SECURITY IN AFGHANISTAN DETERIORATED IN PAST YEAR

"Confidential UN maps show a clear deterioration in security in parts of Afghanistan this year... highlight a particular decline in parts of the north and east... in the provinces of Badghis, Sari Pul, Balkh, Parwan, Baghlan, Samangan, Faryab, Laghman and Takhar..."
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20101227/tap-afghanistan-unrest-un-eea7cf4.html

PENTAGON IGNORES GLOOMY WAR VIEW

"... the most recent National Intelligence Estimates reports... warn that large swathes of Afghanistan are at risk of falling to the Taliban. The latest NIE report, a consensus view of America's 16 intelligence agencies, concludes that the US cannot succeed in Afghanistan while Pakistan remains unwilling or unable to shut down militant safe havens in its territory or end covert support for the Afghan Taliban. The contradiction has set the US intelligence community on a collision course with the Pentagon, which was working overtime yesterday to discredit the NIE report..."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/pentagon-ignores-gloomy-war-view/story-e6frg6so-1225971734981

NIE National Intelligence Estimate Gives Negative View of War

"... reports, called National Intelligence Estimates, represent the consensus view of the United States’ 16 intelligence agencies, as opposed to the military... (and) offer a more negative assessment... (saying) there is a limited chance of success unless Pakistan hunts down insurgents operating from havens on its Afghan border..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/world/asia/15policy.html?_r=1

OTHER INCIDENTS OF AFGAN FORCES KILLING NATO TROOPS

"... NATO is investigating an incident in which two U.S. Marines were killed earlier this month in southern Helmand province, allegedly at the hands of an Afghan army soldier. On July 20, an Afghan army sergeant got into an argument at a shooting range in northern Afghanistan and shot dead two American civilian trainers before being killed... In a July 13 attack, an Afghan soldier stationed in the south killed three British troopers, including the company commander, with gunfire and a rocket-propelled grenade in the middle of the night. Also, in November 2009, an Afghan policeman killed five British soldiers at a checkpoint in Helmand. A month earlier, an Afghan policeman on patrol with U.S. soldiers fired on the Americans, killing two..."
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/11/29/world/asia/AP-AS-Afghanistan.html?_r=2


AFGHAN POLICE OFFICER KILLS 6 NATO TROOPS

"An Afghan border police officer opened fire on NATO troops... killing six... the latest in a series of shootouts in which Afghan security forces have turned on their NATO partners... the Afghan Interior Ministry.. confirmed that the gunman was a border police officer, rather than an insurgent who had donned the uniform to infiltrate government forces..."
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/11/29/world/asia/AP-AS-Afghanistan.html?_r=2

AFGHANISTAN VIOLENCE AT ALL TIME HIGH
Taliban emboldened by NATO departure date

"Violence in Afghanistan has reached an all-time high, with clashes up fourfold since 2007... the Pentagon attributed much of the increase in violence to the growth in the coalition force after US President Barack Obama's escalation this year... Approximately 97,000 US troops and 48,800 troops from other countries are in Afghanistan at present... the US defence department is suggesting the strategy of American, British and other politicians is the cause of the Taliban's success... America would deny it is going to leave... but a handover by collation forces in four years' time is exactly what was agreed at the Nato summit last weekend."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11825294

BLEAK PICTURE OF KANDAHAR CAMPAIGN

"... the military's purported gains in the southern war zone do not align with the bleak picture painted by most sources on the ground... reports from journalists embedded with troops in the field are at variance with the official assertions. Most describe a stalemate at best, or even describe the Taliban as having the initiative. Aid organizations, meanwhile, note that civilian casualties in Kandahar are at an all-time high. Thousands have fled their homes en masse. Development projects are at a near standstill..."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2030184,00.html

U.S. CAN'T ACCOUNT FOR BILLIONS BUSH SPENT IN AFGHANISTAN

"The U.S. government knows it's awarded nearly $18 billion in contracts for rebuilding Afghanistan over the last three years, but it can't account for spending before 2007... The finding raises doubts about whether the U.S. government ever will determine whether taxpayers' money was spent wisely in Afghanistan..."
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/10/27/102724/us-cant-untangle-billions-sent.html

$511 MILLION EXPANSION OF KABUL EMBASSY

"The U.S. government will spend $511 million to expand its embassy in Kabul... as a demonstration of America's long-term commitment to Afghanistan..."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/11/03-5

IRAN CONCERNED OVER HUMAN RIGHTS IN U.S.

"... Police brutality, the mistreatment of prisoners, inmates’ problems in gaining access to lawyers, illegal detentions, discrimination toward minorities, and insults directed toward the sanctities of religions under the pretext of “freedom of speech” are examples of human rights violations in the United States, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman stated...

"... there were 45 executions in the United States in 2009... 2,574 prisoners serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole for crimes committed when they were under age 18... (and) the incarcerated population had reached an all-time high of nearly 2.4 million. The United States continues to have both the largest incarcerated population and the highest incarceration rate in the world..."

http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=229665

AFGHAN POLICE UNIT DEFECTS TO TALIBAN

"In Khogeyani, a volatile area southwest of the capital, the entire police force... defected to the Taliban side... 19 officers vanished, as did their guns, trucks, uniforms and food... A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, said the Afghan officers decided to defect after “learning the facts about the Taliban.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/02/world/asia/02afghan.html?_r=1&ref=world

U.S. BUILDING UP AFGHAN BASES FOR LONG HAUL

"Military construction projects scheduled for com­pletion over the next 12 months will deliver 4 new runways, ramp space for 8 C−17 transports, and parking for 50 helicopters and 24 close air support and 26 intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft... Construction and expansion work at bases... including the mega-bases at Bagram and Kandahar, is ongoing, often at a startling pace. The Army, for example, has indicated it plans to build a 24,000 square-foot, $10-million command-and-control facility as well as a “Joint Defense Operations Center” with supporting amenities... at Bagram Air Base. At bustling Kandahar Air Field... a $28.5 million deal for the construction of an outdoor shelter for fighter aircraft, as well as new operations and maintenance facilities and more apron space... Additional minor construction plans called for the construction of over 12 new FOBs and expansion of 18 existing FOBs... construction was slated to begin on at least three $100 million base projects, including FOB Dwyer, that were not “expected to be completed until the latter half of 2011... (and) the Army sought bids from contractors willing to supply power plants and supporting fuel systems at forward operating bases in Afghanistan for up to five years..."

"The documents reveal plans for large-scale, expensive Afghan base expansions of every sort and a military that is expecting to pursue its building boom without letup well into the future. These facts-on-the-ground indicate that, whatever timelines for phased withdrawal may be issued in Washington, the U.S. military is focused on building up, not drawing down, in Afghanistan..."

