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US troops in Afghanistan after 2014 only with invite: WHouse
May 10, 2013, 3:25 am
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AFP) - US troops will stay in Afghanistan after 2014 "only at the invitation" of the Afghan government, and Washington is not seeking permanent bases there, a White House spokesman said Thursday.
White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters traveling with US President Barack Obama to Texas that any US troop presence after that date would be "only at the invitation of the Afghans" and "subject to an agreement."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said earlier he could allow the United States to keep nine military bases in the country as part of a long-term security pact with Washington.
"As the president has already made clear, the United States does not seek permanent military bases in Afghanistan, and any US presence after 2014 would only be at the invitation of the Afghan government and aimed at training Afghan forces and targeting the remnants of Al-Qaeda," Carney said.
He said the bilateral security agreement that is currently being negotiated would deal with the bases issue.
The back-and-forth comes as the two countries are negotiating a deal to allow a limited US troop presence to remain when the international coalition leaves next year.
The size of the "residual" force has not been agreed, with numbers ranging from 2,500 to 12,000, according to US officials, as Washington winds down an 11-year-old war that has become deeply unpopular at home.
Karzai Says U.S. Wants Nine Bases After 2014
May 9, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the United States wants to keep nine military bases in Afghanistan after the planned withdrawal of most foreign troops from the country by the end of 2014.
Addressing Kabul University students in a televised speech, Karzai set a number of conditions for the approval of the military bases by his government.
He said he wanted the United States to intensify efforts in the peace process with the Taliban, strengthen Afghan security forces, help build the economy, and provide assistance in governance.
Afghanistan and the United States are currently negotiating a deal to allow a limited U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan after the planned withdrawal next year.
Washington has not revealed extensive details about its plans in Afghanistan after 2014.
Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and dpa
Commander’s View of the Afghan Endgame
The New York Times (blog) By ALISSA J. RUBIN May 8, 2013
In an interview with The New York Times, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the supreme military commander in Afghanistan, discussed the readiness of the Afghan security forces, his optimism that the Afghan Army will be a unifying force for the country, the Taliban’s tactics this summer and winning over the Afghan people. Following are extended excerpts from the interview.
The Afghan Army
My first time seeing the Afghan security forces, the army, was 2008 in Helmand. And at that time it was 10 members of the U.S. Marines to every member of the Afghan security forces, and there was at best an Afghan face on a Marine capability out there.
Now the ratio over all in the country is three members of Afghan forces to every member of the coalition, and of course we’ve drawn down the coalition.
So I’m going to caveat everything I’m saying — I’m talking about perspective and context here. When I look back to 2009 through 2010, we really got serious about the Afghan security forces, and I do attribute the surge of forces providing the space to grow the Afghan forces over the last few years. So to think today we would have 352,000, nearly, Afghan security forces, and that those forces would actually be out in the lead in the majority of operations that are being conducted out there today — the vast majority of operations, and prepared to assume the lead this summer — is really fairly extraordinary.
So from a growing-the-army perspective and them being out there providing security to the Afghan people and the percentage of operations that they are conducting and the prospects for success, again I’m very positive. I’m also very realistic about certain capabilities; their aviation capability is going to be a long time in coming. It will 2016 or 2017, so that will be a significant gap.
We do have an attrition problem in the army in particular, and we have to address that over time, and that gets at the quality issue. There are some command-and-control challenges, and those are in the coordination centers at the regional and provincial areas. Bringing those together in a way that integrates Afghan Army and police, the entirety of their capability is something we’ll continue to work on. I mentioned the attrition issue and much of that is attributable to leadership, and so we’re continuing to improve the quality of leadership over time.
Policing
If you look at the A.L.P. [Afghan Local Police militias] that have been formed over the last 18 to 24 months and the vetting process over the last 18 to 24 months, this, I think, is the key for the local police: the leadership in those villages are accountable for those local police, someone has to vouch for that young man, and when that individual does something wrong that leader is held accountable as well as the local policeman.
We’re lagging some years in developing with the police. And the army, the army is further ahead. And General Patang’s [Gen. Ghulam Mujtaba Patang, the interior minister and leader of police forces] 10-year plan recognizes those challenges and works to address them, and our overall effort needs to work very hard to get after that issue.
I think about 25 percent of the uniformed police right now haven’t completed basic training, and that is back to the quality theme. We recruited a number of police we haven’t yet completed training, and that absolutely is one of the focus areas now in the months ahead. Absent that training, the training has to start with those values you talked about a couple of minutes ago and the behavior and code of conduct that is expected. That’s a key piece of police training in the United States. I’m the son of a 40-year Boston policeman. You train a policeman, your relationship with people is first and foremost.
We have numbers of police, we have some number that are yet to be trained, and we have others that weren’t vetted as carefully as we do vetting now.
Over time, we’ll continue to see, in fits and starts, corruption. We’ll still see predatory behavior, and the only way it’s going to be fixed is when the Afghan people demand that it be different and when Afghan leadership demand that it be different. This is not something that we can impose. We can suggest, we can train, we can assist. But at the end of the day, the relationship between law enforcement officials and the people is going to have to be local government officials and local people demanding that their behavior be different and there is going to have to be an outcry in areas where that predatory behavior exists.
But in other areas it’s been addressed. The areas where it’s been addressed and where we don’t see it highlights what has to be done. I believe — and this is one of those fundamental truths: You show me a good police commander, I’ll show you a good police unit. You show me a good Kandak or battalion commander, and I’ll show you a good unit. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case. The Afghans have to screen the leadership and have to incorporate a meritocracy when they start putting in police commanders. They have to be qualified and meet the standards demanded by the community.
