Sunday, April 15, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Vladimir Putin voices strong support for NATO in Afghanistan
Putin to NATO: Yankees, Please Stay in Afghanistan
Russia Watch blog, Voice of America
April 14, 2012
God bless the American soldiers in Afghanistan.
This message of good cheer came from an unexpected corner this week: Russia Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, addressing the entire Duma in Moscow.
First, he set the deputies up by denouncing NATO as “a relic of the Cold War.”
Applause, applause.
Then, before the clapping could fade, he quickly added that, sometimes, just sometimes, NATO plays a “stabilizing role in world affairs, such as in Afghanistan.”
“We understand what is happening in Afghanistan – right?” Russia’s educator-in-chief lectured the Duma. “We are interested in things there being under control, right? And we do not want our soldiers to fight on the Tajik-Afghan border, right?”
“It’s in our national interests to help maintain stability in Afghanistan,” he continued. “Well, NATO and the Western community are present there. God bless them! Let them do their work.”
As Vladimir Putin embarks on his second decade running Russia, as he approaches his 60th birthday, the long serving KGB officer is not going soft on the USA.
Instead, he is living out the Biblical admonition: “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
For years, Putin has fanned anti-NATO sentiment. As recently as two months ago, he was using it to rally voters around his candidacy for president. Over the last 15 years, Russian TV viewers have consumed hundreds of hours of anti-NATO “documentaries,” each complete with spooky music and a kooky story line.
No matter that the Central European plain has been wiped largely clean of American battle tanks. Of the 12,500 American tanks in Western Europe in 1982, about 5 percent, or 684 remain today – slightly more than the number maintained by Spain. No matter only 2 percent of American respondents to a recent opinion poll singled out Russia as the primary military threat to the United States.
For Russian politicians, hammering on and on about the NATO threat is cost free and far safer than to talk of the geostrategic threat that dares not speak its name in Moscow: the 3 million active duty and reservists of China’s People’s Liberation Army.
But now, as Putin acknowledges, Russia needs NATO in Afghanistan.
Unmoved, Eduard Limonov, a radical poet, led his Other Russia group to the Stalin-era high-rise that houses Russia’s Foreign Ministry. There, they set off orange flares and held up a banner reading: “Foreign Ministry: Traitors’ Den.”
Dmitry Rogozin, deputy prime minister in charge of defense industries, has had the hardest job. As Russia’s ambassador to NATO for four years until last December, he specialized in publicly lampooning NATO.
Now he is tweeting overtime, defending the Ulyanovsk deal – and his own nationalist credentials.
“There is no NATO base in Ulyanovsk,” he tweeted. “There is none, and there won’t be any. Those who spread the ‘news’ about NATO bases in Russia are either saboteurs or idiots. Consider this as an official statement.”
In another tweet, he said the cargo jets would carry nonlethal cargo, like “NATO toilet paper.”
In response, protesters last week delivered rolls of toilet paper to government offices.
In Ulyanovsk, Sergei Morozov, the governor, is billing the project as a boost for regional development. He says Volga-Dnepr Airlines, a Russian cargo company based in Ulyanovsk, will profit handsomely from NATO contracts. (The Moscow Times estimates that NATO will try to move out of Afghanistan 70,000 vehicles and 120,000 containers.)
The governor says the deal will pay for upgrading the international airport’s rundown terminal and its 5-kilometer air strip, the world’s third longest public access runway.
Then he holds out this juicy teaser: for each takeoff or landing of an Antonov An-124, the airport would receive a $5,000 fee.
Mmm, yum-yum, presumably salivate the international jet set of Ulyanovsk, a depressed industrial city with population of 615,000.
Once again, the communists are unmoved. Many of them are pensioners who have been unable to afford an airplane ticket since the collapse of communism 20 years ago. At a recent protest, they waved signs referring to their Governor: “Morozov — Doorman for NATO.”
And on the Russian internet, conspiracy videos are going viral.
The spectacular, fatal explosions at Ulyanovsk’s military arsenal in 2009? Obviously steps to clear the way for NATO.
Just a coincidence that NATO chose Ulyanovsk, a city endowed with a rare railroad bridge over the Volga? How naïve! NATO troops will roll east and west, jumping out of railway containers and sowing chaos, from Central Russia to Siberia, just like the Czechoslovak Legionnaires did in 1918-1919.
Maybe it is time for the Kremlin to talk straight to the Russian public.
From Cold War levels, 95 percent of American battle tanks in Western Europe have gone home.
