Taliban Twitter

Osama bin laden

2011-05-02T04:22:00.000-07:00

(Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن‎)
Born March 10, 1957 (age 53)
Osama bin Laden on an al-Qaeda propaganda poster
Place of birth	Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Allegiance	Al-Qaeda
Battles/wars	Soviet war in Afghanistan War on Terror: War in Afghanistan War in North-West Pakistan

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (with numerousOsama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden (with numerous variations; Arabic: أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن‎, Usāmah bin Muḥammad bin ‘Awaḍ bin Lādin; born March 10, 1957) is a member of the prominent Saudi bin Laden family and the founder of the Islamic extremist organization al-Qaeda, best known for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. Bin laden and his organization adhere to a particularly conservative brand of Islam, known as the Wahhabi School. For his dealings in violent, extremist jihad, Osama bin Laden has lost his Saudi citizenship and been disowned by his wealthy Saudi Arabian family. Bin Laden is on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's list of FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives due to several 1998 US embassy bombings.

Since 2001, Osama bin Laden and his organization have been major targets of the U.S. War on Terror. Bin Laden and fellow Al-Qaeda leaders are believed to be near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Variations of bin Laden's name

There is no universally accepted standard in the West for transliterating Arabic words and names into English, so bin Laden's name is spelled in many different ways. The version translation most often used by English-language mass media is Osama bin Laden. Most American government agencies, including the FBI and CIA, use either "Usama bin Laden" or "Usama bin Ladin", both of which are often abbreviated to UBL. Less common renderings include "Ussamah Bin Ladin" and "Oussama Ben Laden" (French-language mass media). The last two words of the name can also be found as "Binladen" or (as used by his family in the West) "Binladin". The spelling with 'o' and 'e' comes from a Persian-influenced pronunciation used in Afghanistan where he was for a long time.

Strictly speaking, Arabic linguistic conventions dictate that he be referred to as "Osama" or "Osama bin Laden", not "bin Laden," as "Bin Laden" is not used as a surname in the Western manner, but simply as part of his name, which in its long form means "Osama, son of Mohammed, son of 'Awad, son of Laden". Still, "bin Laden" has become nearly universal in Western references to him.

Bin Laden's admirers commonly use several aliases and nicknames, including the Prince/Al-Amir, the Sheikh, Abu Abdallah, Sheikh Al-Mujahid, the Lion Sheik, the Director.

Childhood, education and personal life,

----------------------------

Childhood, education and personal life of Osama bin Laden

Bin Laden family

Osama bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In a 1998 interview, he gave his birth date as March 10, 1957.His father Muhammed Awad bin Laden was a wealthy businessman with close ties to the Saudi royal family. Osama bin Laden was born the only son of Muhammed bin Laden's tenth wife, Hamida al-Attas. Osama's parents divorced soon after he was born; Osama's mother then married Muhammad al-Attas. The couple had four children, and Osama lived in the new household with three half-brothers and one half-sister.

Bin Laden was raised as a devout Wahhabi Muslim. From 1968 to 1976 he attended the "élite" secular Al-Thager Model School. Bin Laden studied economics and business administration at King Abdulaziz University. Some reports suggest bin Laden earned a degree in civil engineering in 1979, or a degree in public administration in 1981. Other sources describe him as having left university during his third year, never completing a college degree, though "hard working." At university, bin Laden's main interest was religion, where he was involved in both "interpreting the Quran and jihad" and charitable work. He also writes poetry.

In 1974, at the age of 17, bin Laden married his first wife Najwa Ghanem at Latakia. According to CNN national security correspondent David Ensore, as of 2002 bin Laden had married four women and fathered roughly 25 or 26 children. Other sources report that he has fathered anywhere from 12 to 24 children.

His father, Muhammed bin Laden, was killed in 1967 in an airplane crash in Saudi Arabia when his American pilot misjudged a landing.

His eldest stepbrother and head of the bin Laden family, Salem bin Laden, was killed when he accidentally flew a plane into powerlines in 1988 near San Antonio, Texas, USA.

Beliefs and ideology

Beliefs and ideology of Osama bin Laden

Bin Laden believes that the restoration of Sharia law will set things right in the Muslim world, and that all other ideologies—"pan-Arabism, socialism, communism, democracy"—must be opposed. These beliefs, along with violent expansive jihad, have sometimes been called Qutbism. He believes Afghanistan under the rule of Mullah Omar's Taliban was "the only Islamic country" in the Muslim world. Bin Laden has consistently dwelt on the need for violent jihad to right what he believes are injustices against Muslims perpetrated by the United States and sometimes by other non-Muslim states, the need to eliminate the state of Israel, and the necessity of forcing the US to withdraw from the Middle East. He has also called on Americans to "reject the immoral acts of fornication (and) homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling, and usury," in an October 2002 letter.

Probably the most infamous part of Bin Laden's ideology is that civilians, including women and children, are legitimate targets of jihad. Bin Laden is antisemitic, and has delivered warnings against alleged Jewish conspiracies: "These Jews are masters of usury and leaders in treachery. They will leave you nothing, either in this world or the next." Shia Muslims have been listed along with "Heretics,... America and Israel," as the four principal "enemies of Islam" at ideology classes of bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organization.

In keeping with Wahhabi beliefs, bin Laden opposes music on religious grounds, and his attitude towards technology is mixed. He is interested in "earth-moving machinery and genetic engineering of plants" on the one hand, but rejects "chilled water" on the other.

His viewpoints and methods of achieving them have led to him been designated as a "terrorist" by scholars, journalists from the New York Times, the British Broadcasting Corporation, and Qatari news station Al Jazeera, analysts such as Peter Bergen,Michael Scheuer, Marc Sageman, and Bruce Hoffman and he was indicted on terrorism charges by law enforcement agencies in Madrid, New York City, and Tripoli.

Militant activity

Militant activity of Osama bin Laden

Mujahideen in Afghanistan

Bin Laden with Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir in 1997.

After leaving college in 1979 bin Laden joined Abdullah Azzam to fight the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and lived for a time in Peshawar.

By 1984, with Azzam, bin Laden established Maktab al-Khadamat, which funneled money, arms and Muslim fighters from around the Arabic world into the Afghan war. Through al-Khadamat, bin Laden's inherited family fortune paid for air tickets and accommodation, dealt with paperwork with Pakistani authorities and provided other such services for the jihad fighters. Osama established a camp in Afghanistan, and with other volunteers fought the Soviets.

Following the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, bin Laden moved to Peshawar in 1994.[citation needed] It was during his time in Peshawar that he began wearing camouflage-print jackets and carrying a captured Soviet assault rifle, which urban legends claimed he had obtained by killing a Russian soldier with his bare hands.

Formation and structuring of Al-Qaeda

: Al-Qaeda

By 1988, bin Laden had split from Maktab al-Khidamat. While Azzam acted as support for Afghan fighters, bin Laden wanted a more military role. One of the main points leading to the split and the creation of al-Qaeda was Azzam's insistence that Arab fighters be integrated among the Afghan fighting groups instead of forming a separate fighting force.

Following the Soviet Union's withdrawal from Afghanistan in February 1989, Osama bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia in 1990 as a hero of jihad, who along with his Arab legion, "had brought down the mighty superpower" of the Soviet Union. The Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990 had put the kingdom and its ruling House of Saud at risk. The world's most valuable oil fields were within easy striking distance of Iraqi forces in Kuwait, and Saddam's call to pan-Arab/Islamism could potentially rally internal dissent. bin Laden met with King Fahd, and Sultan, Minister of Defence of Saudi Arabia, telling them not to depend on non-Muslim troops, and offered to help defend Saudi Arabia with his mujahideen fighters. Bin Laden's offer was rebuffed, and after the American offer to help repel Iraq from Kuwait was accepted, involving deploying U.S. troops in Saudi territory, he publicly denounced Saudi Arabia's dependence on the U.S. military, as he believed the presence of foreign troops in the "land of the two mosques" (Mecca and Medina) profaned sacred soil. Bin Laden's criticism of the Saudi monarchy led that government to attempt to silence him.

Shortly after Saudi Arabia permitted U.S. troops on Saudi soil, bin Laden turned his attention to attacks on the west. On November 8, 1990, the FBI raided the New Jersey home of El Sayyid Nosair, an associate of al Qaeda operative Ali Mohamed, discovering a great deal of evidence of terrorist plots, including plans to blow up New York City skyscrapers, marking the earliest uncovering of al Qaeda plans for such activities outside of Muslim countries. Nosair was eventually convicted in connection to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and for the murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane on November 5, 1990.

Bin Laden continued to speak publicly against the Saudi government for harboring American troops, for which the Saudis banished him. He went to live in exile in Sudan, in 1992, in a deal brokered by Ali Mohamed.

Sudan

In Sudan, bin Laden established a new base for mujahideen operations, in Khartoum.

bin Laden continued his verbal assault on King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, and in response, on March 5, 1994, Fahd sent an emissary to Sudan demanding bin Laden's passport. His family was persuaded to cut off his monthly stipend, the equivalent of $7 million a year. By now bin Laden was strongly associated with Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), which made up the core of al-Qaeda. In 1995 the EIJ attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The attempt failed, and the EIJ was expelled from Sudan.

Sudan also began efforts to expel bin Laden. The 9/11 Commission Report states:

"In late 1995, when Bin Laden was still in Sudan, the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) learned that Sudanese officials were discussing with the Saudi government the possibility of expelling Bin Laden. CIA paramilitary officer Billy Waugh tracked down bin Ladin in the Sudan and prepared an operation to apprehend him, but was denied authorization. US Ambassador Timothy Carney encouraged the Sudanese to pursue this course. The Saudis, however, did not want Bin Laden, giving as their reason their revocation of his citizenship. Sudan’s minister of defense, Fatih Erwa, has claimed that Sudan offered to hand Bin Laden over to the United States. The Commission has found no credible evidence that this was so. Ambassador Carney had instructions only to push the Sudanese to expel Bin Laden. Ambassador Carney had no legal basis to ask for more from the Sudanese since, at the time, there was no indictment outstanding."

The 9/11 Commission Report further states:

"In February 1996, Sudanese officials began approaching officials from the United States and other governments, asking what actions of theirs might ease foreign pressure. In secret meetings with Saudi officials, Sudan offered to expel bin Laden to Saudi Arabia and asked the Saudis to pardon him. US officials became aware of these secret discussions, certainly by March. Saudi officials apparently wanted bin Laden expelled from Sudan. They had already revoked his citizenship, however, and would not tolerate his presence in their country. Also bin Laden may have no longer felt safe in Sudan, where he had already escaped at least one assassination attempt that he believed to have been the work of the Egyptian or Saudi regimes, or both."

In May 1996, under increasing pressure on Sudan, from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United States, bin Laden returned to Jalalabad, Afghanistan aboard a chartered flight, and there forged a close relationship with Mullah Mohammed Omar. When Bin Laden left Sudan, he and his organization were significantly weakened, despite his ambitions and organizational skills. In Afghanistan, bin Laden and Al-Qaeda raised money from "donors from the days of the Soviet jihad", and from the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Early attacks and aid for attacks

It is believed that the first bombing attack involving bin Laden was the December 29, 1992 bombing of the Gold Mihor Hotel in Aden in which two people were killed.

It was after this bombing that al-Qaeda was reported to have developed its justification for the killing of innocent people. According to a fatwa issued by Mamdouh Mahmud Salim, the killing of someone standing near the enemy is justified because any innocent bystander will find their proper reward in death, going to Jannah (Paradise) if they were good Muslims and to Jahannam (hell) if they were bad or non-believers. The fatwa was issued to al-Qaeda members but not the general public.

In the 1990s bin Laden's al-Qaeda assisted jihadis financially and sometimes militarily in Algeria, Egypt and Afghanistan. In 1992 or 1993 bin Laden sent an emissary, Qari el-Said, with $40,000 to Algeria to aid the Islamists and urge war rather than negotiation with the government. Their advice was heeded but the war that followed killed 150,000–200,000 Algerians and ended with Islamist surrender to the government.

In 2009 the American law professor Ken Gromley revealed in his book "The Death of American Virtue", to be released in February 2010, that the US President Clinton escaped from being assassinated in the Philippines by terrorists "controlled by Osama bin Laden" in 1996.

Another effort by bin Laden was the funding of the Luxor massacre of November 17,which killed 62 civilians, but so revolted the Egyptian public that it turned against Islamist terror. In mid-1997, the Northern Alliance threatened to overrun Jalalabad, causing Bin Laden to abandon his Nazim Jihad compound and move his operations to Tarnak Farms in the south.

A later effort that did succeed was an attack on the city of Mazar-e-Sharif in Afghanistan. Bin Laden helped cement his alliance with his hosts the Taliban by sending several hundred of his Afghan Arab fighters along to help the Taliban kill between five and six thousand Hazaras overrunning the city.

In 1998, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri co-signed a fatwa in the name of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders which declared the killing of North Americans and their allies an "individual duty for every Muslim" to "liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque (in Jerusalem) and the holy mosque (in Mecca) from their grip".At the public announcement of the fatwa bin Laden announced that North Americans are "very easy targets." He told the attending journalists, "You will see the results of this in a very short time."

In December 1998, the Director of Central Intelligence Counterterrorist Center reported to the president that al-Qaeda was preparing for attacks in the USA, including the training of personnel to hijack aircraft.

At the end of 2000, Richard Clarke revealed that Islamic militants headed by bin Laden had planned a triple attack on January 3, 2000 which would have included bombings in Jordan of the Radisson SAS Hotel in Amman and tourists at Mount Nebo and a site on the Jordan River, the sinking of the destroyer USS The Sullivans in Yemen, as well as an attack on a target within the United States. The plan was foiled by the arrest of the Jordanian terrorist cell, the sinking of the explosive-filled skiff intended to target the destroyer, and the arrest of Ahmed Ressam.

Balkan wars

Bosnian mujahideen

A former U.S. State Department official in October 2001 described Bosnia and Herzegovina as a safe haven for terrorists, after it was revealed that militant elements of the former Sarajevo government were protecting extremists, some with ties to Osama bin Laden. In 1997, Rzeczpospolita, one of the largest Polish daily newspapers, reported that intelligence services of the Nordic-Polish SFOR Brigade suspected that a center for training terrorists from Islamic countries was located in the Bocina Donja village near Maglaj in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1992, hundreds of volunteers joined an "all-mujahedeen unit" called El Moujahed in an abandoned hillside factory, a compound with a hospital and prayer hall. According to Middle East intelligence reports, bin Laden financed small convoys of recruits from the Arab world through his businesses in Sudan. Among them was Karim Said Atmani who was identified by authorities as the document forger for a group of Algerians accused of plotting the bombings in the USA. He is a former roommate of Ahmed Ressam, the man arrested at the Canadian-U.S. border in mid-December 1999 with a car full of nitroglycerin and bomb-making materials. He was convicted of colluding with Osama bin Laden by a French court.

A Bosnian government search of passport and residency records, conducted at the urging of the United States, revealed other former mujahideen who are linked to the same Algerian group or to other groups of suspected terrorists who have lived in this area 60 miles (97 km) north of Sarajevo, the capital, in the past few years. Khalil al-Deek, was arrested in Jordan in late December 1999 on suspicion of involvement in a plot to blow up tourist sites; a second man with Bosnian citizenship, Hamid Aich, lived in Canada at the same time as Atmani and worked for a charity associated with Osama Bin Laden. In its June 26, 1997 Report on the bombing of the Al Khobar building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the New York Times noted that those arrested confessed to serving with Bosnian Muslims forces. Further, the captured men also admitted to ties with Osama bin Laden.

In 1999 it was revealed that Osama bin Laden and his Tunisian assistant Mehrez Aodouni were granted citizenship and Bosnian passports in 1993 by the Government in Sarajevo. This information was denied by the Bosnian government following the 9/11 attacks, but it was later found that Aodouni was arrested in Turkey and that at that time he possessed the Bosnian passport. Following this revelation, a new explanation was given that bin Laden "did not personally collect his Bosnian passport" and that officials at the Bosnian embassy in Vienna, which issued the passport, could not have known who bin Laden was at the time. The Bosnian daily Oslobođenje published in 2001 that three men, believed linked to be linked to Osama Bin Laden, were arrested in Sarajevo in July 2001. The three, one of whom was identified as Imad El Misri, were Egyptian nationals. The paper said that two of the suspects were holding Bosnian passports.

In 1998 it was reported that bin Laden was operating his Al Qaeda network out of Albania. The Charleston Gazette quoted Fatos Klosi, the head of the Albanian intelligence service, as saying a network run by Saudi exile Osama bin Laden sent units to fight in the Serbian province of Kosovo. Confirmation of these activities came from Claude Kader, a French national who said he was a member of bin Laden's Albanian network.

By 1998 four members of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) were arrested in Albania, and extradited to Egypt at the urging of the CIA. It is believed that the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Africa occurred as retaliation for these arrests.

September 11, 2001 attacks

September 11 attacks

"Allah knows it did not cross our minds to attack the towers but after the situation became unbearable and we witnessed the injustice and tyranny of the American-Israeli alliance against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, I thought about it. And the events that affected me directly were that of 1982 and the events that followed – when America allowed the Israelis to invade Lebanon, helped by the U.S. Sixth Fleet. As I watched the destroyed towers in Lebanon, it occurred to me punish the unjust the same way (and) to destroy towers in America so it could taste some of what we are tasting and to stop killing our children and women."

– Osama bin Laden, 2004

After initial denial, in 2004 Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.attacks involved the hijacking of four commercial passenger aircraft,the subsequent destruction of those planes and the World Trade Center in New York City, New York, severe damage to The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia,and the deaths of 2,974 people and the nineteen hijackers. In response to the attacks, the United States launched a War on Terror to depose the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and capture al-Qaeda operatives, and several countries strengthened their anti-terrorism legislation to preclude future attacks. The CIA's Special Activities Division was given the lead in tracking down and killing or capturing bin Laden.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has stated that classified evidence linking Al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable. The UK Government reached a similar conclusion regarding Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden's culpability for the September 11, 2001, attacks although the government report notes that the evidence presented is insufficient for a prosecutable case. Bin Laden initially denied involvement in the attacks. On September 16, 2001, bin Laden read a statement later broadcast by Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite channel denying responsibility for the attack.

In a videotape recovered by US forces in November 2001 in Jalalabad, bin Laden was seen discussing the attack with Khaled al-Harbi in a way that indicates foreknowledge. The tape was broadcast on various news networks on December 13, 2001. The merits of this translation have been disputed. Arabist Dr. Abdel El M. Husseini stated: "This translation is very problematic. At the most important places where it is held to prove the guilt of bin Laden, it is not identical with the Arabic."

In the 2004 Osama bin Laden video, bin Laden abandoned his denials without retracting past statements. In it he stated he had personally directed the nineteen hijackers. In the 18-minute tape, played on Al-Jazeera, four days before the American presidential election, bin Laden accused U.S. President George W. Bush of negligence on the hijacking of the planes on September 11.

According to the tapes, bin Laden claimed he was inspired to destroy the World Trade Center after watching the destruction of towers in Lebanon by Israel during the 1982 Lebanon War.

In two other tapes aired by Al Jazeera in 2006, Osama bin Laden announces,

I am the one in charge of the nineteen brothers … I was responsible for entrusting the nineteen brothers … with the raids [5 minute audiotape broadcast May 23, 2006

and is seen with Ramzi Binalshibh, as well as two of the 9/11 hijackers, Hamza al-Ghamdi and Wail al-Shehri, as they make preparations for the attacks (videotape broadcast September 7, 2006).

Criminal charges

On March 16, 1998, Libya issued the first official Interpol arrest warrant against Bin Laden and three other people for killing two German citizens in Libya on March 10, 1994, one of which is thought to have been a German counter-intelligence officer. Bin Laden is still wanted by the Libyan government. Osama bin Laden was first indicted by the United States on June 8, 1998, when a grand jury indicted Osama bin Laden on charges of killing five Americans and two Indians in the November 14, 1995 truck bombing of a US-operated Saudi National Guard training center in Riyadh.

Bin Laden became the 456th person listed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, when he was added to the list on June 7, 1999, following his indictment along with others for capital crimes in the 1998 embassy attacks. Attempts at assassination and requests for the extradition of bin Laden from the Taliban of Afghanistan were met with failure prior to the bombing of Afghanistan in October 2001. In 1999, US President Bill Clinton convinced the United Nations to impose sanctions against Afghanistan in an attempt to force the Taliban to extradite him.

Years later, on October 10, 2001, bin Laden appeared as well on the initial list of the top 22 FBI Most Wanted Terrorists, which was released to the public by the President of the United States George W. Bush, in direct response to the attacks of 9/11, but which was again based on the indictment for the 1998 embassy attack. Bin Laden was among a group of thirteen fugitive terrorists wanted on that latter list for questioning about the 1998 embassy bombings. Bin Laden remains the only fugitive ever to be listed on both FBI fugitive lists.

Despite the multiple indictments listed above and multiple requests, the Taliban refused to extradite Osama Bin Laden. It wasn't until after the bombing of Afghanistan began in October 2001 that the Taliban finally did offer to turn over Osama bin Laden to a third-party country for trial, in return for the US ending the bombing and providing evidence that Osama bin Laden was involved in the 9/11 attacks. This offer was rejected by George W Bush stating that this was no longer negotiable with Bush responding that "There's no need to discuss innocence or guilt. We know he's guilty."

Attempted capture by the United States

US propaganda leaflet used in Afghanistan.

Clinton Administration

Capturing Osama bin Laden has been an objective of the United States government since the presidency of Bill Clinton.Shortly after the September 11 attacks it was revealed that President Clinton had signed a directive authorizing the CIA (and specifically their elite Special Activities Division) to apprehend bin Laden and bring him to the United States to stand trial after the 1998 United States embassy bombings in Africa; if taking bin Laden alive was deemed impossible, then deadly force was authorized. On August 20, 1998, 66 cruise missiles launched by United States Navy ships in the Arabian Sea struck bin Laden's training camps near Khost in Afghanistan, narrowly missing him by a few hours.In 1999 the CIA, together with Pakistani military intelligence, had prepared a team of approximately 60 Pakistani commandos to infiltrate Afghanistan to capture or kill bin Laden, but the plan was aborted by the 1999 Pakistani coup d'état; in 2000, foreign operatives working on behalf of the CIA had fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a convoy of vehicles in which bin Laden was traveling through the mountains of Afghanistan, hitting one of the vehicles but not the one in which bin Laden was riding.

In 2000, prior to the September 11 attacks, Paul Bremer characterized the Clinton administration as "correctly focused on bin Laden", while Robert Oakley criticized their "obsession with Osama".

Bush Administration

According to The Washington Post, the US government concluded that Osama bin Laden was present during the Battle of Tora Bora, Afghanistan in late 2001, and according to civilian and military officials with first-hand knowledge, failure by the US to commit US ground troops to hunt him led to his escape and was the gravest failure by the US in the war against al Qaeda. Intelligence officials have assembled what they believe to be decisive evidence, from contemporary and subsequent interrogations and intercepted communications, that bin Laden began the battle of Tora Bora inside the cave complex along Afghanistan's mountainous eastern border.

The Washington Post also reported that the CIA unit composed of their special operations paramilitary forces dedicated to capturing Osama was shut down in late 2005.

US and Afghanistan forces raided the mountain caves in Tora Bora between 14–16 August 2007. The military was drawn to the area after receiving intelligence of a pre-Ramadan meeting held by al Qaeda members. After killing dozens of al Qaeda and Taliban members, they did not find either Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, US government officials named bin Laden and the Al-Qaeda organization as the prime suspects and offered a reward of $25 million for information leading to his capture or death. On July 13, 2007, this figure was doubled to $50 million.

The Airline Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association are offering an additional $2 million reward

Obama Administration

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said in December 2009 that officials have had no reliable information on Bin Laden's whereabouts for "years". One week later, general Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said in December 2009 that al-Qaeda will not be defeated unless its leader, Osama Bin Laden, is captured or killed. Testifying to the U.S. Congress, he said Bin Laden had become an "iconic figure, whose survival emboldens al-Qaeda as a franchising organization across the world", and that Obama's deployment of 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan meant that success would be possible. "I don't think that we can finally defeat al-Qaeda until he's captured or killed", McChrystal said of Bin Laden. Killing or capturing Bin Laden would not spell the end of al-Qaeda, but the movement could not be eradicated while he remained at large.