It’s not overnight — this is cultural, this is going to be cultural change.
Force Expansion
People made a conscious decision to grow things fast. It’s hard to look back now and say in retrospect and say it should have gone any other way, because had we hadn’t grown things fast, we wouldn’t have what we have today, and we certainly wouldn’t be talking about milestone 2013. But I do think there are some adverse second- and third-order effects when you do that that now have to be addressed over the next couple of years. The focus is in two areas in the initial training, vetting and recruiting process, and then it’s the rotation training that has to continue through a policeman’s career.
Ethnic Divisions
I have not seen any evidence of [ethnic or factional divisions] in the Afghan security forces. I’m not saying people don’t have longstanding relationships with who they fought with. I haven’t seen any evidence of divisiveness along ethnic lines inside the Afghan security forces.
It’s up to the Afghans to develop a national army, an army that’s reflective of Afghanistan so that it can be owned by the people.
One of the most important things in the U.S. military is that we have the support and backing of the American people. I would argue that of all the things we’ve had to be successful the last 10 years, it’s the support back home and the recognition that what you’re doing is important.
So I think it’s very important that the — that one of the things that has to happen this summer is that the security forces make a connection with the Afghan people. That the Afghan Army and police be seen as of the Afghans, for the Afghans, and the same is true of national-level leadership. They need to feel the same sense of ownership that the commander in chief feels about U.S. military forces.
So this ethnic issue is an interesting issue to look at. I just don’t see that it’s an issue.
The Taliban
It’s pretty clear to me the Taliban are at least projecting an air of confidence. I talked about the Afghan security forces. I think the Taliban have grossly underestimated the last two or three years what’s happened to the Afghan security forces. I don’t think they have a full appreciation that it really is the Afghans — they think it’s part of our message.
What we know the Taliban will try to do is high-profile attacks, insider attacks, assassinations. They’ll spend the summer trying to do high-profile attacks, they’ll spend the summer trying to blow things up in Kabul to create the perception of insecurity. They can’t come in and take over populated areas. They can’t take over, but what they can do is create the perception of insecurity.
If you asked me today what’s the biggest challenge of the campaign, it’s the narrative of the Taliban: the message of “the coalition is an occupier,” and then there’s the message of “the coalition is going to abandon Afghanistan.” One Afghan described it to me as the Y2K effect. So Dec. 31, 2014, is the end of Afghanistan, and that message has been effective coming from the Taliban.
This summer a couple of things are going to happen. The Afghans are going to be in the lead — I mean they are truly going to be in the lead. What Afghans are going to see every day, it’s Afghans providing security to Afghans. It will be very difficult for the Taliban message to resonate after 2013.
US funds worth $50 million stolen from Afghan bank: SIGAR
By MIRWAIS ADEEL - 09 May 2013, 3:02 pm Khaama Press
Top US Federal Watchdog, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has announced that fifty million dollars located in an Afghan bank account last year have suddenly gone missing while under the Afghan government’s watch, The Foreign Policy (FP) reported.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko also accused the Afghan government of being a “criminal patronage network” from civil servant to the highest officials.
John Sopko on Wednesday also claimed that SIGAR office had served the Afghan government an order to freeze the account.
While delivering a speech at the New America Foundation, John Sopko said, Briefly put, we identified roughly $50 million stolen from the U.S. government which was sitting in an Afghan bank account.”
“We obtained a court order here in the United States and served it on the Afghan government to get them to seize the money. For months we pressed the Afghan attorney general’s office to freeze the account and begin the legal process to allow us to seize the cash,” John Sopko said.
He also added, “At first, we were told the bank account was frozen and the money protected. Unfortunately, as is too many times the case, a few weeks ago we learned that the money was mysteriously unfrozen by some powerful bureaucrat in Kabul. Now, most of it is gone.”
In parts of his speech, John Sopko urged US to consider withholding vital aid to Afghanistan in a bid to put pressure on Kabul in order to adopt a stronger financial protections.
Afghan police kill 8 at protest; NATO probes alleged misconduct of international troops
Associated Press May 8, 2013
Kabul, Afghanistan - Afghan police were accused of killing eight protesters at a demonstration on Wednesday as the U.S.-led coalition said it had opened an investigation into allegations of misconduct by NATO troops during an encounter with insurgents.
Both incidents occurred in southern Afghanistan where violence has escalated in recent weeks following a Taliban announcement launching the start of its spring offensive.
Villagers in the town of Maiwand said Afghan police opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators who were protesting raids that Afghan and NATO forces conducted in their village of Loye Karez two days earlier.
Accounts differed as to whether the eight killed were unarmed protesters or militants. Ten other people were wounded.
Kandahar Provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Raziq said Taliban insurgents had infiltrated the demonstration.
Abdul Qayyum, a 45-year-old demonstrator, disputed that, telling The Associated Press by phone that “there were no Taliban among the protesters.”
“The local people of Maiwand district are so upset and unhappy with the government and the foreigners because they are conducting night raids on the houses of local people,” he said. “With no reason, they are entering local houses and doing whatever they want. We don’t want all these things to keep happening to us.”
In the past, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has bitterly criticized raids on village homes, particularly those carried out during the night.
In a separate incident, the NATO-led force said Wednesday that it had launched an investigation into allegations of misconduct following an internal report into an April 28 encounter with insurgents in Zabul province.