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175310/tomgram%3A_nick_turse%2C_base_desires_in_afghanistan/#more

U. S. IN PEACE TALKS WITH TALIBAN

"The United States is helping senior Taliban leaders attend initial peace talks with the Afghan government in Kabul... the American public at some point might have to swallow the idea of reconciliation with the Taliban to achieve peace in Afghanistan... Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, appearing before reporters with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at a NATO conference... (said) “We have always acknowledged that reconciliation has to be part of the solution in Afghanistan, and we will do whatever we can to support this process.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/world/asia/15nato.html?_r=2

AFGHAN INSURGENCY GAINING STRENGTH

"The insurgency in Afghanistan is gaining strength... some districts in northern provinces are in danger of slipping beyond control... insurgents are now operating advanced administrations in the south and east..."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/15/afghanistan.report/index.html?iphoneemail

U.S. PAYING TALIBAN TO GUARD BASES

"Afghan private security forces with ties to the Taliban, criminal networks and Iranian intelligence have been hired to guard American military bases in Afghanistan... Providing contracts to local militia leaders with ties to the Taliban “gives these warlords an independent funding source... And it gives them a feeling of impunity.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/world/asia/08contractor.html?_r=2

CONVOY DAMAGE UNDER-REPORTED

"Attackers... in northwestern Pakistan struck a NATO convoy carrying fuel to Afghanistan... The attack... damaged many more vehicles than previously reported... Initially, authorities had said 17 oil tankers and four containers were set ablaze... (but) Fifty-four oil tankers and containers were damaged... Taliban says it has a special squad to attack NATO supply efforts..."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/10/07/pakistan.supply.route/index.html?iphoneemail

TALIBAN AND KARZAI IN TALKS TO END WAR

"Secret talks aimed at ending the war in Afghanistan have begun between representatives of the Taliban and the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai... a comprehensive agreement that would include participation of some Taliban figures in the government and the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops... a spokesman for Karzai denied that President Obama's stated goal of beginning to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan in July 2011, if conditions allow, spurred the Afghan government to set up the council or reach out to the Taliban."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/afghanistan/2010-10-06-taliban-government-war-talks_N.htm?csp=usat.me

QURAN BURNING EFFECT ON AFGHANISTAN
Support the troops, burn a Quran

"... a hundred or so demonstrators gathered outside a US military base at Mirwais in southern Afghanistan on hearing that there had been a ritual Quran-burning inside the base. In fact, it had been a routine pit burn of documents. At one point in the rally, a demonstrator raised an AK-47 toward a base tower guard, and was shot... there have been several such demonstrations in Afghanistan, and hard line Muslim fundamentalists have used their cover to tear down the campaign posters of the liberal or female candidates for seats in parliament... The anti-Muslim bigots in the US who provoked all this trouble with their Nazi-like threats of book-burning (some of which have been followed through on) did US troops in Afghanistan no favors. I think the growing urban legend in Afghanistan that virtually all Americans enjoy a good Quran barbecue regularly and that it is a central ritual on US military bases is a real psy-ops threat to US counter-insurgency efforts..."
http://www.juancole.com/2010/09/demonstration-outside-us-base-in-afghanistan-against-quran-burning-turns-violent.html

U.S. TAXPAYERS LIKELY TO BAIL OUT FAILED KABUL BANK

"... Da Kabul Bank, among the country’s biggest such institutions, has been taken over by the Afghanistan government in the face of a persistent run on it by frightened depositors. The bank has huge debts and has been being run like a private fief. The central bank had earlier denied that it would take over the troubled Kabul Bank. But the government pays government and military salaries through it, and could not easily lose it, or risk that its failure would lead to a collapse of the country’s entire financial sector, with massive runs on other banks. The central bank’s takeover makes it most likely that American taxpayers will bail out the Kabul Bank, which had been used by a clique around Karzai to buy up real estate (some of it now worthless) in Dubai..."
http://www.juancole.com/2010/09/1-dead-45-wounded-in-kabul-anti-american-protest-kabul-bank-taken-over-by-government.html

SECURITY IN AFGHANISTAN DETERIORATING

"Afghanistan is more dangerous than it has ever been during this war, with security deteriorating in recent months... Large parts of the country that were once completely safe, like most of the northern provinces, now have a substantial Taliban presence... Unarmed government employees can no longer travel safely in 30 percent of the country’s 368 districts... and there are districts deemed too dangerous to visit in all but one of the country’s 34 provinces... With one attack after another, the Taliban and their insurgent allies have degraded security in almost every part of the country... The Afghan N.G.O. Safety Office says that by almost every metric it has, Afghanistan is more dangerous now than at any time since 2001..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/world/asia/12afghan.html?_r=2

US SOLDIERS KILLED CIVILIANS, COLLECTED FINGERS

"Twelve American soldiers... members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan... face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies... They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/09/us-soldiers-afghan-civilians-fingers

RUSSIAN BUSINESS DEALS IN AFGHANISTAN

"... Russia has already begun a broad push into Afghan deal-making, negotiating to refurbish more than 140 Soviet-era installations, like hydroelectric stations, bridges, wells and irrigation systems, in deals that could be worth more than $1 billion. A Russian helicopter company, Vertikal-T, has contracts with NATO and the Afghan government to fly Mi-26 heavy-lift helicopters throughout the country..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/world/europe/19russia.html?src=un&feedurl=http%3A%2F%2Fjson8.nytimes.com%2Fpages%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Findex.jsonp

KARZAI BANS PRIVATE SECURITY FIRMS

"Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, has given private security firms working in Afghanistan four months to end their operations... saying they undermine government security forces... more than 50 private security companies, roughly half of them Afghan and the other half international, employ 30,000 to 40,000 armed personnel in Afghanistan... the conduct of private security personnel had caused "a lot of uproar among the Afghan population".
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/08/2010816104813959499.html

U.S. SUPERSIZES BAGRAM BASE BEFORE WITHDRAWAL

"BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — Anyone who thinks the United States is really going to withdraw from Afghanistan in July 2011 needs to come to this giant air base an hour away from Kabul. There’s construction everywhere. It’s exactly what you wouldn’t expect from a transient presence.... But two years ago there were about 18,000 troops and contractors living here. Now that figure is north of 30,000, all for a logistics hub and command post that the United States didn’t ever imagine possessing before 9/11.
In 2011, the U.S. military probably won’t be thinking about turning over the keys to a new, huge base. It’ll be thinking about how it can finish up the construction contracts it signed months ago -– if not some it’s yet to ink."
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/08/u-s-afghan-mega-base/

PAKISTAN SAYS NATO LOSING WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

"Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari said on Tuesday the international community was losing the war against the Afghan Taliban... Zardari gave a stark assessment of the nine-year Afghanistan war, and said the West was to blame for failing to win the support of ordinary Afghans..."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6721R820100803

TALIBAN CAPTURE NATO PLANE

"Taliban militants captured a NATO plane in Kunduz province... An official with NATO-led forces in Kunduz province also confirmed the incident. "A reconnaissance UAD plane made emergency landing in Yangariq area of Qalai Zal district"...
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-07/28/c_13419226.htm

PAKISTAN HELPING TALIBAN IN AFGHANISTAN

"... Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, the country's spy service, has been holding strategy sessions with Taliban leaders to aid their efforts in Afghanistan..."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/20107265854311217.html

U.S. ATTACK KILLS OVER 45 CIVILIANS

"A rocket attack on a village in... Sangin district in the southern province of Helmand last week killed at least 45 civilians, including women and children... men, women and children fled to Regey village and were fired on from helicopter gunships as they took cover..."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/07/2010726132052786267.html

