end of 2014.
Nine men wearing suicide vests drove into the center of the provincial capital, which has the same name, in Afghan national army vehicles that allowed them to bypass checkpoints, provincial police chief Agha Noor Kemtoz said.
Two of the attackers blew themselves up inside one of the vehicles while the others jumped out of the second and ran toward the courthouse and prosecutor's office, he said. Guards opened fire, killing one of the attackers, while the others engaged in a fierce gunbattle that left civil servants and government officials holed up in their offices.
Kemtoz, who gave the death toll, said the attack aimed to free 15 Taliban prisoners who were being transferred to the courthouse for trial, which had not yet started.
"Definitely the plan was to free the prisoners with this attack, but thank God, they did not succeed," he said. "All the prisoners are accounted for."
Dr. Abdul Hakim Rasouli, chief of the Farah hospital, said 80 people also were wounded.
Deputy provincial governor Yonus Rasouli said the explosion damaged many government buildings in the area.
Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message sent to reporters.
Farah province, which is bordered by Iran to the west and Afghanistan's volatile Helmand province to the east, has seen an uptick in attacks against the local government in recent months as militants seek to disrupt efforts to stabilize the area.
In Kabul, meanwhile, Afghanistan's intelligence chief Asadullah Khalid returned to Kabul nearly four months after he was seriously wounded by a Taliban suicide bomber posing as a messenger of peace.
Billboards in the capital welcomed home the director of the National Directorate of Security on Wednesday, saying he has fully recovered and "is ready to continue his duty to provide peace, security and prosperity to his homeland."
In other violence, Taliban gunmen attacked a local police patrol late Tuesday in southeastern Paktika province and six insurgents were killed in the fighting, according to a statement from the governor's office. A roadside bomb then struck a police vehicle as it was leaving the area, killing four patrollers, it said.
Four police officers also were killed and one wounded Tuesday when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb in northeastern Kunar province during an operation to clear the area of explosives, government spokesman Wasifullah Wasifi said.
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Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.
4 policemen, 6 militants killed in eastern Afghan clash
SHARAN, Afghanistan, April 3 (Xinhua) -- Up to four Afghan policemen and six militants were killed in a clash in the county's eastern province of Paktika overnight, an official said Wednesday.
"The militants ambushed the Afghan Local Police (ALP) patrol in Babo Khail area of Jani Khail district and the ALP repelled, killing six militants late Tuesday night," the provincial government spokesman Mukhlis Afghan told Xinhua.
He said following the clash, an ALP vehicle touched off a roadside bomb and the explosion left five ALP members dead in the province 155 km south of Kabul.
The NATO and U.S.-funded ALP or community police was established in August 2010 to protect villages and districts around the insurgency-hit country where Afghan army and police have limited presence.
The Taliban insurgents, who have been waging an insurgency of more than a decade, have recently intensified their attacks across the country as spring and summer known as the fighting season is drawing near.
On Tuesday evening, four Afghan army soldiers were killed when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bombing in eastern Kunar province 180 km east of Kabul.
The Taliban-led insurgency and conflicts claimed the lives of more than 2,800 Afghan security forces and over 400 foreign soldiers besides leaving 2,750 civilians dead last year in the central Asian state.
Karzai says history to judge his record
Aljazeera
Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has said history will judge his track record in office as his country prepares for foreign troop withdrawal in 2014.
"My place in history will be judged by Afghan history; by what I have done and it will be judged better after 2014 when I am no longer the president," Karzai told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
"Let's leave it to then, and I hope it will be good."
Karzai, who is barred by the Afghan constitution from seeking a third term in office, listed several achievements, including making Afghanistan "home for all Afghans once again".
He said all Afghans who had been "fighting one another and running away from each other" were now living side by side.
A democratic government has been put in place as well as freedom of the press, freedom of speech and education, Karzai said.
Karzai became Afghan president in 2001 after the US launched a military offensive that removed the Taliban from power.
That offensive sought to neutralise cells of al-Qaeda, whose leader Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, the deadliest assault on US soil in decades.
Corruption and attacks
Afghanistan has since been mired in corruption and suffered regular attacks by the Taliban, sometimes on key government and NATO installations in the capital Kabul.
Karzai denied he had failed to rein in the Taliban and to restore security across the country.
"We never planned to eliminate the Taliban. Not me, not the Afghan people, not the Afghan government," he said in the interview that was conducted in the Qatari capital, Doha, where an office to co-ordinate talks with the Taliban has been set up.
"The moment I was declared the head of the interim government in Bonn, Germany, I was in Kandahar, Afghanistan, [and] I declared a complete amnesty to Taliban and Afwa, to the Taliban, from the leadership to everybody else."
Karzai said his plan was to bring the Taliban and have them reintegrated into Afghan society "like all other Afghans".
"I'm still calling them brothers. I'm still trying to have them be part of the country again and participate in the Afghan life, as we all do, the Afghans," Karzai said.
He said Afghan security problems had persisted because of "the war on terror", a reference to the US-led military campaign that began weeks after the 9/11 attacks.
US and NATO forces will begin a phased withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2014 but there are fears the security situation could get worse as Afghan forces - still being trained by foreign forces - are still powerless to rein in the Taliban.
Top U.S. commander talks extending Afghanistan mission
By Elizabeth Palmer April 2, 2013 7:10 PM
(CBS News) KABUL -- The war in Afghanistan is entering an uncertain and dangerous phase. The Obama administration is trying to figure out how to bring most U.S. forces home by the end of next year, but still leave enough to be sure Afghanistan does not slip back into chaos.