The statement did not offer more details and Lt. Tamarac Dyer, a spokeswoman for the coalition, told the AP in an email that “this is the only information we are able to release at this time due to the ongoing investigation.”
Afghan officials were not immediately available for comment.
The statement quoted U.S. Gen. Joseph Dunford, the top commander of NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, as saying that the alliance takes “all allegations of misconduct by our personnel very seriously.” He pledged to “fully investigate the incident and keep the Afghan government informed.”
Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, three people were killed when their vehicle triggered an explosive device in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. Another six people were injured, said Shamim Noorzai, the provincial police chief spokesman.
Afghan security officials say improvised explosive devises, or IEDs, and suicide attacks present the greatest challenges for Afghan security forces in the battle against Taliban.
“They can’t fight us face to face,” Raziq said in a recent interview with the AP.
Also on Wednesday, the Afghan intelligence service said it arrested an Afghan national who confessed to having been sent by the Taliban to carry out a suicide bombing against Abdullah Abdullah, a presidential candidate in the 2009 election and the head of an opposition party called the National Coalition of Afghanistan.
It showed a video of the alleged would-be bomber whom the intelligence service said was arrested while scouting out Abdullah’s headquarters. The intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security said Abdullah and another member of the opposition party, Ahmed Zia Masoud, were the intended targets.
Fazal Sangcharaki, a spokesman for Abdullah Abdullah, said the strident anti-Taliban leader has had many threats in the past, but “unfortunately the NDS has not informed us about this arrest and this particular threat.”
Pakistan Builds New Check-Posts In Kunar
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian 08 May 2013
Pakistan’s Military have newly built four check posts in Narai district of northeastern Kunar province, local officials said on Wednesday.
Kunar Governor Fazlullah Wahedi warned that Pakistan wants to trample the province and make Nuristan province as Waziristan.
The governor has asked for further military force to remove the existing challenges of the province.
Local officials said that construction of these military check posts are challenging for the residents of Narai district.
“Pakistan military has recently built four check posts. Three check posts in zero point and one in Afghanistan territory,” Narai District Governor Gul Zaman TOLOnews.
A tribal elder expressed his concerns and said the move of Pakistani military has created concerns.
"Pakistan military has come to our soil and made challenges for people,” he said.
It is said that Pakistani check posts are near the Afghan border police posts in the district.
“We are ready for fighting to take back our soil. We are equipped and ready,” Afghan Border Police told TOLOnews.
If Afghan border police are preparing to respond to possible attacks of Pakistani military, why don't the border police stand against construction of check posts?
“When we go to stop Pakistani construction, the Taliban starts fighting with us. Taliban insurgents are between us,” Afghan Border Police said.
Currently, Afghan military forces are based in those bases where the US troops were previously based.
“We ask the Defence Minister to give us heavy weapons to defend our soil. We don’t want food. We want weapons. The homeland is like mother,” an Afghan army soldier said.
Kunar province is bordered by Nuristan which is considered an insecure province in northeastern of Afghanistan. It is said that Pakistani Taliban are more active in Kunar.
“They want to bring Waziristan to Nuristan and trample Kunar province.
The issue should be seriously addressed,” the Governor Fazlullah Wahedi said.
Pakistan has always challenging for country’s border areas. Afghan Interior Minister who is visiting Kunar province is stressing on solving the challenges.
“We face with Pakistan military in all border areas,” Afghan Interior Minister Gen. Mojtaba Patang said.
But there are concerns that if Pakistan does not remove its military construction from Narai district, conflicts similar to the incidents in Goshta district of Nangarhar province would break out.
It is said that Kunar province shares 280km border with Pakistan from which 45km of the border is in Narai district.
Nangarhar University Students Declare Jihad Against Pakistan
TOLOnews.com By Karim Amini 08 May 2013
Hundreds of the students of the eastern Nangarhar province early Wednesday have launched an anti-Pakistan protest, condemning Pakistan’s military forwarding, rocket shelling and “declared Jihad.”
The protest began today in Jalalabad the capital of Nangaharhar province and ended peacefully.
“We are the students of Islamic University of Nangarhar and we are ready to resist against Pakistan’s aggression and declare Jihad against it. We condemn all Pakistan’s past activities and its rocket shelling,” said a student of the University.
The students chanted slogans against Pakistan government and Pakistan’s intelligence service.
The Afghan security forces were also in the area to control the protest, according to local officials.
The protests come after the Pakistan military force started building military check-posts in Goshta district of Nangarhar province. The Afghan security forces reacted over the move of the Pakistani military and started clashes.
An Afghan border police was killed in the clashes and several Pakistani military border soldiers were also killed or injured, according to Afghan officials.
Meanwhile, hundreds of residents and students in southern Helmand province launched anti –Pakistan protests and asked the government to take “serious action about the Durand Line.”
The residents of Helmand said that “if the government provides them weapons, they are ready to defend their homeland."
“Down with Pakistan, we are ready to fight against Pakistan. If the government doesn’t have armaments, we are ready to fight against Pakistan with stones and sticks even with empty hands,” said a resident of Helmand.
It comes as, yesterday thousands Afghans also launched anti-Pakistan protests in Nangarhar and southern Kandahar province.
In Kabul province, also hundreds of prisoners in Pul-e-Charkhi jail went on hunger strike over Pakistan’s border clashes and building of the military check-posts in Goshta district of Nangarhar province.
The prisoners said that Pakistan’s military forwarding along the border with Afghanistan should not be left without response and added that they are ready to react against Pakistani military.