LEAKED FILES EXPOSE TRUTH OF OCCUPATION

"A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency...
The war logs also detail:
• How a secret "black" unit of special forces hunts down Taliban leaders for "kill or capture" without trial.
• How the US covered up evidence that the Taliban have acquired deadly surface-to-air missiles.
• How the coalition is increasingly using deadly Reaper drones to hunt and kill Taliban targets by remote control from a base in Nevada.
• How the Taliban have caused growing carnage with a massive escalation of their roadside bombing campaign, which has killed more than 2,000 civilians to date...
Most of the material, though classified "secret" at the time, is no longer militarily sensitive..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-military-leaks

LEAKED FILES SHOW TALIBAN HAVE STINGERS

"The reports ... shed light on some elements of the war that have been largely hidden from the public eye:
• The Taliban have used portable heat-seeking missiles against allied aircraft, a fact that has not been publicly disclosed by the military. This type of weapon helped the Afghan mujahedeen defeat the Soviet occupation in the 1980s...
The documents... show that the American military made misleading public statements — attributing the downing of a helicopter to conventional weapons instead of heat-seeking missiles.."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/asia/26warlogs.html?no_interstitial

AFGHAN SOLDIER KILLS U.S. TRAINERS

"An Afghan soldier opened fire on U.S. civilian trainers at an army base in northern Afghanistan, killing two Americans and another Afghan troop... An argument started during a weapons-training exercise and the Afghan soldier turned his gun on the Americans... The shooter was a "group leader" — an Afghan soldier selected to train other soldiers on the base..."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2005386,00.html

NATO SAYS TROOPS WILL ALWAYS STAY IN AFGHANISTAN

"... the secretary general of Nato warned... that coalition troops would stay in the country even after Afghan troops had taken complete control of security... when the full transition finally happened, "international forces won't leave, they will simply move into a supportive role".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jul/20/afghanistan-troops-no-quick-exit

U.S. KANDAHAR BUILD-UP WILL STRENGTHEN TALIBAN

"... the Afghanistan NGO Security Office, which monitors trends in violence on behalf of aid organisations, said... The US military build-up in Kandahar is likely to further strengthen the hold of the Taliban over the vital southern Afghanistan city... Nato's counter-insurgency strategy was not showing any signs of succeeding amid rising violence, the unchecked establishment of local militias and a huge increase in attacks on private development workers across the country."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/19/us-military-buildup-in-ka_n_651825.html

AFGHAN SOLDIER KILLS NATO TROOPS

"A member of the Afghan National Army opened fire on a group of British soldiers yesterday, killing three and wounding four others. The attack occurred on a NATO base outside of Kandahar when the soldier opened fire with a machine gun and rocket-propelled grenade launcher before fleeing...

"... there have been numerous attacks by ANA soldiers against NATO troops. In December 2009 an Afghan soldier shot and killed a US soldier and wounded two Italian soldiers on a joint-NATO/Afghan base in Badghis Province. A month earlier, an Afghan policeman “possibly in conjunction with another” killed five British troops at a checkpoint in Helmand Province..."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/07/14-8

PAKISTAN TO BROKER TALIBAN PEACE DEAL WITHOUT U.S.

"Pakistan is exploiting the troubled U.S. military effort in Afghanistan to drive home a political settlement with Afghanistan... offering to broker a deal with the Taliban leadership... that would give Pakistan important influence there but is likely to undermine US interests... Pakistan is presenting itself as the new viable partner for Afghanistan to President Hamid Karzai, who has soured on the Americans... (which) heightens the risk that the U.S. will find itself cut out of what amounts to a separate peace between the Afghans and Pakistanis, and one that does not necessarily guarantee Washington’s prime objective in the war: denying Al Qaeda a haven... The dismissal of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal will almost certainly embolden the Pakistanis in their plan as they detect increasing American uncertainty..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/world/asia/25islamabad.html

TIMES SQUARE BOMBER PLEADS GUILTY 100 TIMES

"... He said he wanted "to plead guilty and 100 times more" to let the U.S. know that if it did not get out of Iraq and Afghanistan, halt drone attacks and stop meddling in Muslim lands, "we will be attacking U.S."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_times_square_car_bomb

KARZAI GIVES JAPAN PRIORITY TO ACCESS MINES

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai said this week that Japan -- not the U.S. -- takes priority over other nations when it comes to mining his country's vast mineral deposits.... He pointed to Japan's status as Afghanistan's second-biggest donor, and reasoned that Japan should enjoy special access to Afghan resources with estimated values that range from $1-3 trillion dollars. "Morally, Afghanistan should give access as a priority to those countries that have helped Afghanistan massively in the past few years," Karzai told the institute. "What . . . we have to reciprocate with is this opportunity of mineral resources, that we must return at the goodwill of the Japanese people by giving Japan priority to come and explore and extract," Karzai said."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/20/japan-has-priority-on-rig_n_618545.html

AFGHAN MINERAL WEALTH

June 2010
U.S. DISCOVERS MINERALS IN AFGHANISTAN

"The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan... including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium... Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world... The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html?hp

December 2009
U.S. FIGHTS IN AFGHANISTAN WHILE CHINA INVESTS IN MINES

"... the China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a Chinese state-owned conglomerate, bid $3.4 billion... for the rights to mine deposits near the village of Aynak. Over the next 25 years, it plans to extract about 11 million tons of copper — an amount equal to one-third of all the known copper reserves in China... In a single move, Beijing strengthened its hold on a vital resource, engineered the single largest investment in Afghan history, promised to create thousands of new Afghan jobs and established itself as the Afghan government’s pre-eminent business partner and single largest source of tax payments... While the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda here, China is securing raw material for its voracious economy. The world’s superpower is focused on security. Its fastest rising competitor concentrates on commerce..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/world/asia/30mine.html?_r=2&sudsredirect=true

PAKISTAN SUPPORT OF TALIBAN UNDERMINES U.S. IN AFGHANISTAN

"Pakistan's main spy agency continues to arm and train the Taliban and is even represented on the group's leadership council despite U.S. pressure to sever ties and billions in aid to combat the militants... (This) could heighten tension between the two countries and raise further questions about U.S. success in Afghanistan since Pakistani cooperation is seen as key to defeating the Taliban..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_pakistan

KARZAI DOUBTS U.S. CAN WIN AGAINST TALIBAN
Is negotiating with Taliban

"... Karzai had lost faith in the Americans and NATO to prevail in Afghanistan... Karzai has been pressing to strike his own deal with the Taliban and the country’s archrival, Pakistan, the Taliban’s longtime supporter... Karzai’s maneuverings involve secret negotiations with the Taliban outside the purview of American and NATO officials..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/12/world/asia/12karzai.html?hp

BRITISH P.M. AFRAID TO VISIT BASE
Anglo-American campaign in Helmand was unsuccessful

"British Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to abandon a planned visit to a military base in Helmand, Afghanistan during his trip to that country because of fears that the Taliban might attempt to shoot rocket propelled grenades at his helicopter. It is always a bad sign when the imperial leader cannot safely visit the outskirts of the empire. The incident underlined that the Anglo-American campaign in Helmand this winter did not in fact defeat the insurgents in the area... the Taliban have come back strong in the past two weeks...."
http://www.juancole.com/2010/06/cameron-plans-changed-by-rpg-threat-taliban-resurge-in-helmand.html