The new man in charge of that is a Marine Corps general known as "Fighting Joe" Dunford. He took over command of U.S. and NATO forces two months ago.
"Transitions, by definition, are very, very difficult times," he told us. "They're filled with friction. They're filled with challenges. And that's what we're seeing. We're seeing the emergence of democracy over time."
We met Joseph Dunford at his headquarters just as he's preparing to tell President Obama how many Americans he'll need past 2014. The U.S. -- unofficially -- has hinted at around 9,000.
"In these next couple of months, I expect those decisions to be made, and I think -- I believe we'll know by the summer, generally speaking, what the future is," he said. "And the president of the United States and the president of Afghanistan are certainly committed to try to get this bilateral security agreement done by the May-June time frame."
The Americans who stay will be trainers for Afghanistan's military and special operations forces for counterterrorism.
Asked how many personnel will stay, Dunford said, "I haven't yet provided my advice for the president on this."
"I have a feel for it, but not one I'm willing to discuss," he said with a smile. "I would not tell you before President Obama."
Dunford commands more than 100,000 NATO troops. Pulling a large number out - what the military calls "retrograding" -- will be a monumental operation.
"The things I lay awake at night worrying about -- retrograde is not at the top of the list," he said. "What's at the top of the list is probably not providing the kind of leadership that the young men and women in the coalition deserve to have."
Dunford said he worries he won't provide that leadership.
"I just -- when I go to bed at night, I wonder -- that's exactly what I wonder," he said. "I just want to make sure the next day that's exactly what I do."
Asked to name the second thing on his list, he said, "I think the confidence of the Afghan people is very important to me. As I mentioned, there's a dynamic of uncertainty, so what I want to make sure we're demonstrating the kind of commitment that will lead to Afghan confidence."
But he has little more than 600 days left to make Afghanistan confident and stable enough to go it largely on its own.
"We came here because there was a threat of international terrorism from this region," Dunford says when asked what he can do in the time he has left to justify the cost -- in dollars and lives -- to America. "And we haven't yet set the conditions where that won't occur again."
We asked Dunford whether America is winning in Afghanistan. He told us U.S. forces have given the country an opportunity. And by that measure, he said, yes, we're winning.
Afghanistan peace deal: Taliban talks hit deadlock
Western hopes fade for agreement before 2014 pullout as negotiations in Qatar stall
Guardian.co.uk By Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul and Julian Borger Tuesday 2 April 2013
Western hopes of leaving Afghanistan within reach of a peace deal when Nato troops pull out in 2014 are dimming, with planned negotiations in Qatar at a stalemate and Pakistan cutting back on support for talks.
Afghans and foreigners across the political spectrum have been pushing hard for negotiations for several years, driven by concerns that the already-bloody insurgency could spiral into full-blown civil war when foreign forces have left.
But as western generals and politicians who once dreamed of crushing the Taliban militarily have reconciled themselves to the idea of negotiating instead, the insurgents themselves have remained more elusive, attacking top government negotiators and refusing to publicly embrace talks.
The Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, visited the Qatari capital, Doha, at the weekend, where a handful of Taliban and their families have set up base since 2011, with the blessing of Washington, as diplomats seek neutral ground for potential negotiations.
The emir of the tiny state, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, pledged his support for the peace process and unveiled plans for a Qatari embassy in Kabul, helping allay some Afghan suspicions about where the Gulf nation's loyalties lie.
But notably absent from the two-day trip was any meeting with some of the Qatar-based Taliban themselves, who have denounced Karzai as the head of a "stooge administration". "Nobody from the Taliban side met with Karzai," the spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said bluntly after the visit, which also included a trip to an art museum to see an exhibition of Afghan handicrafts.
Also looming over both Karzai's weekend travels and wider Afghan and western efforts to get around a table with the Taliban is the ambivalence of the Pakistani government, which in recent weeks appears to have backed away from support for the process.
"Unfortunately Pakistan today is changing the goalposts on its support for the peace process once again," said the Afghan foreign ministry spokesman, Janan Mosazai. "Pakistan somehow decided now to put down certain preconditions for its support for the peace process which are completely unacceptable to Afghanistan and to any other independent country."
The Afghan government says the demands are that ties with India be severed, that army officers be sent to Pakistan for training and that a strategic partnership deal be signed immediately. The deterioration in ties has already had an impact: one senior Afghan source said flights organised by Pakistan for militants to Doha had already been halted.
Without transport for negotiators, talks are unlikely to get very far, and even if some do find a way to shuttle back and forth, the wider Taliban movement would be likely to struggle to directly oppose a government it relies on for shelter and other support.
A string of initiatives including Pakistani releases of Taliban prisoners and plans for a meeting of senior clerics from both countries meant the year began in a haze of enthusiasm that now looks premature; behind the scenes, little has changed in a country determined to ensure a friendly regime across its eastern borders.
"When optimism was prevailing about Pakistani attitudes, our human intelligence suggested that – on the ground – this optimism was not well-founded, and unfortunately we were proved right," the official said.
Many western diplomats say they are convinced that the Pakistani military chief General Ashfaq Kayani, often seen as more powerful in security affairs than the civilian government, genuinely believes it is more important to have a stable Afghanistan than one that is compliant with Islamabad's interests. But they also questioned whether that change in attitude had made much real difference.
A US source with long experience of negotiating with Pakistan said: "Part of the problem is that when Kayani gives an order, is it followed three levels down?"
The Taliban in 2011 seized the chance to set up a base beyond their risky Pakistani headquarters, vulnerable to both pressure from Islamabad and cross-border raids by US forces. Qatar was attractive, not least because the movement has long looked to the Gulf for funding and, in the past, political support.