Conflicting reports of his death and his survival since 9/11

Shortly after the attacks of 9/11, US president George W. Bush issued a statement that as a consequence of the 9/11 attacks, he now hoped to "kill or capture" Bin Laden. Subsequently, Bin Laden retreated further from public contact as an obviously defensive measure against potential US capture. Since that time, numerous speculative press reports have been issued concerning various hearsay stories about his whereabouts, and also about alleged evidence of his supposed death. Meanwhile, Al Qaeda has continued to release time sensitive and professionally verified videos demonstrating Bin Laden's continued survival as recently as August 2007. In the years since 9/11, Al Queda has also released a regular series of audio and video tapes averaging once every two to three months, which seem to be generally accepted as authentic. Most recently, US General McChrystal emphasized the continued importance of the capture or killing of Bin Laden, thus clearly indicating that the US high command continues to believe that Bin Laden is probably still alive. Following are some of these conflicting reports regarding both his claimed death, and his claimed continued whereabouts:

Reports of his death

December 2001 Quoting an unnamed Taliban official, the Pakistan Observer reported that Bin Laden died of untreated lung complications and was buried in an unmarked grave in Tora Bora on December 15. This report was picked up by Fox News in the United States on December 26. Also on December 26, the Egyptian newspaper AlWafd - Daily carried a short obituary by a prominent official of the Afghan Taliban, who was allegedly present at the funeral, stating Bin Laden had been buried on or about December 13:

"(Osama bin Laden) suffered serious complications and died a natural, quiet death. He was buried in Tora Bora, a funeral attended by 30 Al Qaeda fighters, close members of his family and friends from the Taliban. By the Wahhabi tradition, no mark was left on the grave"

A videotape was released on December 27 showing a gaunt, unwell Bin Laden, prompting an unnamed White House aide to comment that it could have been made shortly before his death. On CNN, Dr Sanjay Gupta commented that Bin Laden's left arm never moved during the video, suggesting a recent stroke and possibly a symptom of kidney failure. According to Pakistani President Musharraf, Bin Laden required two dialysis machines, which also suggests kidney failure. "I think now, frankly, he is dead for the reason he is a... kidney patient," Musharraf said. If Bin Laden suffered kidney failure, he would require a sterile environment, electricity, and continuous attention by a team of specialists, Gupta said. In April 2002, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stated, "We have heard neither hide nor hair of him since, oh, about December in terms of anything hard." FBI Counterterrorism chief Dale Watson and President Karzai of Afghanistan also expressed the opinion that Bin Laden probably died at this time.

October 2002: In a CNN interview, Afghan President Hamid Karzai stated that "I would come to believe that [bin Laden] probably is dead."

April 2005: The Sydney Morning Herald stated "Dr Clive Williams, director of terrorism studies at the Australian National University, says documents provided by an Indian colleague suggested bin Laden died of massive organ failure in April last year … 'It's hard to prove or disprove these things because there hasn't really been anything that allows you to make a judgment one way or the other,' Dr. Williams said."

Late 2005 CIA disbands "Alec Station", unit dedicated to Bin Laden.

September 2006: On September 23, 2006, the French newspaper L'Est Républicain quoted a report from the French secret service (Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure, DGSE) stating that Osama bin Laden had died in Pakistan on August 23, 2006, after contracting a case of typhoid fever that paralyzed his lower limbs. According to the newspaper, Saudi security services first heard of bin Laden's alleged death on September 4, 2006. The alleged death was reported by the Saudi Arabian secret service to its government, which reported it to the French secret service. The French defense minister Michèle Alliot-Marie expressed her regret that the report had been published while French President Jacques Chirac declared that bin Laden's death had not been confirmed. American authorities also cannot confirm reports of bin Laden's death, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saying only, "No comment, and no knowledge." Later, CNN's Nic Robertson said that he had received confirmation from an anonymous Saudi source that the Saudi intelligence community has known for a while that bin Laden has a water-borne illness, but that he had heard no reports that it was specifically typhoid or that he had died.

November 2007: In an interview with political interviewer David Frost taken on November 2, 2007, the Pakistani politician and Pakistan Peoples Party leader Benazir Bhutto claimed that bin Laden had been murdered by Omar Sheikh. During her answer to a question pertaining to the identities of those who had previously attempted her own assassination, Bhutto named Sheikh as a possible suspect while referring to him as "the man who murdered Osama bin Laden." Despite the weight of such a statement, neither Bhutto nor Frost attempted to clarify it during the remainder of the interview Omar Chatriwala, a journalist for Al Jazeera English, claims that he chose not to pursue the story at the time because he believes Bhutto misspoke, meaning to say Sheikh murdered Daniel Pearl and not Osama Bin Laden. The BBC drew criticism when it rebroadcast the Frost/Bhutto interview on its website, but edited out Bhutto's statement regarding Osama Bin Laden. Later the BBC apologized and replaced the edited version with the complete interview.In October 2007, Bhutto stated in an interview that she would cooperate with the American military in targeting Osama bin Laden.

March 2009: In an essay published in The American Spectator in March 2009, international relations professor Angelo Codevilla of Boston University argued that Osama bin Laden had been dead for many years

April 2009: During an interview with the Telegraph, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari raised the prospect that Osama bin Laden could be dead after he said that intelligence officials could find "no trace" of the al-Qaeda chief. Mr Zardari's predecessor, Pervez Musharraf, similarly suggested that the Saudi terror chief could be dead. Additionally, Pakistan's intelligence agencies also believe Osama bin Laden may be dead.

October 2009: An article in the British tabloid Daily Mail points out that the theory that Bin Laden died in 2001 "is gaining credence among political commentators, respected academics and even terror experts" and notes that the mounting evidence that supports the claim makes the theory "worthy of examination".

Reports of his current whereabouts

Location of Osama bin Laden

Claims as to the location of Osama bin Laden have been made since December 2001, although none have been definitively proven and some have placed Osama in different locations during overlapping time periods. Since a major military offensive in Afghanistan in the wake of the 2001 al Qaeda attacks in the United States failed to uncover his whereabouts, Pakistan had regularly been identified as his suspected hiding place.

A December 11, 2005, letter from Atiyah Abd al-Rahman to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi indicates that bin Laden and the al-Qaeda leadership were based in the Waziristan region of Pakistan at the time. In the letter, translated by the United States military's Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, "Atiyah" instructs Zarqawi to "send messengers from your end to Waziristan so that they meet with the brothers of the leadership … I am now on a visit to them and I am writing you this letter as I am with them…" Al-Rahman also indicates that bin Laden and al-Qaeda are "weak" and "have many of their own problems." The letter has been deemed authentic by military and counterterrorism officials, according to the Washington Post.

In 2009 a research team led by Thomas W. Gillespie and John A. Agnew of UCLA used satellite-aided geographical analysis to pinpoint three compounds in Parachinar as likely hideouts of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

In March 2009, the New York Daily News reported that the hunt for bin Laden had centered in the Chitral district of Pakistan, including the Kalam Valley. According to the report, author Rohan Gunaratna states that captured Al Qaeda leaders have confirmed that Chitral is where bin Laden is hiding.

In the first week of December 2009, a Taliban detainee in Pakistan said he had information that Bin Laden was in Afghanistan in 2009. The detainee said that in January or February (of 2009) he met a trusted contact who had seen Bin Laden about 15 to 20 days earlier in Afghanistan. But, the US has had no reliable information on the whereabouts of Bin Laden in years, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted on December 6, 2009. Pakistan's Prime Minister Gillani rejected claims that Osama bin Laden would be hiding within his country.

The digitally aged photograph of Osama bin Laden created using an image of Gaspar Llamazares.

On January 15, 2010 the FBI published digitally aged pictures of Osama bin Laden showing what he may look like after a decade of aging. Spanish newspaper El Mundo revealed that a picture of a Spanish politician, Gaspar Llamazares was taken from Google images and used to create the image. The FBI has admitted to this and removed the image from its website. Gaspar Llamazares has responded by stating that he was stupefied by the FBI's decision to use his photograph to compose its latest image of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and that he is considering taking legal action if the FBI does not provide an explanation. An internal investigation has been launched by the FBI to find out if this was done intentionally.

On February 2, 2010, an anonymous official of the Saudi Foreign Ministry declared that the kingdom had no intention of getting involved in peacemaking in Afghanistan unless the Taliban would sever ties with extremists and expel Osama bin Laden. This condition was announced as the Afghan president Karzai arrived in the kingdom for an official visit, for a discussion of a possible Saudi role in his plan to reintegrate Taliban militants.

On June 7, 2010, the Kuwaiti Al Siyassa reported that Bin Laden was hiding in the mountainous town of Savzevar, in north eastern Iran.The Australian newspaper online published the claim on June 9.

Criticism of Osama bin Laden

Salafist Muslims have criticized bin Laden for adherence to Qutbism (the ideology of Sayyid Qutb), takfir and Khaarijite deviance. Critics are said to include Muhammad Ibn Haadee al-Madkhalee, Abd-al-Aziz ibn Abd-Allah ibn Baaz, Shaykh Saalih al-Fawzaan and Muqbil bin Haadi al-Waadi'ee. In August 2010, Fidel Castro claimed that bin Laden as a spy, employed by the United States.

(source:wikipedia)

Royal Wedding Form Taliban

2011-04-29T10:59:00.001-07:00

Europe’s Revolving Door in Afghanistan

2009-12-23T08:50:00.000-08:00

Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters

Inside a German army camp in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

Europeans are fighting in Afghanistan, but they are less and less sure why. President Obama, by his long process of self-examination on Afghanistan and his decision to ramp up troops in pursuit of an exit, has bought himself 18 months or so, senior European diplomats say.

The war is deeply unpopular among the European public, who do not easily accept the notion that their security is on the line in Kandahar or along the Hindu Kush. Still, key European members of the NATO alliance have agreed to go to the well one more time and stump up several thousand more troops for Afghanistan, with France and Germany the noted holdouts.

But after a European-sponsored conference on Afghanistan scheduled for London on Jan. 28, to assess Afghan progress and to discuss new pledges of support and aid, both Germany and France are expected to also increase their troop commitments. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, however, with key regional elections in March, may decide to wait until they are over, especially since he announced that not one more French solider would go to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan under Mr. Obama has increasingly become an American war, with what was once a rough equality of American and NATO troops becoming more than 2 to 1 American. Still, having declared Afghanistan an Article 5 conflict after the attacks of 9/11 — committing NATO to the defense of a member nation, in this case, the United States — NATO members regard some measure of success in Afghanistan as crucial to the health and credibility of the alliance, and have pledged, according to NATO, some 7,000 more troops from 25 nations.

The Italians and Poles have come up with 1,000 more troops each, Britain 500 more. But almost 2,000 of the 7,000 will come from countries outside the alliance (including Australia, South Korea, Sweden and aspiring NATO members, Georgia, Ukraine, Macedonia and Montenegro).

At the same time, there is an element of filling a cup with a hole in the bottom. The Netherlands will withdraw its 2,200 troops in the course of 2010; Canada, with 2,800, will be leaving by 2011. That means as American troop levels rise from 68,000 to 98,000 by next summer, allied troop levels are not likely to go much higher than the present 38,000.

American generals regard the European contributions as helpful, but not overwhelmingly so — too many nations, too many small contingents, too many special rules and conditions on how each nation’s soldiers are able to fight the war. But the more Europeans there are, to provide support and security and training for the woeful Afghan army and police, the more the Americans can concentrate on the tough battles and most contested regions.

Source:atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/

Taliban blow up Pakistan girls school: official

2009-12-23T08:47:00.000-08:00

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Taliban blew up a girls' school in Pakistan's Khyber district, where troops are fighting against militants in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an official said Wednesday.

Militants detonated explosives overnight at the government-run school in Bazgarah town, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Peshawar, capital of the violence-plagued North West Frontier Province.

"The building had 21 rooms. All have been completely demolished," local administration chief Shafeerullah Wazir told AFP by telephone.

There were no casualties because the property was empty at the time.

"Taliban and their local allies are responsible. They are destroying educational institutions to avenge the military operation against their hideouts in the area," said Wazir.

"This was the ninth educational institution blown up in Khyber over the past six weeks," he added.

Islamist militants opposed to co-education and subscribers to sharia law have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in northwest Pakistan in recent years.

The fabled Khyber tribal region is the main land bridge to neighbouring Afghanistan and the principle supply route for NATO troops fighting an eight-year Taliban insurgency across the border.

Pakistani troops launched an offensive in Khyber in September in a bid to flush out the Taliban and homegrown militant group Lashkar-e-Islam (Army of Islam) led by local warlord Mangal Bagh.

The United States is increasing pressure on Pakistan to crack down more on militants hunkered down in its lawless tribal belt, branded the most dangerous place on Earth and the chief sanctuary of Al-Qaeda.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5izrDVEHq8nBxylR9Wv0o727NVDrw

Taliban target media

2009-12-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

* Three killed, 24 hurt in Peshawar Press Club suicide attack
* Bomber blows himself up after being challenged by guard at club’s entrance
* Journalists to observe three-day mourning

PESHAWAR: Three people, including a woman, were killed and another 24 injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the main gate of the Peshawar Press Club on Tuesday.

The building is situated on the Sher Shah Suri Road close to the Cantonment Railway Station. Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) officials confirmed the toll in the first ever suicide attack in the country aimed specifically at journalists.

They said two of the bodies were identified as police constable Riazuddin and a passer-by, Rubina.

Rubina, who died of a cardiac arrest, was travelling in a rickshaw close to the press club when the blast occurred.

Peshawar Press Club accountant Mian Iqbal Shah died at the hospital later.

Several passers-by, including those travelling in a minibus, were injured in the blast besides Peshawar Press Club employees Yasir, Ayub and Kamran. A photo journalist, Khurram Pervez, also sustained injuries in the blast.

Peshawar City Police chief Liaqat Ali Khan told reporters that the suicide attacker had tried to enter the premises. The police guard at the gate frisked the man and tried to overpower him when he discovered that the person was wearing a suicide vest, however, the bomber detonated his vest during the scuffle.

The press club employee Yasir Jamil, who was also injured in the blast, told Daily Times that the suicide bomber was trying to enter the press club when the police guard stopped him. He said the attacker had an argument with the guard, and blew himself up moments later. He said the bomber had a dark complexion and short height and seemed around 18 to 19 years of age.

Nadir Khawaja, a journalist, said he saw the guard and the bomber arguing from the opposite side of the road as he was approaching the press club.

NWFP Information Minister Iftikhar Hussain told reporters at the scene that targeting journalists was “militants’ compulsion”, as the journalists were exposing the terrorists to the public.

He said no one was safe in the country, as the terrorists were targeting mosques, graves and even funeral prayers. Hussain hoped that the journalists would become more organised after the attack and would not bow down to the terrorists.

Mourning: The Peshawar Press Club has announced a three-day mourning. “The press club was already receiving threats and warning letters – journalists here are practically working in a war zone,” Peshawar Presc Club President Shamim Shahid told AFP. manzoor ali shah/afp

Sourcedailytimes.com.pk/

Over 10 suspected Taliban militants killed, wounded in N. Afghanistan

2009-12-23T08:42:00.000-08:00

BAGHLAN, Afghanistan, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- In a joint operation carried out by Afghan National Army (ANA) and police in northern Baghlan province, over 10 Taliban militants were killed and wounded, provincial governor Mohammad Akbar Barikzai said on Wednesday.

"ANA and Afghan National Police killed and wounded more than 10 suspected Taliban militants in a cleanup operation conducted in Baghlan-e-Markazi district on Tuesday," Barikzai told reporters at a press conference.

A local Taliban commander Mullah Zulmai was among the injured militants, he added.

He did not give the exact figure of Taliban causalities, but admitted four police officers were also killed in the firefight.

Moreover, at the same press briefing, Mohammad Kabir Andarabi, police chief of Baghlan, confirmed that some civilians were also hurt in the operation, but did not give more details.

Baghlan, a relatively peaceful province until early this year, has been the scene of Taliban-led insurgency over the past several months.

Source:news.xinhuanet.com/

Somali militants enforce Taliban-style dress code

2009-12-23T08:35:00.000-08:00

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Residents of a southern Somali town say Islamists are enforcing a Taliban-style dress code.

Kismayo resident Abdulahi Omar Dhere says members of the al-Shabab insurgent group are targeting young men who have long hair, no beards and wear Western-style trousers below the ankle.

Dhere said Wednesday that Islamists are publicly cutting off parts of trousers that violate the order and giving haircuts to anyone with long hair. The group has ordered men to grow beards and shave mustaches.

Al-Shabab has already banned movie theaters, musical ringtones and dancing at weddings — echoing rules ones imposed by the Taliban when they ruled most of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, though the group didn't oppose long hair.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g7OaI4_kjeHA-o4UhlmP7vlWmrrwD9CP1I2G0

Afghan police hunting insurgent kill parliament member instead

2009-12-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

The lawmaker and his son are killed in an ambush that had been set to find insurgents transporting a wounded commander in Afghanistan's north. The incident raises more questions about security forces

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan - Police hunting for a wounded insurgent commander mistakenly ambushed a vehicle carrying a member of the Afghan parliament, killing him and his son, provincial officials said today.

President Hamid Karzai ordered an investigation into the incident, which took place overnight in Baghlan province, in Afghanistan's north.

Taliban fighters and other insurgents have made significant inroads over the last year in the province. A new NATO supply route runs through the area, making it a magnet for militant strikes.

The lawmaker, Mohammad Yunos Shirnagha, was returning home after a late-night meeting with constituents when the shootout with police erupted, said Gen. Kabir Andarabi, the provincial police chief.

Police in the provincial capital, Pul-e-Kumri, had been expecting insurgents to try to transport a commander who was believed to have been injured in a clash hours earlier, on Tuesday. That battle left four police officers and at least four militants dead, and several insurgents wounded.

Accounts from Shirnagha's associates and provincial authorities differed as to circumstances surrounding the shootout, which took place at about 2:30 a.m.

The police said the lawmaker's car ran a roadblock set up by the authorities and that his vehicle was hit after the firing of warning shots into the air. But some fellow members of the upper house of parliament, and two surviving bodyguards, expressed doubts that police had properly identified themselves before opening fire.

The incident raises new questions about the training and abilities of the Afghan security forces, which are a linchpin of the Obama administration's plans for an eventual drawdown of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

Western officials hope that Afghan police and soldiers will in the next several years be able to assume responsibility for safeguarding the country; in the meantime an additional 30,000 U.S. troops and 7,000 from NATO allies are to be deployed in the coming year.

Underscoring the importance placed on the role of the Afghan security forces, Karzai paid a visit today to a police academy, and also visited Afghan police and soldiers injured in the line of duty.

He was accompanied by the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who has said he would like to see the Afghan security forces grow from their current strength of about 250,000 to 400,000.

Also today, a roadside bomb apparently aimed at coalition forces killed three civilians and injured five others in Helmand province, in Afghanistan's south. Roadside bombs now account for about four-fifths of the casualties suffered by Western forces, and kill hundreds of Afghan civilians every year as well.

Military authorities today also disclosed the death of a British soldier a day earlier from a roadside bomb, also in Helmand.

In Paktia province, bordering Pakistan, coalition forces killed a Taliban commander who was blamed for the planting of a number of roadside bombs, military officials said.

Source:latimes.com/

Taliban kill 12 in suicide attack at mosque in Pakistan's northwest

2009-12-18T08:51:00.000-08:00

A Taliban suicide bomber killed 12 Pakistanis and wounded 28 more in an attack at a mosque in the northwestern district of Dir.

The suicide bomber detonated at a mosque frequented by police in the main town of Timergara. The attack took place as people gathered at the mosque for Friday prayers.

Two children were reported to be among those killed. The mosque was heavily damaged in the suicide attack.

The Taliban maintain a strong presence in Lower Dir despite the military operation launched there in late April to oust them. Sufi Mohammed, the leader of the radical, pro-Taliban Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammed [TNSM, or the Movement for the Enforcement of Mohammed's Law], was based in Madain in Dir before he was arrested last summer. Sufi engineered the notorious Malakand Accord, the agreement with the government that ceded vast areas of northwestern Pakistan to the Taliban.

Today's attack is the latest in the Taliban's terror campaign, which was ramped up after Hakeemullah Mehsud's announcement that he would avenge the death of his predecessor Baitullah Mehsud at the hands of the US. Hakeemullah also demanded the military end its operations in the tribal areas and the wider northwest.

The Taliban have had no reservations about striking inside mosques and other religious sites. There have been 20 such attacks in mosques and other Islamic institutions in Pakistan since December 2007, according to information compiled by The Long War Journal.

The last such attack took place on Dec. 4, when a suicide assault team stormed a mosque frequented by military officers in Rawalpindi. Two senior generals were among the 40 people killed.

Major attacks at mosques, religious events, and Islamic institutions in Pakistan since December 2007:

Dec. 18, 2009: A suicide detonated inside a mosque frequented by policemen in Lower Dir, killing 12.

Dec. 4, 2009: A suicide assault team stormed a mosque in Rawalpindi that is frequented by Army officers, killing 40.

Oct. 20, 2009: A pair of suicide bombers detonated their vests at Islamabad's International Islamic University, killing five.

June 12, 2009: A suicide bomber killed five Pakistanis, including anti-Taliban cleric Dr. Sarfraz Naeemi, in an attack on a mosque in Lahore during Friday prayers.

June 12, 2009: A suicide bomber killed six worshipers and wounded more than 90 in an attack inside a mosque in Nowshera. The attack collapsed the dome of the mosque.

June 5, 2009: A suicide bomber killed 49 worshipers in an attack on a mosque in a remote village in Dir.

April 5, 2009: A suicide bomber killed 24 worshipers and wounded more than 100 in an attack outside a Shia religious center in the Chakwal district in Punjab province.

March 27, 2009: A Taliban suicide bomber killed more than 70 worshipers and wounded more than 125 in an attack at a mosque in the Khyber tribal agency.

March 5, 2009: An attacker threw a hand grenade into the middle of a mosque in Dera Ismail Khan, wounding 25 worshipers.

March 2, 2009: A suicide bomber killed six people during an attack at a gathering in a mosque in the Pishin district in Baluchistan.

Feb. 20, 2008: A suicide bomber killed 32 Pakistanis and wounded more than 85 in an attack on a funeral procession for a Shia elder who was murdered in Dera Ismail Khan.

Feb. 5, 2009: A suicide attack outside a mosque killed more than 30 Shia worshipers and wounded more than 50.

Nov. 22, 2008: A bombing at a mosque in Hangu killed five civilians and wounded seven.

Nov. 21, 2008: A suicide attack on a funeral procession in Dera Ismail Khan killed 10 mourners and wounded more than 25.

Sept. 10, 2008: The Taliban attacked a mosque filled with Ramadan worshipers in the district of Dir in northwestern Pakistan. More than 25 worshipers were killed and more than 50 were wounded.

Aug. 19, 2008: A suicide bomber killed 29 Shia mourners and wounded 35 after detonating in the emergency ward of a hospital.

June 17, 2008: Four Pakistanis were killed and three wounded in a bombing at a Shia mosque in Dera Ismail Khan.

May 19, 2008: Four Pakistanis were killed in a bombing outside a mosque in Bajaur.

Jan. 17, 2008: A suicide bomber killed 10 and wounded 25 in an attack on a Shia mosque in Peshawar.

Dec. 28, 2007: A suicide bomber detonated in the middle of a mosque in Charsadda in an attempt to kill former Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao as he conducted Eid prayers. More than 50 were killed and more than 200 were wounded.

Source:longwarjournal.org/

Rock the Taliban, train the, Afghan police force, and army

2009-12-18T08:50:00.000-08:00

President Obama's address on Afghanistan was a very good speech expressing a very good strategy.

The strategy is neither an open commitment nor a walk-away, fitting the best interests of the U.S. We cannot afford to pay for or get bogged down in a nation-building exercise that all experts say would take 10 years or more, if ever. It is enough to make a serious attempt to rock the Taliban, give enough space to the trainers to develop an Afghan police force and army and assist Pakistan with the border areas. If it succeeds, great. If not, there's Plan B. Depending on conditions, it would entail a slow withdrawal mixed with the Biden strategy of letting the Afghans govern themselves on condition that the U.S., NATO and the United Nations can intervene to the extent necessary to kill or capture any Al- Qaeda-like elements that our intelligence can identify, together with an independent Pakistan strategy that is probably being worked on.