KARZAI HAS LOST FAITH IN U.S. STRATEGY

"... President Hamid Karzai has lost faith in the US strategy in Afghanistan and is increasingly looking to Pakistan to end the insurgency... because Karzai believes Nato is unable to deal with insurgent sanctuaries on the eastern border, he is looking for an alternative strategy: rather than use western support to "harden" Afghanistan against its neighbour, he is instead striking a less robust attitude to Pakistan and the Taliban..."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/09/afghanistan-taliban-us-hamid-karzai

PENTAGON DOUBTS McCHRYSTAL WAR PLAN
McChrystal hopes for extension past mid-2011

"Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's plan for wresting the Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar from the Taliban... have raised serious doubts among top military officials in Washington about whether the plan is going to work... even more serious concerns are being expressed behind the scenes... The key finding is that the Taliban have "reinfiltrated the cleared areas" of Helmand and "dissuaded locals from meeting with the Afghan government" by executing some who had initially collaborated. The overall negative tone of the analysis of what happened in Helmand appears to reflect a decision by Pentagon officials to withhold its vote of confidence in the McChrystal war plan...

"McChrystal's staff has made no secret of their hope to convince the U.S. public that his strategy... should be extended past mid-2011, when President Obama has said he would begin a U.S. military withdrawal and transition to Afghan responsibility for security..."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51376

SIXTEEN NATO OIL TANKERS BURNED
Afghan Army helps burn them

"... Around 1,000 people Sunday poured onto the streets against the killing of three members of a family in a coalition operation in the central province of Logar, the second demonstration against US troops in two days. The angry residents, chanting slogans against the United States and the provincial administration, blocked the Logar-Gardez highway in the Nasir village near Pul-i-Alam and burnt 16 tankers carrying fuel for NATO-led forces... Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers were part of the raiding party..."
http://www.outlookafghanistan.net/news_Pages/Main%20news3.html#01

NATO AGREES ON TRANSFER OF AFGHANISTAN
Corruption will be tolerated

"Nato has agreed on its long-awaited road map for the future of Afghanistan... an area will be deemed ready for transfer if serious violence has been in abeyance for a period of time, if there is access to power by different ethnic and tribal elements and if the conditions are present for development projects taking place in relative safety... a degree of corruption will necessarily have to be tolerated as long as it does not threaten the security of Nato forces..."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/allies-to-turn-blind-eye-to-corruption-as-afghan-exit-strategy-agreed-1952987.html

TALIBAN DEFECTORS REJOIN INSURGENCY
Nato trying to create false perception of winning them over

"... Nato plans to spend more than $1 billion over the next five years tempting Taleban foot soldiers to lay down their arms. But... those efforts could make matters worse by swelling the ranks of the insurgency, exacerbating village level feuds and fuelling government corruption.... Almost a quarter of the low-ranking Taleban commanders lured out of the insurgency in southern Afghanistan have rejoined the fight because of broken government promises and paltry rewards...

"A report by the Afghan NGO Safety Office, which provides independent security advice to charities across Afghanistan... warns charity staff to prepare for Nato’s withdrawal by late 2011. “We note that International military forces have made their withdrawal contingent on being able to demonstrate two key… conditions: a degraded armed opposition and an improved government security force. We assess... that there is an awareness neither of these conditions can be genuinely extant in time and so strategies to create the perception of them are being pursued instead.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7104508.ece

94% OF KANDAHAR WANTS NEGOTIATION WITH TALIBAN BROTHERS

"An opinion survey of Afghanistan's Kandahar province funded by the U.S. Army has revealed that 94 percent of respondents support negotiating with the Taliban over military confrontation with the insurgent group and 85 percent regard the Taliban as "our Afghan brothers"... The decisive rejection of the use of foreign troops against the Taliban by the population in Kandahar casts further doubt on the fundamental premise of the Kandahar campaign, scheduled to begin in June, that the population and tribal elders in those districts would welcome a U.S.-NATO troop presence to expel the Taliban..."
http://ipsnorthamerica.net/news.php?idnews=3002

U.S. CONTRADICTS KARZAI, WILL OCCUPY KANDAHAR WITHOUT CONSENT OF TRIBES

"The U.S. military has now officially backtracked from its earlier suggestion that it would seek the consent of local shuras, or consultative conferences with those elders, to carry out the coming military occupation of Kandahar city and nearby districts – contradicting a pledge by Afghan President Hamid Karzai not to carry out the operation without such consent....

"President Karzai said to a shura of between 1,000 and 2,000 Kandahar province tribal elders Apr. 4... (that) NATO's Kandahar operation would not be carried out until the elders themselves were ready to support it... (and) the elders were not calling for expelling the Taliban from the city and its environs. When Karzai asked the assembled elders whether they were "happy or unhappy for the operation to be carried out", they shouted loudly, "We are not happy."

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51059

PARALLELS TO VIETNAM

"... things are going from bad to much worse than anyone could have imagined. The insurgents are spreading fast across the countryside. Corruption is rampant. Local military forces, recipients of countless millions of dollars in U.S. aid, shirk combat and are despised by local villagers. American casualties are rising. Our soldiers seem to move in a fog through a hostile, unfamiliar terrain, with no idea of who is friend and who is foe...

"After years of lavishing American aid on him, the leader of this country, our close ally, has isolated himself inside the presidential palace, becoming an inadequate partner for a failing war effort. His brother is reportedly a genuine prince of darkness, dealing in drugs, covert intrigues, and electoral manipulation...

"It is an eerie summary of relations between the Kennedy administration and South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in Saigon nearly half a century earlier, in August 1963. If these parallels are troubling, they reveal the central paradox of American power over the past half-century in its dealings with embattled autocrats like Karzai and Diem across that vast, impoverished swath of the globe once known as the Third World..."

http://www.tomdispatch.com/archive/175233/

KARZAI MAY CANCEL U.S. OFFENSIVE IN KANDAHAR

"The president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai... threatened to delay or even cancel... Nato’s planned summer offensive against the Taliban in the southern province of Kandahar, as more than 10,000 American troops pour in for the fight. Karzai threatened to delay or even cancel the operation — one of the biggest of the nine-year war — after being confronted in Kandahar by elders who said it would bring strife, not security, to his home province... On the streets of the city this weekend there appeared to be little or no support for a Nato push in the province. .."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7094217.ece

U.S. TROOPS KILL CIVILIANS ON BUS

"American troops raked a large passenger bus with gunfire near Kandahar... killing as many as five civilians and wounding 18, and sparking anger in a city where winning over Afghan support is considered pivotal to the war effort..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/world/asia/13afghan.html?sudsredirect=true

AFGHANISTAN: NUMBERS ON THE RISE

"... the Defense Logistics Agency shipped 1.1 million hamburger patties to Afghanistan in the month of March 2010 (nearly doubling the March 2009 figure). Almost any number you might care to consider related to the Afghan War is similarly on the rise. By the fall, the number of American troops there will have nearly tripled since President Obama took office; American deaths in Afghanistan have doubled in the first months of 2010, while the number of wounded has tripled; insurgent roadside bomb (IED) attacks more than doubled in 2009 and are still rising; U.S. drone strikes almost doubled in 2009 and are on track to triple this year; and fuel deliveries to Afghanistan have nearly doubled, rising from 15 million gallons a month in March 2009 to 27 million this March. (Keep in mind that, by the time a gallon of gas has made it to U.S. troops in the field, its cost is estimated at up to $100.)"
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175228/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_numbers_to_die_for__/#more