“All the prisoners are ready to sacrifice their selves for their homeland, if we received an order to go to Pakistan for fighting we would wait for a minute” said one of the prisoners.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have had strained relations since Pakistan was formed in 1947, at the end of British colonial rule over India.
Pakistani court terms U.S. drone strikes against UN charter
ISLAMABAD, May 9 (Xinhua) -- A Pakistani court on Thursday described the U.S. drone strikes in the country's restive tribal regions as illegal and inhuman and instructed the Foreign Ministry to move a resolution in the United Nations against the attacks.
The High Court in the country's north-western city of Peshawar issued the landmark verdict against the U.S. strikes on four writ petitions, which had stated that these attacks kill civilians and also cause collateral damage.
American officials claim that the CIA-run drone missions target al-Qaida remnants and Taliban militants in Pakistan tribal regions, who are blamed for cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.
Pakistan insists that the U.S. spy aircraft kill innocent people, cause damage to civilian property and are counter- productive in the so-called war on terror. The U.S. has rejected Pakistan's calls for halt in the strikes.
Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court, Dost Muhammad Khan, ruled that the drone strikes are illegal, inhuman and violation of the UN charter on human rights.
"The Government of Pakistan must ensure that no drone strike takes place in the future," the court verdict said.
The court asked the Foreign Ministry to table a resolution in the UN against the U.S. attacks.
"If the U.S. vetoes the resolution, then the country should think breaking diplomatic ties with the United States," the judgment said.
The court also observed that the U.S. strikes must be declared as war crime as it kill innocent people.
The two-member bench had earlier reserved the verdict after the completion of arguments by lawyers for the federal government, and petitioners, including Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC), an amalgamation of religious groups, tribal elders and rights groups.
The petitioners have prayed the court to order the government to make public Pakistan-U.S. secret deal on drone strikes, if any, stop drone strikes by force, take the issue to the UN Security Council, and pay compensation to the families of the people killed in drone attacks.
During previous hearing, the chief justice observed that if the U.S. considered itself a champion of human rights and democracy, then why it had not been paying compensation to the innocent people killed in drone strikes.
Government lawyers had earlier informed the court that the Pakistani government had no agreement with the U.S. on drone strikes, which were carried out against its consent.
Lawyers had told the court that according to different researches, only 2 percent of militants had been killed in drone attacks since 2004 and the rest of the dead people were innocent civilians.
Nato soldiers probed over alleged Afghan abuse
AFP May 09, 2013
Kabul - The US-led NATO force fighting Taliban insurgents inAfghanistansaid Wednesday it has launched an investigation into alleged misconduct by its soldiers.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) statement said that the probe would examine a clash on April 28 in the southernprovinceofZabulwhen four insurgent fighters were killed.
Meanwhile, NATO has no plans to increase its presence in theArctic, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday despite numerous countries' keen interest in the region's vast natural resources.
"NATO has no intention of increasing its presence and activities in the Far North," Fogh Rasmussen said in Oslo after spending two days visiting northern Norway.
The Arctic is believed to hold some 90 billion barrels of oil and 30 percent of the world's yet-to-be discovered natural gas resources.
Those riches have become increasingly accessible as the Arctic ice shrinks. Not only countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are keen to claim the resources but also other nations further afield, such as China, are looking on with interest.
Several states, including Russia, Canada and the United States, have already announced a reinforcement of their military presence to defend their claims.
Norway, which shares a border with Russia, has made the Far North its top priority and has in recent years tried to draw the attention of NATO and the European Union to the region.
"Norway has, like all other allies, a legitimate expectation that NATO's collective defence should cover all of NATO's territory, including of course the north of Norway," Fogh Rasmussen said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.
Parliament Will Not Summon Interior, Finance Ministers
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi 08 May 2013
The Afghan Parliament on Wednesday said that the Interior Affairs and Finance Ministers will not be summoned.
It comes as, nearly 20 percent of MPs signed for impeachment of the two ministers, but they have changed their decision over alleging that Parliament administrative board revealed the signatures list to ministers.
The move had come after both ministers had accused some MPs of illegal interference in the affairs of the ministries.
Meanwhile, some MPs have criticised the administrative board of the house, claiming that the board has revealed the names of the MPs who signed for impeachment of finance minister.
The MPs believe that the board’s act has facilitated dealings between ministers and some of the members of the Parliament.
“The administrative board has given the names of MPs who signed in impeachment list. This caused that finance ministers contact with lawmakers to get back their signatures,” MP Mohammad Naeem Lalai Hamidzai said.
“We are under pressure. We were contacted to take back our signatures and the administrative board should decide that MPs who sign in impeachment list, cannot get back their signatures,” MP Abdul Latif Pedram said.
Some other MPs are accused the Finance Minister and said that he asked the members of the Parliament to take back their signatures.
“I took back my signature from the list and I know that there are have been dealings, so I don’t want to be misused,” said MP Mohammad Akhondzada.
“A person named Salihi from Finance Ministry contacted me, and said that you are my friend and take your signature. I said I don’t take back my signature,” Mohammad Arif Rahmani said.
But Parliament Speaker Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi dismisses the claims.
“You, the representatives signed and took back your signatures. The administrative board is not guilty and has not revealed the list to Finance Minister,” he said.
Today’s’ Parliament decision caused lots of criticisms and verbal clashes by lawmakers.
www.afghanistannewscenter.com
May 10, 2013, 3:25 am
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AFP) - US troops will stay in Afghanistan after 2014 "only at the invitation" of the Afghan government, and Washington is not seeking permanent bases there, a White House spokesman said Thursday.