This is not World War II, when the boys came home after the Germans and Japanese were defeated. The use of dates a) puts the pressure on the Afghans who don't want us to occupy their country and are as opposed as we to the intolerance of the Taliban, to unite against them, and b) resembles the deadlines in Iraq (demanded by the Iraqis and acquiesced to by George Bush). Of course, that won't stop the Republicans from screaming about the deadlines.

Mr. Obama spoke to the country non-condescendingly, mentioning the cost and limits of power as well as the lofty goals of America, here and historically. He avoided the sort of simplistic, full-throated cry for an undefined and unobtainable "victory," which Dick Cheney still uses to rouse the radical right. It reminded me once again that we have an adult in the White House.

BRUCE MCALLISTER

Palm Beach

Victory needed in war, not lengthy operations

To quote Sun Tzu in The Art of War, "What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations." This is pretty old stuff (sixth-century B.C.) for so many presidents and generals to have ignored or forgotten this sensible advice.

DAVID SPIELBERG

Palm Beach Gardens

Integrate long-term care with home care

A recent letter writer mentioned House Concurrent Resolution 59, co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton. It supports the goals and ideals for senior caregiving and affordability. It passed the House 387-0. Congress must take this important first step to address the looming age-wave crisis that could jeopardize the independence of millions of seniors.

I would also like to bring attention to House Resolution 791. The bill would express the House of Representatives' commitment to: (1) integrating long-term care, particularly as it relates to home care and community services, into a comprehensive health care reform agenda; and (2) aiding relevant parties in composing, executing, and enforcing a well-informed national strategy for long-term care that will address geographic and economic disparities that limit access to care, expand long-term health services, and streamline quality measures.

It also would recognize the need to: (1) collaborate with local, state, and federal health care entities to improve working conditions and training for home health aides; and (2) adequately fund and support existing technologies, entities, and initiatives that assist informal caregivers and help maintain and improve long-term health services for the disabled and elderly.

JEWEL LITTENBERG

Atlantis

Soft schedule cheats Gator players and fans

The article about the University of Florida's football recruiting class of 2006 omits a rather significant fact: These athletes have been cheated of the challenge to see how good they really could have been because UF scheduled soft nonconference opposition and because of mediocre conference foes, and its fans are cheated as well.

The University of Florida's penchant for scheduling cream puffs is a tradition. UF has never wanted to play the best. It last played Texas in 1940 (one touchdown in three games, shut out the last two) and has played the other top five winningest programs only in bowl games, never voluntarily in the regular season. The NCAA basketball tournament selection process requires teams to play rigorous schedules. The BCS process in football encourages them not to.

JAY MARGOLIS

Boynton Beach

Source:palmbeachpost.com/

Iran helping the Taliban, US ambassador claims

2009-12-18T08:48:00.000-08:00

Iran has been providing weapons and other help to the Taliban, the US ambassador to Afghanistan has claimed.

Karl Eikenberry, a former commanding general in Afghanistan, said parts of the regime had transcended sectarian divisions within Islam to provide support for fundamentalist groups fighting Western forces in Afghanistan.

"Iran or elements within Iran have provided training assistance and some weapons to the Taliban," said Mr Eikenberry.

"General Petraeus has reviewed these reports and said that the scope of Iranian support is nothing on the level that was given previously by Iran to various terrorist elements in Iraq.

"Still, the reports about this kind of low-level support and periodic co-operation between elements in Iran and militant extremist Taliban are disturbing and do not show good faith by Afghanistan's neighbour to the West."

Iran's Shia Muslim regime's has long been suspicious of the extremist Sunni Taliban and Tehran co-operated with the US-led effort to overthrow the movement in 2001.

But a Western official involved in Iran policy-making said yesterday that Iranian officials were now playing both sides of the Afghan conflict to ensure that the Western-backed Kabul government remained weak.

"Afghanistan should be an area of common interest between Britain and Iran because they don't want an extremist Sunni government on their border," an official said.

"But Afghanistan, like Iraq, is in its backyard and Tehran just does not want a Western victory or a strong pro-Western government on its eastern flank. It is now playing two roles there, assisting the insurgency even as it provides aid."

Source:telegraph.co.uk

Taliban warns US over Afghan war

2009-12-18T08:45:00.000-08:00

A senior Taliban commander has warned the United States that it will be defeated in Afghanistan, even if it sends an extra 200,000 US troops.

Located in the so-called valley of death near the border with Pakistan, Taliban fighters vowed to fight to the very end.

However, the movement will not just be battling foreign forces as the Afghan government, with help from US and Nato forces, moves to equip and train tribal fighters.

Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra reports from Kabul, the Afghan capital.

Source:english.aljazeera.net

US says Pakistan holding up visas

2009-12-18T08:44:00.000-08:00

Pakistan has been holding up visas for US officials and contractors and continued delays could have an "impact" on the effectiveness of aid programmes in the country, the US State Department said on Thursday.

Hundreds of visa applications and renewals for US personnel have been delayed and the United States has raised the problem with Pakistan's senior leadership, deputy spokesman Robert Wood said.

"We've expressed our concern about the delays and the impact that this could very well have on our programmes and activities," Wood said, adding, "Should this continue, it indeed will have an impact."

The New York Times reported the delays were part of a campaign by Pakistan's intelligence services and military to harass US diplomats who have been pushing for the Pakistani government to intensify the fight against the Taliban in Pakistan.

Cracking down on the Taliban is seen as critical for the US effort to defeat the militant group across the border in Afghanistan, where President Barack Obama is sending an additional 30,000 troops.

The United States gives the Pakistani military millions of dollars in annual aid for counter-terrorism operations, and earlier this year Congress approved a $7.5-billion aid package over five years to help build democratic institutions and the economy in the country.

The United States is concerned some of the aid programmes "are grinding to a halt," a diplomat told the Times.

Source:hindustantimes.com/

Fears for anti-Taliban push as graft fracas engulfs Pakistan

2009-12-18T08:42:00.000-08:00

Retired general and analyst Talat Masood said that there would be repercussions if the implicated politicians were determined to hold onto their portfolios and engage in lengthy court battles. 'A swift way out of the crisis would be for the implicated ministers to resign or a cabinet reshuffle take place.' –APP/ File photo

ISLAMABAD: A Supreme Court ruling quashing a corruption amnesty protecting politicians has thrown nuclear-armed Pakistan into turmoil as the nation's allies want it to focus on battling militants, analysts say.

Late Thursday, the defence minister was barred from leaving the country, the first fallout from a court decision striking down a 2007 law protecting people including President Asif Ali Zardari and reviving old graft cases.

The travel ban sparked Pakistan's ambassador in Washington to deny a coup looming in a nation that only emerged from a long spell of military rule last year and has been battered by political turmoil and surging Islamist violence.

Although analysts said whispers of a coup were completely unfounded, the havoc created by the ruling will unnerve Islamabad's Western backers, who have put Pakistan at the heart of the global fight against Al-Qaeda.

‘It undermines the reputation of the political elite... and uncertainty at this stage causes concern at the international level,’ said Hasan Askari, a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University.

‘The international community's major concern is how far the internal developments and political wrangling between the government and opposition would affect Pakistan's capacity to address terrorism and related issues.’

Pakistan launched multiple offensives against Taliban and other militants in the northwest this year, trying to quell an insurgency that has killed more than 2,700 people since the rebellion intensified in July 2007.

But US President Barack Obama's administration has been heaping pressure on Pakistan to also go after groups such as the Haqqani Network, the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants who target foreign troops in Afghanistan.

They have carved out sanctuaries in the lawless and rugged northwest tribal belt -- branded the most dangerous place in the world by Washington -- where they train and regroup before crossing the porous border to Afghanistan.

Political columnist Shafqat Mahmood said that so far, there was little sign that Pakistan's war on the militants was suffering.

‘The security apparatus, which is the military, is fairly autonomous so any kind of political back and forth and court cases will occupy the political class but it won't affect the security situation,’ he said.

But retired general and analyst Talat Masood said that there would be repercussions if the implicated politicians were determined to hold onto their portfolios and engage in lengthy court battles.

‘That will result in an uncertainty as to how the government will eventually shape and during this transitional period there would be difficulties as far as governance and security issues are concerned,’ he told AFP.

‘Logistics, financial allocations, the running of the country, the ownership of the war, the morale, attending to those people who are displaced and wounded -- all that has a very direct bearing on the economy, on everything.’

Askari said there were also positive aspects to the ruling, as it showed Pakistan had an independent judiciary willing to tackle high-level corruption.

The amnesty -- called the National Reconciliation Ordinance -- was passed in October 2007 by then-president General Pervez Musharraf, who was under pressure to hold elections and end about eight years of military rule.

It quashed charges against a number of politicians including Zardari and the current interior and defence ministers to allow them to stand for office.

A swift way out of the crisis would be for the implicated ministers to resign or a cabinet reshuffle take place, Masood said.

For the moment, Zardari remains protected from old graft cases because his position gives him immunity from prosecution but the opposition are calling for his resignation and his eligibility for the presidency could also be challenged in court.

Such legal cases could drag on for months but at the moment, columnist Mahmood said, Zardari seemed determined to ‘fight to the bitter end’. –AFP

Source:dawn.com/

Victory over Taliban by 2011 possible: Afghan diplomat

2009-12-18T08:41:00.000-08:00

OTTAWA, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- It is "very realistic" to expect a military victory over the Taliban by 2011 when the United States troops pull out of Afghanistan, Afghanistan's ambassador to Canada said Thursday.

But that will depend on how much resources to be put in training the Afghan national forces and preparing the Afghan institutions, Jawed Ludin, the Afghan ambassador, told reporters.

"It is very realistic if our eagerness, if our keen interest as Afghans is anything to go by, then it's very achievable ... The question obviously is whether the international community will be able to put in the amount of resources that are needed to prepare our institutions, the national army and the national police," he said.

He warned that the Afghan security forces will not be ready to stand on their own by 2011 if they progress at the current speed. But he said things are getting better and the Afghans are getting the support they need.

On Wednesday, Ludin spoke to U.S. General Stanley McChrystal, the head of the American war effort in Afghanistan, who was in Ottawa to speak to the Conference of Defense Associations.

McChrystal said by the summer of 2011, NATO will be able to demonstrate to the Afghan people that the Taliban "will not win."

Earlier this year the United States announced that it will increase troops to Afghanistan and a plan to begin withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in 2011.

Source:news.xinhuanet.com

Pakistan security forces kill Taliban commander, 6 militants

2009-12-18T08:39:00.001-08:00

ISLAMABAD, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) -- Pakistani security forces said Wednesday that a Taliban commander and six militants have been killed in Waziristan tribal region.

Security forces engaged and destroyed a vehicle at Miranshah, the center of North Waziristan and militants commander Gulbadeen Mehsud was killed, the army said in a statement.

During the last 24 hours, six militants have been killed while one soldier lost his life and six others were injured, it said. The army claimed that the militants fired at a camp of security forces and damaged a mosque.

The militants also fired with small arms at security forces check post at Sararogha and Shuza areas in South Waziristan which was effectively responded and two militants were killed.

The security forces conducted search operation at different places and recovered huge cache of arms and ammunition.

The militants fired rockets at a camp and killed a soldier while six others were injured while a mosque was damaged, the army statement said. The Security forces killed three militants during an encounter.

According to the army statistics, Pakistani security forces have killed more than 600 militants since they launched the ground assault on Oct. 17 in South Waziristan, advancing towards the main base of Taliban militants in Pakistan.

Source:news.xinhuanet.com/

General: U.S. Troops To Hit Taliban Hard In 2010

2009-12-18T08:36:00.000-08:00

Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson (left) approaches Patrol Base Lakhari in southern Helmand province in this October 2009 photo.

U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan plan to carry out a major operation next year to clear one of the largest remaining Taliban strongholds in the violent Helmand province.
Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson tells NPR's All Things Considered that the 10,000 or so additional Marines being sent as part of the Obama administration's surge plan will enable an all-out assault on Marja, where Taliban forces have been digging in.
"We have one area that we know the enemy considers a sanctuary and has sort of arrived in significant numbers and built up his defenses," Nicholson tells NPR's Robert Siegel in a telephone interview Thursday from Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province. "I think there is an inevitability, a little bit of a collision, if you will, here sometime in the new year."
Helmand has been the site of a series of fierce pitched battles in the past six months as Nicholson's Marines have ousted Taliban forces from a number of towns that had previously been effectively off-limits to NATO forces.
In an effort to demonstrate how much progress has been made, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, toured one of those towns, called Nawa, on Thursday surrounded by a significant security detail but without wearing a flak jacket.

We believe we have an enemy that will fight and hold that ground.
- Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan
Mullen said increasing the participation of Afghan security forces in taking and holding territory is an essential part of the U.S. strategy.
"It's critical that we continue to focus on them and they take the lead and essentially become responsible for their own security, which actually is a more exciting proposition than what's occurring right now," Mullen said.
Toward that goal, Nicholson says training programs for Afghan security forces have been accelerated and, if everything goes according to plan, there will be about the same number of Afghan soldiers and police officers as U.S. Marines participating in the upcoming Marja operation.
"What we're here to do probably for Marja is probably break open those [improvised explosive device] lanes, pour through, but at the end of the day this has got to be their victory," Nicholson says. "We're going to work very hard to make sure they are involved in every facet of it, to include the planning of it."
But he warns that the Marja assault, when it comes, is likely to be a very tough fight.
Taliban insurgents, who have been laying down fields of IEDs and mines, are expected to fight hard to defend one of the few remaining significantly populated portions of Helmand that they still control.
"We believe that there is a formidable enemy there. We believe we have an enemy that will fight and hold that ground," Nicholson says. "Where's he going to go after this? Will he try to sneak back into the areas we have cleared and are prospering? I don't think there will be a lot of appetite from the locals to welcome them back."
One factor that should help, he adds, is that about 80 percent of the Taliban fighters still operating in Helmand are "local guys who will frankly just go home." The remaining 20 percent or so are seen as committed ideologues who won't give up easily.
Beyond the immediate goal of driving the Taliban out of Marja, Nicholson says he is focused on the broader picture, including President Obama's stated intention of beginning to draw down troops in Afghanistan starting in July 2011.
"I can't tell you where we're going to be in July of 2011, but I can tell you that we understand what the commander-in-chief has said, and that's when he wants to draw down, and we are sprinting," Nicholson says. "The message to our Marines every day is that the clock is running and the world is watching."

Source:npr.org/

US airstrike kills 3 in North Waziristan

2009-12-18T08:33:00.000-08:00

The US killed three Islamist terrorists in the third airstrike in two days in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.

The strike, carried out by unmanned Predator or Reaper attack aircraft, hit a Taliban safe house in the Datta Khel region in North Waziristan. Several Hellfire missiles were reported to have been launched in the airstrike.

"The US drone missiles hit a house in the mountains," a Pakistani intelligence official told Dawn. "We have reports of three militants killed and five injured. The house was completely destroyed."

US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal would not comment on the target of the attack.

The Datta Khel region was the focus of two airstrikes yesterday which killed a senior al Qaeda commander and six fighters, as well as 11 Haqqani Network fighters.

The al Qaeda commander was identified as Zuhaib al Zahibi. A senior US military intelligence official described Zahibi as "a general officer equivalent" in the Lashkar al Zil, or the Shadow Army.

The Datta Khel region is a stronghold of both the Haqqani Network and North Waziristan Taliban leader Hafiz Gul Bahadar; they both shelter al Qaeda leaders and fighters. The US has pressured Pakistan to dismantle the Haqqani Network, but has been rebuffed.

The Haqqani family is led by Jalaluddin and his son Siraj, who serves as the military commander. The network is based in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, and has the backing of the Pakistani military and its intelligence service. The Haqqanis have strong ties to al Qaeda. Siraj Haqqani is believed to be a member of al Qaeda's military shura, or council, US intelligence officials have told The Long War Journal.

The US has zeroed in on the Haqqani Network since killing Baitullah Mehsud in an Aug. 5 strike in South Waziristan. Baitullah was the leader of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, one of several Taliban groups operating in Pakistan.

Since the Aug. 5 strike, 14 of the 18 reported airstrikes have taken place in North Waziristan, while the other four were in South Waziristan. Nine of the 14 attacks in North Waziristan occurred in territory administered by the Haqqani Network.

So far this year, the US has carried out 50 airstrikes inside Pakistan. In all of 2008, 36 strikes were carried out. Since the US ramped up cross-border attacks in August 2008, 16 senior al Qaeda and Taliban leaders have been killed.

US airstrikes in Pakistan in 2009:

• US airstrike kills 3 in North Waziristan
Dec. 18, 2009
• Al Qaeda Shadow Army commander killed in US strike [two airstrikes in North Waziristan]
Dec. 17, 2009
• US strike kills 4 al Qaeda, 2 Taliban in South Waziristan
Dec. 10, 2009
• US airstrike kills 3 in North Waziristan
Dec. 8, 2009
• US airstrike kills 4 Taliban in North Waziristan
Nov. 18, 2009
• US kills 4 in North Waziristan airstrike
Nov. 4, 2009
• US airstrike targets al Qaeda in North Waziristan
Oct. 21, 2009
• US kills 4 in strike on Haqqani Network in North Waziristan
Oct. 14, 2009
• US strike kills Haqqani Network and foreign fighters in North Waziristan
Sept. 30, 2009
• US aircraft strike in North and South Waziristan
Sept. 29, 2009
• US airstrike targets Haqqani Network in North Waziristan
Sept. 24, 2009
• Two al Qaeda leaders reported killed in North Waziristan strike
Sept. 14, 2009
• 12 killed in second US strike in North Waziristan
Sept. 8, 2009
• Senior al Qaeda leaders reported killed in North Waziristan strike
Sept. 7, 2009
• US strikes Taliban compound in South Waziristan, 8 killed
Aug. 27, 2009
• US Predators target the Haqqanis in North Waziristan
Aug. 20, 2009
• US kills 14 in strike on Taliban training camp in South Waziristan
Aug. 11, 2009
• Baitullah Mehsud's wife killed in Predator attack
Aug. 5, 2009
• US Predator strikes in North Waziristan, kills 5
July 17, 2009
• US strikes Taliban communications center in South Waziristan
July 10, 2009
• US kills 25 Taliban in second Predator strike in South Waziristan
July 8, 2009
• US Predator strike on Taliban camp kills 8 in South Waziristan
July 8, 2009
• US Predator strike kills 14 Taliban in South Waziristan
July 7, 2009
• 13 Taliban fighters killed in US airstrikes in Pakistan
July 3, 2009
• Scores of Taliban killed in second US strike in South Waziristan
June 23, 2009
• Six killed in US Predator attack in South Waziristan
June 23, 2009
• US strikes target Mullah Nazir in South Waziristan
June 18, 2009
• US kills 5 in South Waziristan strike
June 14, 2009
• US strikes Taliban, al Qaeda in North Waziristan
May 16, 2009
• US strikes again in South Waziristan
May 12, 2009
• US strike targets Baitullah Mehsud territory in South Waziristan
May 9, 2009
• US strike kills 10 Taliban in South Waziristan
April 29, 2009
• US airstrike targets Taliban training camp in South Waziristan
April 19, 2009
• US Predator kills four in South Waziristan strike
April 8, 2009
• US strikes Haqqani Network in North Waziristan
April 4, 2009
• US launches first strike in Arakzai tribal agency
April 1, 2009
• Latest US strike targets al Qaeda safe house in North Waziristan
March 26, 2009
• US airstrike kills 8 in Baitullah Mehsud's hometown
March 25, 2009
• US launches second strike outside of Pakistan's tribal areas
March 15, 2009
• US missile strike in Kurram agency kills 14
March 12, 2009
• US airstrike kills 8 in South Waziristan
March 1, 2009
• US airstrike in Pakistan's Kurram tribal agency kills 30
Feb. 16, 2009
• US Predator strike in South Waziristan kills 25
Feb. 14, 2009
• US strikes al Qaeda in North and South Waziristan
Jan. 23, 2009
• US hits South Waziristan in second strike
Jan. 2, 2009
• US kills 4 al Qaeda operatives in South Waziristan strike
Jan. 1, 2009

Source:longwarjournal.org/

Taliban want talks with govt: Malik

2009-12-18T08:32:00.000-08:00

* Interior minister says govt cannot hold talks with ‘unreliable people who don’t even fulfil their commitments’

ISLAMABAD: The Taliban leadership is sending messages from various sources to the government for holding dialogue, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Tuesday. “The government cannot hold talks with unreliable people who don’t even fulfil their commitments. If the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) really wants to hold dialogue with the government, they must surrender and lay down their arms first,” Malik said.

He said TTP leader Hakeemullah Mehsud had accepted responsibility for the Parade Lane mosque attack in Rawalpindi, adding that the TTP had time and again accepted the responsibility of terrorist attacks in various parts of the country including suicide attacks on students at the International Islamic University. “How can they (Taliban) blame the country’s secret agencies for carrying out terrorist attacks,” he asked, adding that, “TTP spokesman Azam Tariq is a liar. He is the person who first announced the death of Hakeemullah Mehsud and said Faqir Muhammad will be the head of the TTP, but later backtracked.”

“The leadership of TTP has realised that their so-called and self-designed jihad is meaningless now as the clerics have denounced suicide attacks and their jihad, which is against innocent people,” Malik said. He said “the banned outfit is losing the support of their own people as well because there is no justification for their self-designed jihad, after the decree by ulema.” To a question, the minister said the government could consider holding dialogue with the TTP but only if they lay down their arms. app

Source:dailytimes.com.pk/

ICRC visits Afghan troops in Taliban custody

2009-12-18T08:31:00.000-08:00

PESHAWAR: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has carried out two

visits to three members of the Afghan security forces detained by the Taliban

in Badghis province in northwest Afghanistan last month, a communication said on Tuesday.

This was the first time since the beginning of the current conflict that the ICRC has visited people detained by the armed opposition, said the Peshawar office of the ICRC. “We welcome this breakthrough. We plan to conduct and repeat visits in other regions, and hope to visit people held by other armed opposition groups, for ensuring that everyone detained in relation to the armed conflict is treated humanely,” the communication quoted the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation in Kabul, Reto Stocker, as saying.

The ICRC regularly visits people held in connection with the conflict to assess their conditions of detention and treatment. It then shares its findings, recommendations and concerns with the detaining parties on a strictly confidential basis, to ensure humane treatment.

“International humanitarian law grants the same protection to everyone held in connection with the armed conflict, whether the detaining party is the international or Afghan security forces or the armed opposition,” Stocker said. The ICRC currently visited 136 places of detention in Afghanistan and has registered over 16,000 persons since the beginning of the current conflict in 2001, the communication said.

Source:thenews.com.pk/

Investigators probe link of Taliban with bank heist

2009-12-18T08:27:00.000-08:00

KARACHI: The main suspect in the country’s biggest bank robbery used the identity card of another person to get the job of a guard in a security company.

Five men led by a security guard had robbed the I.I. Chundrigar Road branch of Allied Bank of foreign currency equivalent to Rs311.2 million on Sunday morning.

After the robbery, police got hold of the file of the guard, Shahid Mehmood, and his fake CNIC, original photograph and copies of the CNIC of his guarantors were taken into possession.

Particulars on the CNIC misled police into thinking that the man was from Faisalabad.

On Monday, when police reached the Faisalabad address, mentioned on the CNIC, it transpired that Shahid Mehmood ran a canteen at a commercial centre in Qayyumabad area near DHA in Karachi.

A senior police officer told Dawn that the main suspect had used the CNIC of Shahid Mehmood to get a job in the security company.

‘He didn’t even replace the picture of Shahid Mehmood with that of his own. However, he had submitted his own photograph along with the copy of the CNIC at the company,’ the officer said.

Similarly, the photocopies of the CNIC of the two guarantors were attached by the main suspect in his job application and the guarantors were questioned by police on Monday.

It emerged that the two didn’t know the suspect and he had misused the copies of their CNIC.

However, it has been established that the unnamed ‘main suspect’ belongs to Peshawar, prompting police to include the possibility of Taliban linkage, an investigator told Dawn.