U.S. PUPPET CUTS HIS STRINGS: KARZAI THREATENS TO JOIN TALIBAN

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened over the weekend to quit the political process and join the Taliban if he continued to come under outside pressure to reform..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100405/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

"... in the speech he accused the Western coalition fighting against the Taliban of being on the verge of becoming invaders — a term usually used by insurgents to refer to American, British and other NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan. “In this situation there is a thin curtain between invasion and cooperation-assistance,” said Mr. Karzai, adding that if the perception spread that Western forces were invaders and the Afghan government their mercenaries, the insurgency “could become a national resistance.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/world/asia/02afghan.html

"... "It's just to make sure that we all understand as to where each one of us stands," Karzai said. "Afghanistan is the home of Afghans, and we own this place. And our partners are here to help in a cause that's all of us. We run this country, the Afghans..."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-04-06-Karzai_N.htm?csp=usat.me

"... Karzai dropped a bombshell, asserting the U.S. was occupying Afghanistan to dominate the energy-rich Caspian Basin region, not because of the non-existent al-Qaida or Taliban. Karzai said Taliban was “resisting western occupation"... he began openly defying his American patrons and adopting an independent position. The puppet was cutting his strings..."
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/eric_margolis/2010/04/09/13530691.htm
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BOTCHED U.S. RAID FOLLOWED BY LIES, COVER UP, EXPOSE, APOLOGY

On February 12 of this year, U.S. forces entered a village in the Paktia Province in Afghanistan and, after surrounding a home where a celebration of a new birth was taking place, shot dead two male civilians (government officials) who exited the house in order to inquire why they had been surrounded, and then shot and killed three female relatives (a pregnant mother of ten, a pregnant mother of six, and a teenager) who sought to help the victims. The Pentagon then issued a statement claiming that (a) the dead males were "insurgents" or terrorists, (b) the bodies of the three women had been found by U.S. forces bound and gagged inside the home, and (c) suggested that the women had already been killed by the time the U.S. had arrived, likely the victim of "honor killings" by the Taliban militants killed in the attack..."
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/05/afghanistan/index.html

"... Two pregnant women, a teenage girl, a police officer and his brother were shot on February 12 when US and Afghan special forces stormed their home in Khataba village, outside Gardez in eastern Afghanistan... US special forces soldiers dug bullets out of their victims' bodies... then washed the wounds with alcohol before lying to their superiors about what happened... Brigadier-General Eric Tremblay, a Nato spokesman, said: "We deeply regret the outcome of this operation, accept responsibility for our actions that night, and know that this loss will be felt forever by the families."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7087637.ece

OF 800 CLAIMS FOR KILLED CIVILIANS, MANY NOT PAID

"More than 800 complaints have been filed by families of civilians killed in US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan... many of the claims were denied under the "combat exemption" clause to the Foreign Claims Act (FCA), "which provides that harm inflicted on residents of foreign countries by US soldiers during combat cannot be compensated under the FCA, even if the victims had no involvement whatsoever in the combat"... Due to the claim denials, many innocent civilians were not compensated for their harm or were referred to the Commander's Emergency Response Program for a discretionary condolence payment that is subject to an automatic 2,500-dollar limit per death..."
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100402/twl-us-iraq-afghanistan-unrest-lawsuit-7e07afd.html

OBAMA RHETORIC PROLONGS U.S. ROLE IN CIVIL WAR

"President Obama (said)... “We did not choose this war. This is the region where the perpetrators of that crime, al Qaeda, still base their leadership"... That’s clever phrasing, to use the word “region” and not “country,” since Al Qaeda’s forces are no longer in Afghanistan. They’re in Pakistan. So the U.S. is not waging a war against Al Qaeda anymore—and hasn’t been for years. It’s taking sides in a civil war, with the Pashtuns and the Taliban squaring off against warlords from the north and Karzai’s government. But that’s a harder sell, so Obama didn’t make it..."

"Sixteen months from now, the odds are that the civil war in Afghanistan will look much the way it does today. And because Obama asserted that the outcome in Afghanistan is “absolutely necessary, absolutely essential to America’s safety and security,” then there is no way the U.S. will be able to leave. So prepare for a longer war. Obama’s rhetoric guarantees it."

http://www.progressive.org/wx032910.html

KARZIA FLOUTS U.S. INFLUENCE

"... Karzai is putting distance between himself and his American sponsors... Even as Mr. Obama pours tens of thousands of additional American troops into the country to help defend Mr. Karzai’s government, Mr. Karzai now often voices the view that his interests and the United States’ no longer coincide.... Karzai recently told lunch guests at the presidential palace that he believes the Americans are in Afghanistan because they want to dominate his country and the region, and that they pose an obstacle to striking a peace deal with the Taliban... The American goal, he said, was to keep the Afghan conflict going, and thereby allow American troops to stay in the country... The recent visit by Mr. Ahmadinejad seemed designed to generate as much attention as possible... With Mr. Karzai standing at his side in Kabul, Mr. Ahmadinejad accused the United States of promoting terrorism."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/world/asia/30karzai.html?sudsredirect=true

2/3 OF BOYS IN AFGHAN JAILS BRUTALIZED

"Nearly two of every three male juveniles arrested in Afghanistan are physically abused... (by) a justice system that subjects juveniles, many of whom are already innocent victims, to torture, forced confessions and blatant violation of their rights in court..."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50843

U.S. CONSIDERING GUANTANAMO #2 IN AFGHANISTAN

"The White House is considering housing international terrorism suspects at Bagram air base, as is done at Guantanamo Bay... Gen. Stanley A. McCrystal, the top commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and other senior officials strongly oppose it, fearing that expansion of the U.S. detention facility at Bagram air base could make the job of stabilizing the country even tougher..."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-prison21-2010mar21,0,2058216.story

INNOCENT CIVILIAN CASUALTIES UP

"American and NATO troops firing from passing convoys and military checkpoints have killed 30 Afghans and wounded 80 others since last summer, but in no instance did the victims prove to be a danger to troops, according to military officials in Kabul. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the senior American and NATO military commander in Afghanistan, is trying to cut civilian deaths, saying, “We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat."

