Fearing infiltration, Afghan army gives soldiers with ties to Pakistan an ultimatum
By Kevin Sieff
February 16, 2012
The Washington Post
KANDAHAR - In an effort to rid their army of Taliban infiltrators, Afghan officials have begun ordering soldiers with families in Pakistan to either move their relatives to Afghanistan or leave the military.
Afghan defense officials say the policy was crafted in response to a recent spate of incidents in which soldiers who were secretly working for the Taliban carried out attacks against NATO or Afghan troops. According to the army’s counterintelligence findings, those men often have ties to insurgent havens in Pakistan.
But the ultimatum could force painful choices for thousands of Afghan troops, and it is likely to stoke ethnic tensions just as the country’s leadership is seeking a negotiated end to the war. Purging members of the military with family in Pakistan also has the potential to aggravate long-troubled relations between Afghanistan and its eastern neighbor. Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Islamabad on Thursday in a bid to enlist Pakistan’s help in winding down the conflict.
The policy has not yet received final approval from the Defense Ministry, and Afghan officials are still weighing whether to apply it nationwide, even as implementation begins in some areas. Mere consideration of the policy reflects the depth of anxiety in Afghanistan — both among Afghan officials and Western powers — over sleeper agents within the military.
U.S. officials have expressed concern about the Taliban’s ability to penetrate Afghan security forces but have not publicly proposed concrete remedies. Afghan commanders say that the connection between sleeper agents and time spent in Pakistan has been well documented and that there is consensus on the need to act.
“When they’re in Pakistan, they can be influenced and intimidated by the enemy,” said Lt. Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, the army chief of staff. “It’s a big concern, and it’s something we’re trying to change.”
Insurgent groups such as the Taliban are widely believed to operate from bases in Pakistan, and militants frequently travel back and forth across the border. Pakistan has denied long-standing allegations that it provides insurgents with support.
Afghan counterintelligence officials have already compiled lists of soldiers with ties to Pakistan. In some parts of the country, such as the battle-scarred south, soldiers on the list have been told: Move or leave the army.
“We’ve told them, ‘If you can’t move your families, you’ll be kicked out,’ ” said Col. Abdul Shokor, the top Afghan counterintelligence official in the Afghan army’s Kandahar-based 205th Corps.
On his desk, Shokor keeps a list of several hundred soldiers based in southern Afghanistan who visit Pakistan during their time off from the military. No deadline has yet been set for the families to move, he said.
If the new rule is implemented nationally, it could affect several thousand soldiers. Millions of Afghan refugees fled to Pakistan in recent decades to escape the fighting. About 1.7 million Afghans still live there, according to the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Afghan soldiers often leave their families in Pakistan for security reasons.
The new policy would disproportionately affect Pashtuns, many of whom live in the border areas. The Taliban, which is predominantly Pashtun, has sought for years to argue that the Afghan government favors other ethnic groups, including Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras. Hostility among ethnic groups has been a key driver of war in Afghanistan for the past three decades, and it has the potential to become even more of a factor as Western forces withdraw.
Pashtuns have historically been underrepresented in the Afghan army, but Pashtun soldiers now make up 40 percent of it — roughly equal to their share of the overall population and a hard-won improvement from several years ago.
A closer look at recruits
Training the Afghan army has been a top U.S. priority, and the force stands at 170,000 troops. But after years of rapid growth, defense officials say it’s time to take a closer look at the quality and allegiance of soldiers rather than focusing on recruitment numbers.
“As we approach our ceiling, we’re able to be more selective about our soldiers,” Karimi said.
He insisted that the policy would not be meant as an affront to Pakistan, but as a means of strengthening the Afghan army.
After an infiltrator’s attack last month on French troops north of Kabul, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that his country’s troops would depart a year earlier than expected. The assailant had probably had contact with the Taliban in Pakistan, French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet told reporters.
Shortly after the incident, the Afghan Defense Ministry sent top Afghan military officials a memo titled “Keeping the Enemy Out of the Army.” The memo highlighted the urgency of the infiltration problem and the need to make changes.