An injection of Rs311 million in the terror network would add to the capacity of Taliban to continue their attacks across the country, an investigator remarked. Such a huge amount of cash cannot be taken home by someone for personal use.

Meanwhile, Karachi police have been instructed to check the offices of private security agencies and report any irregularity to higher authorities.

CCPO Waseem Ahmed issued orders to SPs of all towns to check the record of the companies which have offices in their jurisdiction.

Police have also requested the Home Department that punishment for offences committed by security companies should be increased to jail terms of three years (from two years) and the amount of fine to Rs200,000 to Rs50,000.

Sources said that a police team headed by a senior officer had been sent to Peshawar to trace the whereabouts of the main suspect with the help of local police.

About a dozen bank robberies took place in Karachi in 2009, but none matched the latest one in precision and planning.

The last major heist in the country took place in 2007 when two security guards robbed Rs160 million from a foreign exchange company in Karachi.

Several recent bank robberies in Karachi have been traced to the Taliban.

Souece:dawn.com/

Brown to unveil plan to tackle Afghan roadside bombs

2009-12-14T02:00:00.000-08:00

Gordon Brown is to outline proposals to counter roadside bombs which have led to rising UK deaths in Afghanistan.

The prime minister, who visited troops in Helmand at the weekend, will promise money for new equipment and a greater detection role for local forces.

He will tell MPs an Afghan intelligence network to identify where the devices are made and deployed will be set up.

Meanwhile, the new bishop to the Armed Forces has called for a less simplistic attitude to the Taliban.

The Right Reverend Stephen Venner said there were many things about them that the West disapproved of but the Taliban could perhaps be admired for their conviction to their faith.

Defence spending

The prime minister said he would re-prioritise defence spending, with an extra £150m due to be spent on the UK's campaign in Afghanistan.

There's a large number of things that the Taliban say and stand for which none of us in the West could approve

Rt Rev Stephen Venner

Growing menace of Afghan IEDs
It will come as part of a substantial change in defence priorities with more money being diverted to pay for equipment to target improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and more helicopters, says the BBC's deputy political editor James Landale.

The cash, to be spent over three years, will see a specialist training base set up in Britain.

The IEDs laid by the Taliban will be targeted with an additional £10m to be used to buy 400 hi-tech robot mine detectors.

In an announcement on Tuesday, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth is also expected to say a new centre will be set up in the UK to analyse aerial surveillance photographs.

As part of the reallocation of funds, he is set to announce the closure of at least one RAF base and a scaling back of the UK sovereign base area in Cyprus, as well as cuts to the MoD Police and back office functions.

Basic quarters

During his visit to Afghanistan, the prime minister inspected new equipment and held talks with President Hamid Karzai in Kandahar.

Gordon Brown: "I am here to thank our troops"
At the Shorabak Afghan army base in Helmand, he witnessed the sort of training local forces are getting to deal with IEDs.

He is expected to tell the Commons that President Karzai has promised to step up the training programme so his forces can take over more of this role from allied troops.

Our correspondent said unusually Mr Brown spent the night in the country, rather than flying in and out in one day.

He slept in "basic quarters" at the Kandahar air base, the headquarters of Nato troops in the south of the country.

Admirable qualities

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Bishop Venner said the Taliban could "perhaps be admired for their conviction to their faith and their sense of loyalty to each other".

The Church of England bishop argued against demonising the Taliban and said the attitude taken towards them had been "too simplistic".

"There's a large number of things that the Taliban say and stand for which none of us in the West could approve, but simply to say therefore that everything they do is bad is not helping the situation," he said.

Bishop Venner said everyone in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, needed to be involved in finding a solution to the country's problems

Source:news.bbc.co.uk/

Weapon supplier nabbed in Taliban birthplace

2009-12-14T01:59:00.000-08:00

KABUL, Dec. 14 (Xinhua) -- Afghan troops in conjunction with the NATO-led multinational force apprehended a weapon supplier to militants in Taliban birthplace Kandahar, south Afghanistan on Monday, a statement of the military alliance released here said.

"Afghan and International Security forces detained a Taliban weapon facilitator in Kandahar today," the statement added.

The man, detained from Panjwai district without any shots, according to the statement was involved in shipment of weapons to Taliban militants in the restive region. However, it did not give his name.

In the statement, it added that some more militants were detained during the operation against the weapon facilitator. Taliban militants fighting the troops have not made comment.

Kandahar, a former stronghold of Taliban and the neighboring Helmand and Zabul provinces have been the scene of increasing insurgency over the past couple of years.

Source:xinhuanet.com/

Taliban 'not all bad', says new Armed Forces bishop

2009-12-14T01:57:00.000-08:00

The Taliban can be "admired" for their loyalty and conviction, the new Armed Forces bishop said yesterday.

Rt Rev Stephen Venner said the West's attitude had been "too simplistic" towards the Taliban - arguing against demonising the Islamic fundamentalist group.

The Church of England bishop, recently commissioned by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, said: "There's a large number of things that the Taliban say and stand for which none of us in the West could approve, but simply to say therefore that everything they do is bad is not helping the situation.

"The Taliban can perhaps be admired for their conviction to their faith and their sense of loyalty to each other."

Advertisement - article continues below »

The bishop said he admired the sacrifices made by the British forces fighting in Afghanistan and some of the Taliban's methods were not acceptable.

He added that all the people of Afghanistan, including the Taliban, needed to be involved in a solution to the problems.

Colonel Richard Kemp, a former commander in Afghanistan, accused the bishop of naivety.

"We must understand our enemy but that is more of a military issue rather than a religious one," he said.

"There are elements in the Taliban who do not act from a religious perspective. Their creed and ethos is about violent oppression which comes from a politics of extreme religion."

Source:mirror.co.uk/

Taliban stability may pose threat to entire region: Mcchrystal

2009-12-14T01:54:00.000-08:00

Updated at: 0827 PST, Monday, December 14, 2009
WASHINGTON: The commander of US and Nato troops in Afghanistan General Mcchrystal has feared that the entire region including Afghanistan, Pakistan and adjoining areas could be sent in danger if Taliban succeeded to obtain stability, Geo news reported Monday.

“Taliban will have to be eradicated at any cost”, adding, “Taliban may pose threat to the stability of the entire region if they become stable in Afghanistan again.”

“Al-Qaeda wants imposition of its ideology over all across the world. We want better partnership with Afghan government”, he said, “But the world must come forward to further assistance to Afghanistan in its war against terrorism.”

Afghan government should raise salaries of Afghan troops, general proposed.

Source:geo.tv/

Malik rules out talks with Taliban

2009-12-07T18:54:00.000-08:00

KARACHI: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik ruled out talks with Taliban and asked the misguided youth to adopt the right course.

The interior minister accompanied by Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad today visited Jamia Amjadia where he had a detailed meeting with a delegation of Ahle-Sunnat’s ulema. The delegation comprised of Mufti Muneeb-ur-Rehman, Allama Shah Turab Qadri, Haji Hanif Tayyab, Tariq Mahboob and Shahid Ghauri.

Following the meeting, Malik said Ulema from all schools of thought had a consensus that suicide attacks and terrorism were un-Islamic.

When directed his attention toward inclusion of Sunni Tehrik’s name in the watch list of interior ministry, he said that he was unaware about this and would discuss the matter with the leadership of Sunni Tehrik (ST).

Source:geo.tv/

4 pro-Taliban militants 'killed in Pakistan'

2009-12-07T18:51:00.000-08:00

Pakistan's army says its forces have killed at least four suspected pro-Taliban militants in an operation in the northwestern Swat valley.

Military spokesman Major Mushtaq Khan told AFP that four pro-Taliban militants were killed in the Monday operation.

The incident took place when Pakistani troops attacked a suspected militant hideout in Shamozai village, southwest of the valley's main town Mingora.

Senior official of the Swat media center Colonel Akhtar Abbas said there were no military casualties.

In April, the army launched an offensive in Swat and the neighboring Buner and Lower Dir districts.

The army claimed in July that most of the militant bastions had been wiped out; but sporadic clashes and bombings continue to rock the valley.

AGB/TG/DT
Source:presstv.ir/

NATO strike destroys Taliban bastion: officials

2009-12-07T18:49:00.000-08:00

ASADABAD, Afghanistan — NATO warplanes pounded a Taliban stronghold in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, killing more than 20 insurgents and destroying a bunker complex, military officials said.

Noor Akbar, a regional Taliban commander was among those killed in the raid in the province of Kunar, a mountainous region and Taliban flashpoint area near the Pakistan border, Afghan army general Mohammad Qasim Bitanai told AFP.

"More than 20 Taliban fighters, including their commander Noor Akbar, were killed in the raid," he said.

The NATO-run International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it called in an air strike that demolished a Taliban stronghold in the province's Watapur district but did not give details of casualties.

"An international security force conducted an air strike today and destroyed a known Taliban stronghold consisting of bunkers and prepared defensive positions in Kunar province.

"The security force targeted the stronghold near the village of Tsangar Darah in the mountainous Watapur district after intelligence sources indicated militant activity at the location," ISAF said.

The Afghan general said the operation was coordinated between Afghan and foreign forces, which currently number around 113,000 in the country.

Several other rebels were killed in operations elsewhere in the province of Paktika, also in the east, ISAF said without giving a figure.

US President Barack Obama last week ordered 30,000 more troops to the war-torn country as NATO allies pledged at least an extra 7,000 soldiers as part of a sweeping new strategy to crush a surge in Taliban violence.

The Taliban have made a deadly come-back since the 2001 US-led invasion toppled their regime in Kabul, forcing commanders to demand reinforcements in a bid to win a war increasingly unpopular in Western capitals.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iYCeKFqIj1hz_QmdNCfMz4GyRZPw

Jobs, Not Taliban, Are the Worry in Afghan Town

2009-12-07T18:48:00.000-08:00

KHAN NESHIN, Afghanistan (AP) -- The dusty bazaar in this remote town in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province was once teeming with Taliban fighters and drug smugglers who used it as a central transit point in their journeys to and from nearby Pakistan.

Now the market is quiet, and shopkeepers and residents tell U.S. Marines who patrol the streets that they appreciate their efforts to open a new school and dredge the town's irrigation canals. But they complain that business was better before troops descended on the area five months ago and drove the militants away.

''Security is good now, but security was also good during the time of the Taliban,'' said Marijah, a Khan Neshin resident hanging around the market looking for work.

Many residents say they are more concerned about job prospects than security and are impatient to see improvements after eight years of war. But coalition efforts have been hampered by Afghanistan's weak government and the behavior of local security forces.

Some residents also expressed concern that working with the coalition could endanger them if the Taliban return after the Marines leave.

''The people are thinking about the history of Afghanistan,'' said Jonathan Browning, a development expert deployed to Khan Neshin by the British. ''If things swing back to the Taliban, they fear they will be seen as being involved.''

Others probably support the insurgents, most of whom, like Khan Neshin residents, are ethnic Pashtuns. Many farmers in the area grow poppies or marijuana, linking them to the vast drug networks that are often protected or controlled by the Taliban.

Some 4,000 Marines pushed south to Khan Neshin, the capital of Rig district, and other parts of southern Helmand province in July in the largest military operation in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.

Lessons learned after five months on the ground in Khan Neshin will provide a roadmap for the 30,000 additional U.S. troops President Barack Obama has ordered to Afghanistan under a new strategy announced last week.

As part of the Obama surge, about 16,000 U.S. troops got their orders to Afghanistan in the last few days, including about 1,500 Marines from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina who will leave for this country later this month, the Pentagon said Monday.

In Khan Neshin, several hundred of the Marines established a patrol base inside a 200-year-old mud fort. They also set up several smaller outposts in the surrounding area. The spartan bases represent the coalition's most southern presence in Helmand, a Taliban stronghold that produces more than half of Afghanistan's opium.

''This was one of the main stopping points for all the rat lines for weapons, fighters and drugs heading north from Pakistan,'' said Capt. Chris Banweg, a civil affairs officer with the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, the Marine Corps reserve unit stationed in Khan Neshin since November.

''It was like the Holiday Inn. Everyone stayed here,'' said Banweg.

The U.S. military plans to send a large number of the additional troops to Helmand and neighboring Kandahar province to secure key population centers and transit routes.

U.S. forces will also focus on expanding the Afghan army and police. Training the security forces is seen as key to transferring responsibility to the Afghan government and allowing the coalition to draw down its forces.

Some analysts speculate the transition will take longer than expected, and the Marines' experience with police in Khan Neshin shows how far that group, known for its corruption, has to go.

Residents complained the police harassed them and took goods from the bazaar without paying.

''It's the police's job to protect the people, not bother them,'' said shopkeeper Bar Aga.

Eleven of the 19 policemen in Khan Neshin were fired after testing positive for drugs, said Lt. Col. Richard Crevier, executive officer of the Marine battalion in Khan Neshin.

The police responded by rebelling and throwing rocks at the Marines, he said.

''The police down here were basically corralled off the streets of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah,'' Crevier said. ''They hadn't been trained and didn't have police ethics.''

A second group of 13 police who arrived a few days ago also lacked any training, except for the chief. But the town is slated to receive more than 20 graduates from a police academy near Lashkar Gah toward the end of the month.

Despite the challenges, the Marines and civilian development experts in Khan Neshin believe they are making progress and that morale is high. They have partnered with the community to dredge the town's canals, open the first school in about five years and run a health clinic two days a week inside the fort.

They also have high hopes for the new district governor, Massoud Ahmad Rassouli Balouch, a 27-year-old former pharmacist from Lashkar Gah. But he has struggled to recruit competent staff willing to work in Khan Neshin and to get resources for a district that contains only about 1 percent of Helmand's population.

Source:nytimes.com/

Mosque attack well planned, but it only weakens Taliban

2009-12-07T18:47:00.000-08:00

On Friday at about 2pm, a mosque in Rawalpindi was attacked by six or seven terrorists, leaving 40 dead and 84 wounded. The dead include a serving major general, 11 serving and retired army officers, five soldiers and also 13 children, most of them scions of army officers. The wounded include a retired four-star army officer.

Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was quick to assume responsibility, reaffirming my contention that the Mehsud chapter has infiltrated back through Kurram and Khyber agencies and is again ensconced in Orakzai Agency. Wali-ur Rehman, a less virulent leader compared to Hakimullah Mehsud, spoke to the BBC, claiming responsibility. He likened the mosque in Rawalpindi to the one in Mecca which was destroyed by the Prophet Mohammed. He went on to state that such attacks against the military would continue.

It is worth pointing out again that this attack, like all the previous ones in Rawalpindi and Lahore, was executed by Punjabis, although they were trained by the Mehsud TTP. There seems to be no dearth of cannon fodder for these terrorist organisations from Punjab, Pakistan’s heartland, where, bred on distorted religious extremism, pitiful youths waste their lives and kill indiscriminately.

First, the significance of this particular mosque: it is located in the heart of the old cantonment on a street called Parade Lane. To its west, a kilometre away, lies a huge apartment complex housing over 500 serving officers and their families; to its south, the same lane extends another kilometre to a residential complex for senior army officers, including a number of generals; and to its north-west, only a couple of kilometres away, is a residential complex for about 300 families of retired officers of various ranks from brigadier on down.

Thus, on any given Friday, the afternoon congregation would be expected to include a large number of serving and retired army officers and their families.

The plan of attack was tactically sound. One suicide bomber was supposed to enter the mosque at the beginning of the khutba, the cleric’s pre-prayer address, and blow himself up. That explosion was the signal for two or three terrorists to lob grenades over the boundary walls on either side of the mosque, which would compel the congregation to try to escape through the exit. Another two or three terrorists armed with AK-47s had placed themselves across the road to open fire at those trying to escape, while those lobbing grenades would continue doing so from either side to maximise the murder and mayhem.

All mosques throughout the country are now constantly guarded by three or four armed police personnel, particularly on Fridays and during Eid congregations. One of them spotted the suicide bomber while he was lurking in the area, waiting for the khutba to start. Since his actions seemed suspicious, the police tried to prevent him from entering the mosque. When the terrorist tried to force entry, a policeman grappled with him, forcing him to commit suicide outside the entrance, taking along only that brave policeman.

As planned, the terrorists on the sides of the boundary wall began to lob grenades as soon as they heard the explosion. However, those across the road had witnessed the aborted attempt of the suicide bomber and modified their plan, trying to force an entry inside the mosque. The remaining policemen managed to prevent them doing so – had the original plan succeeded, the dead and wounded would have been multiplied manifold.

The upside of this attack is again the fact that merely through on-the-job training, the police force, which was previously totally inept, is improving. Not only did those guarding the mosque spot the suspicious suicide bomber and prevent his entry, the remaining three policemen spiritedly engaged the terrorists with AK-47s. Within minutes members of the army-trained elite police force, who were patrolling the area, had arrived to reinforce the security personnel and an army contingent, which is constantly on standby for any contingency, was not too far behind.

Of the remaining five or six terrorists after the suicide bomber killed himself, two blew themselves up when they were about to be captured, two were killed in the firefight and at least one, perhaps two, managed to elude capture. Official sources have claimed that there were only five, including the suicide bomber, and all were dead; eyewitness accounts put the total number at six or seven. What is more, the fact that a house-to-house search continued well into the evening, hours after the firing had ceased, lends credence to the likelihood that one terrorist or more eluded the security personnel.

I have stated repeatedly that the hapless citizens of Pakistan are destined to be subjected to such attacks for some years to come. Most are likely to be against “soft civilian targets” in markets and other everyday places as we have been witnessing in Peshawar recently. Some are likely to be better planned, like this one on Friday, which was obviously intended to target serving and retired military personnel as well as their children.

It never ceases to amaze me that those ordering such attacks don’t realise that, far from breaking the will of the nation, they are only cementing the resolve of the citizens of this country. Even those who are burying members of their family continue to reassert their resolve to rid the nation of this scourge.

Source:thenational.ae/

Security forces kill 11 Taliban in Swat, Bajaur

2009-12-07T18:45:00.000-08:00

KHAR/PESHAWAR: Security forces on Monday killed at least 11 Taliban in operations in Swat and Bajaur Agency.

Eight Taliban were killed in separate incidents in Bajaur, as 25 terrorists surrendered across the agency.

The security forces killed a Taliban and injured several others in Charmang Chinar area of Nawagai tehsil.

Three Taliban were killed in Damadola area of Mamoond tehsil in an explosion in a house where the terrorists were manufacturing a bomb.

Two of the deceased terrorists hailed from Punjab.

Troops also arrested five Taliban from Inayat Qila during a search operation and recovered weapons.

Separately, fighter jets targeted Taliban positions in Khurkay, Gutkay, Anga and Banda areas of Mamoond, killing four Taliban. Two of their hideouts were also destroyed.

In Salarzai, 25 Taliban surrendered in the presence of elders and ulema from Salarzai tribes.

Swat: Meanwhile in Swat, troops killed four suspected Taliban during a search operation, officials told AFP.

Soldiers came under fire as they raided a suspected Taliban hideout in Shamozai village, 30 kilometres southwest of Mingora.

“Troops retaliated and killed all four militants,” military spokesman Major Mushtaq Khan said. Colonel Akhtar Abbas confirmed the incident and said there were “no military casualties”.

Swat, a former tourist resort, slipped out of government control in July 2007 after Fazlullah mounted a violent campaign to enforce sharia law. staff report/afp

Source:dailytimes.com.pk/

Taliban key commander killed in NW Afghanistan

2009-12-07T18:42:00.000-08:00

KABUL, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- Police eliminated Taliban key commander Mullah Amrudin and three others in a fierce clash with Taliban insurgents in Northwest Badghis province, the Afghan Interior Ministry said Monday.

According to a press release of the ministry, the clash erupted in Taliban hotbed Ghormach district on Sunday, in which the Taliban command and three insurgents were killed.

The clash also claimed the lives of four policemen, the press release added.

Mullah Amrudin had been involved in kidnapping government employees, organizing roadside bombings and targeting security forces over the past two years, the press release said.

Taliban militants have not yet made any comment.

More than 40 Taliban militants have been killed elsewhere in Afghanistan over the past two days, according to officials.

Source:xinhuanet.com

Canadian soldiers to spend winter keeping Afghans from Taliban's grasp

2009-12-07T18:40:00.000-08:00

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - In the five months they have to establish a security zone around the insurgent snake pit known as Kandahar city, Canadian troops will be working to turn local allegiances in an effort to marginalize the Taliban.

Changes to Canada's area of operation, made public by NATO earlier this week, have resulted in a significant re-organization of how and where the country's soldiers are being deployed in the dangerous southern province that has been their base of operations since 2006.

The top Canadian general in Afghanistan, Brig. Gen. Daniel Menard, is in the process of re-assigning troops from more fortified and isolated forward operating bases, or FOBs, to a series of decidedly less secure platoon houses to form his so-called "ring of stability" around Afghanistan's second-largest city.

"We will not clear any village in this area of operation that we will not hold," Menard said last week.

The platoon houses, the number of which will have doubled by the spring, will allow Canadians to maintain a persistent presence around the approaches to the city, which have long been easy for the Taliban to exploit.

In many ways, Menard's strategy represents an expansion of his predecessor's "model-village" experiment.

Brig. Gen. Jonathan Vance ordered troops in select villages in Dand and Panjwaii to leave the relative security of FOBs to live closer to the population they were supposed to be protecting.

It is Menard's hope that the success of that model, which succeeded to a degree in fortifying villages against Taliban infiltration, can be applied on a larger scale.

"To turn the population to support us and therefore marginalize the insurgency, that is what we're after," Menard said."We're not after killing every single insurgent."

Menard has given a May deadline for the ring of stability to be finalized, which will likely entail basing stability platoons in the villages that surround the city.

Despite intelligence that suggests insurgents plan on remaining in Kandahar for the winter period, rather than their usual practice of returning to Pakistan, military planners still expect violence to decline over the coming months.

They say it is vital to take advantage of the window to kick-start community development and provide fighting-aged males with some form of employment.

"It's a good time to go in and hold without actually having to clear, so when the insurgents come back in the spring we're there," said Col. Simon Bernard, the Canadian military chief of long-term planning, referring to the counter-insurgency doctrine of "clear, hold, build."

A major part of the reorganization will involve bolstering development, which the military feels has stalled because of insecurity in the farther reaches of the province.

There is a sense that the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team, a joint military-civilian operation tasked with heading development projects in the province, has limited its influence to where Canadian troops are located.

"The KPRT is going to change its focus," said Bernard. "Their area of influence will expand. They will have to look again at becoming the provincial-level player."

Towards this end, field commanders will be given more resources to support reconstruction projects. The U.S. will also be setting up development support teams, or DSTs, a district-level equivalent to the PRT.

"The addition of American personnel and assets definitely will make our job easier," said Ben Roswell, Canada's top civilian diplomat in Kandahar.

The key element in allowing Menard to seal the ring around Kandahar city will be the American troops based in the Arghandab district north of the city who have been put at his disposal.

"It does point to the growing partnership between Canada and the United States, both in the military and the civilian sides of the mission," Roswell said.

"This is becoming a more fully integrated Canada-U.S. operation."

Arghandab, located just north of the city, will not see any new Canadian troops but will nevertheless fall under Menard's command, joining the two other battalions who report to him.

The Strykers, the U.S. battalion that currently occupies lush but volatile Arghandab, have been dispatched to safeguard the major highways running through the province. They will be replaced by a battalion from the storied 82nd Airborne division.

Menard acknowledged that the inclusion of Arghandab would account for a 20 per cent increase in enemy contact in Canada's area of operations.

"There is no doubt it is a very dynamic area," he said. "That is why a lot of resources have been pushed to us in order to deal with this particular issue."

Deploying troops among the population, of course, has a downside. Soldiers are more vulnerable to attack regardless of district; their security becomes incumbent on the relationships they forge with locals.

This is true also for the expanded mentoring program, dubbed "embedded partnering," that will feature a unit exchange between Canadian and Afghan military forces.

For their part, Canadian civilian police officers will be living with their Afghan National Police charges in police sub-stations. But both the army and the ANP are common targets for the Taliban, which it is widely suspected has already infiltrated both institutions.

President Barack Obama's plan to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan is arguably more about reversing Taliban momentum and buying time to improve the Afghan security forces than it is about dealing a decisive blow to the insurgency.

While the majority of those troops will be sent to the south, where the insurgency is strongest, Kandahar is unlikely to see any new troops for several months.