"... There are stories after stories about how these people are turned into insurgents... Every time there is an escalation of force we are finding that innocents are being killed.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/world/asia/27afghan.html?ref=world

THEN AND NOW

"... many parallels between what the Soviets were doing eight years into their occupation of Afghanistan... and what the United States and its allies are doing today. In the late '80s, the Soviets were trying to strike at cross-border sanctuaries in Pakistan, pursue reconciliation with insurgents, strengthen Afghan security forces and control population centers. It was a good strategy... and the Soviets lost... we're losing in Afghanistan."
http://www.tampabay.com/news/world/afghanistan-experts-at-usf-symposium-agree-on-one-thing-things-dont-look/1082567

TALIBAN ARRESTS STOP PEACE TALKS

"... recent arrests of high-ranking Taliban figures by Pakistan had severed important secret communications between the Taliban and the West meant to foster peace negotiations.... the United Nations had been quietly involved in early discussions with the Taliban in Dubai. He said those talks were upended by the arrests of senior Taliban leaders, including the group’s second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar... "
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/20/world/asia/20afghan.html?sudsredirect=true

PROBLEM WITH KANDAHAR OFFENSIVE

"... General Stanley McChrystal's plan to reconquer the key Afghan city of Kandahar this summer could fail... because of deep resentment against the local face of the Afghan government — President Hamid Karzai's troublesome half brother Ahmed Wali Karzai.... Afghan politicians, international analysts, diplomats, military officers and some tribal elders blame much of the chaos in Kandahar on pervasive influence peddling by President Karzai's half brother... As a former NATO official with years of experience in Kandahar puts it, "You have essentially a criminal enterprise in the guise of government, using us [NATO forces] as its enforcing arm. The people are turning to the Taliban as the only means of protection and outlet for their anger."
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1973240,00.html?xid=rss-topstories-polar

BOTCHED RAID

"A night raid carried out by US and Afghan gunmen led to the deaths of two pregnant women, a teenage girl and two local officials in an atrocity which Nato then tried to cover up...

"The first person to die in the assault was Commander Dawood, 43, a long-serving, popular and highly-trained policeman who had recently been promoted to head of intelligence in one of Paktia’s most volatile districts... Three women crouching in a hallway behind him were hit by the same volley of fire. Bibi Shirin, 22, had four children under the age of 5. Bibi Saleha, 37, had 11 children. Both of them, according to their relatives, were pregnant. They were killed instantly. The men’s mother, Bibi Sabsparie, said that Shirin was four months pregnant and Saleha was five months. The other victim, Gulalai, 18, was engaged. She was wounded and later died...

"The family were offered, through local elders, American compensation — $2,000 (£1,300) for each of the victims..."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7060395.ece

U.S. RESPONSIBLE FOR MOST DEATHS IN MARJAH ATTACK

According to the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, U.S. and Allied forces have killed and injured more civilians than have the insurgents during Operation Moshtarak. Incredibly, the Pentagon continues to insist that this operation “protects the people.”
http://rethinkafghanistan.com/hp/us-allies-responsible-for-most-marjah-civilian-casualties/

REPORT ON U.S. KABUL EMBASSY

"The State Department is failing to properly oversee nearly $2 billion in contracts to battle the drug trade, build infrastructure and train police in Afghanistan... Other key criticisms:
• Frequent visits by senior officials and members of Congress divert diplomats from crucial counterinsurgency tasks.
• The embassy doesn't have enough people to carry out anti-corruption and outreach initiatives.
• No one on the public affairs and website staff speaks Pashto, the language of the areas being contested in the counterinsurgency..."
>http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-03-09-embassy_N.htm?csp=usat.me


"... the U.S. Embassy staff in Afghanistan suffers from morale problems, overwork and the constant demands of visiting VIPs, which the report calls "war tourism"... Morale at Embassy Kabul has been challenged by the stresses of an almost 100 percent personnel turnover, a massive civilian buildup at a frenetic pace, the redesign of development assistance programs, the continuing high volume of official visitors, and the need to support an extended presidential strategy review... the ambassador and top aides often must work through the night on video conferences with Washington...
"Some describe the incredible volume of visitors from all branches of the federal and even state governments as 'war tourism"... As of October 1, 2009, the embassy had supported approximately 100 groups of visitors, totaling over 700 individuals, and accounting for over 30,000 bed nights..."
http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/05/afghanistan.embassy.morale/index.html

BUSH/CHENEY IRAQ WAR ALLOWED RISE OF TALIBAN INSURGENCY

"The Afghanistan War is now responsible for the deaths of 1,000 US troops. It has now also gone on longer than the Revolutionary War. You have to wonder how many of those troops would be alive if the Bush-Cheney administration had not taken its eye off the ball and deprived them of resources, sending the resources instead to Iraq. Efforts to develop and build governmental capacity in 2002 and 2003 might have averted the rise of a neo-Taliban insurgency. Once an insurgency gets going, it is almost impossible to stop it militarily (only 20 percent of insurgencies are defeated on the battleground)..."
http://www.juancole.com/2010/02/bombing-in-lashkar-gah-kills-7-karzai.html

DEBATE OVER DEFINITION OF TERRORISM

"... confusion and doubt arose (after Joseph Stack's airplane attack on an IRS building) over whether a person who perpetrated a classic act of Terrorism should, in fact, be called a Terrorist: he's not a Muslim and isn't acting on behalf of standard Muslim grievances against the U.S. or Israel, and thus does not fit the "definition." It has really come to mean: "a Muslim who fights against or even expresses hostility towards the United States, Israel and their allies."
If an American Muslim argues that violence against the U.S. (particularly when aimed at military targets) is justified due to American violence aimed at the Muslim world, that person is a Terrorist who deserves assassination... if the U.S. military invades a Muslim country, Muslims who live in the invaded and occupied country and who fight back against the invading American army -- by attacking nothing but military targets -- are also Terrorists.... (And) large numbers of detainees at Guantanamo were accused of being Terrorists for nothing more than attacking members of an invading foreign army in their country..."
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/02/19/terrorism/index.html

"... Stratfor, an Austin-based global intelligence firm specializing in international risk management, said the rhetoric in Stack's rant clearly matches the USA Patriot Act's definition of terrorism: a criminal act that is intended to "intimidate or coerce a civilian population to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping..."
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/nation-world-news/plane-attack-prompts-debate-over-terrorism-label-558975.html

CIVILIANS IN MARJA GIVEN SIMILAR ADVICE AS THOSE IN FALLUJAH

Marja, Afghanistan, Feb 2010
"... Few civilians have managed to escape the Afghan town of Marjah ahead of a planned US/NATO assault... about 95% of the locals are Taliban or aid the militants... military helicopters dropped leaflets over Marjah as radio broadcasts "warned residents not to shelter Taliban ahead of a massive assault." Doesn't this suggest that the invading U.S. forces may regard any civilian alleged to be "sheltering Taliban" as a legitimate target, including women and children? If the U.S. assault in Marjah results in large scale civilian casualties, the U.S. will have committed a major war crime..."
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/12-6

Fallujah, Iraq, Nov 2004

"... a shattered landscape of gutted buildings, crushed cars and charred bodies.... utter destruction, with concrete houses flattened, mosques in ruins, telegraph poles down, power and phone lines hanging slack and rubble and human remains littering the empty streets... rotting corpses being piled up and thousands still trapped inside their homes, many of them wounded and without access to food, water or medical aid... The US Defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed last week that Iraqi civilians had been warned how to avoid injury. "Innocent civilians in that city have all the guidance they need as to how they can avoid getting into trouble. There aren't going to be large numbers of civilians killed and certainly not by US forces...”
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=582915

