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Entries Tagged as 'Afghanistan'

Progress in Afghan war called ‘uneven’: Congress and Administration paint a false picture.

November 24th, 2010 · Accountability, Afghanistan, Deception, Defense, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Terrorism from Within

By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 24, 2010

A new Defense Department report on Afghanistan described progress in the war as “uneven” and painted a more sobering picture than public comments made recently by President Obama and U.S. military officials.

The report, mandated by Congress for delivery every six months, spoke of “modest gains in security, governance and development in operational priority areas.” But the advances cited appeared to be outweighed by what the report’s authors called “numerous challenges.”

The period covered by the assessment ended Sept. 30, and a defense official authorized to brief reporters on the condition of anonymity said there had been “a lot of encouraging signs over the past six to seven weeks.”

The report came as the Pentagon and other government departments and agencies have provided the White House with internal war assessments that will form the basis of a strategic review to be completed by mid-December. An interagency group is now collating the various “inputs” for consideration next week by the National Security Council’s deputies committee, a senior defense official said.

That committee will report overall findings to national security principals and Obama, who will determine whether to make any changes in the strategy he outlined a year ago. The strategy included deployment of an additional 30,000 troops, for a total U.S. force of about 100,000, and a tripling, to more than 1,000, of U.S. civilian officials.

“We’re looking at the path and pace of progress,” the senior official said. “How is the strategy being implemented? Where are we achieving the desired effects, and where we are not, why not? What adjustments can be made?”

As far as the Pentagon is concerned, the official said, “we are seeing the shift of momentum that we aimed for” against Taliban forces. “It’s not complete, and there are still challenges.” But “the concept is being proven in key areas.” Other officials have said they do not anticipate significant changes in the strategy.

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Petraeus warns Afghans about Karzai’s criticism of U.S. war strategy

November 15th, 2010 · Defense, War on Terrorism

By Joshua Partlow and Karen DeYoung  Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, November 15, 2010; 12:24 AM

KABUL – Gen. David H. Petraeus, the coalition military commander in Afghanistan, warned Afghan officials Sunday that President Hamid Karzai’s latest public criticism of U.S. strategy threatens to seriously undermine progress in the war and risks making Petraeus’s own position “untenable,” according to Afghan and U.S. officials.

Officials said Petraeus expressed “astonishment and disappointment” with Karzai’s call, in a Saturday interview with The Washington Post, to “reduce military operations” and end U.S. Special Operations raids in southern Afghanistan that coalition officials said have killed or captured hundreds of Taliban commanders in recent months.

In a meeting Sunday morning with Ashraf Ghani, who leads the Afghan government’s planning on transition, Petraeus made what several officials described as “hypothetical” references to an inability to continue U.S. operations in the face of Karzai’s remarks.

The night raids are at the heart of Petraeus’s counterinsurgency strategy and are key to his hopes of being able to show significant progress when the White House reviews the situation in Afghanistan next month.

Officials discounted early reports Sunday that Petraeus had threatened to resign. But “for [Karzai] to go this way, and at that particular stage, is really undermining [Petraeus's] endeavors,” one foreign diplomat in Kabul said. “Not only his personally, but the international community.” Several officials in Washington and Kabul requested anonymity in order to discus the issue.

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Taliban attacks U.N. compound in western Afghanistan: suicide bombers disguised as women

October 25th, 2010 · Defense, Terrorist Attack, War on Terrorism

By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, October 23, 2010; 4:35 PM

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban launched a midday assault on the United Nations headquarters in western Afghanistan on Saturday, crashing a car bomb into a compound gate to create an opening for suicide bombers disguised as women, according to U.N. and Afghan officials.

The attack was a startling reminder of the Taliban’s readiness to strike at the symbols of foreign presence in Afghanistan, in this case a heavily fortified facility in the relatively peaceful city of Herat, near the Iranian border. Although two Afghan policemen were injured, the attack largely failed, as U.N. guards and Afghan security forces were able to kill the insurgents. No U.N. personnel were hurt.

A thinned-out weekend staff was manning the U.N. offices when the attackers launched rocket-propelled grenades at the compound just before noon and rammed a car bomb into the back gate, U.S. and Afghan officials said. At least three other insurgents, each hiding a suicide vest under a burqa, the head-to-toe cloak worn by many Afghan women, managed to get through the gate before being killed by either guards or police, the officials said.

“This is quite significant,” one U.N. official said. “There was no such direct attack here, as far as I know, for a long time.”

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Despite successful U.S. attacks on Taliban leaders in Afghanistan’s northwest, insurgency remains in control

October 25th, 2010 · Deception, Defense, Democrats, Federal Spending, Foreign Policy, Government Control, Homeland Security, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Terrorism from Within, Terrorist Threat, Treason, War on Terrorism

By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, October 24, 2010; 1:34 AM

MAQUR, AFGHANISTAN – October has been a calamitous month for the Taliban guerrillas waging war from sandy mountains and pistachio forests in this corner of northwestern Afghanistan.