White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters traveling with US President Barack Obama to Texas that any US troop presence after that date would be "only at the invitation of the Afghans" and "subject to an agreement."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said earlier he could allow the United States to keep nine military bases in the country as part of a long-term security pact with Washington.
"As the president has already made clear, the United States does not seek permanent military bases in Afghanistan, and any US presence after 2014 would only be at the invitation of the Afghan government and aimed at training Afghan forces and targeting the remnants of Al-Qaeda," Carney said.
He said the bilateral security agreement that is currently being negotiated would deal with the bases issue.
The back-and-forth comes as the two countries are negotiating a deal to allow a limited US troop presence to remain when the international coalition leaves next year.
The size of the "residual" force has not been agreed, with numbers ranging from 2,500 to 12,000, according to US officials, as Washington winds down an 11-year-old war that has become deeply unpopular at home.
Karzai Says U.S. Wants Nine Bases After 2014
May 9, 2013 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Afghan President Hamid Karzai says the United States wants to keep nine military bases in Afghanistan after the planned withdrawal of most foreign troops from the country by the end of 2014.
Addressing Kabul University students in a televised speech, Karzai set a number of conditions for the approval of the military bases by his government.
He said he wanted the United States to intensify efforts in the peace process with the Taliban, strengthen Afghan security forces, help build the economy, and provide assistance in governance.
Afghanistan and the United States are currently negotiating a deal to allow a limited U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan after the planned withdrawal next year.
Washington has not revealed extensive details about its plans in Afghanistan after 2014.
Based on reporting by AP, AFP, and dpa
Commander’s View of the Afghan Endgame
The New York Times (blog) By ALISSA J. RUBIN May 8, 2013
In an interview with The New York Times, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the supreme military commander in Afghanistan, discussed the readiness of the Afghan security forces, his optimism that the Afghan Army will be a unifying force for the country, the Taliban’s tactics this summer and winning over the Afghan people. Following are extended excerpts from the interview.
The Afghan Army
My first time seeing the Afghan security forces, the army, was 2008 in Helmand. And at that time it was 10 members of the U.S. Marines to every member of the Afghan security forces, and there was at best an Afghan face on a Marine capability out there.
Now the ratio over all in the country is three members of Afghan forces to every member of the coalition, and of course we’ve drawn down the coalition.
So I’m going to caveat everything I’m saying — I’m talking about perspective and context here. When I look back to 2009 through 2010, we really got serious about the Afghan security forces, and I do attribute the surge of forces providing the space to grow the Afghan forces over the last few years. So to think today we would have 352,000, nearly, Afghan security forces, and that those forces would actually be out in the lead in the majority of operations that are being conducted out there today — the vast majority of operations, and prepared to assume the lead this summer — is really fairly extraordinary.
So from a growing-the-army perspective and them being out there providing security to the Afghan people and the percentage of operations that they are conducting and the prospects for success, again I’m very positive. I’m also very realistic about certain capabilities; their aviation capability is going to be a long time in coming. It will 2016 or 2017, so that will be a significant gap.
We do have an attrition problem in the army in particular, and we have to address that over time, and that gets at the quality issue. There are some command-and-control challenges, and those are in the coordination centers at the regional and provincial areas. Bringing those together in a way that integrates Afghan Army and police, the entirety of their capability is something we’ll continue to work on. I mentioned the attrition issue and much of that is attributable to leadership, and so we’re continuing to improve the quality of leadership over time.
Policing
If you look at the A.L.P. [Afghan Local Police militias] that have been formed over the last 18 to 24 months and the vetting process over the last 18 to 24 months, this, I think, is the key for the local police: the leadership in those villages are accountable for those local police, someone has to vouch for that young man, and when that individual does something wrong that leader is held accountable as well as the local policeman.
We’re lagging some years in developing with the police. And the army, the army is further ahead. And General Patang’s [Gen. Ghulam Mujtaba Patang, the interior minister and leader of police forces] 10-year plan recognizes those challenges and works to address them, and our overall effort needs to work very hard to get after that issue.
I think about 25 percent of the uniformed police right now haven’t completed basic training, and that is back to the quality theme. We recruited a number of police we haven’t yet completed training, and that absolutely is one of the focus areas now in the months ahead. Absent that training, the training has to start with those values you talked about a couple of minutes ago and the behavior and code of conduct that is expected. That’s a key piece of police training in the United States. I’m the son of a 40-year Boston policeman. You train a policeman, your relationship with people is first and foremost.
We have numbers of police, we have some number that are yet to be trained, and we have others that weren’t vetted as carefully as we do vetting now.
Over time, we’ll continue to see, in fits and starts, corruption. We’ll still see predatory behavior, and the only way it’s going to be fixed is when the Afghan people demand that it be different and when Afghan leadership demand that it be different. This is not something that we can impose. We can suggest, we can train, we can assist. But at the end of the day, the relationship between law enforcement officials and the people is going to have to be local government officials and local people demanding that their behavior be different and there is going to have to be an outcry in areas where that predatory behavior exists.
But in other areas it’s been addressed. The areas where it’s been addressed and where we don’t see it highlights what has to be done. I believe — and this is one of those fundamental truths: You show me a good police commander, I’ll show you a good police unit. You show me a good Kandak or battalion commander, and I’ll show you a good unit. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I rest my case. The Afghans have to screen the leadership and have to incorporate a meritocracy when they start putting in police commanders. They have to be qualified and meet the standards demanded by the community.