Only 2 percent of Americans now see Russia as the primary military enemy.
If you take away the assets, if you take away the intent, all you have left is the hysteria.
Russia Watch blog, Voice of America
April 14, 2012
God bless the American soldiers in Afghanistan.
This message of good cheer came from an unexpected corner this week: Russia Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, addressing the entire Duma in Moscow.
First, he set the deputies up by denouncing NATO as “a relic of the Cold War.”
Applause, applause.
Then, before the clapping could fade, he quickly added that, sometimes, just sometimes, NATO plays a “stabilizing role in world affairs, such as in Afghanistan.”
“We understand what is happening in Afghanistan – right?” Russia’s educator-in-chief lectured the Duma. “We are interested in things there being under control, right? And we do not want our soldiers to fight on the Tajik-Afghan border, right?”
“It’s in our national interests to help maintain stability in Afghanistan,” he continued. “Well, NATO and the Western community are present there. God bless them! Let them do their work.”
As Vladimir Putin embarks on his second decade running Russia, as he approaches his 60th birthday, the long serving KGB officer is not going soft on the USA.
Instead, he is living out the Biblical admonition: “As you sow, so shall you reap.”
For years, Putin has fanned anti-NATO sentiment. As recently as two months ago, he was using it to rally voters around his candidacy for president. Over the last 15 years, Russian TV viewers have consumed hundreds of hours of anti-NATO “documentaries,” each complete with spooky music and a kooky story line.
No matter that the Central European plain has been wiped largely clean of American battle tanks. Of the 12,500 American tanks in Western Europe in 1982, about 5 percent, or 684 remain today – slightly more than the number maintained by Spain. No matter only 2 percent of American respondents to a recent opinion poll singled out Russia as the primary military threat to the United States.
For Russian politicians, hammering on and on about the NATO threat is cost free and far safer than to talk of the geostrategic threat that dares not speak its name in Moscow: the 3 million active duty and reservists of China’s People’s Liberation Army.
But now, as Putin acknowledges, Russia needs NATO in Afghanistan.
Unmoved, Eduard Limonov, a radical poet, led his Other Russia group to the Stalin-era high-rise that houses Russia’s Foreign Ministry. There, they set off orange flares and held up a banner reading: “Foreign Ministry: Traitors’ Den.”
Dmitry Rogozin, deputy prime minister in charge of defense industries, has had the hardest job. As Russia’s ambassador to NATO for four years until last December, he specialized in publicly lampooning NATO.
Now he is tweeting overtime, defending the Ulyanovsk deal – and his own nationalist credentials.
“There is no NATO base in Ulyanovsk,” he tweeted. “There is none, and there won’t be any. Those who spread the ‘news’ about NATO bases in Russia are either saboteurs or idiots. Consider this as an official statement.”
In another tweet, he said the cargo jets would carry nonlethal cargo, like “NATO toilet paper.”
In response, protesters last week delivered rolls of toilet paper to government offices.
In Ulyanovsk, Sergei Morozov, the governor, is billing the project as a boost for regional development. He says Volga-Dnepr Airlines, a Russian cargo company based in Ulyanovsk, will profit handsomely from NATO contracts. (The Moscow Times estimates that NATO will try to move out of Afghanistan 70,000 vehicles and 120,000 containers.)
The governor says the deal will pay for upgrading the international airport’s rundown terminal and its 5-kilometer air strip, the world’s third longest public access runway.
Then he holds out this juicy teaser: for each takeoff or landing of an Antonov An-124, the airport would receive a $5,000 fee.
Mmm, yum-yum, presumably salivate the international jet set of Ulyanovsk, a depressed industrial city with population of 615,000.
Once again, the communists are unmoved. Many of them are pensioners who have been unable to afford an airplane ticket since the collapse of communism 20 years ago. At a recent protest, they waved signs referring to their Governor: “Morozov — Doorman for NATO.”
And on the Russian internet, conspiracy videos are going viral.
The spectacular, fatal explosions at Ulyanovsk’s military arsenal in 2009? Obviously steps to clear the way for NATO.
Just a coincidence that NATO chose Ulyanovsk, a city endowed with a rare railroad bridge over the Volga? How naïve! NATO troops will roll east and west, jumping out of railway containers and sowing chaos, from Central Russia to Siberia, just like the Czechoslovak Legionnaires did in 1918-1919.
Maybe it is time for the Kremlin to talk straight to the Russian public.
From Cold War levels, 95 percent of American battle tanks in Western Europe have gone home.
Only 2 percent of Americans now see Russia as the primary military enemy.