The first to die was their leader, Mullah Ismail, hunted down and killled by U.S. Special Operations troops. Next came the heir apparent, Mullah Jamaluddin, even before he could take over as Taliban “shadow” governor. Within a week, several other top commanders were dead, a new governor had been captured and the most powerful among the remaining insurgents had lit out for the Turkmenistan border – all casualties of the secretive, midnight work of American commandos.

And yet what has happened here in Badghis province also shows how large a gap remains between killing commanders and dismantling an insurgency. Nearly half of the province remains under insurgent control, an Afghan intelligence official estimated. A new Taliban governor has already been dispatched to the province, Afghan officials say, even though NATO portrayed Mullah Ismail’s killing as a “huge blow” that would “significantly reduce Taliban influence throughout the region.”

“Fighting in Afghanistan is like hitting coals with a stick, it just spreads to other places,” said Delbar Jan Arman, who as provincial governor is trying to stave off the Taliban advances. “It will continue.”

The barrage launched against the Taliban by Special Operations forces here in recent weeks is part of a broader American effort that is clearly succeeding. As other U.S. goals in Afghanistan have faltered – reforming the government, winning hearts and minds – Gen. David H. Petraeus and his new troops have so far succeeded at killing their enemies. American officials have held up the example of the onslaught against the Taliban leadership as a clear sign of progress, a development sure to factor into President Obama’s December review of the Afghan campaign.

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U.S.-led Afghan reconstruction projects to end because of security dispute

October 22nd, 2010 · Defense, Foreign Policy

By Rajiv Chandrasekaran Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 22, 2010; 12:43 AM

KABUL – U.S.-funded development firms are beginning to shut down massive reconstruction projects because the Afghan government has refused to rescind a ban on their use of private security guards, according to U.S. officials and aid workers here.

The decision to start shuttering the projects, collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars, could have far-reaching effects on the U.S.-led military campaign against the Taliban, disrupting a central component of the strategy to counter the insurgency at a critical moment in the war. Programs to assist Afghan farmers and improve local government, which are vital to the overall U.S. effort to stabilize the volatile southern and eastern parts of the country, are among those that will be affected, the officials said.

The consequences of the ban on development firms employing private guards “will be catastrophic,” said one U.S. official involved in the issue. “If these projects grind to a halt, we might as well go home. They are essential to the counterinsurgency strategy.”

Another U.S. official said the ban would affect about $1.5 billion in ongoing reconstruction work. More than 20,000 Afghans will lose jobs in road-building and energy projects alone, the official said.

The prohibition, which was enacted by President Hamid Karzai, has emerged as the latest flashpoint in the oft-strained U.S.-Afghan relationship, raising new questions about his willingness to cooperate with the international community and potentially complicating crucial year-end assessments of the war effort by the White House and NATO.

The ban, which goes into effect Dec. 17, affects all development firms and non-governmental organizations, including those funded by other countries and the United Nations. It also applies to private contractors who guard supply convoys for the military bearing food, fuel and other essential supplies, as well as to international banks and other private entities whose services support reconstruction work.

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Taliban in high-level talks with Karzai government, sources say

October 6th, 2010 · Defense, Homeland Security, National Security, Terrorist Threat, War on Terrorism

By Karen DeYoung, Peter Finn and Craig Whitlock – Wednesday, October 6, 2010; 10:36 AM

Taliban representatives and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai have begun secret, high-level talks over a negotiated end to the war, according to Afghan and Arab sources.

The talks follow inconclusive meetings, hosted by Saudi Arabia, that ended more than a year ago. While emphasizing the preliminary nature of the current discussions, the sources said that for the first time they believe that Taliban representatives are fully authorized to speak for the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban organization based in Pakistan, and its leader, Mohammad Omar.

“They are very, very serious about finding a way out,” one source close to the talks said of the Taliban.

Although Omar’s representatives have long publicly insisted that negotiations were impossible until all foreign troops withdraw, a position seemingly buoyed by the Taliban’s resilience on the battlefield, sources said the Quetta Shura has begun to talk about a comprehensive agreement that would include participation of some Taliban figures in the government and the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops on an agreed timeline.

The leadership knows “that they are going to be sidelined,” the source said. “They know that more radical elements are being promoted within their rank and file outside their control. . . . All these things are making them absolutely sure that, regardless of [their success in] the war, they are not in a winning position.”

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New focus on Europeans who have traveled to Pakistan to train at militant camps

September 30th, 2010 · Defense, Homeland Security, National Security, War on Terrorism

By Peter Finn and Greg Miller Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 30, 2010; 12:16 AM

The detention in Afghanistan of a German citizen of Afghan descent – reportedly a source of information about potential terrorist plots against targets in Europe and possibly the United States – has renewed focus on a stream of Europeans who have traveled to Pakistan in recent years for training at militant camps.