It’s not overnight — this is cultural, this is going to be cultural change.
Force Expansion
People made a conscious decision to grow things fast. It’s hard to look back now and say in retrospect and say it should have gone any other way, because had we hadn’t grown things fast, we wouldn’t have what we have today, and we certainly wouldn’t be talking about milestone 2013. But I do think there are some adverse second- and third-order effects when you do that that now have to be addressed over the next couple of years. The focus is in two areas in the initial training, vetting and recruiting process, and then it’s the rotation training that has to continue through a policeman’s career.
Ethnic Divisions
I have not seen any evidence of [ethnic or factional divisions] in the Afghan security forces. I’m not saying people don’t have longstanding relationships with who they fought with. I haven’t seen any evidence of divisiveness along ethnic lines inside the Afghan security forces.
It’s up to the Afghans to develop a national army, an army that’s reflective of Afghanistan so that it can be owned by the people.
One of the most important things in the U.S. military is that we have the support and backing of the American people. I would argue that of all the things we’ve had to be successful the last 10 years, it’s the support back home and the recognition that what you’re doing is important.
So I think it’s very important that the — that one of the things that has to happen this summer is that the security forces make a connection with the Afghan people. That the Afghan Army and police be seen as of the Afghans, for the Afghans, and the same is true of national-level leadership. They need to feel the same sense of ownership that the commander in chief feels about U.S. military forces.
So this ethnic issue is an interesting issue to look at. I just don’t see that it’s an issue.
The Taliban
It’s pretty clear to me the Taliban are at least projecting an air of confidence. I talked about the Afghan security forces. I think the Taliban have grossly underestimated the last two or three years what’s happened to the Afghan security forces. I don’t think they have a full appreciation that it really is the Afghans — they think it’s part of our message.
What we know the Taliban will try to do is high-profile attacks, insider attacks, assassinations. They’ll spend the summer trying to do high-profile attacks, they’ll spend the summer trying to blow things up in Kabul to create the perception of insecurity. They can’t come in and take over populated areas. They can’t take over, but what they can do is create the perception of insecurity.
If you asked me today what’s the biggest challenge of the campaign, it’s the narrative of the Taliban: the message of “the coalition is an occupier,” and then there’s the message of “the coalition is going to abandon Afghanistan.” One Afghan described it to me as the Y2K effect. So Dec. 31, 2014, is the end of Afghanistan, and that message has been effective coming from the Taliban.
This summer a couple of things are going to happen. The Afghans are going to be in the lead — I mean they are truly going to be in the lead. What Afghans are going to see every day, it’s Afghans providing security to Afghans. It will be very difficult for the Taliban message to resonate after 2013.
US funds worth $50 million stolen from Afghan bank: SIGAR
By MIRWAIS ADEEL - 09 May 2013, 3:02 pm Khaama Press
Top US Federal Watchdog, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) has announced that fifty million dollars located in an Afghan bank account last year have suddenly gone missing while under the Afghan government’s watch, The Foreign Policy (FP) reported.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko also accused the Afghan government of being a “criminal patronage network” from civil servant to the highest officials.
John Sopko on Wednesday also claimed that SIGAR office had served the Afghan government an order to freeze the account.
While delivering a speech at the New America Foundation, John Sopko said, Briefly put, we identified roughly $50 million stolen from the U.S. government which was sitting in an Afghan bank account.”
“We obtained a court order here in the United States and served it on the Afghan government to get them to seize the money. For months we pressed the Afghan attorney general’s office to freeze the account and begin the legal process to allow us to seize the cash,” John Sopko said.
He also added, “At first, we were told the bank account was frozen and the money protected. Unfortunately, as is too many times the case, a few weeks ago we learned that the money was mysteriously unfrozen by some powerful bureaucrat in Kabul. Now, most of it is gone.”
In parts of his speech, John Sopko urged US to consider withholding vital aid to Afghanistan in a bid to put pressure on Kabul in order to adopt a stronger financial protections.
Afghan police kill 8 at protest; NATO probes alleged misconduct of international troops
Associated Press May 8, 2013
Kabul, Afghanistan - Afghan police were accused of killing eight protesters at a demonstration on Wednesday as the U.S.-led coalition said it had opened an investigation into allegations of misconduct by NATO troops during an encounter with insurgents.
Both incidents occurred in southern Afghanistan where violence has escalated in recent weeks following a Taliban announcement launching the start of its spring offensive.
Villagers in the town of Maiwand said Afghan police opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators who were protesting raids that Afghan and NATO forces conducted in their village of Loye Karez two days earlier.
Accounts differed as to whether the eight killed were unarmed protesters or militants. Ten other people were wounded.
Kandahar Provincial Police Chief Gen. Abdul Raziq said Taliban insurgents had infiltrated the demonstration.
Abdul Qayyum, a 45-year-old demonstrator, disputed that, telling The Associated Press by phone that “there were no Taliban among the protesters.”
“The local people of Maiwand district are so upset and unhappy with the government and the foreigners because they are conducting night raids on the houses of local people,” he said. “With no reason, they are entering local houses and doing whatever they want. We don’t want all these things to keep happening to us.”
In the past, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has bitterly criticized raids on village homes, particularly those carried out during the night.
In a separate incident, the NATO-led force said Wednesday that it had launched an investigation into allegations of misconduct following an internal report into an April 28 encounter with insurgents in Zabul province.
The statement did not offer more details and Lt. Tamarac Dyer, a spokeswoman for the coalition, told the AP in an email that “this is the only information we are able to release at this time due to the ongoing investigation.”