Around 10 men have set up home with their families, a source with knowledge of the process said, and others come and go. But there has been no official confirmation that they plan to open an office or are willing to talk peace, despite expectations a few months ago that they would confirm their intentions with a statement welcoming peace talks.
That would have been a huge step for an often fractured movement that has sworn it won't talk either to Karzai or while foreign forces are still on Afghan soil. The Taliban leadership is still smarting from rank-and-file anger over a failed prisoner exchange initiative with the US more than year ago.
But the lack of any official embrace of the process is fuelling US and Afghan fears about the Taliban's true intentions in a place close to potential donors and convenient for putting out diplomatic feelers in an often sympathetic region.
Karzai tacitly acknowledged the problem in a meeting with Qatari businessmen during the trip. "The Taliban peace process, when it is officially announced, the opportunities will multiply hugely," Afghanistan's Tolo TV channel quoted him telling the exclusive group.
The Afghan government, which has been open about the fact that it would prefer Turkey or Saudi Arabia as a mediator, reacted badly to initial plans for an office in Doha. Karzai recalled his ambassador to Qatar and denounced the venture as scheming behind his back.
He has softened his stance since then, but his government has repeatedly warned that it will tolerate the Taliban office strictly as an address for peace talks, and only if it is not used for fundraising or diplomatic activities.
Western diplomats have also said their support for a Taliban presence in Qatar will be strained if the movement does not take more concrete steps towards embracing the idea of talks publicly, although they remain confident of behind-the-scenes support for negotiations.
"There isn't anyone who doesn't think that a significant majority of them want to take part in the peace process," a senior western official with knowledge of the talks said. The group's dispersed, fugitive leadership made for slow decision making, the official added, but longer term there was still real hope of a peace deal, although it would be likely to come on the brink of Nato's departure or later.
"It is conceivable that between 12 and 18 months from now the world could look different from a Taliban perspective," the official said.
"Once Karzai has left office, with western troops vanishing, and the Afghan police and army doing a relatively decent job providing security, it might be easier for the Taliban to sell negotiations to their foot soldiers."
Karzai’s old rival edges towards election
AFP 2 April 2013
As the one-year countdown to Afghan elections begins, the man who lost out last time in a corrupt and chaotic poll is weighing up whether to risk another shot at the presidency.
Abdullah Abdullah pulled out of the second round of the 2009 election after massive vote-rigging by President Hamid Karzai’s supporters that badly shook the US-led international effort to rebuild Afghanistan.
The next election is due on April 5, 2014, but many doubt it will be held on schedule. There are no front-runners and foreign donors fear another flawed poll could bury gains secured since the fall of the Taleban in 2001.
Abdullah, an urbane former eye surgeon, remains embittered towards Karzai and doubts the president will step down without a fight — despite the fact he is barred from standing for a third term.
He accuses Karzai, 55, of plotting to deceive the electorate in spite of repeated pledges to step down next year.
“President Karzai will make an effort to extend his tenure,” the 52-year-old predicted in an interview at his heavily-guarded private residence in Kabul.
“The president’s best option is to create an emergency security situation so everyone says ‘under these circumstances how can we have elections?’, then he calls a jirga (tribal meeting) to support him staying on,” Abdullah said.
“He doesn’t show any signs of being someone who is now leaving in one year’s time.”
Abdullah served as Karzai’s foreign minister from 2001 to 2005, but is now leader of the National Coalition of Afghanistan, the closest thing to an opposition group in a country where central government is traditionally weak.
A former aide to the late anti-Soviet fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud, Abdullah commands support among minority Tajiks but not the Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group from which Karzai and most members of the Taleban hail.
Recalling the turbulent 2009 election, Abdullah said he was wary of campaigning again for the presidency.
The Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) threw out around one third of votes — about half a million — cast for Karzai, sparking the run-off from which Abdullah ultimately withdrew “in the best interests of the nation”.
“I don’t want any candidate to go through what I did during the elections,” said Abdullah, who collected just over 30 percent of the first round vote.
“In one district 5,000 people voted one by one, while in the next district officials under the supervision of the police just provided 5,000 votes. If the elections are rigged this time, it is a recipe for a major crisis.”
Many observers suggest Abdullah offers few solutions to Afghanistan’s many problems and has not cultivated enough support to have a chance of winning.
But, with a year to go until the scheduled poll he said he was working hard behind the scenes and — if he were to stand — would not this time back down in the event of a run-off.
“It would not be like the last time when I said I would swallow this bitter pill for the sake of the country,” he said.
“I haven’t said I am a candidate. I am doing what candidates do — talking to people, networking, expanding supporters, but a decision has not happened yet.”
While it is not yet clear who will run in 2014, the lengthy list of possible candidates includes Karzai’s brother Qayyum, warlord turned provincial governor Atta Mohammad Noor, and former interior minister Ali Ahmad Jalali.
At least 26 people were killed in sporadic attacks on polling day in 2009, and Karzai was only declared the winner 10 weeks later, after fraud investigations, delayed results and Abdullah’s eventual withdrawal.
Recent visitors to Kabul including US Secretary of State John Kerry have stressed that Afghanistan must hold a legitimate vote or risk being abandoned by Western governments after foreign combat troops withdraw next year.
One growing concern has been Karzai’s plan to scrap the UN-backed ECC, which includes foreign representatives, in favour of a new all-Afghan tribunal.
Last week the UN called for an impartial electoral dispute body to be set up at once and for a respected figure to be appointed head of the Independent Electoral Commission, which is currently leaderless.