"... a high-ranking official with the Red Cross in Baghdad told IPS that ”at least 800 civilians” have been killed in Fallujah so far... His estimate is based on reports from Red Crescent aid workers stationed around the embattled city, from residents within the city and from refugees... The official estimated that at least 50,000 residents remain trapped within the city. They were too poor to leave, lacked friends or family outside the city and therefore had nowhere to go, or they simply had not had enough time to escape before the siege began."
>http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1116-04.htm

EXECUTIONS BY DRONE KILL 50 CIVILIANS PER MILITANT

"... Obama is the new killer on the block, authorising more drone attacks in the first year of his term in office than Bush did in his entire presidency... for the first time ever, a civilian intelligence agency is manipulating robots from halfway around the world in a program of extrajudicial executions in a country with which Washington is not at war... counter-insurgency experts... decried the toll. Citing a civilian figure of 700, they extrapolated a civilian loss of 98 per cent of deaths or 50 civilians for each militant eliminated.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/americas-deadly-robots-rewrite-the-rules-20100212-nxjk.html

700 MILITARY BASES IN AFGHANISTAN

"... approximately 700 bases of every size dot the Afghan countryside... are under construction or soon will be as part of a base-building boom that began last year... this base-building program is staggering in size and scope, and heavily dependent on supplies imported from abroad, which means that it is also extraordinarily expensive... Lieutenant General Robert Van Antwerp, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers... (said) “You have to bring in the lumber, you have to bring in the steel, you have to bring in the containers and all that. Transport isn’t easy in this country -- number one, the roads themselves, number two, coming through other countries to get here -- there are just huge challenges in getting the materials here...”

"It... raises questions about just how long, after the planned beginning of a drawdown of American forces in 2011, the U.S. will still be garrisoning Afghanistan..."

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/02/10-0#

U.S. TO TRIPLE DRONES

"The U.S. military plans to more than triple its inventory of high-altitude, armed and unarmed drones... The long-range aviation plan... calls for 800 high-altitude drones, up from 220 currently... The U.S. military currently flies about 39 combat-air patrols for 24 hours each over Iraq and Afghanistan... The Pentagon has said it would increase the patrols to 50 a day in the next two years and 65 by 2013... We can’t get enough drones,” (said) General David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, which includes the Afghanistan and Iraq war theaters..."
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-02-05/pentagon-to-increase-stock-of-high-altitude-drones-update1-.html

AFGHAN ARMY TO TAKE MANY MORE BILLIONS AND YEARS

"... the United States has spent more than $17 billion since 2001 trying to build the ANA (Afghan National Army)... The Afghan government claims that the ANA numbers more than 100,000 troops... (but)... an unpublished preliminary military report... for Central Command Commander Gen. David Petraeus... indicates that at least some ANA battalions (Kandaks) are undermanned by as much as 50 percent... .Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimi expects to expand the ANA to 240,000 soldiers for which the United States has pledged an additional $16 billion..."
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Analysis/2010/01/05/Outside-View-Training-the-Afghan-army/UPI-83911262709907/

"... Mr. Karzai... once again rais(ed) the prospect of a far more drawn-out foreign troop presence before Afghans would be able to assume full responsibility for their own security. It could take 5 to 10 years for Afghan forces to take over from the American-led coalition,... and even longer to end his country’s dependence on financial aid to sustain its military. That is far longer that President Obama’s goal to begin drawing down American forces by the summer of 2011.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/world/asia/29diplo.html?sudsredirect=true

LONDON CONFERENCE ON AFGHANISTAN

Plan for Withdrawal
"They say it is not about withdrawal... But it looks as if the London conference on Afghanistan is partly about just that, wrapped up in policies about "transferring primacy" to Afghan forces and "talking to the Taliban". It is about giving Western public opinion the confidence that there is a strategy not only for fighting the war but also for getting out of it..."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8480368.stm

Plan to Buy Off the Taliban
"... In advance of an international conference in London to discuss Afghanistan's future... Japan, the US and Britain are said to be leading the proposal... to pay up to $500 million to Taliban fighters to persuade them to lay down their arms... The sum could be as much as between $500 million and $1bn over the next five years.."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/01/2010127102734689234.html

AMBASSADOR EIKENBERRY WARNED AGAINST SURGE

"The United States ambassador in Kabul warned his superiors... about the leadership of the Afghan government, the state of its military and the chances that a troop buildup would actually hurt the war effort by making the Karzai government too dependent on the United States.... Mr. Eikenberry, a retired Army lieutenant general who once was the top American commander in Afghanistan, repeatedly cautioned that deploying sizable American reinforcements would result in “astronomical costs” — tens of billions of dollars — and would only deepen the dependence of the Afghan government on the United States..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/world/asia/26strategy.html?sudsredirect=true

NUMBERS OF FORCES IN AFGHANISTAN
(Not including over 100,00 US troops and 38,000 NATO troops)

"... According to testimony last month before the independent Commission on Wartime Contracting, the number of U.S. defense contractors in Afghanistan is expected to reach 160,000 this year, more than the number of U.S. troops... The Obama administration has envisioned an Afghan army that would number 134,000 by the end of this year and grow to 240,000 in 2013. The Afghan national police currently stand at 96,800 with a proposal to expand to 160,000 by 2013, according to recent Pentagon testimony..."
http://huffpostfund.org/stories/2010/01/flaws-iraqi-police-contract-raise-questions-about-afghan-effort

McCHRYSTAL SAYS ENOUGH FIGHTING, HOPES FOR TALIBAN DEAL

"... Stanley McChrystal... the commander of Nato forces... (said) an increase in the number of foreign troops in Afghanistan could lead to a negotiated peace with the Taliban... (saying) "It's not my job to extend olive branches, but it is my job to help set conditions where people in the right positions can have options on the way forward. As a soldier, my personal feeling is that there's been enough fighting..."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/01/20101251080294781.html

DEFENSE CONTRACTORS SPENT $27 MILLION LOBBYING AT TIME OF SURGE

"The ten largest defense contractors in the nation spent more than $27 million lobbying the federal government in the last quarter of 2009... as the White House announced it would ramp up military activity in Afghanistan and Congress considered appropriations bills to pay for that buildup..."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/21/top-defense-contractors-s_n_431542.html

ASSESSING THE TROOPS: AL QAEDA VS. AMERICA

"... there are currently about 100 al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, as well as "several hundred" in Pakistan and... a similar number in Yemen. Members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Algeria, Mali and Mauritania) and those based in Somalia undoubtedly fall into the same category at several hundred each.... al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia never had more than 1,300-4,000 active fighters... Combined, these groups ... add up to perhaps 2,100 fighters... Members have access to rocket-propelled grenades, small arms of various sorts, the materials for making deadly roadside bombs, car bombs, and of course underwear bombs..."