Attacks on foreign troops have inflamed tensions between Western trainers and Afghan recruits just as NATO’s commitment to Afghanistan appears to be waning. A report commissioned by the U.S. military said at least 58 Western military personnel were killed in 26 attacks by Afghan soldiers or police between May 2007 and May 2011, when the report was finished.“Such fratricide is fast leading to a crisis of trust between the two forces, if it hasn’t reached this point already,” the report concluded.
In Kandahar alone, four rogue Afghan soldiers have killed three American and two Australian soldiers in the past year. Shokor said that in each of those cases, “upon investigation, we found a relationship with Pakistan.”
Afghan officials are quick to point out that infiltrators don’t target only Western troops. Dozens of Afghan soldiers, police officers and top military officials have been killed by Taliban infiltrators in recent years, they say. Several months ago, Brig. Gen. Abdul Hamid, the top commander in southern Afghanistan, found an unexploded bomb under his desk. Last spring, a man in an Afghan army uniform opened fire inside the fortified Defense Ministry complex, intending to kill Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.
A senior Pentagon official played down the threat from Afghans with Pakistani relatives.
“Our strong sense is that the insider threat isn’t an organized effort. Insurgents are probably to blame in some cases, but sometimes it’s simply disaffected members of the ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces]. And it’s worth noting that instances of Afghan-on-Afghan violence inside the ANSF are more frequent than ANSF-on-NATO attacks,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The Afghan army has ramped up its counterintelligence operations over the past year. While its traditional vetting process required enlistees to get letters of endorsement from village elders and district governors, the army now pays increased attention to soldiers after they have been admitted into the armed forces, particularly when they are on leave and subject to Taliban threats. “We now have a special reconnaissance group to investigate what soldiers do on leave,” Hamid said.
Afghan officials have for years been weighing possible solutions to the problem of infiltration. Three years ago the country’s parliament issued a recommendation to the Defense Ministry to root out soldiers with ties to Pakistan, including those with families who own property there. The recommendation was not acted upon at the time, but it reflects the widespread sense among Afghan officials that Pakistan is at the root of their troubles.
“It’s all linked to Pakistan,” said Shukriya Barakzai, a member of the parliament’s defense subcommittee and its former chairwoman. “It’s crystal clear.”
Staff writer Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report
Showing posts with label ANA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ANA. Show all posts
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
"Almost all rogue [ANA] soldiers and Taliban infiltrators who carried attacks against Nato forces had fake files"
Afghanistan's army recruitment messBBC
February 9, 2012
When Afghan soldier Abdul Saboor killed four French colleagues last month, he ended up hastening -- by a year -- France's exit from the war-torn nation. The BBC's Bilal Sarwary went to Saboor's village and uncovered a tale of deceit, raising questions about how Afghan soldiers are recruited.
When Abdul Saboor picked up his gun on 20 January, it was not to defend his country, family or honour.
He opened fire on French forces while on a joint operation hunting down a top Taliban commander in a remote part of Kapisa province last month.
"The mood was upbeat. We were just a whiff away from a big catch," one intelligence agent said.
"Suddenly, someone opened fire. I thought that the action had begun. But there was Saboor standing with smoke billowing from machine gun surrounded by bodies of French soldiers." He had fired 120 bullets and was overpowered before he could flee.
Attacks where Afghan soldiers turn their weapons on their colleagues or coalition troops are becoming more common. In most cases, the attacker is driven by anger or hatred.
One officer said that Saboor had been upset when he was told of pictures circulating on the internet, which showed American soldiers urinating on the bodies of Taliban fighters.
But should Saboor have been in the army in the first place? Hospital to army
His mother died when he was 10 years old and and Saboor ran away from home after his father remarried. His father became concerned about his son's mental health.
"He didn't spend even five days with me in the past 10 years," Saboor's father said. "He would roam aimlessly through the day, eat and sleep on the streets."
Saboor became very sick and his father said doctors recommended he be hospitalised for months. So he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Kabul. When his father returned for him, doctors said he had run away. As it turned out, he had joined the army.
It is unclear how he managed to fool the army health commission, a panel of senior doctors and psychiatrists, whose task is to assess the physical fitness and mental balance of a prospective recruit.
