The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread January 2009

[Yrys]

Article found January 26, 2009

Nato: Afghanistan could spoil the Obama party, BBC News

As Nato approaches its 60th anniversary, there are signs of tensions ahead
if the concessions on security policy already put in hand by President Obama
are not matched by a greater commitment to the war in Afghanistan by other
member states.

President Obama might find that his international honeymoon, even among
his closest allies, is short. He will be welcomed by some Nato governments
keen to see the new US approach to the world in action, though some others
in eastern Europe, still worried about Russia, will not want all the attention
to be concentrated elsewhere.

But Afghanistan threatens to spoil the party.

In a speech in Brussels on Monday, Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop
Scheffer said bluntly: "I cannot accept that the US has to do all the heavy lifting...
Europe too has to step up with more forces and when that is not forthcoming,
more on the civilian side."

European countries have been
unwilling to commit further troops

Showing willing

The kind of deal envisaged by the secretary general is that in return for President
Obama meeting many of the demands by his European allies - the closure of
Guantanamo Bay, the prohibition on waterboarding, the review of rendition flights
to ensure compliance with US obligations - those allies must step up the plate
(to use an American metaphor) when it comes to Afghanistan.

President Obama is intending to switch the main American effort from Iraq to
Afghanistan and wants to repeat the surge policy that had an effect in Iraq.
But this requires more combat capability and key Nato countries - France and
Germany notably - have been unwilling to commit significantly to the frontline.
Even Britain, which is already engaged in "heavy lifting", might not send as
many reinforcements as the Americans want.

The Nato chief said: "If the Europeans expect that the United States will close
Guantanamo, sign up to climate change treaties, accept EU leadership on key
issues, but provide nothing more in return, for example in Afghanistan, than
encouragement, they should think again. It simply won't work like that." If
Nato allies falter now, the long term implications in terms of separating the
United States from Europe could be severe. Nato is committed to fighting the
Taleban and was never engaged in Iraq, so the Americans are unlikely to be
as tolerant of excuses in Afghanistan as they had to be in Iraq.

Troubling issue

The issue is emerging as a potential troubling one at the 60th anniversary
summit to be held in early April in the French city of Strasbourg and the
German town of Kehl on the opposite side of the border. The sites were
chosen for their symbolic significance as they were fought over in three
wars between the old enemies and modern allies.

That Nato should now be debating what to do about a war in the faraway
country of Afghanistan while celebrating peace in the heart of Europe shows
how far the alliance has moved - and how its role in the world is changing.
Mr de Hoop Scheffer was keen to claim that Nato had a role to play way
beyond its original responsibility of protecting Western Europe from an attack
by the Soviet Union.

"The world is not suddenly more peaceful," he said. "International terrorism,
the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the growing numbers of
failing states are not just the obsession of a few." He even suggested that Iran
and other regional players be brought in to help in Afghanistan, an intriguing
prospect upon which he did not elaborate.

[email protected]

 

[Yrys]

Article found January 26, 2009

How Not to Lose Afghanistan, NY Times

Barack Obama has said that his priority in the war on terrorism is Afghanistan, and is poised to increase troop levels there, perhaps by as many as 30,000. How should the United States deal with growing strength of the Taliban? Is increasing troop levels enough? We asked some analysts for their thoughts on military and political strategy in the region.



    * Kori Schake, former national security adviser
    * Andrew Exume, former United States Army officer
    * Bruce Riedel, former C.I.A. officer
    * John Nagl, former United States Army officer
    * Parag Khanna, senior research fellow at the New America Foundation

 

[Yrys]

Article of  January 25, 2009

Skateboarding in Afghanistan Provides a Diversion From Desolation, NY Times

KABUL, Afghanistan — It looked like an ordinary neighborhood playground: six children
tumbling off their skateboards to the tune of laughter. But only hours before, just 20
yards away, the body of a suicide car bomber was sprawled beside a glistening pool
of blood.

Afghan youth have learned to recover almost instantly from such routine violence. One
person determined to inject some normalcy into their lives is Oliver Percovich. A 34-year
-old from Melbourne, Australia, he plans to open this country’s first skateboarding school,
Skateistan, this spring. He sees sport as a way to woo students into after-school activities
like English and computer classes, which are otherwise reserved for the elite.

“Teenagers are trying to dissociate from old mentalities, and I’m their servant,” Percovich
said. “If they weren’t interested, I would’ve left a long time ago.” Now, when he pulls his
motorcycle into a residential courtyard here, a dozen youngsters pounce before it comes
to a stop, yanking six chipped skateboards with fading paint off the back. The children,
most participating in a sport for the first time in their war-hardened lives, do not want
to waste any time. Their skateboard park is a decrepit Soviet-style concrete fountain with
deep fissures. The tangle of novice skaters resembles bumper cars more than X Games.