Afghan officials were not immediately available for comment.
The statement quoted U.S. Gen. Joseph Dunford, the top commander of NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, as saying that the alliance takes “all allegations of misconduct by our personnel very seriously.” He pledged to “fully investigate the incident and keep the Afghan government informed.”
Elsewhere in southern Afghanistan, three people were killed when their vehicle triggered an explosive device in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province. Another six people were injured, said Shamim Noorzai, the provincial police chief spokesman.
Afghan security officials say improvised explosive devises, or IEDs, and suicide attacks present the greatest challenges for Afghan security forces in the battle against Taliban.
“They can’t fight us face to face,” Raziq said in a recent interview with the AP.
Also on Wednesday, the Afghan intelligence service said it arrested an Afghan national who confessed to having been sent by the Taliban to carry out a suicide bombing against Abdullah Abdullah, a presidential candidate in the 2009 election and the head of an opposition party called the National Coalition of Afghanistan.
It showed a video of the alleged would-be bomber whom the intelligence service said was arrested while scouting out Abdullah’s headquarters. The intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security said Abdullah and another member of the opposition party, Ahmed Zia Masoud, were the intended targets.
Fazal Sangcharaki, a spokesman for Abdullah Abdullah, said the strident anti-Taliban leader has had many threats in the past, but “unfortunately the NDS has not informed us about this arrest and this particular threat.”
Pakistan Builds New Check-Posts In Kunar
TOLOnews.com By Abdul Wali Arian 08 May 2013
Pakistan’s Military have newly built four check posts in Narai district of northeastern Kunar province, local officials said on Wednesday.
Kunar Governor Fazlullah Wahedi warned that Pakistan wants to trample the province and make Nuristan province as Waziristan.
The governor has asked for further military force to remove the existing challenges of the province.
Local officials said that construction of these military check posts are challenging for the residents of Narai district.
“Pakistan military has recently built four check posts. Three check posts in zero point and one in Afghanistan territory,” Narai District Governor Gul Zaman TOLOnews.
A tribal elder expressed his concerns and said the move of Pakistani military has created concerns.
"Pakistan military has come to our soil and made challenges for people,” he said.
It is said that Pakistani check posts are near the Afghan border police posts in the district.
“We are ready for fighting to take back our soil. We are equipped and ready,” Afghan Border Police told TOLOnews.
If Afghan border police are preparing to respond to possible attacks of Pakistani military, why don't the border police stand against construction of check posts?
“When we go to stop Pakistani construction, the Taliban starts fighting with us. Taliban insurgents are between us,” Afghan Border Police said.
Currently, Afghan military forces are based in those bases where the US troops were previously based.
“We ask the Defence Minister to give us heavy weapons to defend our soil. We don’t want food. We want weapons. The homeland is like mother,” an Afghan army soldier said.
Kunar province is bordered by Nuristan which is considered an insecure province in northeastern of Afghanistan. It is said that Pakistani Taliban are more active in Kunar.
“They want to bring Waziristan to Nuristan and trample Kunar province.
The issue should be seriously addressed,” the Governor Fazlullah Wahedi said.
Pakistan has always challenging for country’s border areas. Afghan Interior Minister who is visiting Kunar province is stressing on solving the challenges.
“We face with Pakistan military in all border areas,” Afghan Interior Minister Gen. Mojtaba Patang said.
But there are concerns that if Pakistan does not remove its military construction from Narai district, conflicts similar to the incidents in Goshta district of Nangarhar province would break out.
It is said that Kunar province shares 280km border with Pakistan from which 45km of the border is in Narai district.
Nangarhar University Students Declare Jihad Against Pakistan
TOLOnews.com By Karim Amini 08 May 2013
Hundreds of the students of the eastern Nangarhar province early Wednesday have launched an anti-Pakistan protest, condemning Pakistan’s military forwarding, rocket shelling and “declared Jihad.”
The protest began today in Jalalabad the capital of Nangaharhar province and ended peacefully.
“We are the students of Islamic University of Nangarhar and we are ready to resist against Pakistan’s aggression and declare Jihad against it. We condemn all Pakistan’s past activities and its rocket shelling,” said a student of the University.
The students chanted slogans against Pakistan government and Pakistan’s intelligence service.
The Afghan security forces were also in the area to control the protest, according to local officials.
The protests come after the Pakistan military force started building military check-posts in Goshta district of Nangarhar province. The Afghan security forces reacted over the move of the Pakistani military and started clashes.
An Afghan border police was killed in the clashes and several Pakistani military border soldiers were also killed or injured, according to Afghan officials.
Meanwhile, hundreds of residents and students in southern Helmand province launched anti –Pakistan protests and asked the government to take “serious action about the Durand Line.”
The residents of Helmand said that “if the government provides them weapons, they are ready to defend their homeland."
“Down with Pakistan, we are ready to fight against Pakistan. If the government doesn’t have armaments, we are ready to fight against Pakistan with stones and sticks even with empty hands,” said a resident of Helmand.
It comes as, yesterday thousands Afghans also launched anti-Pakistan protests in Nangarhar and southern Kandahar province.
In Kabul province, also hundreds of prisoners in Pul-e-Charkhi jail went on hunger strike over Pakistan’s border clashes and building of the military check-posts in Goshta district of Nangarhar province.
The prisoners said that Pakistan’s military forwarding along the border with Afghanistan should not be left without response and added that they are ready to react against Pakistani military.