And his suspected mental illness was apparently not noticed by fellow trainees and instructors at Kabul's Military Training Centre in the eight weeks he spent there, investigators say. He was deployed to Kapisa shortly afterwards.
But Saboor had joined and deserted the army once before too. Nine months into service the first time round, Saboor deserted the army and ran away to Peshawar in Pakistan.
People in his village told me that Saboor turned up one day after deserting. "He looked tired and sick," one villager said. "One of his uncles then took him away to Peshawar for treatment."
So how did he end up in the army again? Faked files
The BBC has seen documents that shows Saboor's recruitment file for the ANA when he joined the second time round was faked. The BBC has also seen hundreds of fake documents belonging to other recruits. This is clearly a broader problem.
The defence ministry in Afghanistan has been preparing a biometric database of all its soldiers for the last 10 months.
Since the arrival of biometrics 10 months ago at Kabul's Military Training Centre, investigators have identified more than 2,300 recruits who either deserted the army previously, were in the police force or had criminal problems.
In the last few months, more than 500 recruits have been turned down because they are considered untrustworthy or suspected of being Taliban infiltrators.
Recruitment officials say they are asked to provide 8,000 soldiers a month. So far they have given the ANA 300,000 from across the country.
"Almost all rogue soldiers and Taliban infiltrators who carried attacks against Nato forces had fake files," defence officials said.
Officials say they cannot go into every district and village to check background and gather intelligence.
According to Saboor's file, he approached an army recruiter and offered to pay for fake enlistment documents. The recruiter arranged a national ID, a sworn statement from two people vouching for Saboor's integrity and other papers. These paved the way for Saboor's second stint with the ANA.
There is no mention of Saboor's mental illness or his previous record in the army - an important requirement in the recruitment process.
"It is possible that Saboor slipped through the cracks in the system," a defence ministry official said adding that all those who arranged his fake papers have been arrested.
Another defence official, who also wished to remain unnamed, said that the army has 185,000 soldiers but spoke of the constant pressure to meet the target of 195,000. He says that time constraints means that they haven't had time to perform biometrics or background checks." Denial
Most Afghan and Nato officials the BBC spoke to about the Kapisa incident refused to comment. But the spokesman for the armed forces in Paris, Col Thierry Burkhard, was more forthcoming.
The colonel said the preliminary report received by the French government from Kabul makes no mention of Saboor's psychological problems. He said that during interrogation in the presence of French investigators, Saboor appeared calm and answered questions in a determined fashion.
"Apart from the fact that Saboor's behaviour in itself could raise questions about his sanity, any allegations that he is insane are not necessarily true," Col Burkhard said.
The colonel said the French authorities are aware that Saboor was recruited twice, at least once on a forged set of documents, but he said it is something the Afghan authorities have to deal with.
The consequences of Saboor's attack have been dramatic. French troops will now withdraw a year early and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy said France cannot accept that a single soldier dies at the hands of an ally.
But it has laid bare the vulnerability at the heart of the Afghan army, in its very recruitment process.
February 9, 2012
When Afghan soldier Abdul Saboor killed four French colleagues last month, he ended up hastening -- by a year -- France's exit from the war-torn nation. The BBC's Bilal Sarwary went to Saboor's village and uncovered a tale of deceit, raising questions about how Afghan soldiers are recruited.
When Abdul Saboor picked up his gun on 20 January, it was not to defend his country, family or honour.
He opened fire on French forces while on a joint operation hunting down a top Taliban commander in a remote part of Kapisa province last month.
"The mood was upbeat. We were just a whiff away from a big catch," one intelligence agent said.
"Suddenly, someone opened fire. I thought that the action had begun. But there was Saboor standing with smoke billowing from machine gun surrounded by bodies of French soldiers." He had fired 120 bullets and was overpowered before he could flee.
Attacks where Afghan soldiers turn their weapons on their colleagues or coalition troops are becoming more common. In most cases, the attacker is driven by anger or hatred.
One officer said that Saboor had been upset when he was told of pictures circulating on the internet, which showed American soldiers urinating on the bodies of Taliban fighters.