If you take away the assets, if you take away the intent, all you have left is the hysteria.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Taliban and Afghanistan's opium/poppy growing industry
See also Poppy farming days numbered in Southern Helmand
In Poppy War, Taliban Aim to Protect a Cash Crop
By Taimoor Shah and Alissa J. Rubin
Published: April 11, 2012
The New York Times
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — So focused are the Taliban on securing this year’s opium poppy crop — and the support of the farmers tending it — that in the early days of their spring offensive in the south, they are targeting not only the officials trying to eradicate the plants, but also the tractors they use.
This year, the poppy fields that are so beautiful right now, carpeted with lithe red blossoms, are also sown with land mines — the product of the increased cooperation between poppy farmers and the militants they see as protectors of their economic interests, government officials say.
“This year there is more poppy cultivation in Helmand, especially in places where people have confiscated the government lands and in places that were desert,” said Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the governor in Helmand Province. “The reason is that the Taliban promised and persuaded farmers to grow poppy and told them they would protect them.”
One suicide attack this week in Helmand Province, the poppy-growing capital not just of Afghanistan but of the world, was indicative of the far larger fight being taken up to control the crop across the southern opium belt, say government officials and the people who live there.
The multifaceted attack included a team of three suicide bombers, wearing police uniforms, who entered the Musa Qala district police headquarters intent on killing the police chief, who has been aggressive in his poppy-eradication efforts. Four officers died, and the chief was injured.
In the bazaar outside, other Taliban fighters strategically positioned two motorcycles loaded with explosives as close as possible to the tractors used in the anti-poppy campaign, said Niamatullah Khan, the Musa Qala district governor. A third explosives-laden motorcycle detonated elsewhere in the bazaar, killing three more police officers.
In Helmand, the government has embraced eradication as part of a comprehensive program to discourage farmers from growing poppies and to subsidize alternative crops. The program has been most successful in the Helmand River valley, and the Musa Qala district is far from the heart of the effort.
The program has been met with hostility by many local residents who say they are reduced to poverty without the income from the poppy crop. A study by the sociologist David Mansfeld, a researcher for Tufts University, noted that families who grow poppies eat meat more frequently and are more likely to be able to afford to marry off their children — weddings often come with crippling costs in Afghanistan, where relatives far and near must be hosted and fed.
“No one wants to see his poppy field destroyed. A farmer is even ready to fight for his poppy field,” said a merchant in Musa Qala who asked not to be named because the subject was so delicate. “If a son of a farmer is in the government and wants to destroy his father’s poppy field, the father would be happy if his son is killed by Taliban.”
Complicating matters is the hold that poppy profits have on government officials. Local farmers say that eradication is selective, meaning that officials often exempt the fields of relatives or of people who bribe them sufficiently.
In Musa Qala, the police chief — who is known locally only as Koka — has a reputation as a ruthless fighter against the Taliban. He has made it a cause to destroy their poppy fields, but not necessarily those of others, like the policemen who work for him, said several local residents.
While only a small part of the total income from poppies goes to the Taliban — roughly 10 percent, according to estimates by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime — but that adds up to a lot in a $4 billion-plus harvest.
“The police chief made a plan to eradicate the poppy fields of Taliban commanders first and then kill the poppy fields of those who are sympathetic with the Taliban, like landlords who help Taliban or those farmers whose sons or relatives are with Taliban,” the merchant said. “This decision really infuriated Taliban commanders, and by any means the Taliban wanted to kill Koka, so that’s why yesterday they made a big effort. You cannot imagine how lucky he was to survive.”
Mr. Khan, the district governor, described a chaotic scene: after the suicide bombers made their way into the police headquarters — their initial attacks muffled by silencers on their pistols — the chief burst out of his office. But then he hesitated, evidently confused by the attackers’ police uniforms.
One of the chief’s officers shouted, “They are not the real police,” Mr. Khan said. The chief pulled out his pistol and shot one of the attackers; as he did, the man’s suicide vest exploded, wounding the other two bombers and the chief himself. The chief was taken to a NATO hospital, local government officials said.
Mr. Ahmadi, the spokesman in the Helmand Province governor’s office, said the police chief did not give preferential treatment to some farmers while going after the Taliban, but he admitted that the government had found such a pattern in Marja, in central Helmand, with members of the police and the local council being allowed to grow poppies. That has since changed, he said.
He said that the militant leadership known as the Quetta Shura, in need of cash, had instructed the Taliban to plant poppies.