“All the prisoners are ready to sacrifice their selves for their homeland, if we received an order to go to Pakistan for fighting we would wait for a minute” said one of the prisoners.
Afghanistan and Pakistan have had strained relations since Pakistan was formed in 1947, at the end of British colonial rule over India.
Pakistani court terms U.S. drone strikes against UN charter
ISLAMABAD, May 9 (Xinhua) -- A Pakistani court on Thursday described the U.S. drone strikes in the country's restive tribal regions as illegal and inhuman and instructed the Foreign Ministry to move a resolution in the United Nations against the attacks.
The High Court in the country's north-western city of Peshawar issued the landmark verdict against the U.S. strikes on four writ petitions, which had stated that these attacks kill civilians and also cause collateral damage.
American officials claim that the CIA-run drone missions target al-Qaida remnants and Taliban militants in Pakistan tribal regions, who are blamed for cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.
Pakistan insists that the U.S. spy aircraft kill innocent people, cause damage to civilian property and are counter- productive in the so-called war on terror. The U.S. has rejected Pakistan's calls for halt in the strikes.
Chief Justice of the Peshawar High Court, Dost Muhammad Khan, ruled that the drone strikes are illegal, inhuman and violation of the UN charter on human rights.
"The Government of Pakistan must ensure that no drone strike takes place in the future," the court verdict said.
The court asked the Foreign Ministry to table a resolution in the UN against the U.S. attacks.
"If the U.S. vetoes the resolution, then the country should think breaking diplomatic ties with the United States," the judgment said.
The court also observed that the U.S. strikes must be declared as war crime as it kill innocent people.
The two-member bench had earlier reserved the verdict after the completion of arguments by lawyers for the federal government, and petitioners, including Defence of Pakistan Council (DPC), an amalgamation of religious groups, tribal elders and rights groups.
The petitioners have prayed the court to order the government to make public Pakistan-U.S. secret deal on drone strikes, if any, stop drone strikes by force, take the issue to the UN Security Council, and pay compensation to the families of the people killed in drone attacks.
During previous hearing, the chief justice observed that if the U.S. considered itself a champion of human rights and democracy, then why it had not been paying compensation to the innocent people killed in drone strikes.
Government lawyers had earlier informed the court that the Pakistani government had no agreement with the U.S. on drone strikes, which were carried out against its consent.
Lawyers had told the court that according to different researches, only 2 percent of militants had been killed in drone attacks since 2004 and the rest of the dead people were innocent civilians.
Nato soldiers probed over alleged Afghan abuse
AFP May 09, 2013
Kabul - The US-led NATO force fighting Taliban insurgents inAfghanistansaid Wednesday it has launched an investigation into alleged misconduct by its soldiers.
The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) statement said that the probe would examine a clash on April 28 in the southernprovinceofZabulwhen four insurgent fighters were killed.
Meanwhile, NATO has no plans to increase its presence in theArctic, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday despite numerous countries' keen interest in the region's vast natural resources.
"NATO has no intention of increasing its presence and activities in the Far North," Fogh Rasmussen said in Oslo after spending two days visiting northern Norway.
The Arctic is believed to hold some 90 billion barrels of oil and 30 percent of the world's yet-to-be discovered natural gas resources.
Those riches have become increasingly accessible as the Arctic ice shrinks. Not only countries bordering the Arctic Ocean are keen to claim the resources but also other nations further afield, such as China, are looking on with interest.
Several states, including Russia, Canada and the United States, have already announced a reinforcement of their military presence to defend their claims.
Norway, which shares a border with Russia, has made the Far North its top priority and has in recent years tried to draw the attention of NATO and the European Union to the region.
"Norway has, like all other allies, a legitimate expectation that NATO's collective defence should cover all of NATO's territory, including of course the north of Norway," Fogh Rasmussen said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.
Parliament Will Not Summon Interior, Finance Ministers
TOLOnews.com By Rafi Sediqi 08 May 2013
The Afghan Parliament on Wednesday said that the Interior Affairs and Finance Ministers will not be summoned.
It comes as, nearly 20 percent of MPs signed for impeachment of the two ministers, but they have changed their decision over alleging that Parliament administrative board revealed the signatures list to ministers.
The move had come after both ministers had accused some MPs of illegal interference in the affairs of the ministries.
Meanwhile, some MPs have criticised the administrative board of the house, claiming that the board has revealed the names of the MPs who signed for impeachment of finance minister.
The MPs believe that the board’s act has facilitated dealings between ministers and some of the members of the Parliament.
“The administrative board has given the names of MPs who signed in impeachment list. This caused that finance ministers contact with lawmakers to get back their signatures,” MP Mohammad Naeem Lalai Hamidzai said.
“We are under pressure. We were contacted to take back our signatures and the administrative board should decide that MPs who sign in impeachment list, cannot get back their signatures,” MP Abdul Latif Pedram said.
Some other MPs are accused the Finance Minister and said that he asked the members of the Parliament to take back their signatures.
“I took back my signature from the list and I know that there are have been dealings, so I don’t want to be misused,” said MP Mohammad Akhondzada.
“A person named Salihi from Finance Ministry contacted me, and said that you are my friend and take your signature. I said I don’t take back my signature,” Mohammad Arif Rahmani said.
But Parliament Speaker Abdul Raouf Ibrahimi dismisses the claims.
“You, the representatives signed and took back your signatures. The administrative board is not guilty and has not revealed the list to Finance Minister,” he said.
Today’s’ Parliament decision caused lots of criticisms and verbal clashes by lawmakers.
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