"The US military has spent about $1 trillion on its post-9/11 wars so far. It has an army, a navy, an air force and a marine corps... trillions of dollars in weapons, materiel and other assets... spy satellites, advanced fighter planes and bombers, high-tech drones and helicopters, fleets of trucks, tanks and other armored vehicles... advanced missiles and smart bombs, aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and state-of-the-art ships... In addition, the US military has... approximately 1.4 million active duty men and women under arms and another 1.3 million reserve personnel. It employs more than 700,000 civilians in support roles... and utilizes untold tens of thousands of private security contractors... The active duty US military alone enjoys a 666:1 advantage over the estimated number of al-Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq, Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Somalia..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/LA16Df02.html


"What does it say about Washington's ''war on terror'' that dozen and a half people with paper cutters forced hundreds of thousands of Western troops into the battlefields of the "greater Middle East" region;
That 100,000 foreign soldiers are bogged down in occupied Afghanistan wondering how many dozens of al-Qaeda operatives have remained, if any;
That the most liberal democracy enacted new controversial illiberal laws and unpatriotic practices under its "Patriot Act";
That one shoe-bomber has forced millions of people to take off their shoes every time they take a flight;
That one underpants-bomber will expose every other traveler in most humiliating of ways;
That after US loss of deterrence and prestige as well as trillions of dollars of military and other expenditures, al-Qaeda's top leadership remains at large; its bases/cells proliferate globally; that volunteers continue to flock into its ranks and young supporters to its websites… (and) that it continues to terrorize America and Americans.
So much that one gets the impression that America is fighting a world superpower despite the incredible disparities in capacity, numbers and support.
Is al-Qaeda winning? Has the United States lost?"
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/imperium/2010/01/14/al-qaeda-winning

THREE TIMES AS MANY AL QAEDA IN YEMEN AS AFGHANISTAN

"Gen. Stanley McChrystal says he is not discouraged by estimates that there are many more al Qaeda fighters in Yemen than there are in Afghanistan where he is overseeing a major surge in U.S. troops... (saying) "I don't think that this war's in the wrong place"... (He) was reacting to a question from ABC's "World News" anchor Diane Sawyer who cited intelligence estimates that there are only 100 al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan while there are as many as 300 in Yemen..."
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Afghanistan/afghanistan-general-stanley-mcchrystal-tells-diane-sawyer-surge/story?id=9525700&cid=yahoo_pitchlist

U.S. TO TURN BAGRAM PRISON OVER TO AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan judiciary will try the inmates.

"Hundreds of inmates held without trial at a controversial prison on a US base will be allowed to challenge their detention through the courts when Afghanistan takes over the jail... the prison at Bagram Air Field north of Kabul has been compared to the Cuba-based Guantanamo Bay detention centre and Abu Ghraib in Iraq due to harsh treatment of prisoners detained there without charge.... Afghans have long been asked why, when we have a legal government, our citizens are taken away never to be heard from again... "
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iGRVVfWuxHAg0MeD9YC_xrWnqzuQ

WASTE AND FRAUD UNDERMINING U.S. RECONSTRUCTION OF AFGHANISTAN

"... Concerns have been raised in past months that the waste and fraud that has undermined the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq is being repeated in Afghanistan... The international community has invested more than $60 billion since 2002 in reconstruction efforts, including $40 billion from the U.S. alone... The U.S. agency overseeing the multibillion dollar Afghanistan reconstruction effort is investigating 38 criminal cases ranging from contract fraud to theft — most involving non-Afghans... the government might not be ready to deal with the flow of additional funds into Afghanistan..."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100112/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan_reconstruction;_ylt=AkVV9tQzfghRfJ5raQNbQGcUewgF;_ylu=X3oDMTNpZ2wybzVrBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwMTEyL2FzX2FmZ2hhbmlzdGFuX3JlY29uc3RydWN0aW9uBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDMgRzZWMDeW5fdG9wX3N0b3JpZXMEc2xrA3VzaW52ZXN0aWdhdA--

DEPLETED URANIUM BOMBS CAUSING CANCER EPIDEMIC

"... The real hazard for Iraqis these days is cancer. Cancer is spreading like wildfire in Iraq. Thousands of infants are being born with deformities. Doctors say they are struggling to cope with the rise of cancer and birth defects, especially in cities subjected to heavy American and British bombardment... In Falluja, which was heavily bombarded by the US in 2004, as many as 25% of new- born infants have serious abnormalities, including congenital anomalies, brain tumors, and neural tube defects in the spinal cord... The cancer rate in the province of Babil, south of Baghdad has risen from 500 diagnosed cases in 2004 to 9,082 in 2009... In Basra there were 1885 diagnosed cases of cancer in 2005.... the number increased to 2,302 in 2006 and 3,071 in 2007... about 1,250-1,500 patients visit the Oncology Center every month now... Iraqi doctors and some Western scholars say the massive quantities of depleted uranium used in U.S. and British bombs, and the sharp increase in cancer rates are not unconnected. ... the incubation period for depleted uranium is five to six years, which is consistent with the spike in cancer rates... The water, soil and air in large areas of Iraq, including Baghdad, are contaminated with depleted uranium that has a radioactive half-life of 4.5 billion years..."

"There are also similar patterns of birth defects among... Afghan infants who were also born in areas that were subjected to depleted uranium bombardment... in infants in eastern and south- eastern Afghanistan... Many children are born with no eyes, no limbs, or tumors protruding from their mouths and eyes..."

http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=80e260b3839daf2084fdeb0965ad31ab

ARMY SAYS CIA IGNORANT ABOUT AFGHANISTAN

"... Major General Michael Flynn, deputy chief of staff for intelligence in Afghanistan for the U.S. military and its NATO allies... described U.S. intelligence officials there as "ignorant of local economics and landowners, hazy about who the powerbrokers are and how they might be influenced ... and disengaged from people in the best position to find answers"... calling the United States "clueless" because of a lack of needed intelligence about the country..."
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre60403v-us-afghanistan-usa-intelligence/

STATUS OF U.S. IN AFGHANISTAN AT NEW YEAR

"... the US is killing schoolchildren far too often, enraging the Afghan public. It has provoked a studnet protest movement against it in Jalalabad and Kabul. Its informants are double agents (who blew up 7 CIA officers). Its supposed partner, the Afghan army, mostly doesn't actually exist and couldn't be depended on to show up to anything important; and that is when they aren't taking potshots at US troops; and there is no Afghan government as we go into 2010."
http://www.juancole.com/2010/01/serial-catastrophes-in-afghanistan.html

U.S. RAIDERS SHOOT 8 SCHOOL CHILDREN, SPARKING STREET PROTESTS

"The US military launched a raid in Kunar Province... in which President Hamid Karzai alleged that 10 civilians, some 8 of them schoolchildren, had been killed (some say dragged out of their beds and executed).... "They gathered eight school students from two compounds and put them in one room and shot them with small arms."... The charitable theory is that in a nighttime raid, US troops got disoriented and hit the wrong group of young men...
"The outraged Afghan public saw this raid as an atrocity, and... mounted street protests against the US in Jalalabad, an eastern Pashtun city, and Kabul. In Jalalabad, hundreds of university students blocked the main roads, and then marched in the streets, chanting "Death to Obama" and "Death to America," and burning Obama in effigy..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/world/asia/31afghan.html?_r=2

"... ten Afghans, eight of them schoolchildren, were killed... US-led troops dragged innocent children from their beds and shot them during a nighttime raid. Afghan government investigators said the eight students were aged from eleven to seventeen, all but one of them from the same family... NATO officials have insisted that they believe the people who were killed were part of a Taliban network making improvised explosive devices, homemade bombs, the roadside explosives..."
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/6/us_led_forces_accused_of_executing