"The first force package will be going somewhere to the west to focus on population centres in Helmand," Bernard said. "Then we can probably expect an increase (in troops) in our AO (area of operations) or in the surrounding area of our AO."

Over the week-end, U.S. Marines in Helmand began preparing the ground for the reinforcements by launching an offensive against Taliban positions in the Now Zad Valley.

David Petraeus, the U.S. general in charge of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, linked the offensive to the effort to establish "envelopes of security" around key towns in Helmand and Kandahar.

"We are in the middle of all of this, at the forefront of all those activities," Menard said of Kandahar's relationship to NATO's strategy in the south.

"It is a very, very important piece of ground."

Source:winnipegfreepress.com/

17 Taliban killed in military operation

2009-12-07T18:39:00.000-08:00

* Swat Taliban commander among four killed
* Security forces kill eight terrorists in Lower Dir
* Four Taliban killed in Mohmand

MINGORA/LAHORE/DIR/ISLAMABAD: Security forces on Sunday killed at least 17 terrorists and apprehended several others in operations against the terrorists.

In Swat, the forces killed four Taliban, including a commander, Gul Maula.

Official sources told Daily Times that the four Taliban were killed at Dangram Garasa area in Mingora. Troops also arrested as many as 19 Taliban in the ongoing operation Rah-e-Rast in Swat and Malakand.

According to ISPR, the forces conducted search operations in Janu Langar and Titabai near Khawazakhela, Bishbanr, Mingora and Bar Kanju and apprehended 19 terrorists.

Meanwhile, 13 terrorists surrendered Bagh Dheri near Fatehpur, Matta, Mian Kalle, Gulibagh, Chaharbagh and Mingora.

In Lower Dir district, the security forces killed eight terrorists hiding in a house in Maidan area, army spokesman Maj Suleman Hanif told AP on Sunday. The soldiers also recovered weapons, including two rocket launchers and eight assault rifles. In Mohmand Agency, four Taliban were killed and two arrested during a search operation in Ghanam Shah area of tehsil Baizai, a private TV channel reported.

The channel said the Taliban were also claiming killing 10 security personnel, but the reports could not be confirmed. In the Operation Rah-e-Nijat in South Waziristan, security forces apprehended seven suspects at Ghariom and killed a terrorist at Shewa

Source:dailytimes.com.pk/

Massacre at Pakistan mosque shows Taliban strength

2009-12-07T18:37:00.000-08:00

Presenter, Man # 1
Al Jazeera correspondent in Islamabad has learned that two Pakistani generals were among the people killed in the attack on an army Mosque in the military compound in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad.

Presenter, Woman # 1
According to official sources, more than 40 people have been killed, and more than 83 others were injured. Five armed men attacked an army mosque in Rawalpindi during Friday prayers and opened fire on the worshipers.

Presenter, Man # 1
Two of the armed men blew themselves up inside the Mosque, but three others were able to escape.

Reporter, Man # 2
Once again, an explosion takes place in Rawalpindi. It has become difficult to count the number of times sensitive locations in this city were targeted. Rawalpindi is not only the former capital of Pakistan; it is also the main military headquarters of the Pakistan Armed Forces. It is the center of the military in a country in which the military establishment has a prominent status. Some of the problems there are local, but others are caused by regional and security factors. Perhaps the war in Afghanistan is the most important of these regional factors which explains why it’s very worrying for the Pakistani authorities. They did not hide their concern that increased military pressure on the Taliban in Afghanistan as was called for in the new American war strategy, may push them to go to Afghanistan. Explosions in Pakistan take place almost everyday, but they are still newsworthy due to the large material and human losses caused by them. In addition, these attacks affect the political and security situation in a country with a very strategic location, which explains why Pakistan has become a source of concern for NATO Forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan has become the epicenter of constant earthquakes that keep coming one after the other. The tribal region of Waziristan, the Karachi explosions, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Al Qaeda, and the Taliban as well as the drone attacks all reflect the instability of Pakistan for the past two years. Who is responsible for this? Perhaps, many elements are, including Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistan. Any one negatively affected by the war on terror is a potential suspect. However, the identity of the real perpetrators will not be known, until the situation calms down, which may not happen any time soon.
Palestinian Authority official loses Jerusalem residency
Dubai TV, UAE
Presenter, Woman # 1
Israel continues to accelerate its policy of changing the demographics of occupied Jerusalem with the objective of maximizing the number of its Jewish citizens. The Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported that 4.580 Jerusalem residency cards were taken away from Palestinians in 2008. This is 21 times more than the number of Palestinians whose residency rights were stripped from them since 1967. This phenomenon was also highlighted by the European report that resulted in a Swedish draft resolution to declare East Jerusalem the capital of the future Palestinian State. From Jerusalem, our reporter Sheruq Assad.

Reporter, Woman # 1
Khaled Abu Araefeh lives in the Damascus Gate neighborhood. He is the father of five. Israel revoked his Jerusalem residency, not because he is not living in Jerusalem or because he is not paying his taxes, but because of his political views. A year and a half ago, Israel arrested him along with another 60 others Palestinians in Jerusalem, including three Parliament members from the Palestinian legislative council representing Jerusalem. At the time, Khaled was a minster. He was in prison all that time, and just before he was released, he was surprised by the annulment of his Jerusalem residency permit. Now he is living in his home in Jerusalem, with the constant fear that Israel might expel him from the city at any moment.

Guest, Man # 1
The former Minster of Interior, Bar-On gave us the option of staying in the Palestinian legislative council and government, or having our Jerusalem residency permits revoked. Our Jerusalem residency permits were stripped. No I do not know if I will be expelled from my home.

Reporter, Woman # 2
The Jerusalem municipality has tried to prevent his sun Muhammad from acquiring his Jerusalem residency permit, and tried to prevent the construction of his new home.

Guest, Woman # 3
They persecute us for our political views, and give us problems when we try to build our homes. All of their policies are designed to make us leave Jerusalem.

Reporter, Woman # 2
In the eyes of Israel, the real battle is about demographics; Israel wishes to create new facts on the ground to shape the future peaceful settlement.

Guest, Man # 2
The Israelis have a clear plan for Jerusalem, to be completed by 2020. They want to have an absolute Jewish majority and an Arab minority. How to get rid of the Arab population? Of course, by revoking Jerusalem residency cards from Palestinians, demolishing their homes, and expanding the Apartheid Wall. This explains why the Israeli policy in 2008, 2009 and 2010 will be harsher than it was in previous years.

Reporter, Woman # 2
For the Palestinians, the battle for Jerusalem is a matter of survival and justice. For Israel it is a matter of imposing new facts on the ground by force. Time is of the essence. Shuruq Assad, Dubai Television, Ras Al A’maud Occupied Jerusalem.
Israeli settlers clash with police over construction freeze
IBA TV, Israel
Settlement leaders rejected a personal plea to respect the construction freeze in the territories during their meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Settlers vowed to continue confronting security forces sent to enforce the freeze, while Netanyahu reassured the Judea and Samaria mayors that the freeze would not exceed 10 months.
Living in limbo: Palestinian refugees in Lebanon
Al Aqsa, Gaza
Presenter, Male #1
More than 3,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon don’t have permanent residency cards, and they are being classified by the Lebanese government as “undocumented.” The refugees’ tragedy started to unfold in the aftermath of the 1970 Black September incidents in Jordan. During that year, many Palestinian refugees, who didn’t have an established residency status left Jordan and moved to Lebanon.

Reporter, Male #2
While most Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are stripped of their basic human and civil rights, some don’t have residency rights. The Palestinian embassy tried to remedy the situation by issuing passports to some of the non-resident refugees. However, this added insult to the injury, as the Lebanese General Security Agency started to classify those with a Palestinian passport as “foreign nationals”, who must renew their residency permits once a year. This has added further humanitarian and financial burdens on non-resident Palestinians living in Lebanon. Meanwhile, Palestinian Human Rights Organizations in Lebanon, led by the Shahid and Hikuk organizations and the Human Development Center, held a press conference at the headquarters of the Journalist Guild in Beirut in order to shed light on the refugee issue.

Guest, Male #3
Anyone, who was issued a passport by the Palestinian Authority, is now classified as a foreign national, as opposed to a non-resident refugee, and is subject to Lebanese laws, regarding residency status and visa permits. If that person overstays his visa, he will be deported, imprisoned, fined, or all three combined. As far as the deportation issue is concerned: Where will they deport him to? This is major issue, which we discussed with the Lebanese General Security Agency.

Guest, Male #5
The passport, which was issued to some non-resident Palestinian refugees by the Palestinian Authority, is a legal document. There’s no doubt about it. It’s worth mentioning that the passport itself is a document that identifies its bearer. However, the passport itself doesn’t grant its bearer the right to return to the Palestinian territories.

Reporter, Male #2
Without residency ID cards, the Palestinian refugees have no legal rights to live in Lebanon, and any effort to resolve this issue may hit a procedural stalemate due to the complexity of the legal process.

Guest, Male #4
Let it be known that the identification card, which was issued to us by the Lebanese General Security Agency, is not recognized by the Lebanese army, especially during traffic stops at checkpoints. In many occasions, our children are stopped and told that their ID cards are not recognized as a legal document by the Lebanese State. They encounter this problem on a daily basis. Lebanon is a country that defends human rights. The Lebanese constitution, in its preamble, calls for the respect of human rights. Therefore, we herby demand Lebanon to honor what it has pledged to do and bring justice to this marginalized class of Palestinian refugees.

Reporter, Male #2
Meanwhile, Palestinian Human Rights organizations have pledged to follow up on the issue and find a solution for the refugee problem. They also called for public protests, with the first wave of sit-ins to be staged at the beginning of next month in front of the headquarters of Lebanese Ministry of Interior. Ibrahim Arab, al-Aqsa Channel, Beirut.
Israel lifts ban on importing Arabic books
New TV, Lebanon
Presenter, Female #1
Israel is trying to con Lebanon into normalizing their cultural relations. What is the official Lebanese reaction? Darin Da’bus investigates in this special report.

Reporter, Female #2
There has been some news, indicating that Israeli goods are being marketed and sold, under national brand names, in several Arab markets. This news comes despite the official ban on Israeli goods in Arab markets, as Israel is being blamed for closing the door to peace. The Hebrew State is seeking to penetrate further into the Arab market, through its new slogan, dubbed:” Lifting the cultural siege” imposed on the Palestinians living in the 1948 territories. According to the Israeli Maarif newspaper, the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation decided on Sunday to support a bill, proposed by members of the Knesset, allowing the importation of books published in Lebanon, Syria, and the Gulf region. Israel is currently banning the importation of books published in countries, which it has not signed peace agreement with. What is the Lebanese reaction to this latest Israeli proposal?

Guest, Male #1
The issue is very clear to the Lebanese government. Our decision is final: We will not deal with Israel under any circumstances or in any way. This is our fundamental, unequivocal, and indisputable position. Whatever the Israeli government is doing has nothing to do with us, and it’s one sided.

Guest, Male #2
Up until five years ago, books that were published in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab countries, were allowed in the Palestinian territories, both into the 1948 and the 1967 territories. Israel banned the importation of books published in Lebanon and Syria due to the severance of relations between these countries and Israel. We don’t want to establish new relations with Israel.

Reporter, Female #2
“Israel is an enemy state” but can we strip our people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip of their right to read Arabic books?

Guest, Male #1
The Arab citizen has the right and is entitled to stay connected with his Arabic culture and ideology.

Guest, Male #2
We will not deal directly with the Israelis, including Israeli libraries and book stores. We will deal exclusively with the Arab population inside Israel. It’s very important for the Arab public to have access to Arabic literature and books. Some Arabic-language books are banned in Israel. It appears that there is a rise in book-piracy inside Israel. Many books were reprinted inside the “Green Line” without complying with copyright laws. Some of these books are best sellers.

Reporter, Female #2
The proposal allows the Israeli security authorities to reject the importation of a certain book or journal for content that could be used for incitement, such as literature denying the Holocaust or prompting terrorism. From the outside, the Israeli proposal seems to be granting more freedoms for the Palestinians in the 1948 territories. However, from the inside, the proposal aims to normalize relations between Israel and the Arabs. Darin Da’bus, New TV.
Two million Iraqis are disabled
BBC- Arabic
Presenter, Male #1
In Iraq, people with special needs are suffering from many difficulties. That is due to the low average income and the limited financial support they receive.

Reporter, Male #1
According to reports by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, those who have been physically or mentally disabled by the successive wars in Iraq since the 80s and the violent events that have prevailed in the country since 2003 constitute the majority of the country’s two million handicapped persons. The Iraqi authority classifies the handicapped in two categories. Handicapped military servicemen receive retirement salaries that are at least 150 dollars every month; while disabled civilians only receive rehabilitation sessions that could help them earn a living and a monthly stipend of 50 dollars on average, which is only granted to those who are 90% disabled.

Guest, Male #1
The two categories of handicapped people are classified based on their ability to work: the first includes handicapped who can work or partially work; and the second includes those who are unable to work at all. The handicapped unable to work are covered by a salary from the social security fund.

Reporter, Male #1
To make ends meet, many handicapped people are forced to do work that is unsuitable for them. Hassan used to be a soldier in the second gulf war in 1991, during which he lost both hands. But his handicap does not prevent him from trying to make a livelihood. He opened a small store in front of his home to sell sweets and groceries. Despite that, Hassan is still suffering financially.

Guest, Male #2
I don’t make enough. All I make is about 120,000, sometimes a little bit more. I have a big family of 8.

Reporter, Male #1
Through a special fund, the Iraqi government provides some kind of assistance to the born handicapped, such as the blind and the mentally disabled. But unofficial reports by Iraqi political groups indicated that corruption in the administration has reached this sector as well, especially in the last two years. But the most important complaint, according to relevant sources, is that there is no law that guarantees rights for the handicapped to help them integrate into society, especially since the program for legal protection for the handicapped has been lying in the drawers of the Iraqi parliament for the last 4 years.

Guest, Male #3
This law organizes the needs of the handicapped, guarantees their demand for work, and covers a decent stipend for them.

Reporter, Male #1
Since 2003, nearly 70 civil organizations have been founded in Iraq to support the handicapped. Many of these organizations try to rehabilitate the disabled professionally and mentally through special workshops. But according to the experts, these efforts have had little influence in a country where 7% of the population is disabled. From the capital Baghdad, Khudair Houssein, BBC.
The Saudi role in the war in Yemen
ANB TV, England
Host, Man # 1
We are hosting today, the chief editor of the Arab Observer Magazine, Abdel Aziz Al Khames from the Saudi Kingdom, and the political analyst and Journalist Hamed Ghul Sharifi, from Iran. Abdel Aziz Al Khames, you were here with Hamed Ghul Sharifi a while ago and we were taking about the possibility of Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the war. Today, we are no longer speculating; Saudi Arabia is directly involved in the war in Yemen. Can you tell us objectively, did Saudi Arabia want this kind of war and confrontation or was it dragged into it?

Guest, Man # 1
I think that this war was imposed on the Saudi regime. The war is between rebel groups and the Yemeni government, and they want to expand the conflict which explains why they are clashing with Saudi forces on the border. However, and this is my personal opinion, Saudi Arabia benefited from this war. Saudi Arabia has been trying to establish a buffer zone 10 miles-deep between it and Yemen. People and drugs have always been smuggled through the Saudi-Yemeni border, and Al Qaeda has used this smuggling route to move explosives and people from Saudi Arabia to Yemen. It seems the Saudi government views the war as a good opportunity to clean the area and secure its southern borders.

Host, Man # 1
I asked Abdel Aziz Al Khames as a Saudi national; I want ask you the same question as an Iranian national. There were also rumors that Iran is involved in the war, and later the Yemeni government accused Iran of directly interfering in Yemeni affairs. This also comes as Iranian officials started talking about the plight of the Shiites in Yemen. Some even say that Iranian military warships are now in the area, under the pretext of fighting pirates. This news came as Yemen said that it captured a ship transporting weapons. They said that the weapons went from Iran to Eritrea and from there to Yemen. Can you tell us, frankly, is Iran involved in the war in Yemen?

Guest, Man # 2
If you were to ask me does Iran interfere in Lebanon or Iraq to strengthen its influence? Then I would have said yes, 100%. But in Yemen, Iran has not interfered directly so far, however there is sympathy towards the Shiites in Yemen. You can see this sympathy in the Iranian media and it is being voiced by different Iranian civic institutions. Tell us why Iranians are sympathetic to what is happening in Yemen.
Obama's Surge: The Real Reason
Link TV, USA
Every year on the anniversary of September 11, the same question pops up: where is Osama bin Laden? And for eight years various pundits, who hardly speak a word of Pashto, Dari, Urdu or any other language spoken in the region, play the guessing game, placing him somewhere along the Pakistani-Afghan border.

This week, President Obama took Gen. Stanley McChrystal's advice and ordered a surge in the war in Afghanistan by sending 30,000 more American troops there to help battle the Taliban insurgency. In a speech at the US Military Academy at West Point on Tuesday, the President set out what he said was a new strategy to bring the war to a "successful conclusion" and reverse the momentum of Taliban gains.

The President did not mention Osama bin Laden, a frequent target of his criticism during the campaign when he criticized President Bush.

"We will kill bin Laden, we will crush al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national security priority," then candidate Barack Obama said during an October 2008 debate.

If the US goal remains to "crush" al Qaeda, then perhaps many Americans would not be as upset with Obama's Afghan surge; however, this is not the case.

As it stands, there will be nearly 100,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, along with about 47,000 from allies. This is not to mention contractors, who already outnumber U.S. forces in the war-ravaged country. According to credible intelligence estimates, 100 al Qaeda operatives are in Afghanistan, and 300 more have fled to Pakistan. As for the Taliban, conflicting estimates put their numbers anywhere between 7,000 to 25,000. Therefore, this build up does not make sense, and the numbers do not add up.

Also, why do the United States and its allies need close to 150,000 troops if they can negotiate with the Taliban? Mr. Karzai does!

"We must talk to the Taliban as an Afghan necessity. The fight against terrorism and extremism cannot be won by fighting alone," Karzai said. "Personally, I would definitely talk to Mullah Omar. Whatever it takes to bring peace to Afghanistan, I, as the Afghan president, will do it."

Meanwhile, President Obama has increased US pressure on Pakistan to fight the Taliban in its territories. As an inducement, and a measure of heightened American concern for Pakistan, he has also helped bring a big increase in aid to the country, including $7.5 billion of non-military aid over five years, approved recently by Congress. The problem is that there is no certainty or confidence that the current Pakistani regime is going to last; Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari is one of the country's most discredited politicians and linked to corruption. There is a major question mark on who will be replacing him or what sort of a government Pakistan will have after his imminent fall.

President Obama has not been forthcoming with the American people. He should come clean and explain the real reason behind the surge. It's not because of bin Laden, al-Qaeda, or the Taliban. The real reason is Pakistan, a failed state with nuclear warheads!

Source:inktv.org/

Offer Taliban a chance to end fight: McChrystal

2009-12-07T18:34:00.000-08:00

KABUL: The Afghan government and its international partners should use the coming 18 months to convince the Taliban they cannot win and offer the group a way to quit the insurgency “with dignity”, the top US commander in Afghanistan – Gen Stanley McChrystal – said on Wednesday.

Within hours of Obama’s speech, McChrystal also addressed his commanders by videophone and set off on a battlefield tour to rally his forces.

Timetable: McChrystal told reporters the 18-month timetable for withdrawal was enough time to build up Afghan forces and convince the people of the war-ravaged country that they could eventually take care of their own security.

He said the Afghan government and the coalition should also use that period “to convince the Taliban and the people from whom they recruit that they cannot win ... there is not a way for the insurgency to win militarily”.

McChrystal said the 30,000 extra troops for the Afghan war would make a huge difference. He said the extra forces would provide the help needed for the main effort: speed up the training of Afghan security forces and protect towns and villages.

At the same time, McChrystal said the US should support the Afghan government in a reintegration programme to allow insurgents a way to return to society. agencies

Source:dailytimes.com.pk/

Afghanistan: the clock is ticking for Obama as the Taliban bides its time

2009-12-04T01:50:00.000-08:00

Now we know what the American President intends to do about Afghanistan, it is worth reflecting for a moment on what the enemy's strategy is likely to be. This is best summed up by a remark recently made by a Taliban sympathiser to a senior American official in Kabul: "You might have all the watches, but we have all the time." By this he meant that, for all the technological wonders available to Nato forces, from unmanned Predator drones to satellite imagery, the Taliban enjoys one great advantage against which the West simply cannot compete. Our leaders are subject to the fickle support of their electorate, while the Taliban are under no such constraints.

For the average tribesman on Afghanistan's wilder frontiers, waging war is the family business, and they have been profitably engaged in it for most of the past three decades. And in a region that prides itself on being the graveyard of empires, there is a widely held view that you need only fight on until your adversary realises he can never win and beats a hasty retreat.

So setting a deadline for withdrawal, as President Obama appeared to do in his speech to the US Military Academy earlier this week, is a grave mistake. I acknowledge the counter-argument made by Louis Susman, the US Ambassador to London, to this newspaper, and by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to the Senate armed services committee, that such a withdrawal will only be undertaken if a review shows there has been a tangible improvement in the security situation. But the fact that the President felt it necessary to mention a deadline in the first place is indicative of the pressure he is under, particularly from his own supporters, to pay as much attention to formulating an exit strategy as to winning the war.

After eight years of non-stop military conflict in both Afghanistan and Iraq, the American public has – understandably – grown war-weary and is keen to see its troops brought home. If Mr Obama can do that by the start of 2012, in time for the start of the next presidential campaign, so much the better. And so far as the Taliban are concerned, the clock is already ticking.

But before Washington can even start to give serious consideration to bringing its troops home, it must ensure that an effective security structure has been established, and that the Afghan government is actually capable of running the country. And for that to happen, there needs to be a far greater military commitment from other Nato member states. By the time the extra 30,000 troops Mr Obama has announced arrive in Afghanistan next year, the number of American troops will have risen to around 100,000. Yet the contribution from Nato's 27 other members is struggling to reach the 40,000 mark, of which 10,000 come from Britain alone.

Following Mr Obama's speech, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato's secretary-general, promised that other members would do "substantially more" to boost the Afghan force, and that European member states would provide an extra 5,000 troops. While the numbers might be small, this is – as Mrs Clinton writes in The Daily Telegraph today – a crucial test for Nato. Yet what really concerns American policymakers is not the total sent but the refusal of so many European states to commit troops that are actually willing and able to conduct combat operations, rather than just peacekeeping work.

Yesterday's boast by the Italians that they are prepared to send an extra 1,000 troops is a case in point. Italy is one of several European powers that will send men to Afghanistan only on the understanding that they are deployed to relatively safe areas, where they are unlikely to get involved in the messy business of fighting the Taliban. The Italians, who patrol the relatively peaceful western region of Afghanistan, were so ill-prepared for combat that, when two of their soldiers were kidnapped in 2007, Nato had to send British Special Forces to rescue them.

This reluctance to commit is surprising, given that the current Afghan mission originates from the alliance's decision, in the immediate aftermath of September 11, to invoke Article Five, under which any country that has been attacked is entitled to Nato's protection.

Since then the major European powers, with the exception of Britain, have been unwilling to follow through on their obligations, leaving many in Washington to question whether the alliance will actually survive the Afghan conflict. Republicans increasingly believe that, rather than relying on Nato's complex processes, it is better to assemble what Donald Rumsfeld once termed a "coalition of the willing": namely, an alliance of those countries that are actually prepared to fight. The Democrats, on the other hand, are moving more towards the concept of a European defence force, whereby European governments will be responsible for their own security, rather than relying on the Americans.

But these are arguments for another day. The immediate priority is to assemble a Nato force that has the capacity to inflict a crushing defeat on the Taliban, without which any talk of an early withdrawal of American, or any other, troops is premature. For as every Taliban commander knows, time is not on Nato's side.

Source: telegraph.co.uk/

Travelling by road in Afghanistan 'now more dangerous than under Taliban'

2009-12-04T01:48:00.000-08:00

Major General Nick Carter said that, before the 2001 invasion, young women could travel alone between major cities without risk of harm. Now, there is a constant threat from sophisticated IEDs and criminal gangs who rob and kidnap passengers.

The admission heaped further pressure on Gordon Brown's strategy in Afghanistan, suggesting that little had changed despite the long and bloody campaign.