But Percovich has raised the money needed to build an 8,600-square-foot bubble to house
the nonprofit Skateistan complex, and the Kabul Parks Authority has tentatively donated land.
He is still waiting for official permission to begin the project. And since a spate of kidnappings
and the car bombing in late November, he has reduced his daily sessions at the fountain to
once or twice a week.
...
Percovich is determined to overcome the obstacles. He arrived here rather impulsively in
early 2007 because his girlfriend at the time had taken a job in Kabul. He gave up his bakery
business, stuffed some clothes — and his skateboards — into a bag and left Australia.
Unable to find work, Percovich did what he has done since he was 6. He rode his skateboard,
undaunted by the military convoys, pushcarts, donkeys, a suffocating film of dust and occasional
car bombings.

“Whenever I turned up, kids gathered around and asked, ‘What is that?’ ” he said, referring to
his skateboard. “They’d ask to have a go, and I realized quite fast it’s an excellent way to interact
with youth.”
...

 

[Yrys]

Article of  January 26, 2009

Afghan Prison Poses Problem in Overhaul of Detainee Policy, NY Times

WASHINGTON — For months, a national debate has raged over the fate
of the 245 detainees at the United States military prison at Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba. But what may be an equally difficult problem now confronts
the Obama administration in the 600 prisoners packed into a cavernous,
makeshift prison on the American air base at Bagram in Afghanistan.

Military personnel who know Bagram and Guantánamo describe the
Afghan site as tougher and more spartan. The prisoners have fewer
privileges and virtually no access to lawyers. The Bush administration
never allowed journalists or human rights advocates inside. Problems
have also developed with efforts to rehabilitate former jihadists, some
of whom had been imprisoned at Guantánamo. Nine graduates of a
Saudi program have been arrested for rejoining terrorist groups, Saudi
officials said Monday.

President Obama must now decide whether and how to continue holding
the men at Bagram, most of them suspected of being Taliban fighters.
Under the laws of war, they are being held indefinitely and without charge.
He must also determine whether to go forward with the construction of
a $60 million prison complex at Bagram that, while offering better
conditions for the detainees, would also signal a longer-term commitment
to the American detention mission.

Mr. Obama tried last week to buy some time in addressing the challenges
Bagram poses even as he ordered Guantánamo closed. By a separate
executive order, Mr. Obama directed a task force led by the attorney
general and the defense secretary to study the government’s overall
policy on detainees and to report to him in six months.

But human rights advocates and former government officials say that
several factors — including expanding combat operations against the
Taliban, the scheduled opening of the new prison at Bagram in the fall
and a recent federal court order — will probably force the administration
to deal with the vexing choices much sooner. “How the Obama administration
plans to deal with detention in Afghanistan is an open question,” said
Tina M. Foster, executive director of the International Justice Network,
a human rights organization in New York. “How will this administration
differ from the Bush administration in its conduct of detention in Afghanistan?”

The population at Bagram has increased nearly sixfold over the past four
years, driven not just by the deepening conflict in Afghanistan but also by
the fact that the Bush administration in September 2004 largely halted the
movement of prisoners to Guantánamo, leaving Bagram as the preferred
alternative to detain terrorism suspects.

Bush administration lawyers argued this month that the Bagram detainees
were different from those at Guantánamo. Virtually all of the Bagram prisoners
were captured on the battlefield and were being held in a war zone, the lawyers
contended, and they could pose a security threat if released. On Thursday,
Judge John D. Bates of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia
gave the Obama administration until Feb. 20 to “refine” the government’s legal
position with respect to four men who are seeking to challenge their detention at
Bagram under habeas corpus, a right that the Supreme Court has granted for
detainees at Guantánamo. The four plaintiffs were taken to Bagram from outside
Afghanistan and have been imprisoned there without access to any legal process,
many of them for over six years, said Ms. Foster, who is representing the detainees.

Judge Bates issued his order after Mr. Obama signed his directives on Thursday,
and the judge cited the presidential orders as “indicating significant changes to
the government’s approach to the detention, and review of detention, of individuals
currently held at Guantánamo Bay.” He noted that “a different approach could impact
the court’s analysis of certain issues central to the resolution” of the Bagram cases
as well.

At a White House briefing about the executive orders last Thursday, a senior
administration official was asked whether terrorism suspects captured by American
authorities would continue to be sent to Bagram. The official said not to expect any
changes to existing policies in Afghanistan for at least six months, pending the
completion of the task force’s review. A Justice Department spokesman, Dean Boyd,
declined to comment on Judge Bates’s order, saying that government lawyers were
studying it.

The challenges confronting the Obama administration at Bagram do not extend to
the much larger American detention operations in Iraq, where the United States
now holds about 15,000 prisoners. Under a security agreement with the Iraqi
government, the United States will begin next month to release up to 1,500
detainees a month. Fighters captured and imprisoned in Iraq are afforded legal
protections under the Geneva Conventions.
...