“The only means of income they are relying on now is the poppy in Afghanistan, especially in Helmand Province, so that’s why they are planting mines in poppy fields, staging direct attacks, ambushing the eradication campaign and sometimes engaging in prolonged firefights,” Mr. Ahmadi said.
The intense resistance to eradication means that there will be a substantial poppy harvest in Helmand and that the campaign may create dangerous resentment, Mr. Ahmadi said.
“I do not think it will be possible for the eradication campaign to destroy all the poppy fields in Helmand,” he said. “And any person whose fields are destroyed, he is becoming Taliban.”
In Poppy War, Taliban Aim to Protect a Cash Crop
By Taimoor Shah and Alissa J. Rubin
Published: April 11, 2012
The New York Times
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — So focused are the Taliban on securing this year’s opium poppy crop — and the support of the farmers tending it — that in the early days of their spring offensive in the south, they are targeting not only the officials trying to eradicate the plants, but also the tractors they use.
This year, the poppy fields that are so beautiful right now, carpeted with lithe red blossoms, are also sown with land mines — the product of the increased cooperation between poppy farmers and the militants they see as protectors of their economic interests, government officials say.
“This year there is more poppy cultivation in Helmand, especially in places where people have confiscated the government lands and in places that were desert,” said Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the governor in Helmand Province. “The reason is that the Taliban promised and persuaded farmers to grow poppy and told them they would protect them.”
One suicide attack this week in Helmand Province, the poppy-growing capital not just of Afghanistan but of the world, was indicative of the far larger fight being taken up to control the crop across the southern opium belt, say government officials and the people who live there.
The multifaceted attack included a team of three suicide bombers, wearing police uniforms, who entered the Musa Qala district police headquarters intent on killing the police chief, who has been aggressive in his poppy-eradication efforts. Four officers died, and the chief was injured.
In the bazaar outside, other Taliban fighters strategically positioned two motorcycles loaded with explosives as close as possible to the tractors used in the anti-poppy campaign, said Niamatullah Khan, the Musa Qala district governor. A third explosives-laden motorcycle detonated elsewhere in the bazaar, killing three more police officers.
In Helmand, the government has embraced eradication as part of a comprehensive program to discourage farmers from growing poppies and to subsidize alternative crops. The program has been most successful in the Helmand River valley, and the Musa Qala district is far from the heart of the effort.
The program has been met with hostility by many local residents who say they are reduced to poverty without the income from the poppy crop. A study by the sociologist David Mansfeld, a researcher for Tufts University, noted that families who grow poppies eat meat more frequently and are more likely to be able to afford to marry off their children — weddings often come with crippling costs in Afghanistan, where relatives far and near must be hosted and fed.
“No one wants to see his poppy field destroyed. A farmer is even ready to fight for his poppy field,” said a merchant in Musa Qala who asked not to be named because the subject was so delicate. “If a son of a farmer is in the government and wants to destroy his father’s poppy field, the father would be happy if his son is killed by Taliban.”
Complicating matters is the hold that poppy profits have on government officials. Local farmers say that eradication is selective, meaning that officials often exempt the fields of relatives or of people who bribe them sufficiently.
In Musa Qala, the police chief — who is known locally only as Koka — has a reputation as a ruthless fighter against the Taliban. He has made it a cause to destroy their poppy fields, but not necessarily those of others, like the policemen who work for him, said several local residents.
While only a small part of the total income from poppies goes to the Taliban — roughly 10 percent, according to estimates by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime — but that adds up to a lot in a $4 billion-plus harvest.
“The police chief made a plan to eradicate the poppy fields of Taliban commanders first and then kill the poppy fields of those who are sympathetic with the Taliban, like landlords who help Taliban or those farmers whose sons or relatives are with Taliban,” the merchant said. “This decision really infuriated Taliban commanders, and by any means the Taliban wanted to kill Koka, so that’s why yesterday they made a big effort. You cannot imagine how lucky he was to survive.”
Mr. Khan, the district governor, described a chaotic scene: after the suicide bombers made their way into the police headquarters — their initial attacks muffled by silencers on their pistols — the chief burst out of his office. But then he hesitated, evidently confused by the attackers’ police uniforms.
One of the chief’s officers shouted, “They are not the real police,” Mr. Khan said. The chief pulled out his pistol and shot one of the attackers; as he did, the man’s suicide vest exploded, wounding the other two bombers and the chief himself. The chief was taken to a NATO hospital, local government officials said.