Just as American officials have been sounding an alarm about the radicalization of U.S. citizens involved in plots against the homeland, European Union officials have warned that a new generation of Western citizens, including whole families, have traveled to Pakistan and that some appear determined to return home to carry out terrorist attacks.

“A not insignificant number of radicalized E.U. nationals and residents are traveling to conflict areas or attending terrorist training camps and returning to Europe,” said Gilles de Kerchove, the E.U.’s counterterrorism coordinator, in a report to be released Friday.

In part to disrupt possible plots against Europe, the CIA this month escalated its drone campaign in the North and South Waziristan regions of Pakistan, where many of the expatriate militants are thought to be based. U.S. officials declined to discuss whether information provided by Ahmed Siddiqui, the German in custody at the U.S. air base at Bagram, has heightened concern about attacks.

There was, however, a heavy police presence in parts of London on Wednesday, including around Buckingham Place and Trafalgar Square. Victoria Station was briefly evacuated. In Paris on Tuesday, the Eiffel Tower was evacuated for the second time in two weeks.

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Pakistan blocks NATO’s Afghan-bound supply trucks after airstrike kills 3

September 30th, 2010 · Defense, National Security, War on Terrorism

By Karin Brulliard  Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, September 30, 2010; 12:49 PM

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – Pakistani officials said Thursday that NATO supply trucks had been blocked from entering Afghanistan at a key border post in response to an early morning NATO airstrike that they said killed three Pakistani border security soldiers.

According to a Pakistani military statement, the attack occurred at 5:25 a.m. at the Mandata Kandaho border post about 600 feet inside Upper Khurram agency, a region in Pakistan’s tribal belt that borders Afghanistan’s Khost province. After the helicopters “engaged through cannon fire” with the post, the six soldiers stationed there fired warning shots with their rifles, and the helicopters responded with two missiles that destroyed the post, according to the Pakistani account.

Within hours, the border crossing at Torkham had been ordered closed by federal officials, and NATO supply trucks were idling there, according to transporters stuck at the pass and officials in the region, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The pass, which lies north of Peshawar, is the most important entry point for coalition forces’ fuel and supplies, most of which come into Pakistan through the southern port of Karachi.

“We will have to see whether we are allies or enemies,” Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said of the border incident, without mentioning the blockade.

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Military thwarted president seeking choice in Afghanistan

September 27th, 2010 · Accountability, Change of Power, Deception, Defense, Economy, Federal Spending, Foreign Policy, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Terrorism from Within, War on Terrorism

By Bob WoodwardWashington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 27, 2010; 12:34 AM

President Obama was on edge.

For two exhausting months, he had been asking military advisers to give him a range of options for the war in Afghanistan. Instead, he felt that they were steering him toward one outcome and thwarting his search for an exit plan. He would later tell his White House aides that military leaders were “really cooking this thing in the direction they wanted.”

He was looking for choices that would limit U.S. involvement and provide a way out. His top three military advisers were unrelenting advocates for 40,000 more troops and an expanded mission that seemed to have no clear end. When his national security team gathered in the White House Situation Room on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2009, for its eighth strategy review session, the president erupted.

“So what’s my option? You have given me one option,” Obama said, directly challenging the military leadership at the table, including Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen and Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, then head of U.S. Central Command.

“We were going to meet here today to talk about three options,” Obama said sternly. “You agreed to go back and work those up.”

Mullen protested. “I think what we’ve tried to do here is present a range of options.”

Obama begged to differ. Two weren’t even close to feasible, they all had acknowledged; the other two were variations on the 40,000.

Silence descended on the room. Finally, Mullen said, “Well, yes, sir.”

Mullen later explained, “I didn’t see any other path.”

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U.S. officials defend “state secrets” claim in al-Aulaqi suit

September 27th, 2010 · Accountability, Deception, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, National Security, War on Terrorism

By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 26, 2010; 4:03 AM

When senior Obama administration officials invoked the state secrets privilege Saturday to dismiss a lawsuit brought on behalf of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, they declared in federal court that the case threatened to expose secret military and intelligence operations against al Qaeda’s overseas network.

In a 60-page filing, the government asked U.S. District Judge Robert Bates to dismiss a lawsuit filed by civil rights groups retained by Aulaqi’s father seeking to block his Yemen-based son’s placement on the CIA and Joint Special Operations Command capture-or-kill list of suspected terrorists.

The filing also asked the court to dismiss the case without debating the merits of any future actions potentially taken against Aulaqi on the grounds that targeting in wartime is a matter for presidents, and that Aulaqi’s father did not have legal standing to bring the case.

Civil rights groups filed a suit last month to halt the targeting of Aulaqi, arguing that such an action outside a war zone and absent an imminent threat amounted to an extrajudicial execution order against a U.S. citizen.

In an effort to keep secret particular operations in Yemen, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said classified “information concerning whether or not U.S. armed forces are planning to undertake military actions in a foreign country, against particular targets, under what circumstances, for what reasons and pursuant to what procedures or criteria” cannot be disclosed without seriously harming national security.

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