“Either we have rule of law or we are a failed state. This election is an opportunity and a real test ahead of us,” Abdullah said.
Taliban Fighters Reportedly Forced Out Of Afghan Border District
By RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan and RFE/RL's Tajik Service April 3, 2013
KABUL -- Taliban fighters have been reportedly forced out of Afghanistan's Warduj district, which borders Tajikistan.
Badakhshan Province's police chief, General Imomuddin Mutmain, told RFE/RL late on April 2 that some 60 Taliban fighters were killed and some 200 wounded in the month-long operation.
He did not give details on casualties among Afghan security forces.
Mutmain added that one Uzbek citizen was among the wounded Taliban fighters.
Afghan officials stated earlier that a suspected member of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) was arrested in the area.
Since January 1, Tajik border guards have killed two people trying to cross their border with Afghanistan and detained a number of drug traffickers and suspected IMU members.
Pakistan rejects unilateral military construction in Durand Line
By MEENA HASEEB - 03 Apr 2013, 9:51 am Khaama Press
Pakistani government officials on Tuesday announced denied the latest allegations by Afghan officials accusing Pakistan for constructing new check posts along the Durand line.
The officials rejecting Afghanistan’s comments said Pakistani military was only renovating an old post inside its territory.
Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Jawed Ludin earlier this week called on Pakistan to immediately halt unilateral construction and physical reinforcement activities along the Durand Line.
Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry, spokesman for the foreign office of Pakistan said an old post called Gursal well inside Pakistani territory bordering the Afghan province of Nangarhar, which is under routine renovation.
This comes as the Afghanistan and Pakistan has signed a tripartite border SOP agreement which insists that both sides must inform inform any new construction in the border areas.
Mr. Chaudhry quoted by The Express Tribune said, “The renovation of the post is primarily meant to interdict terrorists and criminals as well as better manage the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan.”
He maintained that Ludin’s recent concerns were “therefore not in keeping with the spirit of the understanding on good border management and the recently signed Tripartite Border SOP.”
According to reports Afghan ambassador in Islamabad flew to Kabul to lessen the diplomatic strain after holding talks with the Pakistani foreing ministry officials.
Ambassador Umer Daudzai rushed to Kabul to talk to senior Afghan officials, following accusations against Pakistani forces of firing rockets into Afghan areas, sources said.
Afghans seek their own exit strategy
The wealthy are buying homes abroad and moving money out of Afghanistan amid concern about what will happen after foreign troops leave in 2014. The less wealthy sometimes go the illegal route.
Los Angeles Times By Alexandra Zavis April 2, 2013
KABUL, Afghanistan - Nabil Ahmad was at his desk at a logistics support firm last spring when an explosion ripped through the office.
Windows shattered. The ceiling collapsed. "I thought it was an earthquake — or the end of the world," the Kabul native said.
At 26, Ahmad, who favors Western suits and now works for a cellphone service provider, has never known a time when his country was not at war. But he's a father now, with a 2-year-old and an infant to think about.
"I don't want to put my sons in the position that I was growing up," he said. "I want to get my family out."
Like many Afghans, Ahmad is desperately seeking an exit strategy before most foreign troops leave next year.
A recent study warned of a "contagious pessimism" among Afghan business and political leaders and the urban middle class. "Crucially, there are indications of a self-fulfilling prophecy: Fear of instability in 2014 is driving emigration of the very people and money that could prevent instability," says the report by the development consultant STATT.
The wealthy are buying second homes abroad and moving huge amounts of money out of Afghanistan, fearing that security will deteriorate and the economy will collapse. Others are applying to study overseas, seeking invitations from relatives abroad or risking their lives trying to get into countries illegally.
If he can get his wife and children to safety, Ahmad would like to keep working here. He has been trying to arrange a trip to Europe and figures the family can apply for asylum once they get there. But obtaining visas is almost impossible.
Some travel agents say they can arrange invitation letters from families in far-off countries to support visa applications. Others claim to have embassy contacts who will issue visas under the table. But it's expensive and they don't always deliver.
Decades of conflict and natural disasters have driven waves of Afghans to depart in search of safer, more prosperous lives. In one of the most dramatic refugee crises of the 20th century, millions fled to neighboring Pakistan and Iran during the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and the 1990s civil war that eventually gave rise to the repressive Taliban regime. Those migrating included much of the country's intellectual elite, some of whom resettled in the United States and Europe.
Although a large number have returned to Afghanistan since U.S.-led forces drove the Islamist militants from power in 2001, the rate has slowed. For the first time in a decade, officials with the International Organization for Migration believe that more Afghans left their country last year than moved back.
Prices for high-end real estate in Kabul have plummeted by as much as 50% as members of the business and political elite scramble to move their families and assets out of the country.
"Everything has stopped," said Elyas Faizi of Blue House Real Estate. "No one can sell. No one is buying."
Some of his clients are snapping up apartments and villas in Dubai on the Persian Gulf, where wealthy Afghans have long sought sanctuary. The number of Afghans buying property there jumped in 2011 and 2012, many paying in cash, according to local brokers.
"I think they wanted to have a Plan B in place," said Parvees Gafur, chief executive of Propsquare Real Estate in the United Arab Emirates.
At least $4.6 billion in cash, the equivalent of about a quarter of Afghanistan's annual economic output, was carried out of the country on flights to Dubai and elsewhere in 2011, according to the central bank.
