Wall Street Journal and New York Times reports on U.S.-Afghan MOU re night raids

U.S., Afghanistan Agree on Night Raids
By Dion Nissenbaum
Updated April 8, 2012, 10:16 a.m. ET
The Wall Street Journal

KABUL—Afghanistan and the U.S. on Sunday signed a deal that would give the Afghan government greater oversight of controversial night raids, setting the stage for sealing a long-term bilateral partnership agreement next month.

In addition, Afghan forces will take the lead in all such raids, according to an Afghan official, and the agreement states that U.S. Special Operations forces should aim to no longer enter Afghan homes during them.

President Hamid Karzai has long called for an end to U.S. Special Operations Forces night raids, a tactic that the coalition says is critical in the fight against the Taliban.

The agreement, signed Sunday by U.S. Marine Gen. John Allen, the coalition forces commander, and Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak, gives the Afghan government broad new judicial powers to regulate the operations.

Under the deal, officials said, a special committee of Afghans will have the power to reject requests for most Special Operations raids before they proceed. In limited circumstances, according to Afghan officials, the courts will be asked to approve operations within 72 hours after a raid.

"It's a great day," U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said after Sunday's ceremony. "We clearly have some critical momentum. Now the hard stuff is behind us."

The night-raids agreement was signed after the negotiators ironed out a last-minute dispute over the interrogation of detainees.

Alongside the issue of the Bagram detention facility, resolved last month, the night raids were the main stumbling block to the partnership agreement that the U.S. and Afghanistan hope to conclude by next month's North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Chicago.

The partnership agreement will outline what presence the U.S. will maintain in Afghanistan after most foreign forces leave in 2014.

Though Sunday's agreement states that American Special Operations forces should aim to no longer enter Afghan homes during the operations, Afghan forces currently are too few to ensure that no U.S. forces enter homes. The intent is to reach the point where Americans are no longer searching Afghan homes, according to Afghan officials.

The very act of entering Afghan households is often taken as a sign of disrespect and dishonor in the conservative culture that prides itself on privacy, especially for women and children.

The agreement states that Afghan forces are now to take the lead in all such raids. "From this hour on, they are 100% Afghan-led," said an Afghan official. Presently, he said, about 75% of the operations are led by Afghans, and 40% are conducted without coalition support.

The U.S. military will still play a major role in the operations by providing intelligence, helicopter airlift to the raids and other critical elements.In the final round of talks, Americans had wanted to retain the authority to question detainees after the operations. But Afghan negotiators resisted the idea.

The final deal, according to Afghan officials, prevents U.S. forces from directly interrogating Afghan detainees. Instead they will be questioned by Afghan interrogators in cooperation with U.S. forces.

American forces will retain the ability to hold on to any non-Afghans caught in the raids.
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Deal Reached on Contested Afghan Night Raids
By Alissa J. Rubin
Published: April 8, 2012
The New York Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan and the United States signed an agreement on Sunday on night military raids that would hand responsibility for carrying out the operations to Afghan forces but allow continued American involvement.

The agreement clears the way for the two countries to move ahead with a more comprehensive long-term partnership agreement, Afghan and American officials. The signing of a memorandum of understanding on the night raids between Abdul Rahim Wardak, the Afghan minister of defense, and General John R. Allen, the American commander, was hailed by the men as an indication of both Afghanistan’s sovereignty and the growing abilities of its special operation forces.

“This is an important step in strengthening the sovereignty of Afghanistan,” Mr. Wardak said, adding that it was “a national goal” and “a wish of the Afghan people” that raids be conducted and controlled by Afghans.

General Allen said the signing meant that the two countries were “ready to look forward to a successful summit in Chicago in the wake of the signing of the strategic partnership agreement.”

The strategic partnership agreement commits the United States to another decade of involvement in the country in areas like economic development and education. The meeting in Chicago is a NATO summit at which countries involved in the war are expected to commit to continuing financial contributions to Afghanistan as well as committing to train and equip the forces.

The deal on night raids was the second of two contentious issues that the two countries resolved to solve ahead of work on the broader pact. The other issue involved the handover to the Afghans of the main United States detention facility in Parwan. That memorandum of understanding was signed on March 8.

President Hamid Karzai has long been at odds with the American military over the raids, which the Americans have described as a crucial tool in the fight against insurgents. The raids until recently were primarily conducted by American special operations forces. Afghan families, however, have objected strenuously to the raids which they say violate cultural norms, humiliate them and expose their women to the eyes of strangers.

Mr. Karzai, who renewed calls for an end to the raids after an American soldier was charged with 17 counts of murder in the shootings of Afghan civilians on March 11, has insisted that control over the raids is a matter of sovereignty.

“This is what the president has wanted for years,” a presidential spokesman, Aimal Faizi, said of the agreement.

Plans to complete the deal were expected earlier this week, but a last-minute glitch over how long the Americans could hold detainees for questioning after the completion of a raid tied up the final agreement. The impasse was broken over the last two days.
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