But a Ministry of Defence spokesman sought to play down the remark, saying that security under the Taliban was enforced brutally whereas coalition forces would enforce it with democracy and justice.

"The difference, I think we need to be clear, is that when the Taliban were here they did ensure security on the main highways and they did it very effectively," Maj Gen Carter said.

"You could put your daughter on a bus in Kabul sure in the knowledge that she would get in one piece to Kandahar.

"That is not the case at the moment, and we need to change that."

Roadside bombs planted by the Taliban are a major part of the problem, accounting for around 70 per cent of casualties among coalition troops alone.

But the criminal gangs that operate with seeming impunity are of equal concern to locals, who complain that even the country’s main ring road, Highway One, is now plagued by bandits.

Karim, a 42-year-old coach driver on the route from Kabul to Herat via Kandahar, said there were robbers “everywhere”.

“Once they stopped my bus in Nimroz province and they robbed us all," he said. "They went through all our pockets and took everything.”

The banditry also provides the Taliban with influence since in rural areas, people often turn to them rather than coalition forces for a form of redress. Under their harsh system, murderers were publicly executed by relatives of their victim and thieves had hands cut off.

Maj Gen Carter said that ensuring people were able to use key routes through the country would from now on be a priority for coalition forces.

"I think that up until relatively recently, probably the summer, we've been very much focused on the insurgency," he said.

"What we are doing now, which is slightly different in terms of approach, is that we are trying to protect the population where he or she lives, and trying to ensure their freedom of movement on some of the key arteries between where they live."

To improve the security offered, Maj Gen Carter said forces will use the Afghan police and military "to the best of their capabilities".

Diplomats have warned of problems training up the local police from a pool of frequently drug-addicted and often corrupt officers.

But Maj Gen Carter insisted the problem had been a lack of funding which will now be redressed. As part of the US-led surge planned by Nato, funds for training the police and Army are set to rise from £2.2bn to £4.5bn next year.

"If we had invested [in the Afghan police] in the way we invested in the Afghan army in 2002, my sense is we would have an institution that we could be equally proud of," he said.

"The challenge we've got now is to create, predominantly in the South, a Pashtun police force that is respected as the army is nationally. We have to do that as, ultimately, it will be a local police force. It will be the force that will make the local population secure.

"I'm not denying it's going to be a challenge, but it's a challenge we're going to embrace and it's a challenge that a lot of people are prepared to make an effort to achieve."

* A soldier was killed instantly while fighting the Taliban when his vehicle struck a mine left over from the Russian-Afghan war, an inquest heard yesterday.

Sergeant Lee Johnson, 33, was commanding a Vector six-wheel armoured vehicle which exploded as it was making its way up a steep desert slope in December 2007.

Source: telegraph.co.uk/

Obama Lied: Taliban Did Not Refuse to Hand Over Bin Laden

2009-12-04T01:47:00.000-08:00

Obama slipped past a real doozy Tuesday night when he said the Taliban refused to hand over bin Laden. It just ain't so. They tried three times to open negotiations for this, but Bush refused each time. He wanted to bomb people so bad it hurt.

UK Guardian:

A senior Taliban minister has offered a last-minute deal to hand over Osama bin Laden during a secret visit to Islamabad, senior sources in Pakistan told the Guardian last night...

For the first time, the Taliban offered to hand over Bin Laden for trial in a country other than the US without asking to see evidence first in return for a halt to the bombing, a source close to Pakistan's military leadership said.

The Taliban have offered to hand over Bin Laden before but only if sufficient evidence was presented. Bin Laden is wanted both for the September 11 attacks and for masterminding the bombings of two US embassies in East Africa in 1998 in which 224 people were killed. He is also suspected of involvement in other terrorist attacks, including the suicide bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last year.

But until now the Taliban regime has consistently said it has not seen any convincing evidence to implicate the Saudi dissident in any crime.

"Now they have agreed to hand him over to a third country without the evidence being presented in advance," the source close to the military said."

Combined with so unhesitatingly waving the Al Qaeda boogey-man to make his case, in a fashion Bush would have been proud of, (Al Qaeda isn't in Afghanistan) it all makes me mighty suspicious. The Taliban wasn't declared an enemy until after 9/11, even as we had evidence that bin Laden was behind the bombing of the USS Cole. That's because Bush's buddies were still hoping to get the contract for the oil pipeline, which the Taliban government was refusing to give them. These are just facts, I'm not even trying to make an argument here. But someone has to call them on these things.

The history is at the classic essay by Richard Behan which went viral on the internet soon after it was published (re-printed at Afterdowningstreet.org ):

From its first days in office in January of 2001 the Administration of George W. Bush meant to launch military attacks against both Afghanistan and Iraq. The reasons had nothing to do with terrorism.

This is beyond dispute. The mainstream press has either ignored the story or missed it completely, but the Administration's congenital belligerence is fully documented elsewhere.

Attacking a sovereign nation unprovoked, however, directly violates the charter of the United Nations. It is an international crime. The Bush Administration would need credible justification to proceed with its plans.

The terrorist violence of September 11, 2001 provided a spectacular opportunity. In the cacophony of outrage and confusion, the Administration could conceal its intentions, disguise the true nature of its premeditated wars, and launch them. The opportunity was exploited in a heartbeat.

Within hours of the attacks, President Bush declared the U.S. "...would take the fight directly to the terrorists," and "...he announced to the world the United States would make no distinction between the terrorists and the states that harbor them." [1] Thus the "War on Terror" was born.

The "War on Terror" is patently fraudulent, but the essence of successful propaganda is repetition, and the Bush Administration has repeated its mantra endlessly:

Source: opednews.com/

'Shots and explosion' heard in Pakistan's Rawalpindi

2009-12-04T01:45:00.000-08:00

Pakistani police have reported gunfire and at least one explosion in the city of Rawalpindi.

One report said the firing was close to a military parade ground, another that it was an attack on a local mosque.

"We have reports that firing was heard," Mumtaz Ahmed, a police officer, told the Reuters news agency.

The Pakistani security forces have been targeted in a series of recent attacks. Nineteen people were killed in an attack in Rawalpindi in October.

That incident was a raid on an army base for which the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility.

On Wednesday, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the headquarters of Pakistan's navy in Islamabad, killing a security officer.

The Associated Press quoted local police as saying the latest attack was on a mosque close to the Pakistani army headquarters.

Police official Waqas Ahmed says gunfire was continuing in the area and at least one explosion was also heard, AP reported.

Source: bbc.co.uk

The Pakistani Taliban's War on Schoolchildren

2009-12-04T01:43:00.000-08:00

Every morning, Sarim Zaidi, 17, puts on his school uniform, straightens his tie and hops into the car his parents provide for him to go to the Imperial International School and College in Islamabad, an upscale private institution. After his driver drops him off, he goes through metal detectors, winds his way around barbed wire, glances nervously at the armed guard on the roof and flashes his ID badge before finally entering a classroom.

Across town, in a poorer section of Islamabad, Hamza Baig, 14, also smartens up his school uniform, but at the Overseas Pakistanis Foundation Boys College, a government school, there are no armed guards. There is only a lonely doorman behind a flimsily padlocked gate. He is armed with a stick.

These are how kids go to school in Pakistan nowadays, thanks to a ferocious campaign of violence by the Pakistani Taliban against schools all over the country that has left parents panicked, students uneasy and educators worried about whether they're doing enough to protect kids in the middle of a war. Schools have been turned into fortresses, and some students have made attending class an act of defiance.
(See pictures of the tensions roiling Pakistan.)

The numbers show the extent of the war on education by the Pakistani Taliban. At least 473 schools across Swat and Federally Administered Tribal Areas have been destroyed over the past two years. Militants recently blew up a 12-room state-run high school and health clinic for boys in Hangu district, a small area nestled on the border of North Waziristan and the North-West Frontier Province. And they routinely blow up girls' schools in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and North-West Frontier Province. Three have been destroyed in the past two weeks.
(See pictures of suicide-bomb attacks in Islamabad.)

The targeting of schools — especially girls' and co-educational institutions — had long been restricted to the tribal belt in the northwest of the country. But the government offensive against militants in South Waziristan has changed that. A double-suicide attack on the International Islamic University in Islamabad in October sent government officials and parents in cities into a frenzy. Across the country, schools were told to close and security measures quickly improvised. Up to 30 million public and private students from pre-kindergarten through high school were affected, according to the latest figures from the Pakistan Ministry of Education. Up to 220,000 institutions felt the impact. "We were just asked to shut down," says Huma Ali, who runs a private elementary school in Karachi. "We thought it was a precautionary measure. But as time went by, we found out there was a threat to the schools."

Private schools were told to raise their walls, install barbed wire, sandbags and closed-circuit TV cameras and hire armed guards. Some even went so far as to put snipers on their roofs. Schools like Ali's can afford such measures, she says. But government schools are out of luck. The federal government is doing little, critics say, to help pay for the extra security measures it says are necessary for schools to remain open.

The contrast is stark. At the government-run Islamabad Model College for Boys, an aged and unarmed doorman provides security. If someone hopped over the walls out of sight of the guard, no one would know. At the end of the school day, anxious fathers crowd around the gate, collect their children and scurry toward a traffic jam of cars choking the street. A suicide bomber would find it a tempting target.

The school has 1,500 students grades 1-12. If something happens, says Atiq ur-Rahman, a chemistry teacher, the school is ill equipped to protect its students. "We don't even have a security guard equipped with weapons," he says. He says he can't handle a dangerous situation and that the students and staff feel vulnerable. If a suicide bomber targeted the school, "we could only request him not to explode."

The Taliban's campaign against schools, however, seems quixotic. On the one hand, the militants are well known to oppose educating girls. On the other, attacking boys' schools seems to be further alienating the populace. Not that the government has been able to capitalize on this; its tight-fisted response to paying for school security — in essence, it doesn't — has angered parents and teachers alike. One judge on the influential Lahore High Court dismissed a petition from the Private School Owners Association for more government help by saying schools should arrange for their own security. "Everything should not be left to the government," said Justice Mian Saqib Nisar. "Every citizen should play his due role for the betterment of the society. I would impose a fine if such frivolous petitions were filed in the future." No one from the Ministry of Education was available to comment for this story.

Ur-Rahman, the chemistry teacher, has a list of ideas to beef up security, ranging from hiring more trained security guards to adding CCTV cameras, but he doesn't expect any of them to happen because the school can't pay for them and the government isn't willing to pick up the tab, he says. "It shouldn't put the [responsibility for] funding on the college for everything," he says.

The situation's impact on the kids has been noticeable. "We've heard people say, 'My daughter didn't want to go to school today. She had a bad dream — she thinks something bad is going to happen today,' " says Huma Ali in Karachi. "Kids ... as old as my younger daughter, who is 5½, now when they hear the word danger, they've been taught to drop everything, drop down into their knees and go into a duck position," says Sanam Thariani, who works with Ali. "I just think that's really sad that a 5-year-old has to know that."

Ruhab Zehra Zaidi, the 13-year-old sister of Sarim Zaidi, says she's very scared at the Islamabad Model College for Girls and finds it hard to study her favorite subject, math. "Anything can happen at any time," she says, her big eyes widening further. "This disturbs my studies very much." "I am upset about all this terrorism," says Hamza Baig with intensity. The teenager from the Overseas boys college wants to make sure his words are clear: "We feel very scared when going to school, thinking today may be our last." Like many students, Baig stayed home for weeks at a time after the attack on the International Islamic University.

Perhaps most poignant, the situation has affected how kids play. At Ali's school, the students are not allowed to play in the courtyard anymore because of fear that someone might toss a bomb over the wall. But staying home isn't an option. "I am ready to die for my country," says Sarim Zaidi, with a determination both uncommon and tragic for a 17-year-old who merely wants to go to school.

Source: time.com/

Naval Complex bomber came with two accomplices

2009-12-04T01:42:00.000-08:00

ISLAMABAD: Investigators said on Thursday that the suicide bomber, who detonated his explosives just meters away from the Naval Complex main gates, was accompanied by two men.

Two navy personnel were killed and 11 other people, mostly security officials, were wounded in the blast on Wednesday.

Navy guards deployed at the entrance spotted the three suspects on the other side of the road and immediately informed the Naval Intelligence.

Within a few minutes, intelligence officials – Amjad Itwar and Hasib Buksh – reached the scene, where Mr Itwar asked the suspects to prove their identity.

However, one of the suspects, who was wearing a black jacket, started moving towards the entrance.

Another navy official asked the advancing suspect to stop and it was then when he blew himself up.

The two accomplices of the suicide bomber managed to escape, taking advantage of the panic that followed the blast.

A case was registered against three ‘unidentified persons’ on criminal and terrorism charges after Pakistan Navy official Mohammad Asif lodged a complaint.

A senior police officer told Dawn that at least six people had been taken into custody from different parts of the capital in connection with the attack.

They included a man believed to be a close aide of the terrorist who carried out the attack.

The officer said investigators also traced and interrogated a taxi driver, who talked to the suicide bomber and later informed the navy guards about his suspicious activity and the language he spoke.

‘The suicide bomber was speaking a language unfamiliar to me,’ police quoted the taxi driver as saying.

The bomber crossed the road and walked towards the Naval Complex, but then stopped and sat along a footpath.

The officer said sketches of the suicide bomber had been prepared, adding that samples taken from his severed limbs had been sent for DNA tests.

Meanwhile, investigators are also trying to trace a suspect, who was caught studying the area around the entrance last month but released on bail, sources said.

The Naval Police (NP) had detained AG, a resident of Sargodha, on November 18 when he was spotted acting suspiciously at Zafar Chowk, the site of the Wednesday bombing.

He was given into the custody of the Naval Intelligence personnel, who recovered a digital camera and an identification card issued by a Western country in his name. The card with identification number 20424 is to expire on November 23, 2010.

The motorcycle he was using also carried fake registration plates, as the number (IDM-5250) was originally issued for a car.

Investigation also revealed that he was on some kind of reconnaissance mission around the naval and air headquarters.

On the complaint of a navy official, Ansar Abbas, the suspect was handed over to the Margalla police for ‘the surveillance and reconnaissance of restricted military area, photographing sensitive installations and using motorcycle with fake registration.’

A case was registered and he was sent to Adiala Jail, but he was released on bail on November 20.

Source: dawn.com/

Analysis: Barack Obama's strategy not as easy in Afghanistan as Iraq

2009-12-03T01:59:00.000-08:00

It is about making the target of operations the people of Afghanistan, helping them to fight the Taliban themselves, turn against local Taliban leaders and build up their own structures while coalition forces put hard-core Taliban groups under pressure. Fight those Taliban that need to be fought; persuade and reward the Afghan people to chase the others out or render them ineffective.

But this strategy will not be as easy in Afghanistan as it seemed in Iraq – where even now the gains of 2007-8 are precarious. The "Sunni awakening" in Iraq was successful in kicking al-Qaeda out of the country after the organisation overplayed its hand so spectacularly. But there are believed to be very few al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan and the Taliban are a different proposition all together. Most of Afghanistan's insurgents are locals, fighting with the Taliban more than for them; Taliban in the morning, farmers and even policemen in the afternoon. So a movement to turn against the foreign zealots that made quick progress in Iraq will be far more complex in Afghanistan where most Taliban are neither foreign nor especially zealous. There are some advantages in this picture, but only if we show patience.

Then, too, the Iraqi insurgency had multiple points of leverage on Sunni and Shia groups inside the country that could be tackled by a reasonably competent Iraqi government that spoke the language of inclusion. The Afghan insurgency is driven from Quetta and Peshawar in neighbouring Pakistan and whatever good and inclusive intentions President Karzai expressed at his second inauguration last month, he still has it all to prove on both counts.

Afghanistan is a very different sort of country from Iraq. Over 85 per cent of its population live in rural areas, the country hovers around the bottom five of the IMF's Per Capita Income League; it has no economic resources that could kick-start rapid economic growth. Iraq has an infra-structure base, education and oil. Afghanistan has little or none of these.

Not least, the US had some real strategic control over centres of government power in Iraq in 2007. The international coalition in Iraq was so dominated by the US that – for good and bad – there was a controlling mind behind the surge. But for all its "uplift" to around 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan, the Americans will have to deal with the 43 tribes of the coalition in addition to Karzai and the indigenous tribes of Afghanistan.

What this surge will have uniquely in its favour, however, is that the US has visibly realised how to do this from the Iraq campaign. US forces learn fast and are now probably the best in the world at counter-insurgency. President Obama has been careful to appoint all his most successful commanders from Iraq into the Afghan theatre. Britain is trying to get its corresponding stars into positions close to them.

There is a real consensus now that the coalition partners want a strong American lead to score some political and military successes against the Taliban, change the atmosphere in Kabul and give the future of Afghanistan – whatever that may be – back to its people.

Source: telegraph.co.uk/

Pakistanis kill 15 militants in separate clashes

2009-12-03T01:58:00.001-08:00

KHAR, Pakistan — Pakistani security forces have killed 15 militants, including a senior commander, in separate clashes as they seek to rout the Taliban from strongholds in the country's northwest, officials said Thursday.

The deadliest fighting was in Swat Valley, the site of a major military offensive this summer that was declared a success but has been the scene of sporadic violence since.

Ten suspects were killed in overnight fighting following a raid on a militant hide-out near the Swat Valley town of Kabal, Maj. Mushtaq Ahmed said.

Those killed included Abu Faraj, the captured militant commander who had led the troops to the location, Ahmed said. Abu Faraj was captured in September and accused of plotting suicide bombings in the area.

Five other militants were killed when security forces repelled attacks on three checkpoints in the Bajur area that borders Afghanistan, local official Adalat Khan said.

Pakistan faces heavy pressure from the U.S. to crack down on Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents who attack American and Afghan troops across the border.

The army has launched several offensives, including one under way in South Waziristan. Many fear the U.S. plans to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan will push more militants into Pakistan.

Separately, officials raised the death toll in Wednesday's suicide bombing against naval headquarters in Islamabad to two after one of those wounded died.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkiMxbHNH0BqgpWA2ZG6VD6wVTmAD9CBMDH00

British general's warning to rebels: We'll hit Taliban 'till their eyes bleed

2009-12-03T01:56:00.001-08:00

Barack Obama's pledge to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan ignited a ferocious war of words yesterday between allied military chiefs and Taliban warlords.

British Lieutenant General Sir Graeme Lamb said the new surge into the battle-worn country will crush the insurgents.

Using fiery language, he added: "We are continuing to strike the Taliban, and have to, till their eyeballs bleed."

But defiant rebel leaders warned the fresh deployment will foster a new determination among the fighters to repel the Western troops and result in more allied deaths. One said: "Obama will witness lots of coffins heading to America from Afghanistan.

"Their hope to control Afghanistan by military means will not become reality. The extra 30,000 troops that will come to Afghanistan will provoke stronger resistance and fighting."

Another warlord warned: "I want to say to mothers of foreign soldiers: if you love your sons, then keep them at home. Obama is sending more troops to Afghanistan and that means more Americans will die."

Us Defence Secretary Robert Gates responded by saying: "Failure in Afghanistan would mean a Taliban takeover of much of the country and likely a renewed civil war.

"Taliban-ruled areas could in short order become, once again, a sanctuary for al-Qaeda as well as a staging area for militant groups on the offensive in Pakistan."

Mr Obama outlined plans to start bringing US troops home by 2011. But Gordon Brown yesterday dashed hopes of an early withdrawal by British forces, insisting: "We will stay until the job is done."

Mr Obama said: "After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home.

"These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative, while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of Afghanistan. I am convinced our security is at stake in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"This is the epicentre of the violent extremism practised by al-Qaeda. It is from here that we were attacked on 9/11, and it is from here that new attacks are being plotted as I speak.

"This is no idle danger, no hypothetical threat."

Mr Brown refused to put a timetable on the withdrawal of Britain's 9,500 soldiers.

He said: "There was no question of us withdrawing until the point that we were sure the Afghans could take over security control themselves. We will stay and do the job that is necessary."

Advertisement - article continues below »

The PM urged Nato countries to contribute more troops to defeat the Taliban.

He said: "I call on all our allies to unite behind President Obama's strategy." Mr Obama has signalled he wants Nato allies to provide as many as 10,000 more men. But he faces resistance from France and Germany.

Lt Gen Lamb said SAS and SBS operations in Afghanistan have increased five-fold. Both crack units have been operating deep behind enemy lines trying to find enemy commanders and take out bombing teams.

But Taliban chiefs insist they will fight to the end and pointed to failed historical efforts by the British and Russians to secure Afghanistan. Since the Taliban were toppled in 2001, 237 British troops have died.

Britain's Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, said he was "delighted" with Mr Obama's strategy.

He added: "It's what all of us who have been involved in the operation in Afghanistan have assessed is required if we are to resource a plan to deliver the strategy which we have been holding to for some time now."

Us commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal, who had asked for 40,000 extra troops, welcomed Mr Obama's move. He said he had been given "a clear military mission" and the necessary resources.

Mr Gates revealed the first of the new US troops could be in Afghanistan in two to three weeks.

FAREWELL, SAM

The funeral of rookie Rifleman Sam Bassett closed a city centre yesterday.

Sam, right, was killed by a bomb blast days after telling his family: "I'm having the time of my life." He was 20 and had been in Afghanistan for just a a month serving in 4th Battalion, The Rifles.

Rev Nick McKinnel told the congregation in St Andrew's church, Plymouth: "Whatever we think about the war, they are fighting on our behalf."

His dad Simon said: "I am so proud."

Special forces assassination squads will be deployed to pick off Taliban leaders

600 British Special Boat Service, SAS and Special Reconnaissance Regiment troops sent to track down key al-Qaeda cells along southern border badlands

50 miles

Source: mirror.co.uk/

BRITISH GENERAL VOWS TOUGH NEW TALIBAN CAMPAIGN

2009-12-03T01:54:00.000-08:00

BRITISH Forces will soon launch a tough new campaign against the Taliban, a top British general vowed yesterday.

Former SAS officer Sir Graeme Lamb welcomed the surge in troops ordered this week by President Obama and Gordon Brown, saying it meant the drive against the insurgents would now get tougher.

He added: “We are continuing to strike the Taliban, and have to, till their eyeballs bleed.”

Lieutenant General Lamb, special adviser to General Stanley McChrystal, the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, revealed that British Special Forces have already increased their operations fivefold in the last few months.

On Monday Mr Brown confirmed that another 500 UK troops are being sent to Helmand province, taking our force to 10,000.

He broke with precedent to reveal that the 10,000 includes 500 Special Forces.

Then on Tuesday night Mr Obama announced he is sending another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan over the next six months, taking the US numbers to about 100,000. Yesterday in response the Taliban warned that they would step up their attacks.

The first US Marines are expected to join a force of about 9,000 US troops already in southern Helmand before Christmas.

And a new offensive against the Taliban in its heartland is expected within weeks.

The head of Britain’s Armed Forces, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, said he was “delighted” with Mr Obama’s announcement.

Source: express.co.uk/

Pakistani forces kill 10 Taliban militants

2009-12-03T01:53:00.000-08:00

Pakistani troops have killed 10 Taliban militants in the country's restive northwestern tribal region that borders Afghanistan, a security official said Monday.

Major Fazalur Rehman, a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, said the rebels died during a gunfight in Kurram, one of the eight tribal districts where Pakistani forces are carrying out assaults against Taliban and Al Qaeda militants.

'Our forces also destroyed five vehicles including the vehicle of a local commander,' said Rehman.

The Kurram district is emerging as a new centre of Islamist militancy as hundreds of Taliban militants fleeing the ongoing operation in South Waziristan tribal region take refuge there.

Predominantly a Shia region, the Kurram district has seen deadly sectarian violence between Shia and Sunni Muslim tribesmen with the Taliban supporting the latter.

In return, the Sunni militants provide Taliban militants, who are also Sunni, with shelter and facilities to launch cross-border attacks on international troops in Afghanistan.

Early this year, more than 200 people were killed and hundreds more injured in weeks of fighting between the rival Muslim groups.

Source: sify.com/

11 Taliban killed in Malakand, Bajaur, Khyber

2009-12-03T01:51:00.000-08:00

KHAR: At least 11 Taliban were killed in Malakand division, Bajaur and Khyber agencies on Wednesday, as security forces continued clearance and consolidation exercises in Operation Rah-e-Nijat in the South Waziristan Agency.