The government believes that some of the money was diverted from foreign assistance or was the product of illicit drug deals. It now limits to $20,000 the amount passengers can carry. But officials have also noted an increase in overseas bank transfers, said central bank Gov. Noorullah Delawari. No one knows how much more is leaving the country without being declared.
In one of Kabul's new shopping malls, Hajrat, who like many Afghans uses only one name, has been running a cosmetics store since high school. Now in his early 20s, he makes enough money to pay for a car and expensive holidays in Dubai.
He would seem to have every reason to stay. But he plans to invest his savings in another country, one where he doesn't have to "worry about suicide attacks all the time."
"I'm happy until 2014," he said in between counting out a stack of cash for a supplier and offering spritzes of perfume to well-heeled customers. "After that, I don't know where I'm going but I'm sure I'm leaving."
As many as 40% of Afghan diplomats don't return from overseas postings, according to the parliament's Commission on International Affairs. (The Foreign Ministry says the figure is lower.) Students, athletes and others who travel in an official capacity have also failed to return.
The number of Afghan asylum applications to 44 industrialized countries surpassed 36,600 in 2012, according to provisional figures from the United Nations refugee agency, more than at any time since 2001. Many were trying to enter Europe, with Germany and Sweden among the most sought-after destinations. There were just 204 applications to the United States, which is much farther away and viewed as a more difficult place to obtain asylum.
Enterprising fraudsters sell fake letters purporting to contain threats from the Taliban to bolster asylum requests.
But many Afghans don't qualify for refugee status, said International Organization for Migration spokeswoman Aanchal Khurana. So they look for other ways out, both legal and illegal.
The U.S. Embassy, for example, is working through a backlog of applications for special immigrant visas, which are offered to Afghans whose work for the U.S. government puts them at risk. Others try for visitors' visas and hope they can hide out when they get there.
Mohammad Nasir, a 25-year-old Kabul travel agent, fields frequent inquiries — 10 or 20 a week — from would-be migrants.
Most of those seeking Nasir's help are young men hoping for a ticket to a new life in the West.
"2014 is becoming a very big problem in Afghanistan," said Nasir, who would like to get out himself. "Nobody knows what is going to happen. Some say the Taliban will come back, and the young generation is afraid. It was a dark time in Afghanistan."
Nasir said his agency won't do anything illegal, but can help clients obtain visas to India and Pakistan, where they may hire smugglers to get them to Australia, usually via Malaysia and Indonesia. Others, he said, fly to Turkey or Russia and try to sneak into the European Union.
Smugglers' rates vary but start around $15,000 for a trip that may include a perilous hike through the mountains of Iran to Turkey, before crossing by land through Eastern Europe or by sea to Greece or Italy. Scores, if not hundreds, have died in the attempt.
In one of the worst incidents, about 90 prospective asylum-seekers, including numerous Afghans, drowned in June when their overcrowded boat capsized in the Indian Ocean en route from Indonesia to the Australian territory of Christmas Island.
The Ministry of Refugees and Repatriations has distributed brochures and broadcast appeals warning against attempting such "deadly paths."
"Crossing mountains, forests, rivers and deserts is not the right way ... for migration, but only add to the problems of our people," Minister Jamaher Anwari said in one televised appeal.
Ahmad isn't willing to take such risks. A local travel agent offered to get his wife a visa for job training in Italy for $15,000. But she would have been allowed to take only the baby with her. Ahmad decided to keep looking.
alexandra.zavis@latimes.com
Special correspondent Hashmat Baktash contributed to this report.
US troops in Afghanistan bid farewell to lobster, steak and salsa
Military scales back catering, morale, and recreation services as US embarks on $6bn withdrawal of 70,000-strong workforce
Emma Graham-Harrison in Kabul The Guardian, Wednesday 3 April 2013
No more surf'n'turf overlooking the Hindu Kush, no more salsa classes on the Kandahar boardwalk or mocha frappes in the Helmand desert.
The US army has decided to cut back on catering, morale, welfare and recreation services as it starts the $6bn (£4bn) relocation of a nearly 70,000-strong force, who must all leave by the end of 2014.
Soldiers used to enjoying four hot meals a day, including a midnight snack, will have to replace two of them with ration packs by the autumn, the US military has said. Commanders can choose which meals to cut, but breakfast and late-night servings are the most likely to go as that would remove a whole shift of cooking duties.
The change is billed as key to slimming down a huge military operation supported by thousands of contract chefs and cleaners, going back to the "expeditionary footing" that the first troops to arrive, in 2001, had to endure.
"When we arrived in Afghanistan over 11 years ago, we were lean and expeditionary. We need to leave the way we came in, lean and expeditionary," said Jeffrey Hawk, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan.
But commanders are also keen to eat into huge stockpiles of rations built while there were more than 100,000 US troops fighting in tiny outposts around the country, which would otherwise be abandoned or shipped home at great expense. Hawk said there was a "need to reduce our current food stock in the Afghanistan area of operations".
The shift will begin on 1 May and be rolled out across Afghanistan by 1 October, although soldiers living in cramped conditions and working round the clock warned that the change, which could spell the end for treats including regular steak and lobster feasts at some bases, will dent morale.
"It's great for, I guess, saving money and cutting back on contractors … but there's a lot more things you can cut back," Sergeant Michael Day, a combat engineer at Kandahar air field, told the Stars and Stripes newspaper. "It's not fair to the soldiers doing the daily grind."
Among the other things to go in the shift to expeditionary living will be franchises such as Popeye's at Bagram airbase and TGIF at Kandahar. The PX shops for soldiers will also shrink, cutting back on stocks of goods including computers and high-end sunglasses to concentrate on toiletries and necessities.