Mr. Ahmadi, the spokesman in the Helmand Province governor’s office, said the police chief did not give preferential treatment to some farmers while going after the Taliban, but he admitted that the government had found such a pattern in Marja, in central Helmand, with members of the police and the local council being allowed to grow poppies. That has since changed, he said.
He said that the militant leadership known as the Quetta Shura, in need of cash, had instructed the Taliban to plant poppies.
“The only means of income they are relying on now is the poppy in Afghanistan, especially in Helmand Province, so that’s why they are planting mines in poppy fields, staging direct attacks, ambushing the eradication campaign and sometimes engaging in prolonged firefights,” Mr. Ahmadi said.
The intense resistance to eradication means that there will be a substantial poppy harvest in Helmand and that the campaign may create dangerous resentment, Mr. Ahmadi said.
“I do not think it will be possible for the eradication campaign to destroy all the poppy fields in Helmand,” he said. “And any person whose fields are destroyed, he is becoming Taliban.”
Monday, April 9, 2012
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.
*********************
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.
------
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.
*********************
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.
------
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hafiz Saeed able to maintain high profile again in Pakistan
'We do jihad,' says Lashkar-e-Taiba emir Hafiz Saeed
By Bill Roggio
April 7, 2012
The Long War Journal
During a Friday sermon in Lahore, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the emir of the al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba who is wanted by the US and protected by Pakistan, called on Muslims to wage jihad against America. Saeed's speech took place the same day a Pakistani intelligence official claimed that Saeed was involved in a de-radicalization program.
Saeed called on Pakistanis and Muslims to join with the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, to fight the US to preserve Pakistan and Islam, AFP reported. Saeed gave the speech at the Jamia Markaz al-Qadsia, a mosque run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. A collection box for donations for jihad was placed at the exits of the mosque. He was accompanied by armed guards who were "carrying weapons with silencers," the news agency reported.
"Come to us," Saeed said, calling on Muslims to join Lashkar-e-Taiba. "We will teach you the meaning of jihad.... The time to fight has come."
"This is the same jihad which caused the USSR to break [in Afghanistan] and now America is failing because of it. Analysts and journalists don't realise why America is failing, the only reason is jihad," he continued. According to the AFP report, he also accused the Western press of being biased against Muslims and jihad.
Saeed said the US targets Lashkar-e-Taiba/Jamaat-ud-Dawa because the group wages jihad and because the US fears Saeed. The US put out a $10 million bounty for information leading to Saeed's arrest and prosecution just days ago.
"There are many parties in Pakistan, but America has only sent a message to Jamaat-ud-Dawa, because we do jihad," Saeed said. "They [US] are even scared of my name."
Saeed also implied that his terror organization is involved in attacking US forces in Afghanistan.
"America should leave Pakistan and Afghanistan peacefully. Then, we will not come to you with guns but will instead invite you to Islam," he said. The Lashkar-e-Taiba is known to send fighters in Afghanistan to attack NATO and Afghan forces. In 2010, the US military noted that Lashkar-e-Taiba was working with the Taliban in Nangarhar province.
Saeed's inflammatory sermon was delivered the same day a Pakistani intelligence official and a police official both claimed that Saeed was involved with "de-radicalization and rehabilitation of former jihadis" in Pakistan's Punjab province.
"Jamaat-ud-Dawa were consulted, and they approved the de-radicalization plan. They assured us of their intellectual input and resource materials. They also offered teachers," a Punjab police official told Reuters.
Saeed's terror organization has been directly linked to numerous terror attacks in South Asia, including the November 2008 terror assault on the Indian city of Mumbai that resulted in the deaths of 165 people. The US and Indian governments have accused Saeed and other Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives and leaders of plotting, financing, and executing the Mumbai attack. A former adviser to President Obama on Afghanistan and Pakistan recently stated that evidence seized at Osama bin Laden's compound linked the slain al Qaeda emir to the Mumbai attack and Saeed. [See LWJ report, Osama bin Laden helped plan Mumbai attacks.]
Saeed, who formed the Lashkar-e-Taiba at the behest of Abdullah Azzam, bin Laden's mentor and co-founder of al Qaeda, praised bin Laden after US Navy SEALs killed the al Qaeda emir at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011.
"Osama bin Laden was a great person who awakened the Muslim world..... Martyrdoms are not losses, but are a matter of pride for Muslims," Saeed proclaimed.
"Osama bin Laden has rendered great sacrifices for Islam and Muslims, and these will always be remembered," Saeed continued, as his followers chanted "Down with America" and "Down with Obama."