But should Saboor have been in the army in the first place? Hospital to army
His mother died when he was 10 years old and and Saboor ran away from home after his father remarried. His father became concerned about his son's mental health.
"He didn't spend even five days with me in the past 10 years," Saboor's father said. "He would roam aimlessly through the day, eat and sleep on the streets."
Saboor became very sick and his father said doctors recommended he be hospitalised for months. So he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Kabul. When his father returned for him, doctors said he had run away. As it turned out, he had joined the army.
It is unclear how he managed to fool the army health commission, a panel of senior doctors and psychiatrists, whose task is to assess the physical fitness and mental balance of a prospective recruit.
And his suspected mental illness was apparently not noticed by fellow trainees and instructors at Kabul's Military Training Centre in the eight weeks he spent there, investigators say. He was deployed to Kapisa shortly afterwards.
But Saboor had joined and deserted the army once before too. Nine months into service the first time round, Saboor deserted the army and ran away to Peshawar in Pakistan.
People in his village told me that Saboor turned up one day after deserting. "He looked tired and sick," one villager said. "One of his uncles then took him away to Peshawar for treatment."
So how did he end up in the army again? Faked files
The BBC has seen documents that shows Saboor's recruitment file for the ANA when he joined the second time round was faked. The BBC has also seen hundreds of fake documents belonging to other recruits. This is clearly a broader problem.
The defence ministry in Afghanistan has been preparing a biometric database of all its soldiers for the last 10 months.
Since the arrival of biometrics 10 months ago at Kabul's Military Training Centre, investigators have identified more than 2,300 recruits who either deserted the army previously, were in the police force or had criminal problems.
In the last few months, more than 500 recruits have been turned down because they are considered untrustworthy or suspected of being Taliban infiltrators.
Recruitment officials say they are asked to provide 8,000 soldiers a month. So far they have given the ANA 300,000 from across the country.
"Almost all rogue soldiers and Taliban infiltrators who carried attacks against Nato forces had fake files," defence officials said.
Officials say they cannot go into every district and village to check background and gather intelligence.
According to Saboor's file, he approached an army recruiter and offered to pay for fake enlistment documents. The recruiter arranged a national ID, a sworn statement from two people vouching for Saboor's integrity and other papers. These paved the way for Saboor's second stint with the ANA.
There is no mention of Saboor's mental illness or his previous record in the army - an important requirement in the recruitment process.
"It is possible that Saboor slipped through the cracks in the system," a defence ministry official said adding that all those who arranged his fake papers have been arrested.
Another defence official, who also wished to remain unnamed, said that the army has 185,000 soldiers but spoke of the constant pressure to meet the target of 195,000. He says that time constraints means that they haven't had time to perform biometrics or background checks." Denial
Most Afghan and Nato officials the BBC spoke to about the Kapisa incident refused to comment. But the spokesman for the armed forces in Paris, Col Thierry Burkhard, was more forthcoming.
The colonel said the preliminary report received by the French government from Kabul makes no mention of Saboor's psychological problems. He said that during interrogation in the presence of French investigators, Saboor appeared calm and answered questions in a determined fashion.
"Apart from the fact that Saboor's behaviour in itself could raise questions about his sanity, any allegations that he is insane are not necessarily true," Col Burkhard said.
The colonel said the French authorities are aware that Saboor was recruited twice, at least once on a forged set of documents, but he said it is something the Afghan authorities have to deal with.
The consequences of Saboor's attack have been dramatic. French troops will now withdraw a year early and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy said France cannot accept that a single soldier dies at the hands of an ally.
But it has laid bare the vulnerability at the heart of the Afghan army, in its very recruitment process.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
US Marines' battlefield experiences with ANA
Behind the Cover Story: Luke Mogelson on the U.S. Endgame in Afghanistan
By Rachel Nolan
February 07, 2012
The New York Times
Nolan interviews reporter who embedded with Marines about their relations with Afghan Army fighters and police units. Overview: he reported the experiences were good or bad, depending on the unit.
By Rachel Nolan
February 07, 2012
The New York Times
Nolan interviews reporter who embedded with Marines about their relations with Afghan Army fighters and police units. Overview: he reported the experiences were good or bad, depending on the unit.
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