Two Taliban were killed and another two injured as the forces continued targeting terrorists in Bajaur, officials said. Political administration officials told Daily Times that the two Taliban were killed in mortar shelling by the forces in Kharkai, Ingah and Almazo Gatki areas of Mamond and Nawagai tehsils.

Officials said body of a Taliban terrorist was found at Loyesyam, while unidentified armed men killed another Taliban at Khar.

In Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, two terrorists were killed on Wednesday, officials said. Frontier Corps sources told Daily Times that the two terrorists were killed during the ongoing operation in Bara.

The security forces also demolished eight houses belonging to terrorists in the area.

Meanwhile in Waziristan, the forces cleared terrorist compounds at Ziarat and Dunai Killi and seized a large cache of arms from the Jandola sector during the operation Rah-e-Nijat, APP reported.

In Malakand’s Palai area, the security forces killed five Taliban during a search operation while bodies of two Taliban were also found at a roadside in Matta, one of them of a key Taliban commander named Shah Jee. staff report/app

Source: dailytimes.com.pk/

Gates Signals Afghanistan Withdrawal Date Could Move

2009-12-02T08:29:00.000-08:00

The Pentagon will "evaluate" next year whether the military can meet its goal of starting to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by July 2011, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday under tough questioning, signaling that the withdrawal date could move back if violence spirals out of control.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, right, sits with U.S. military leaders before President Obama addresses cadets at West Point, N.Y., on Dec. 1. (Reuters Photo)

The Pentagon will "evaluate" next year whether the military can meet its goal of starting to withdraw troops from Afghanistan by July 2011, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday under tough questioning, signaling that the withdrawal date could move back if violence spirals out of control.

President Obama said in announcing the timeline Tuesday night that the withdrawal would be based on conditions on the ground. But Sen. John McCain pressed Gates on Capitol Hill, calling the scenario "logically incoherent" and saying the national security team needs to choose which is more important: sticking to the timeline or providing security.

Gates said U.S. forces should be able to move out of "uncontested areas" by the summer of 2011 but that the United States would not transfer security responsibility to the Afghans in any province until they can stand up on their own. He said the security team would review the situation at the end of 2010 to see whether the military "can meet that objective" with regard to the timeline.

"If it appears that the strategy's not working and that we are not going to be able to transition in 2011 then we will take a hard look at the strategy itself," he said. "We're not going to just throw these guys into the swimming pool and then walk away."

Gates joined other top officials before the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday in beginning to make the public case for Obama's decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

Speaking after a three-month deliberative process in which top advisers debated how heavily to target the Taliban in the country, Gates stressed that escalating the fight against the Taliban is critical to defeating Al Qaeda. He warned that U.S. failure in Afghanistan would lead to a "Taliban takeover" that could inspire Islamic extremism elsewhere.

"Rolling back the Taliban is now necessary even if not sufficient to the ultimate defeat of Al Qaeda," he said. "Failure in Afghanistan would mean a Taliban takeover of much if not most of the country and likely a renewed civil war."

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also spoke in support of the surge plan.

Mullen underscored Gates' warning that Afghanistan could again fall to the Taliban, saying the insurgency has gained influence in 11 of the country's 34 provinces.

The president has won praise from a number of lawmakers for his decision to surge in Afghanistan, though anti-war Democrats have roundly condemned the order. The president has likewise faced mixed reviews for his decision to call for troops to begin leaving the country by July 2011.

Clinton defended the decision, saying the timeline would give the Afghan government the "sense of urgency" they need to reform. Gates said the administration wants to "build a fire" under the Afghans to get them to build up their security forces.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, agreed. He stressed that the goal needs to be to accelerate the transition to Afghan responsibility.

"An Afghan surge should be our goal and any U.S. surge should be related to that goal," Levin said.

But McCain, R-Ariz., called the withdrawal date "arbitrary" and potentially harmful.

"A date for withdrawal sends exactly the wrong message to our friends and our enemies," he said. "A withdrawal date only emboldens Al Qaeda and the Taliban while dispiriting our Afghan partners. ... Success is the real exit strategy."

Source: .foxnews.com/

Pakistan Taliban Defiant Over Afghan War Push

2009-12-02T08:27:00.000-08:00

The Pakistan Taliban has admitted for the first time its forces are fighting in Afghanistan and insisted a US troop sSky News obtained what is believed to be the first interview with the group's leadership since the Pakistan's military began its offensive in the tribal area of South Waziristan.

In the video footage, Tehreik e Taliban's deputy leader Wali ur Rehman said his fighters were undeterred by America sending an extra 30,000 troops to Afghanistan.

He said: "US defeat in Afghanistan is more visible day by day. Statements from their officials and army generals show that they are fed up and questioning how long they stay in Afghanistan.

If I did not think that the security of the US... was at stake in Afghanistan, I would gladly order every single one of our troops home tomorrow.

Read our report on the US sending more troops to Afghanistan

"They don't have an idea that the Afghan nation and fighters from all over the Muslim world fight like brave soldiers.

"US plans have failed in Afghanistan. Soon the US will face defeat in Afghanistan and will withdraw their forces."

The interview was obtained on the condition that Sky did not reveal when it was filmed or where.

But the militant leader admitted he himself had travelled several times to Afghanistan with the mujaheddin (fighters) and fought mainly in Khost, in the east of the country.

We fight in Afghanistan, and we will fight there until we defeat the cruel non-Muslim forces.

Tehreik e Taliban's deputy leader Wali ur Rehman

He went on to explain why the Pakistan Taliban was working alongside rebel forces in Afghanistan.

"We think it is our duty to help our Afghan brothers fight the US," Rehman said.

"It is our prime duty to fight in Afghanistan and in Pakistan. Allah directed us to fight with our nearest non-Muslims.

"Yes, we accept it and we fight in Afghanistan, and we will fight there until we defeat the cruel non-Muslim forces."

what the afghan troop surge will mean

His admission comes months after the Pakistan military mounted the offensive to rout South Waziristan of the Taliban.

The interview appeared to be evidence that the Taliban leadership, at least, continues to be able to issue threats and interviews to the media, despite the apparent constant army bombardment.

Access to the battle zone is heavily restricted apart from army escorted trips for certain media representatives.

The interview is likely to be viewed with some concern by the Western forces battling the militant insurgency inside Afghanistan.

It has long been suspected that the Afghan militant groups were getting help and support from militants across the border
urge will not defeat them.

Source: sky.com/

IJC Operational Update, Dec. 2: Taliban Compound Struck; Militants Detained in Kandahar; ISAF Casualty

2009-12-02T08:25:00.000-08:00

KABUL, Afghanistan - International forces conducted an air strike against a Taliban commander in a remote area of eastern Afghanistan yesterday.

The Taliban commander was the target of the precision strike in Kunar province's Dara Noor District, which occurred in an open area away from civilian compounds or infrastructure. Assessment of the strike continues.

In another joint operation today, an Afghan-international security force detained several suspected militants in Kandahar province after searching a compound known to be used by a Taliban financier and facilitator.

The joint force targeted the compound approximately five miles southwest of Kandahar City. The force searched the compound without incident and detained the suspected militants, including the Taliban financier and facilitator. No shots were fired, and no one was injured.

The Taliban uses an extensive network of supply routes in southern Afghanistan to arm and equip its militant elements within the country. Afghan and international security forces consistently partner personnel and resources to block these routes and ensure the safety and well being of the Afghan people.

ISAF Casualty

Source: dvidshub.net/

Bomber kills anti-Taliban lawmaker in Pakistan

2009-12-02T08:24:00.000-08:00

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's Supreme Court said Tuesday it has taken up petitions challenging the amnesty from graft charges enjoyed by the president and many key allies, paving the way for political turmoil even as the U.S. presses the government to focus on fighting militants near the Afghan border.

Highlighting the dangers, a suicide bomber killed an anti-Taliban lawmaker Tuesday in the northwestern Swat Valley — the latest in a series of suicide attacks in recent weeks in response to an army offensive into a militant stronghold close to the Afghan border.

President Asif Ali Zardari, who is extremely unpopular according to opinion polls, has been under mounting pressure to resign or relinquish key powers and take on a ceremonial role since an amnesty granted by his predecessor expired over the weekend.

Zardari enjoys immunity as president but legal experts have said the court could challenge his eligibility for office and revoke that privilege if it deems the amnesty illegal. The president's office could not immediately be reached for comment but supporters have said he was ready to fight any challenges in court.

The domestic upheaval comes as President Barack Obama was expected to announce a new strategy for defeating the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan and on Pakistan's northwestern border. To have much hope of success, the U.S needs a stable Pakistani government committed to fighting militants blamed for attacks in both countries.

A statement issued Tuesday said the Supreme Court has received petitions calling the amnesty granted under ex-military leader Gen. Pervez Musharraf to Zardari and more than 8,000 other politicians and bureaucrats a violation of fundamental rights. It said the court has notified all concerned parties it will start proceedings into the cases on Dec. 7.

The amnesty was part of a deal that paved the way for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to return home from self-exile and take part in politics without facing cases her party says were politically motivated. Zardari took control of the party after Bhutto died in a suicide bombing on Dec. 27, 2007.

Zardari, 54, has long been haunted by corruption allegations dating back to governments led by his late wife, Bhutto, and has spent several years in prison under previous administrations. He denies any wrongdoing.

The opposition also has called on Zardari to give up sweeping powers he inherited from Musharraf.

Pakistan's original constitution envisages a parliamentary style of government, in which a popularly elected prime minister is the chief executive and the president is a ceremonial head of state. But Musharraf, who was widely despised when he stood down, accumulated powers to stay in office.

Zardari relinquished command of the country's nuclear arsenal on Friday and has said he would give up more powers in the near future.

The suicide bomber blew himself up among guests greeting provincial assembly member Shamsher Khan in his house close to the main Swat Valley town of Mingora, police and hospital officials said. Nine other people were wounded, including the lawmaker's brother.

Swat Valley was the site of a major military offensive this summer that was largely considered a success. But sporadic bombings and clashes still occur, raising fears many of the militants escaped and could regroup.

Similar concerns have been expressed about a major army assault that began in mid-October in the border region of South Waziristan that has reclaimed several towns.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Tuesday's bombing would not derail the government's efforts against the insurgents.

"Such reprehensible acts can never defeat our resolve to root out terrorism and militancy," he said.

Khan, 59, was a member of the secular Awami National Party, which is in power in northwest Pakistan and has been a vocal supporter of army offensives against militants in the region as well as education for girls.

Regional police chief Idrees Khan said the bomber's head was severed from his body and he appeared to be about 16 years old.

He said the overall security situation in Swat Valley remained under control despite the continued threat from militants.

"The Taliban have been struggling to reassert their presence since their defeat," he said. "This incident will not shatter the faith and nerves of the people of Swat."

Associated Press writers Asif Shahzad in Islamabad and Riaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hkiMxbHNH0BqgpWA2ZG6VD6wVTmAD9CAL9A03

President Zardari reasserts grip on presidency: WP

2009-12-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON - Two weeks after reporting that President Asif Ali Zardari was facing growing public anger and disillusionment over his “remote presidency”, The Washington Post said Tuesday that the Pakistani leader had “come out swinging” to hold off his political foes.
“President Asif Ali Zardari, fighting to keep his job amid pressure from opponents in the media, the courts, the Parliament and the military, appears to have reasserted his grip on the presidency for the time being,” the newspaper said in a dispatch from Islamabad, citing analysts.
“But Zardari’s government remains caught between pressure to support Washington in the war against Islamist insurgents in Afghanistan and the need to improve its tenuous relations with the Army, which is focused on fighting domestic Taliban extremists and mistrusts the Obama administration’s friendship with India, Pakistan’s neighbour and arch rival,” correspondent Pamela Constable wrote.
“On Monday, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani — who reports to Zardari but is also a political rival — warned in a television interview that any sizable increase in US troops in Afghanistan would lead to a spill over of insurgents into Pakistan, further destabilising the border area where troops are now conducting a ground and aerial war against domestic Taliban forces”.
The warning from Gilani came one day before President Barack Obama is scheduled to announce his long-awaited new Afghan strategy, which is likely to include adding tens of thousands of more troops. The dispatch said that after Zardari relinquished control over nuclear weapons, his opponents in Parliament are demanding that he give up even more authority, and some have called on him to resign.
Meanwhile, it said the President has also become vulnerable to legal action by Pakistan’s Supreme Court. “An amnesty for past corruption charges against Zardari and a host of other officials expired Saturday, and although the president cannot be prosecuted while in office, the High Court could also rule that his election was illegitimate.
and then pursue the original cases against him,” correspondent Constable said.
“But Zardari, backed into a corner by multiple adversaries, has come out swinging,” she wrote, citing his defiant speech last week. He also forced the cancellation of a cable TV show whose host often criticised him, according to the dispatch.

Source: nation.com.pk/

INTERVIEW-Pakistan's Karachi the Taliban revenue engine - mayor

2009-12-02T08:17:00.000-08:00

KARACHI, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Pakistan's biggest city and commercial hub of Karachi is the revenue engine of the Taliban who pose a threat to the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan from city no-go areas, Karachi's mayor said on Wednesday.

The city of 18 million people generates 68 percent of the government revenue and 25 percent of Pakistan's gross domestic product but it is vulnerable to both militant attacks and political violence, said mayor Syed Mustafa Kamal.

"As Karachi is the revenue engine for Pakistan, it's the same revenue engine for the Taliban," Kamal told Reuters in an interview in his office.

While investors in Pakistan's stock market are getting used to almost daily violence in northwestern parts of the country, violence in Karachi would have an immediate impact on financial markets, dealers say.

Karachi has been largely free of militant attacks over the past two years which Kamal put down to his party's strong and popular stand against militancy combined with effective security operations.

Eight militant gangs had been rounded up in the city over recent months, including one planning to attack an oil storage depot next to the country's main port in the city, he said.

"Half of Karachi would have burned," said Kamal, referring to the foiled depot attack. [ID:nISL83142]

A dynamic 37-year-old, Kamal has won support with his efforts to ease traffic gridlock and improve woeful services.

Kamal said a large proportion of supplies bound for U.S.-led forces in landlocked Afghanistan arrive at Karachi's port, which he said was still vulnerable to an attack that could cripple the U.S. war effort.

"If they don't get their water supply through this route the next day they'll be drinking Afghan water and the next day half the army will have stomach problems," he said.

"THAT'S ABNORMAL"

The city, which has long suffered a reputation for political violence and crime, still had no-go areas where the authorities including the police dared not venture, he said.

"These no-go areas give room for any terrorist, no matter how small or big, to come and stay," said Kamal, though he said he did not believe press reports that Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar was hiding in the city.

But he said militants were financing their war in the northwest of the country and in Afghanistan through kidnapping and drug trafficking through Karachi.

"People are being kidnapped here in Karachi and the ransom is taken in Waziristan," he said, referring to a northwestern ethnic Pashtun region where the army has been battling militants since October.

Four hundred million rupees ($4.8 million) had recently been sent from one Karachi bank branch to various parts of the northwest in one month, he said.

"That's abnormal," he said. "For sure, the biggest chunk of Taliban war ... resources are going from Karachi." Kamal is a member of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which represents mohajirs, the descendents of Urdu-speaking people who migrated from India after the creation of Pakistan in 1947.

They are the biggest community in Karachi and dominate its administration.

The MQM, now an uneasy member of the federal coalition government, was heavily involved in bloody factional battles in Karachi in the 1990s.

Kamal said Karachi remains volatile and vulnerable to factional violence: "It would just take a single statement to burn the whole city."

But he said the MQM had a new mentality and maturity.

"We understand very well that Karachi is the backbone of Pakistan's economy," he said. "If something, God forbid, happens the MQM would be the biggest loser.

"I don't have a house in Peshawar or Lahore, nor can I go to New Delhi again ... My graveyard is here." (For more Pakistan stories, click [ID:nAFPAK]; For a factbox on Karachi, click on [ID:nISL407920] (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

Source: reuters.com/

Pak-US do not need joint command against Taliban, Al-Qaeda: Qureshi

2009-12-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

London, Dec.2 (ANI): Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan and the US do not need a joint command as far as taking action against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda is concerned.

Highlighting the need for enhanced cooperation between Islamabad and Washington, Qureshi told a British news agency that the Obama administration should consult Pakistan on its Afghan policy, failing which more trouble would be created for Islamabad.

Replying to a question, Qureshi reiterated Pakistan’s demand for unmanned aircrafts so that it could target extremist hideouts on its own, and maintained that the US missile strikes were proving counterproductive.

Qureshi said Pakistan is concerned about the negative implications of the new US strategy policy for Afghanistan and wanted better coordination between the US and the Pakistan Army, The Nation reports.

It worth mentioning here that the US President Barack Obama has announced sending an additional 30,000 American troops to Afghanistan by next summer. He also said that he plans to have all surviving American troops back home by July 2011.

Announcing the new Afghanistan strategy at the United States Military Academy Obama said: “As Commander-in-Chief, I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan. After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home. These are the resources that we need to seize the initiative, while building the Afghan capacity that can allow for a responsible transition of our forces out of Afghanistan.”

Obama sought to reassure NATO allies and the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan that he was not abandoning the war effort, while pressurising them to make sure they hold up their end of the bargain. (ANI)

Source: thaindian.com/

Little proof of Taliban links: Afghan agents

2009-12-02T08:13:00.000-08:00

Officials from Afghanistan's intelligence agency complained to Canadian military and government representatives on several occasions that troops were detaining people with little evidence linking them to the Taliban, according to records obtained by the Ottawa Citizen.

The Canadian government documents detail how agents from the National Directorate of Security, a key Afghan organization involved in the fight against insurgents, raised concerns in spring of 2007 that both Canadian and NATO soldiers were taking people into custody but could not provide proof of how they were involved in insurgent activities. As a result, the NDS had been releasing most of those captured.

Meanwhile, about 30 Taliban insurgents were killed in a NATO-led air strike in eastern Afghanistan after they attacked an Afghan police post, a police official and the alliance said yesterday.

Afghan border police commander Sayed Nabi Mullahkhil said a police checkpoint in eastern Khost province, which shares a border with Pakistan, was attacked by militants overnight.

The privately owned Tolo TV station said 26 insurgents were killed, including one fighter from Chechnya.

Members of a Commons committee recently heard testimony from Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin who said that many of the Afghans detained by Canadian troops were innocent farmers, peasants or people in the "wrong place at the wrong time." Mr. Colvin, who dealt with detainee and intelligence issues in Afghanis tan, warned that Canada's detainee policies had alienated Canadian troops from the local population and strengthened the insurgency.

A senior Red Cross official has also criticized Mr. Colvin.

The humanitarian group requires that any communication of that sort be kept confidential to help ensure it gets access to prisoners, said Eloi Fillion, deputy director of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Afghanistan, where it has a staff of 120 foreigners and 1,500 locals.

"What [Richard] Colvin has said publicly has put us in an awkward situation," Mr. Fillion said. "What he claims to know should not be put out in a public place."

Mr. Colvin was challenged last week by diplomat David Mulroney, who had been a key player in the Afghan mission. He testified there was "no doubt that the detainees captured by the Canadian Forces posed a real threat to Afghans, and ... in some cases, had Canadian blood on their hands."

Retired general Rick Hillier also disputed Mr. Colvin's allegations and said Afghans taken into custody were indeed working for the enemy.

He told the Commons committee those detained had actually been caught in the act of trying to kill Canadian troops and had explosive or gunpowder residue on their hands.

But if that was the case, then that information wasn't being passed on to the NDS.

During a May 7, 2007 meeting at the NDS prison in Kandahar, the Afghan intelligence officials complained to a Canadian Forces legal advisor, as well as Foreign Affairs and Correctional Service of Canada representatives.

"[Names of NDS agents censored from document] complained that they need more detailed charge information when detainees are transferred by Canadian Forces," the Canadian government report from Kandahar noted. "In the cases the only evidence is [details censored from document] which in the Afghan context is insufficient grounds to hold someone in detention."

The NDS officials asked that their concerns be passed on to both Canadian and NATO troops, according to the report.

Source: nationalpost.com/

Pakistan seeks plan with US and Britain to tackle Taliban

2009-11-30T00:49:00.000-08:00

PAKISTAN’S PRIME minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has demanded that the United States and the United Kingdom enter a joint strategy with his country to tackle the Taliban on the Afghanistan/ Pakistan border.

Also speaking yesterday, British prime minister Gordon Brown said Pakistan had “to do more” to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

It was not acceptable that eight years on from the 9/11 attacks, he was still free.

The focus on Pakistan by Mr Brown and a series of ministers is striking given Pakistan’s continuing assault on Taliban fighters in its northern border region.

Speaking before he left for Germany, Mr Gilani said extra US and British troops in Afghanistan could make his difficulties worse if it simply led to the Taliban slipping across the border to escape.

“We have highlighted our concerns about the possible increase in US forces in Afghanistan. Our fear is that if the troops are increased, the militants might spill over to Pakistan,” he said.

Meanwhile, the January meeting in London of international leaders will sign off on a plan to prepare to hand over security to Afghan police and military, following extra training for new Afghan soldiers.

Four hundred provincial and district governors will be appointed within nine months to improve local governance and end corruption, while Afghan security should take the lead in five of the country’s 34 provinces by the end of next year.

The January 28th conference in London is expected to be attended by Afghan president Hamid Karzai, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and the foreign ministers of 42 other countries involved in Afghanistan.

In television interviews yesterday, Mr Brown said questions had to be asked why no one had been able to “spot or detail or get close to” the al-Qaeda leader, and said Pakistan must do more “to break” the organisation.

Pakistan had to join “in the major effort that the world is committing resources to, and that is not only to isolate al-Qaeda, but to break them in Pakistan”, Mr Brown told the BBC.

Mr Brown will meet Mr Gilani in Downing Street on Thursday.

Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari was given notice in a telephone conversation of Mr Brown’s determination to focus on the al-Qaeda leader.

“We should have been able to do more . . . to get to the bottom of where al-Qaeda is operating from,” he said.

He added that Pakistan had to make sure it was taking on the Taliban directly during its current military operations in South Waziristan.

“We want, after eight years, to see more progress in taking out these two people at the top of al-Qaeda, who have done so much damage and are clearly the brains behind many of the operations that have hit Britain,” said Mr Brown.

However, the focus on bin Laden has surprised some security quarters, given a prevailing view among many of them that bin Laden is little more than a figurehead, and not directly running terrorist operations.

Supporting Mr Brown, foreign secretary David Miliband said: “We want the Pakistan government, the Pakistan security forces, to join us in upping our game in ensuring that the badlands of the Afghan-Pakistan border are no longer able to be a centre for international terrorism.”

Given that US president Barack Obama will this week announce major troop increases, Mr Miliband said that it is “right that we recognise that stability in Afghanistan requires stability in Pakistan”.

* Pakistan’s president has transfered authority over the nation’s nuclear weapons to the prime ministership, as the unpopular leader tries to deflect growing criticism he has too much power.

President Asif Ali Zardari, beset by corruption allegations, has been under pressure to give up sweeping powers that his predecessor Pervez Musharraf accumulated for the presidency.

The transfer of the chairmanship of the National Command Authority (NCA), which oversees Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, came as Mr Zardari could face pressure after the lapse of an amnesty opened several of his top aides to prosecution on graft charges.That amnesty, and growing criticism that Mr Zardari has too much power, may herald more political instability in Pakistan.

The prime minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani, told reporters the transfer of the chairmanship was a “a true litmus test” of relations between him and Zardari.

Source:irishtimes.com

Taliban enticed with jobs, cash

2009-11-30T00:47:00.000-08:00

THE US-led coalition and the Afghan government are launching an initiative to persuade Taliban insurgents to lay down their weapons, offering jobs and protection to the militants who abandon their fight.

While President Hamid Karzai's government has been trying to woo these insurgents for years, the new program marks the first time that NATO forces are systematically reaching out to Taliban fighters.

The Afghan government has had a reconciliation program in place since 2004, and claims to have turned more than 8000 insurgents. That program, however, is widely derided as corrupt and ineffective. Insurgents were enticed with offers of jobs but rarely received the promised assistance, leading many to rejoin the fight.

Western officials behind the new reconciliation program say most insurgents are fighting for money - the Taliban often pay their members - or because of personal grievances. Luring such men from the battlefield is a central component of the US's new counter-insurgency strategy crafted by US General Stanley McChrystal.