The Pakistani government has protected Saeed, despite his complicity in terror attacks. Saeed is favored not only by Pakistan's military and Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, which provides Lashkar-e-Taiba with direct support, but also by a wide swath of Pakistani civil society. The Pakistani government has refused to arrest Saeed and has claimed the US and India have not provided evidence linking him to terror attacks.
For more information on Hafiz Saeed, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and its links to al Qaeda and other terror groups, see LWJ report, US offers $10 million bounty for capture of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed.
By Bill Roggio
April 7, 2012
The Long War Journal
During a Friday sermon in Lahore, Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, the emir of the al Qaeda-linked Lashkar-e-Taiba who is wanted by the US and protected by Pakistan, called on Muslims to wage jihad against America. Saeed's speech took place the same day a Pakistani intelligence official claimed that Saeed was involved in a de-radicalization program.
Saeed called on Pakistanis and Muslims to join with the Jamaat-ud-Dawa, a front for the Lashkar-e-Taiba, to fight the US to preserve Pakistan and Islam, AFP reported. Saeed gave the speech at the Jamia Markaz al-Qadsia, a mosque run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba. A collection box for donations for jihad was placed at the exits of the mosque. He was accompanied by armed guards who were "carrying weapons with silencers," the news agency reported.
"Come to us," Saeed said, calling on Muslims to join Lashkar-e-Taiba. "We will teach you the meaning of jihad.... The time to fight has come."
"This is the same jihad which caused the USSR to break [in Afghanistan] and now America is failing because of it. Analysts and journalists don't realise why America is failing, the only reason is jihad," he continued. According to the AFP report, he also accused the Western press of being biased against Muslims and jihad.
Saeed said the US targets Lashkar-e-Taiba/Jamaat-ud-Dawa because the group wages jihad and because the US fears Saeed. The US put out a $10 million bounty for information leading to Saeed's arrest and prosecution just days ago.
"There are many parties in Pakistan, but America has only sent a message to Jamaat-ud-Dawa, because we do jihad," Saeed said. "They [US] are even scared of my name."
Saeed also implied that his terror organization is involved in attacking US forces in Afghanistan.
"America should leave Pakistan and Afghanistan peacefully. Then, we will not come to you with guns but will instead invite you to Islam," he said. The Lashkar-e-Taiba is known to send fighters in Afghanistan to attack NATO and Afghan forces. In 2010, the US military noted that Lashkar-e-Taiba was working with the Taliban in Nangarhar province.
Saeed's inflammatory sermon was delivered the same day a Pakistani intelligence official and a police official both claimed that Saeed was involved with "de-radicalization and rehabilitation of former jihadis" in Pakistan's Punjab province.
"Jamaat-ud-Dawa were consulted, and they approved the de-radicalization plan. They assured us of their intellectual input and resource materials. They also offered teachers," a Punjab police official told Reuters.
Saeed's terror organization has been directly linked to numerous terror attacks in South Asia, including the November 2008 terror assault on the Indian city of Mumbai that resulted in the deaths of 165 people. The US and Indian governments have accused Saeed and other Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives and leaders of plotting, financing, and executing the Mumbai attack. A former adviser to President Obama on Afghanistan and Pakistan recently stated that evidence seized at Osama bin Laden's compound linked the slain al Qaeda emir to the Mumbai attack and Saeed. [See LWJ report, Osama bin Laden helped plan Mumbai attacks.]
Saeed, who formed the Lashkar-e-Taiba at the behest of Abdullah Azzam, bin Laden's mentor and co-founder of al Qaeda, praised bin Laden after US Navy SEALs killed the al Qaeda emir at a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in May 2011.
"Osama bin Laden was a great person who awakened the Muslim world..... Martyrdoms are not losses, but are a matter of pride for Muslims," Saeed proclaimed.
"Osama bin Laden has rendered great sacrifices for Islam and Muslims, and these will always be remembered," Saeed continued, as his followers chanted "Down with America" and "Down with Obama."
The Pakistani government has protected Saeed, despite his complicity in terror attacks. Saeed is favored not only by Pakistan's military and Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, which provides Lashkar-e-Taiba with direct support, but also by a wide swath of Pakistani civil society. The Pakistani government has refused to arrest Saeed and has claimed the US and India have not provided evidence linking him to terror attacks.