"Franchise food, coffee and merchandise vendors will also close when expeditionary standards are implemented," Hawk said. "There will be less MWR-led events."
Medical services will not be affected, so anyone injured in battlefield can be taken to top-level hospitals within the "golden hour" vital for saving lives. And wireless internet will be switched on until bases close, allowing soldiers to stay in touch with friends and families back home.
The only other thing that will still be on tap, for an army notoriously strict about appearances, is barber services. "Bases will see a reduction in MWR (morale, welfare and recreation) and personal care services, except haircuts," Hawk said.
The real road to an Afghan peace
The New York Post By AMIR TAHERI April 3, 2013
With snow starting to melt in the mountains of the Hindu Hush, Afghans are preparing for another season of fighting in the 34-year-long war that has ravaged their country. And, like every year this time, there is much talk about “peace talks” between the government of President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban.
This year’s talk about talks is hotter than previous seasons, for two reasons.
First, the Obama administration, preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan next year, has asked Qatar (now Washington’s closest Arab ally in the Middle East) to open a dialogue with the Taliban. The oil-rich state has obliged by contacting Taliban figures and promising to let the group open an “information office” in Doha. Last week, Qatar also hosted Karzai to discuss possible “peace talks” with Sheik Hamad, the emir.
Second, Afghanistan is to hold presidential elections next April, and Karzai now has nothing to run on. With a “peace in our time” paper in his hand, he might be able to win (or get away with stealing) another term.
Thus, the latest maneuvers may be less about finding a real peace, and more about providing Obama with a fig leaf to cover his premature retreat and giving Karzai a boost.
It’s not by talking to Taliban figures that the terrorist war would come to an end. From its inception in the 1990s, the Taliban has been a Pakistani creation; it remains under Islamabad’s control today.
This is not unique in the history of insurgencies. To survive, let alone achieve victory, every insurgency needs three things.
First, it needs a domestic base. For that, the Taliban used both ruthless repression and bribery in the 1990s when it imposed its rule over almost all of Afghanistan. Using the same mixture today, it has a base among several Pushtun tribes in the badlands bordering Pakistan.
With a cocktail of xenophobic, specifically anti-West, ideology and pan-Pushtun chauvinism, it also appeals to self-style nationalists. And it enjoys some support among jihadists dreaming of world conquest for Islam.
Second, an insurgency needs lots of money. The Taliban have never been short of cash because it controls much of Afghanistan’s heroin trade, and also receives money from well-wishers among rich Arabs and Pakistanis. The group has also found a new source of income in controlling smuggling routes from Pakistan while organizing raids on “humanitarian aid” stores, selling the booty on the black market under its control.
Third, and possibly most important, an insurgency needs a safe haven in a neighboring country in which to train, rest, organize operations and, when needed, hide. Pakistan has always satisfied that crucial need of the Taliban.
Today, most of the telephones used by Taliban operatives and “spokesmen” have Pakistani numbers. Taliban offices operate in the Pakistani cities of Peshawar and Quetta behind thin covers. A whole neighborhood in southwest Quetta is dotted with safe houses used by Taliban leaders, including their Emir al-Momeneen (Commander of the Faithful), Mullah Muhammad Omar.
To bring peace to Afghanistan, one doesn’t need to talk to real or imagined Taliban leaders. Even the small slice of the Taliban that is close to the United Arab Emirates has ties to Islamabad. The only meaningful peace talks would be with Pakistan.
Yet Pakistan has so far opposed all such initiatives. Indeed, there are credible reports that a few Taliban figures who wanted to talk with Karzai have been murdered by elements close to Pakistan.
For Pakistan, Afghanistan is a strategic hinterland in the never-ending struggle with India. A hostile Afghanistan would leave Pakistan, a fragile state at the best of times, caught in a pincer controlled by mortal foes.
India has never forgotten or forgiven Pakistan’s secession in 1947. For its part, Afghanistan maintains a claim on Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province, where ethnic Pushtuns form a majority. If absorbed into a greater Afghanistan, the Pakistani Pushtuns would help create a new nation of some 50 million, in which they would be a majority.
To bring Pakistan on board, its legitimate security concerns with regard to Afghanistan must be addressed. The late Richard Holbrooke, appointed by Obama as point man on Afghanistan, realized this toward the end of his life. Needless to say, Obama didn’t listen to him then, and would have listened even less today.
Karzai has frightened Pakistan by forging alliances with India, Russia and Iran to fill the gap after the US and allies have left.
Pakistan will have a new government after the May 11 general election. That could provide an opportunity to persuade it to review its support for the Taliban.
But, with US influence on the wane, only three countries could still weigh on Pakistan to give peace in Afghanistan a chance — China, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom. Yet none has the power or the interest to promote meaningful peace talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Again, the American absence is sorely felt.
Obama Opacity on Afghanistan Seen Risking Strong Taliban
Bloomberg By Gopal Ratnam April 02, 2013
President Barack Obama’s failure to spell out his plans for Afghanistan is adding to the risk that some Afghans will start negotiating deals with the Taliban, according to former U.S. officials who visited the country.
“In Afghanistan right now there’s a huge amount of anxiety about the scale and nature of the U.S. commitment long-term,” Obama’s former Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy, who was on the trip last month and was the Pentagon’s third highest- ranking official, said in an interview.
She said spelling out U.S. intentions, including how many troops will stay, would “reduce counterproductive hedging behavior on the part of various parties in Afghanistan and in the broader region.”