"It is an issue of dialogue. We need to establish respect, even if they are the enemy," said Graeme Lamb, a retired British general who spearheaded a similar effort to turn Sunni insurgents in Iraq, and who oversees the campaign out of NATO headquarters in Kabul.

The Afghan government and coalition military officials have already begun using tribal elders and other influential figures to reach out to the Taliban in southern Helmand province. The elders negotiate on behalf of the government, and insurgents are offered jobs with the local police force. Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal said, if necessary, the authorities would pay cash to those willing to lay down arms.

The Taliban's senior leadership met the new reconciliation efforts with scorn. The Islamist movement is "considering this decision as a sign of weakness and complete despondency of the enemy", Mullah Brader Akhund, the Afghan Taliban's second-in-command, said in a statement.

Gul Wazir, a Taliban commander who fought the Americans for nearly eight years south of Kabul, has been disappointed with the Afghan government's current reconciliation program. When Mr Wazir decided to stop fighting in September, the government promised to protect him from his erstwhile comrades and find him a job.

But no job or protection materialised, and Mr Wazir said he was forced to flee to Kabul. "The government hasn't done a single thing for me," he says. "My life was better when I was fighting."

Source:theaustralian.com.au

Taliban fighters escape Pakistani offensive, but to where?

2009-11-30T00:46:00.000-08:00

ISLAMABAD -- Most of the Taliban fighters and all of their leaders apparently have escaped Pakistan's widely publicized six-week-old offensive in South Waziristan, forcing the army to begin pounding other parts of the country's lawless tribal area.

Since Nov. 22, Pakistan has been launching aerial attacks on suspected militant hideouts in Orakzai, another part of the tribal area, and on Tuesday it extended operations to Khyber, the tribal territory closest to Peshawar, the provincial capital.

Though the army has extended its reach and now controls much of the former Taliban fiefdom in South Waziristan, the threat that was supposed to be extinguished seems likely to persist.

The Pakistani military also is likely to remain preoccupied with chasing the domestic threat rather than bowing to U.S. pressure to take on the Afghan Taliban groups, who've used North Waziristan as a base for attacking the U.S. and allied troops and the U.S.-backed government in Afghanistan.

In Khyber, which houses the main supply route for NATO troops in Afghanistan, government forces killed 18 militants and seized their arms dumps, according to the Frontier Corp paramilitary force. In Orakzai, thought by many to be the most likely hiding place now of Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud, government forces have killed at least 20 extremists.

"The Waziristan operation is real, I'm sure of that, but where are the bad guys?" asked one Western security official visiting Pakistan, who couldn't be identified because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

The Pakistani operation, carried out by about 30,000 troops, targeted the part of South Waziristan occupied by the Mehsud tribe and was meant to eliminate the bulk of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, the group behind most of the terrorist attacks inside the country, along with their Arab and Central Asian partners who are closely associated with al-Qaida.

Many, however, think that the government blundered by announcing the operation four months in advance, giving plenty of time to the extremists to plan a retreat.

With more than half the targeted territory now conquered, the Pakistani army has claimed it killed fewer than 600 militants, at a cost of 70 soldiers. Before the operation began, the army had estimated enemy strength at 10,000 to 15,000 fighters, leaving the whereabouts of the rest a mystery. They're considered unlikely to be in North Waziristan, as it houses the rival Wazir tribe and a competing faction of Taliban.

There's no word on the location of Mehsud, while his spokesman, Azam Tariq, is able to continue issuing propaganda.

"We have not been defeated. We have voluntarily withdrawn into the mountains under a strategy that will trap the Pakistan army in the area," Azam Tariq told a news conference recently at a secret location.

The army took nearly a week to subdue Mehsud's birthplace of Kotkai in South Waziristan, one of its first major objectives, and it met strong resistance in the towns of Kaniguram and Sararogha.

Then, the victories got easier. As the army pressed forward to the extremist "capital" of Makeen, which is now in army hands, the insurgents vacated areas - though the army points out that 17 soldiers died taking Makeen.

"We still receive RPG (rocket propelled grenade) fire from areas sometimes, but the troops quickly respond to kill them or force them to flee. There's no direct fighting here right now," a mid-ranking Pakistan military official who had seen the operation in South Waziristan. "The troops are busy removing IEDs (improvised explosive devices), searching for bunkers and arms caches; many have been removed. We are consolidating our positions now in the hilly areas to block militants from using them for launching attacks."

The official couldn't be identified by name because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

Not only do the Taliban appear to have largely escaped but their ability to stage terrorist attacks inside Pakistan also is undiminished, as evidenced by a savage onslaught against Peshawar.

However, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, the chief army spokesman, insisted that the army achieved a "huge change," by dividing the TTP into scattered groups, and taking over their training camps and other infrastructure. He said many could still be hiding in remote forests and mountains inside South Waziristan.

"Once we consolidate our position, it will radiate effects all around," Abbas said. "It is not the numbers of those who escaped that matters. I think we have broken the TTP."

Analysts think that the Taliban will stage a comeback, in tactics similar to their Afghan allies' withdrawal from Helmand in Afghanistan this summer, in the face of an American offensive, only to return later with hit-and-run tactics that have inflicted the worst monthly casualties of the war on U.S. forces.

"The strategy that the army has adopted (in South Waziristan) is very conventional and very predictable," said Javed Hussain, formerly a brigadier with the Pakistani special forces. "Three or four months from now, they (the Taliban) are going to bounce back. When the army is deployed to hold the area, the guerrillas will start their hit-and-run attacks against the army's lines of communication, and all over the tribal area."

(Shah is a McClatchy Newspapers special correspondent.)

Source:miamiherald.com

Under fire Pakistan president claims success against Taliban

2009-11-30T00:44:00.000-08:00

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has claimed "considerable success" in a military offensive against the Taliban, but criticism of his rule mounted Sunday threatening further instability.

Zardari, who is battling a Taliban insurgency, increasing unpopularity and strained relations with the military, made the remarks during a telephone conversation late Saturday with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

They come as an amnesty protecting Zardari and key aides from corruption cases expired, and after he handed over control of the country's nuclear arsenal to the prime minister in an apparent move to appease his critics.

"Referring to the ongoing drive against militancy in the tribal areas of South Waziristan, the president said that considerable success had been achieved," presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement.

"The operation would continue until the area is cleared of terrorists and the objectives are achieved," Zardari told the British prime minister.

But Brown told BBC television on Sunday that Pakistan must do more to hunt down the Al-Qaeda-linked militants hiding out along its borders, saying it was not enough to isolate them, but Islamabad must "break them in Pakistan."

"We have to ask ourselves why eight years after September the 11th, nobody has been able to spot or detain or get close to Osama bin Laden," he said.

Pakistan sent about 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships into South Waziristan on October 17, in the most ambitious operation yet against the Taliban in their mountain stronghold near the Afghan border.

Although there has been some resistance in the region, many officials and analysts believe most of the estimated 10,000 Taliban guerrillas in the district have escaped into neighbouring Orakzai and North Waziristan.

Pakistan is also facing political uncertainty after the legal amnesty protecting dozens of politicians from prosecution expired Saturday.

Zardari enjoys immunity as president, but his government is seen as too weak to secure an extension of the ordinance in parliament, and its expiration opens the door for possible legal cases against senior cabinet ministers.

The president on Saturday gave control of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, widely seen as a move to fend off criticism by making good on electoral promises to devolve greater power to parliament.

"Now the time has come to fulfil promises and Mr President should keep his promises," said opposition politician Shahbaz Sharif, brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

"He has been making promises to repeal the 17th amendment and now the time has come that finally he should honour his promises."

The 17th amendment to the constitution was introduced by former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, and gives the president the power to dissolve parliament and sack the prime minister.

Zardari replaced Musharraf as president last year after his Pakistan People's Party won elections, but his approval ratings are at rock bottom as the nation struggles with Taliban violence and a recession.

Security has drastically deteriorated in Pakistan since Islamabad joined the US-led "war on terror". Hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants fled into the tribal belt after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan.

The South Waziristan offensive has also prompted a retaliatory surge in suicide attacks targeting civilians and security officials.

The United States has welcomed Pakistan's military efforts but is reportedly pressuring the civilian government to also counter militants on Pakistani soil who attack NATO and US troops across the border in Afghanistan.

On Sunday, eight militants were reported killed in clashes with troops in the tribal districts of Khyber -- the main supply route for NATO trucks heading to Afghanistan -- and in South Waziristan, military officials said.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iBneUpt2jXwxsv8GoDQpB112OBPw

Why did US-Taliban talks fail?

2009-11-30T00:43:00.000-08:00

LAHORE: The American initiative to hold talks with the Afghan Taliban through Saudi and Pakistani intelligence agencies has failed to produce desired results so far primarily due to the trust deficit between the two sides and the obstinacy of the former rulers of Afghanistan who are still determined to fight out along with the US-led allies before re-establishing their erstwhile empire, the Islamic Emirate of Taliban.

Amidst fresh media reports that the US has undertaken a re-think of its Afghan policy, well informed diplomatic circles in Islamabad say Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, pushed by the decision makers in Washington and London, had been brokering talks between the Taliban and the Karzai government for almost two years now but without any results, chiefly because the Taliban representatives have never been easy to talk to.

These circles added that the American Central Investigation Agency (CIA) is busy holding secret talks with the Taliban with the help of the Saudi leadership and the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) of Saudi Arabia and the Pakistani leadership and the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

The Pakistani Foreign Office sources in Islamabad say the back-channel talks were motivated by the fact that eight years after the US invasion of Afghanistan, the deteriorating security situation in the country has prompted a review of the US strategists who have failed to deliver victory to the resourceful NATO forces against the ragtag Taliban militia. There is a military standoff despite the fact that the lightly armed Taliban guerrilla fighters in terms of firepower should have been no match for the world’s only superpower and the best western armies. Subsequently, having declared the Afghan war un-winnable, even the NATO military commanders now want to engage the Taliban not in the battlefield but at the negotiating table. Therefore, there is talk of negotiations with the Taliban and even offering them a share in the Afghan administration as part of a political settlement.

Under these circumstances, the head of the US Central Command, General David Petraeus has already stated that the US should be prepared to talk to its enemies, followed by the US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke’s November 24 statement that Saudi Arabia has initiated a dialogue with the Taliban and that the United States would support any Saudi initiative.

This is a sea change in the views of the Western nations that followed US to send troops to Afghanistan to fight the supposedly common enemy, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Until now they seemed determined to defeat al-Qaeda and Taliban and extend the writ of President Karzai’s government to all corners of Afghanistan. But lately, it appears that the emphasis is shifting and the game plan is to bring the Taliban on board and wean them away from Al-Qaeda. The outcasts of yesterday, after being demonised, are being lobbied hard and Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are being used to rope them in. Therefore, the US has already, for the first time, declared officially that the Afghan problem needs to be resolved politicaally, through reconciliation.

According to the Pakistani establishment circles, the secret talks involve officials from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, United States and Britain, some key leaders of the Afghan Taliban and the chief of the Islamabad-based Jamiatul Ansar Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil. The sources say the representatives of the Karzai government and the Afghan Taliban had already held secret talks in Makkah from September 24 to 27, 2008. Yet the parleys remained futile even after four-day long marathon session as the Saudis failed to give a timeframe on behalf of the US for the withdrawal of the western forces from Afghanistan.

The Taliban representatives had maintained during the Makkah talks that the exit of the NATO and ISAF forces was a pre-requisite to strike a peace deal with the Karzai regime, in line with Osama’s stance that the US troops should leave Saudi Arabia as well as other Muslim countries. At least 18 Afghans met with Saudi leader King Abdullah and other Saudi officials in September 2008.

The Pakistani establishment sources say it was actually Prince Turki Al-Faisal, the former head of the Saudi intelligence agency, who had requested Pakistan to use its influence on the Taliban and to make them agree to hold talks at Makkah. A senor Saudi official reportedly travelled to the troubled North Waziristan on the Pak-Afghan border before the Makkah talks to interact with the Taliban top brass. He wanted to see Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri but he was not allowed a meeting and instead was asked to see the third-tier leaders. Taliban eventually agreed to dispatch some of their representatives to Saudia to attend the Makkah talks.

During the talks, the representatives of the US and the Karzai regime had their own preconditions, the most important being that the Taliban militia should accept Afghanistan’s new constitution and join the political mainstream under the existing system of governance.

The Americans also wanted the Ameer of the Afghhan Taliban Mullah Mohammad Omar to ditch Al-Qaeda and help arrest Osama bin Laden. The talks eventually failed due to the obstinacy of the Taliban representatives who wanted the withdrawal of the US-led allied forces from Afghanistan before initiating a formal dialogue with the US and the Karzai administration.

Source:thenews.com.pk

Taliban leader rules out talks with Karzai

2009-11-30T00:42:00.000-08:00

KABUL — The Taliban's reclusive leader has ruled out talks with President Hamid Karzai and called on Afghans to break off relations with his "stooge" administration.

In a statement, Mullah Omar also insisted foreign troops were losing the war in Afghanistan.

His message, issued Wednesday ahead of the Muslim Eid holiday, came a week after Karzai reached out to the Taliban during his inauguration speech, saying it was important to include in the government former Taliban who were ready to renounce terrorism. The hardline militia has long refused to negotiate with the Karzai government or join what it considers a puppet administration.

"Ground realities in our beloved country indicate that the invaders are about to escape," Omar said in the message posted on a Web site used by the Taliban and e-mailed to journalists from an address often used to send out his statements.

Omar led the Taliban regime that was toppled by the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and has not been seen since. Afghan officials claim he is in hiding in Pakistan.

As the Taliban insurgency gathers strength, President Barack Obama has been considering plans to send tens of thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. U.S. military officials expect an infusion of approximately 32,000 to 35,000 troops to begin in February or March. It would be the largest expansion since the beginning of the war eight years ago.

NATO countries are also preparing to send more soldiers, with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown saying 10 NATO nations are ready to offer about 5,000 more troops. Britain, which has 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, the second-largest contingent after the United States, has not named the countries it claims will provide the extra troops.

As part of efforts to bolster Afghanistan's own security forces, the Interior Ministry announced Wednesday a salary hike for police to help boost recruitment and retention and curb rampant corruption in the force that suffers a higher death rate than the nation's army.

Bolstering Afghanistan's police force, which is underpaid and under-equipped, is seen as crucial to improving security and eventually allowing foreign troops to go home.

Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said monthly salaries for police working in high-risk areas will increase from $180 to $240, while those of police in lower risk areas will increase from $120 to $210.

Chief spokesman for the NATO-led force in Afghanistan acknowledged the Taliban had gained momentum in their insurgency. "We need to neutralize locally some of those initiatives to slow them down," Canadian Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay said.

But he also said the militants were aware of progress made in the country with international support, so were trying to undermine the government.

"At the end, President Karzai has been quite clear that reconciliation and reintegration is on the table," Tremblay said.

In his message, the Taliban leader urged Afghans to eschew the Karzai government.

"I hope you will continue your legitimate jihad (holy war) and struggle in the way of realizing your Islamic aspirations ... and break off all relations with the stooge Kabul administration," Omar said.

Omar said there would be no negotiations that would prolong or legitimize the presence of foreign forces in the country.

"Those who have occupied our country and taken our people as hostage, want to use the stratagem of negotiation like they used the drama of elections for some time in order to achieve their colonialist objectives," he said. "However, the people of Afghanistan will not agree to negotiation which prolongs and legitimizes the invaders' military presence."

The Taliban leader lambasted U.S.-backed efforts to create militias that would fight the militants — a plan that has been compared to the U.S.-fostered Awakening Councils in Iraq, which have often been credited with reducing violence there, and similar to neighboring Pakistan's tribal armies which also have been touted as a success.

Omar called on Taliban militants to "mete out an exemplary punishment to those who are leading these mischief-making activities."

But he urged them to avoid civilian deaths. Taliban bombs often kill civilians in their pursuit of government or military targets.

Militants were to blame for about three-quarters of the 1,500 civilian deaths in the first eight months of 2009, according to the United Nations. However, the Taliban statement blamed U.S. and NATO forces for killing civilians in military operations, and said these nations are guilty of human rights abuses because of the mistreatment of prisoners.

Separately, the Danish army said Wednesday a Danish soldier had been killed by an explosive device during foot patrol in southern Afghanistan.

Elsewhere, the U.S. military said Wednesday that it had lost contact with a Predator drone in southern Afghanistan on Saturday.

The U.S. Air Force Central Command said in a statement that there was "no indication enemy action was involved." It said the unmanned aircraft's primary mission was reconnaissance.

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hvWEqwq3CrRvaQCmt21MfoYhjZJQD9C6N03O0

US in back-channel talks with Afghan Taliban

2009-11-30T00:40:00.000-08:00

ISLAMABAD: After fighting a bloody war in Afghanistan for more than eight years, the United States appears to have undertaken a re-think of its policy and has started engaging the Taliban in negotiations through Saudi and Pakistani intelligence agencies, highly-placed sources told Dawn here on Monday.

‘We have started ‘engagement’ with the Afghan Taliban and are hopeful that our efforts will bear fruit,’ a source involved in secret negotiations told this correspondent.

He said that four ‘major neutral players’ were engaged with the Afghan Taliban on behalf of the Saudi leadership and the General Intelligence Directorate (GID) of Saudi Arabia and the Pakistani leadership and Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).

The GID and ISI have been doing the job on behalf of the US government and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The source said that one of the main objectives of the recent visit to Pakistan by CIA chief Leon Panetta was to assess progress in the back-channel negotiations.

The source said that four leaders were playing the role of mediators on behalf of the Saudis and the Afghan Taliban.

Among them is Abdullah Anas, a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden’s mentor Abdullah Azzam who was killed in Peshawar in 1989 along with his two sons. Anas lives in the UK, but maintains close links with the Afghan Taliban and even Al Qaida.

Saudi national Abul Hassan Madni, once a prominent leader of Rabta-i-Alam-i-Islami, has also been in the picture. He lives in Madina.

Abu Jud Mehmood Samrai, an Iraqi who is married to a Pakistani woman, has also been contacted. He was given Pakistani nationality by former president Ziaul Haq for his role in the Afghan war.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman Khalil, a Pakistani militant leader, is also in the loop. Khalil, who co-founded the Harkatul Ansar, currently heads Hizbul Mujahideen.

He had signed the famous decree issued by Osama bin Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri in 1998 calling for killing the Americans. Khalil commands respect among both Pakistani and Afghani Taliban and is said to have played a secret mediatory role with Pakistani authorities for peace in the country.

Reliable sources also told Dawn that Mullah Umar, the chief of Afghan Taliban, has nominated his shadow foreign minister, Agha Motasam, to negotiate with the Americans. They said that talks held so far were of a preliminary nature, but may resume on a serious note after Eid.

Source:dawn.com

On Monday, Barack Obama will call for a troop surge. What really matters is a potential sea change in U.S. policy toward its enemy

2009-11-30T00:35:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON–If the horns of his dilemma weren't already obvious, President Barack Obama now has this unsavoury sequence at hand.

Monday, in what promises to be the foreign policy speech of his young presidency, Obama will take ownership of the faltering war in Afghanistan.

And barely a week later, in a moment of impending irony too close for comfort, he will fly to Oslo and take ownership of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Between these two unlikely events, Congress will return belly-full from Thanksgiving turkey to chew on Obama's agonizing decision – (another) troop surge, (another) retooled strategy, this time designed around the counterintuitive ideal that America will go big in Afghanistan in order to go home – and decide whether to pay for it.

With the war already bleeding the U.S. Treasury more than $3.6 billion a month, the extra 30,000 soldiers in this ante-upping plan are expected to drive the cost to $6 billion.

Soured by eight unbroken years of overseas fighting and an economic tailspin of unemployment, Americans will brace for the bitter taste of hard-sell as the White House lines up not just Obama but its entire Afghanistan war council to make the case that more is less. That in ramping up, the U.S. will simultaneously locate the road home for the troops.

Yet while the debate has been all about the surge, what matters most is not numbers but strategy – not just in the words from Obama, but actual change on the ground. And here, a case for dramatically lowered expectations – a healthy dose of realism that Afghanistan cannot be made good, but maybe, just maybe good enough – appears imminent.

White House and U.S. military sources have signalled for weeks that part of the way forward will be a redefinition of the Taliban as perhaps not so bad after all. Or not so very much worse, at least, than the corruption-plagued regime that has metastasized beneath Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

"We believe our strategic problem with the Taliban begins and ends with their support for al Qaeda and their aggression against the United States and our allies," a U.S. official in Kabul told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"If the Taliban made clear that they have broken with al Qaeda and that their own objectives were nonviolent and political – however abhorrent to us – we wouldn't be keeping 68,000-plus troops here."

In this respect, at least, the U.S. now appears to be coming around to the candid view articulated by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the sidelines of last year's NATO summit in Bucharest – that the lofty ideals articulated in the early years of the conflict are unrealistic. Afghanistan will still be a mess when NATO leaves. Violence will continue. That perhaps now the best-case scenario to end this latest chapter of the Great Game is a grand bargain with the other side – Afghan reconciliation, involving those who can be reconciled.

But in upping the ante, Team Obama accepts that the U.S.-led effort first must establish a firmer hold on the country to improve its leverage, even as it dispatches academics such as New York University scholar Barnett Rubin, one of the country's foremost authorities on Afghanistan, to work the back channels toward rapprochement.

Taliban leader-in-exile, one-eyed Mullah Mohammad Omar, again rejected the prospect for peace talks in a statement this week, saying: "The people of Afghanistan will not agree to negotiation which prolongs and legitimizes the invader's military presence in our beloved country. Afghanistan is our home."

But beneath the bluster, the U.S. senses room for movement. Rubin and fellow Washington insider Thomas Pickering, leading a joint task force earlier this year, reported that "the (Taliban) Quetta shura is showing signs of willingness to distance itself from al Qaeda and seek a political settlement."

In the wake of Karzai's fraud-soaked re-election, Obama is expected to hinge all future commitments on the discredited Afghan regime's ability to mend its ways. And also on the broader, comprehensive strategy that amps up pressure on neighbouring Pakistan.

All this is more than a tall order as Obama tilts toward the grudging terrain of Republican hawks, for whom the military can do no wrong and the President can do no right. And an enormously bitter pill for America's doves – anti-war Democrats who helped engineer last year's presidential victory on the promise of exit from Iraq.

The long-suffering leadership in NATO capitals everywhere will hang on Obama's every word when he speaks Monday at West Point military academy in New York. They, too, are feeling the White House heat, with amped-up pleas for another 10,000 soldiers to fill the gap demanded by Obama's military overseer in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal.

Other numbers matter more – the rising public distaste for the conflict on almost every home front. The Netherlands and Canada, barring a last-minute change of heart by the Harper government, have had enough of the heavy lifting and appear politically incapable of answering U.S. pleas for more.

Germany, now wracked with its own internal scandal over an alleged cover-up of its military role in September air strikes on stolen fuel tankers that caused scores of Afghan civilian deaths, also appears stuck. French President Nicolas Sarkozy last month vowed he "will not send a single soldier more."

Britain, where public support for the conflict also is plummeting – and where Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth this week openly criticized Obama for dragging out his decision – appears willing to buck the tide with a modest infusion of new troops.

And quietly, in an echo of what turned the tide in Iraq, the U.S. appears to be readying a push toward winning Afghanistan valley by valley with offers of cash for local Afghan militia leaders willing to come onside the renewed U.S. effort. The program, reportedly led by U.S. Special Forces, could see as much as $1.3 billion made available to bring Afghan militias into a stand against anti-government guerrillas.

The latter move worries many longtime Afghan analysts, given that it runs counter to the earlier United Nations effort at disarming militias throughout the country. Afghanistan, they warn, is massively more complex than Iraq and empowering yet more local armies might only make it worse.

But with an estimated 25 per cent of the Afghan National Army resigning each year at the end of the traditional summer fighting season, there appear drastically few options for placing enough control in Afghan hands to enable a way out for U.S. and its NATO allies.

With such a range of unenviable choices and the certainty that these will bring still more U.S. bodybags home, little wonder Team Obama spent months poring over the details.

Now comes the hard part selling it to Americans and the rest of the world. And the infinitely harder part – making it work.

Source:thestar.com