For more information on Hafiz Saeed, the Lashkar-e-Taiba, and its links to al Qaeda and other terror groups, see LWJ report, US offers $10 million bounty for capture of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Lt.Gen. Mohammed Zahir-ul-Islam, new ISI chief
"It is generally believed by well-informed sources that the terrorist attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul and the 26/11 strikes in Mumbai had the signature of Lt.Gen. Nadeem Taj, the predecessor of Pasha as the ISI Chief. If Pasha and Zahir-ul-Islam had wanted they could have called off the terrorist strikes in Mumbai, but they didn’t. "
A LOW PROFILE OFFICER TO HEAD ISI
by
B.RAMAN
Lt.Gen. Mohammed Zahir-ul-Islam, a low profile officer of the Pakistan Army, has been chosen by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani as the new chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to succeed Lt.Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha on March 19.
2. Has appointment, which was announced by Gilani on March 9, was made out of a short list of three Lts.Gen recommended by Gen.Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS). The names were reportedly discussed by Zardari and Gilani with Kayani last week and Zahir-ul-Islam was chosen. His appointment was the outcome of a consensus between the political and military leadership and could contribute to a lowering of the present high trust deficit between the two.
3.Zahir-ul-Islam, who is reported to have done one training course in the US as a middle level officer, has had the least exposure to the US as a senior Army officer. At the same time, of all the senior officers, he was the least suspected of having had any role in facilitating the clandestine stay of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad from 2005 till his death at the hands of the US Special Forces on May 2,2011.During this period, he was the GOC of Murree, then Deputy Director-General in charge of Counter-Intelligence in the ISI from September 2008 to October 2010, when he was posted as the Corps Commander of Karachi, the post that he now holds.
4. The civilian leadership has no reason to distrust him because he was not considered a protégé of Pervez Musharraf and his name had not figured in the suspicions of the leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) relating to the failure of the Musharraf regime to protect Benazir Bhutto.If at all, he is a protégé of Kayani under whom he earned his promotion as Lt.Gen.
5.All indications are that the civilian leadership is keen to mend fences with the US. Zahir-ul-Islam could be the right man for the job because he was never very close to the US and, at the same time, was never suspected by the US of being mixed up with the jihadi terrorists.
6. As the Deputy DG, Counter-Intelligence, his job in the ISI was to keep a surveillance on the activities of foreign diplomats in Pakistan---particularly Indian and US diplomats--- and to prevent the infiltration of the Armed Forces by extremist organisations such as the Hizbut Tehrir. He was also handling internal security situations like those in Balochistan and Karachi. While there was considerable ham-handedness in Balochistan, he avoided strong-arm methods in Karachi as the Deputy DG of the ISI and subsequently as the Karachi Corps Commander. He was not very effective in dealing with the situations either in Balochistan or in Karachi.
7.At Karachi, he won high praise from the Chinese for the smooth way he assisted the medical relief team of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which was deputed to Sindh for flood relief work.
8.Like many senior officers of the Pakistan Army, Zahir-ul-Islam comes from a family which has contributed many officers to the Army. His father is a retired Colonel of the Army and three of his brothers had also joined the Army. His sister is married to an Army officer.
9. The 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai by the ISI-sponsored Lashkar-e-Toiba took place seven weeks after Pasha had taken over as the DG of the ISI and Zahir-ul-Islam as his No.2.
It is generally believed by well-informed sources that the terrorist attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul and the 26/11 strikes in Mumbai had the signature of Lt.Gen.Nadeem Taj, the predecessor of Pasha as the ISI Chief. If Pasha and Zahir-ul-Islam had wanted they could have called off the terrorist strikes in Mumbai, but they didn’t. ( 10-3-12)
A LOW PROFILE OFFICER TO HEAD ISI
by
B.RAMAN
Lt.Gen. Mohammed Zahir-ul-Islam, a low profile officer of the Pakistan Army, has been chosen by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousef Raza Gilani as the new chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to succeed Lt.Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha on March 19.
2. Has appointment, which was announced by Gilani on March 9, was made out of a short list of three Lts.Gen recommended by Gen.Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, Chief of the Army Staff (COAS). The names were reportedly discussed by Zardari and Gilani with Kayani last week and Zahir-ul-Islam was chosen. His appointment was the outcome of a consensus between the political and military leadership and could contribute to a lowering of the present high trust deficit between the two.
3.Zahir-ul-Islam, who is reported to have done one training course in the US as a middle level officer, has had the least exposure to the US as a senior Army officer. At the same time, of all the senior officers, he was the least suspected of having had any role in facilitating the clandestine stay of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad from 2005 till his death at the hands of the US Special Forces on May 2,2011.During this period, he was the GOC of Murree, then Deputy Director-General in charge of Counter-Intelligence in the ISI from September 2008 to October 2010, when he was posted as the Corps Commander of Karachi, the post that he now holds.