While Obama has pledged to bring most U.S. troops home from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, he hasn’t said how many would remain afterward. That’s allowed other officials to voice their opinions, from a White House adviser who said no troops may remain to generals and Republican lawmakers who’ve argued that more than 13,000 will be needed.
“The president is still considering options for a potential post-2014 presence focused on two basic missions: targeting the remnants of al-Qaeda and training, advising and assisting Afghan forces,” Caitlin Hayden, a White House spokeswoman, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “Across the government, including the president himself, we have been very clear in public and private that we are committed to Afghanistan for the long-term.”
The president sent about 33,000 additional American troops to Afghanistan in 2009, putting his own stamp on a war he inherited from George W. Bush’s administration. Since then, Obama’s administration has trumpeted what officials have called signs of civil and military progress in Afghanistan.
Fragile Gains
A return of the Taliban’s Islamic militants to even limited power would risk reversing fragile gains in women’s rights, progress toward strengthening the central government and attempts to bolster Afghan security forces, said members of the group of outside advisers to the administration, who met in Afghanistan last month with officials and citizens.
Popular and political support for continuing the 12-year war is eroding in the U.S. In a March poll by ABC News and the Washington Post, 56 percent said the war hasn’t been worth the effort, up from 47 percent in early 2009 when Obama took office. The latest poll of 1,001 adults had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The Afghan war has cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $557 billion so far, according to the Congressional Research Service. It’s also cost 2,184 American lives, according to Defense Department data, a growing number of them from attacks by their supposed Afghan allies.
Karzai’s Comments
Afghan President Hamid Karzai hasn’t helped bolster U.S. support for the mission in his country. Distancing himself from the U.S., he last month suggested America was colluding with the Taliban and delayed acting on cooperative measures.
Faced with what some administration officials privately call a no-win choice between quitting the fight and continuing it, Obama hasn’t made his intentions clear.
After months of speculation about how many U.S. troops might remain in Afghanistan beyond 2014, Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser, said in January that Obama was considering leaving no troops unless differences with Karzai’s government could be resolved.
In February, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told NATO allies in Brussels that the Obama administration foresees a combined allied presence of 8,000 to 12,000 troops remaining in Afghanistan after 2014.
Generals’ Stance
In a public display of dissent, some U.S. military officials and members of Congress have publicly said that 13,600 American troops and 7,000 from other countries will be necessary.
Among those who have been pressing for that big a force are Marine General James Mattis, who retired last month as head of the U.S. Central Command, Marine General Joseph Dunford, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan; James Cunningham, the American ambassador to Afghanistan; and Republican Representatives Duncan Hunter and Howard P. “Buck” McKeon of California, members of the House Armed Services Committee.
Such conflicting statements have the Afghans worried, said Ronald Neumann, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007 under Bush and was among the group that visited Afghanistan. Flournoy, who is now a senior adviser with the Boston Consulting Group Inc., served at the Pentagon under Presidents Bill Clinton and Obama.
Needing Reassurance
“The Afghan audience is paranoid,” Neumann said in an interview, invoking the memory of the Soviet invasion and withdrawal from the country. “They’ve lived through catastrophe that followed abandonment, and people who have gone through that need a lot of reassurance.”
Afghans are looking for details of the U.S. commitment beyond the general assurances reached by Obama and Karzai, said Neumann, who is president of the American Academy of Diplomacy in Washington.
In the absence of a clearly stated U.S. position, Afghans are likely to reach agreements with the Taliban and local criminal groups, and tribal and ethnic groups will rearm, Neumann said. “All these hedging and survival behaviors are counterproductive to strengthening the state and the Army,” he said.
The U.S. has called for peace talks between Karzai’s government and the Taliban that would require the group to lay down arms.
Strategic Agreement
A strategic agreement between Obama and Karzai that was signed in May outlined a broad framework for military, economic and social cooperation between their countries while leaving the details to be negotiated. Since then, the two sides have been discussing a bilateral security agreement that, among other provisions, would guarantee U.S. troops immunity from prosecution under Afghan laws.
“Our negotiators are working to complete the negotiations as soon as possible and will hold another round of negotiations in Kabul in the near future,” Hayden, the White House spokeswoman, said.
Failure to obtain a similar Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq led to the withdrawal of all American troops from that country by the end of 2011.
Comments by Afghan officials such as one last month by Minister of Energy and Water Ismail Khan, who said Afghanistan should refrain from reaching such an accord with the U.S., reflect the hedging behavior that’s starting to emerge in the country, said Omar Samad, a former Afghan ambassador to France.
‘Wandering, Miserable’
“We shouldn’t sign a document by which we would remain dependent, wandering, miserable and at the same time have no other option but to accept foreigners,” Khan said in Herat on March 22, Tolo News of Afghanistan reported. “We shouldn’t sign this pact.”
To forestall such comments and prevent Taliban and “other elements backed by outside forces” from manipulation, “clarity from both Kabul and Washington is essential,” said Samad, who runs Silk Road Consulting, a Washington-based geopolitical advisory firm. The two sides must state what the “strategic agreement is all about and give all stakeholders a conclusive message about what’s going to happen after 2014.”
The rising number of Afghan asylum seekers is another probable indication of increasing unease among the country’s citizens, said Thomas Ruttig, a co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a nonprofit policy group.
Seeking Asylum
The number of Afghans seeking asylum in the 27 European Union nations that are part of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development rose 36 percent in 2011 from the previous year, the latest period for which data is available, according the group.
“There are also some reports of Afghan officers and families seeking asylum in India,” Ruttig said in a phone interview.