4. The civilian leadership has no reason to distrust him because he was not considered a protégé of Pervez Musharraf and his name had not figured in the suspicions of the leadership of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) relating to the failure of the Musharraf regime to protect Benazir Bhutto.If at all, he is a protégé of Kayani under whom he earned his promotion as Lt.Gen.
5.All indications are that the civilian leadership is keen to mend fences with the US. Zahir-ul-Islam could be the right man for the job because he was never very close to the US and, at the same time, was never suspected by the US of being mixed up with the jihadi terrorists.
6. As the Deputy DG, Counter-Intelligence, his job in the ISI was to keep a surveillance on the activities of foreign diplomats in Pakistan---particularly Indian and US diplomats--- and to prevent the infiltration of the Armed Forces by extremist organisations such as the Hizbut Tehrir. He was also handling internal security situations like those in Balochistan and Karachi. While there was considerable ham-handedness in Balochistan, he avoided strong-arm methods in Karachi as the Deputy DG of the ISI and subsequently as the Karachi Corps Commander. He was not very effective in dealing with the situations either in Balochistan or in Karachi.
7.At Karachi, he won high praise from the Chinese for the smooth way he assisted the medical relief team of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which was deputed to Sindh for flood relief work.
8.Like many senior officers of the Pakistan Army, Zahir-ul-Islam comes from a family which has contributed many officers to the Army. His father is a retired Colonel of the Army and three of his brothers had also joined the Army. His sister is married to an Army officer.
9. The 26/11 terrorist strikes in Mumbai by the ISI-sponsored Lashkar-e-Toiba took place seven weeks after Pasha had taken over as the DG of the ISI and Zahir-ul-Islam as his No.2.
It is generally believed by well-informed sources that the terrorist attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul and the 26/11 strikes in Mumbai had the signature of Lt.Gen.Nadeem Taj, the predecessor of Pasha as the ISI Chief. If Pasha and Zahir-ul-Islam had wanted they could have called off the terrorist strikes in Mumbai, but they didn’t. ( 10-3-12)
Iran's struggle to interdict opium smuggling
The claim by the United Nations that Iran interdicted 89 percent of the world's seized opium, presumably in 2011, is an eyebrow raiser, but the report is still a window on a topic that receives very little discussion in the press
West indifference made Iran flag bearer in anti-narcotics bids: General
Iran Press TV
Head of the Anti-narcotics Division of Iran’s Police Force General Ali Moayedi criticized the Western governments for their inaction in the fight against banned drugs on Thursday, saying, “The countries advocating human rights, especially the Western countries, are indifferent [even] to the wellbeing of their own citizens” and take no measures to reduce the harms that they are subjected to.
General Moayedi further pointed to the successful experiences of the Islamic Republic in the campaign against illegal drugs, saying other countries are now asking for Iran’s aid in their counternarcotics bids.
According to the UN Drug Report 2011, Iran, which shares a 936-kilometer border with Afghanistan and a 909-kilometer border with Pakistan, has intercepted 89 percent of all the opium seized worldwide.
The Iranian government has set up static defenses such as manpower and electronic equipment along its border to maintain more control on the area.
Within a span of thirty years, more than 3700 Iranian police officers have been killed and tens of thousands more injured in counternarcotics operations, mostly on Afghan and Pakistan borders.
West indifference made Iran flag bearer in anti-narcotics bids: General
Iran Press TV
Head of the Anti-narcotics Division of Iran’s Police Force General Ali Moayedi criticized the Western governments for their inaction in the fight against banned drugs on Thursday, saying, “The countries advocating human rights, especially the Western countries, are indifferent [even] to the wellbeing of their own citizens” and take no measures to reduce the harms that they are subjected to.
General Moayedi further pointed to the successful experiences of the Islamic Republic in the campaign against illegal drugs, saying other countries are now asking for Iran’s aid in their counternarcotics bids.
According to the UN Drug Report 2011, Iran, which shares a 936-kilometer border with Afghanistan and a 909-kilometer border with Pakistan, has intercepted 89 percent of all the opium seized worldwide.
The Iranian government has set up static defenses such as manpower and electronic equipment along its border to maintain more control on the area.
Within a span of thirty years, more than 3700 Iranian police officers have been killed and tens of thousands more injured in counternarcotics operations, mostly on Afghan and Pakistan borders.
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