The absence of a clear message from Obama about a continuing U.S. military presence in Afghanistan may be an indication that the president hasn’t made up his mind, said Michael O’Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution in Washington who also was in the group that traveled to Afghanistan.
“Obviously Obama was of two minds” about keeping U.S. troops in Iraq after the war there ended, O’Hanlon said in an interview. “He may have similar ambivalence” about Afghanistan.
Contingent on Immunity
If Obama favors keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014, negotiations with Afghanistan on the bilateral security agreement “would be more effective if we said, ‘We’d like to stay, here’s the force package we’ll stay with, but it’s contingent’” on Afghanistan granting immunity to U.S. troops and promising that presidential elections scheduled for April 2014 “are not hijacked,” O’Hanlon said.
Concerns about a lack of U.S. clarity may be overblown, said retired Marine Corps General John Allen, who headed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan until December.
“We have been very clear that we intend to stay,” Allen said in an interview. “The question is what are the numbers going to be? I think explanations have been made that the nature of the force that will remain will be sufficient to conduct the training and advising as well as counterterrorism operations.”
Allen, who retired from the Marine Corps in March, declined to say what troop strength he favored or what the Obama administration might decide.
Asking the Afghan government to agree to a bilateral security agreement without specifying how many U.S. troops will remain in their country after 2014 is like asking a customer to sign a contract to buy a car without saying what options are included, former ambassador Neumann said.
For Related News and Information: Karzai Putting U.S. Support at Risk as Lawmakers See Histrionics
To contact the reporter on this story: Gopal Ratnam in Washington atgratnam1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Walcott atjwalcott9@bloomberg.net
How A Female Photographer Sees Her Afghanistan
by Marie McGrory NPR April 02, 201311:52 AM
Born in Kandahar, Afghanistan, in 1984, photographer Farzana Wahidy was only a teenager when the Taliban took over the country in 1996. At age 13 she was beaten in the street for not wearing a burqa, she recalls, and she describes those years as a "very closed, very dark time." To carry a camera would have been unthinkable.
And yet, she says, "I felt lucky compared to other women at that time." Women were banned from continuing their education during Taliban rule. But some, like Farzana, found ways to keep studying. She would carry books under her burqa and attended what she calls an "underground school" with about 300 other students in a residential area of Kabul.
When U.S.-led forces ended Taliban rule in 2001, Wahidy was able to attend high school. A friend encouraged her to apply for a photojournalism program, knowing that she had hopes of sharing her experiences with the world.
"Day by day, as I started learning about photography, I fell more in love with it," she says. "There was a huge need for women photographers in Afghanistan."
Wahidy became the first Afghan female photographer to work for the AFP and later AP, two leading wire agencies, and eventually received a scholarship to continue studies in a photojournalism program in Canada. In 2010, Wahidy returned home to Afghanistan.
"I try to show the bigger image, not just show we have problems," she says. "And we do have a lot of problems, but I do want to show normal daily life."
Wahidy focuses on women. "This subject was important to me because I am a woman," she says, recognizing an advantage that gives her. When she wants to document their lives, "it's easier for a woman to get access," she says.
Her photos of daily life range from men selling balloons on the streets to the secret lives of female prostitutes. And Wahidy was not the only one to recognize the need for this type of photography in Afghanistan. She is now part of the recently created Afghan Photography Network.
"Many Afghan photographers are not well-connected," she explains. "We hope it will create a better connection and show Afghanistan by Afghan photographers."
It is a young website, still in development, but the Afghan Photography Network is already bringing increased visibility to the work of Afghan photographers.
Of the eight women in her original photojournalism program, Wahidy is the only one working as a full-time photographer. Some got married, and others stopped working for reasons unknown to Wahidy. Wahidy, meanwhile, plans to continue for a very long time.
"When I shoot and I get a good photo," she says, "that is a beautiful day."
85% of Insurgent Attacks Will Target Kabul: ANA
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi Tuesday, 02 April 2013
An Afghan National Army commander said Tuesday that insurgents are planning to execute more of their attacks in Afghanistan's capital city over the next few months, suggesting that as many as 85 percent of its plans are focused on Kabul.
"85 percent of all the security threats of this year are focused on Kabul. The country's enemies are taking aim at Kabul as their big target," said Gen Qadam Shah Shaheem, commander of the ANA Kabul 111 unit. "They want to target many of the security organsiations," he added.
Head of National Directorate of Security (NDS) for Kabul province, Mirza Khan Rahimi, agreed with the remarks, saying that preparations to stop these plans are underway.
He disclosed the names and posts of a number of high-ranking Taliban members who are responsible mainly for the group's attacks in Kabul.
"There have been some alterations – as decreed by Mullah Omar – to the structure of the Taliban. Hafiz Mohibullah and Mawlawi Enayatullah have been selected as the Taliban's shadow provincial governor of Kabul and head of the suicide attacks in Kabul, for insurgent activities," he said.
The security officials met Tuesday in Kabul to discuss the capital's security ahead of the warmer seasons of spring and summer which are regarded as the peak of insurgent activity throughout the year.
Kabul police chief Gen Ayub Salangi who was present at the meeting spoke of the efforts to prevent weapons being brought into the capital for the attacks.
"The opposition groups are endeavoring to use the four main roads to Kabul and pedestrians to move in artillery and explosives to make Kabul insecure," he said.
Head of Kabul provincial council, however, expressed fear over lack of sufficient coordination between Afghan security organisations and the council.
"Our demand is for the security organisations to cooperate with us to provide security," Nesaruddin Bariyalai said.
"We are prepared to provide security and to cooperate with the security organisations," he added.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com