 

[MarkOttawa]

The return of the Taliban
As the insurgents infiltrate the area west of Kandahar, Canadian troops concentrate on holding territory until U.S. forces arrive
Globe and Mail, Jan. 27
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090127.wafghan27/BNStory/Afghanistan/home

PASAB, AFGHANISTAN — The foot patrol to Charkuchi, an impoverished rural enclave in western Kandahar province, didn't follow the script. Coalition forces operations in southern Afghanistan rarely do.

The Canadian soldiers, led by Afghan police, were to walk through the mud-walled village, speak to residents, wave at children and inquire about insurgent activity. The goal: to let war-weary Afghan villagers know that Canadian Forces and Afghan police are dug in at a police station a few hundred metres away.

Ten minutes into the patrol, on the outskirts of town, a shot is fired at the troops. The soldiers hit the ground. Crouching in a ditch, Master Corporal Jason Thompson, acting commander of the unit, radios the police station to get a fix on where the shot came from.

It isn't a close call - the gunman is at least 450 metres away - but the patrol is aborted and the soldiers never get a chance to mingle with the Afghans.

Two years after the success of Operation Medusa, a Canadian-led routing of Taliban forces from this region of southern Afghanistan, the insurgents have returned, emboldened and newly confident. No longer organized into armies, they have traded the battlefield for guerrilla warfare. They plant roadside bombs, assassinate police officers and, most important, infiltrate villages, compound by family compound, insinuating themselves into the lives of the locals.

"They are everywhere," Corporal Gord Martin, a Canadian Forces mentor for the Afghan police, mused about the insurgents. "They mimic us. Whatever we do, they follow. We've seen them in trees, watching us. They're 300 metres outside these walls."

As Canadian troops wait for an influx of as many as 60,000 U.S. soldiers this year, senior military officials have quietly adjusted their goals. In western Kandahar province's Zhari district, the birthplace of the Taliban movement, the key word is "holding" territory. The now-modest twin goals are to keep the residents safe and prevent insurgents from using the region, as they do in depopulated northern districts, as a freeway into Kandahar city...

Two years after the success of Operation Medusa, a Canadian-led routing of Taliban forces from this region of southern Afghanistan, the insurgents have returned, emboldened and newly confident. No longer organized into armies, they have traded the battlefield for guerrilla warfare. They plant roadside bombs, assassinate police officers and, most important, infiltrate villages, compound by family compound, insinuating themselves into the lives of the locals.

"They are everywhere," Corporal Gord Martin, a Canadian Forces mentor for the Afghan police, mused about the insurgents. "They mimic us. Whatever we do, they follow. We've seen them in trees, watching us. They're 300 metres outside these walls."

As Canadian troops wait for an influx of as many as 60,000 U.S. soldiers this year, senior military officials have quietly adjusted their goals. In western Kandahar province's Zhari district, the birthplace of the Taliban movement, the key word is "holding" territory. The now-modest twin goals are to keep the residents safe and prevent insurgents from using the region, as they do in depopulated northern districts, as a freeway into Kandahar city...

Today, Canadian troops are simply holding on to hard-won territory, trying to secure crucial rural areas west of Kandahar city to prevent insurgents from getting a foothold in the provincial capital. They've already ceded some districts to the north. Ghorak, for example, has fallen to the Taliban and large swaths of territory in western Zhari are no-go zones for Canadian troops [emphasis added].

But the landscape is about to change, as is Canada's role in the Kandahar countryside, with the imminent arrival of U.S. troops. The Americans will be dispatched to the countryside, while Canadian forces will be deployed closer to Kandahar city. Eventually, the provincial capital will become the main focus of Canadian efforts in southern Afghanistan[ emphasis added].

Senior military officials say they're confident the new strategy will work...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

Gates sets modest Afghanistan goals
IHT, Jan. 27
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/27/america/gates.5.php

Defense Secretary Robert Gates set forth modest goals for Afghanistan on Tuesday [Jan. 27], saying that success should be defined as an Afghanistan that is not a safe haven for Al Qaeda, whose people reject the rule of Taliban insurgents and support a legitimate government.

In his first congressional testimony as defense secretary under President Barack Obama, Gates cautioned that success in Afghanistan also requires security progress in neighboring Pakistan, given the porous and violent frontier between the two nations.

Gates was pressed for details on a recent strike across the border in Pakistan in which a remotely piloted vehicle attacked a suspected insurgent target. The defense secretary said Obama, like President George W. Bush before him, was committed to going after Al Qaeda targets "wherever Al Qaeda is."

He said that the Obama administration's decision to continue a policy of pursuing Al Qaeda had been communicated to the government of Pakistan.

In recent public comments, including this testimony, Gates has sought to lower expectations for the mission in Afghanistan, setting standards far below the sweeping desires of regional democratization that were a foundation of Bush administration national security policy  [emphasis added].

"There is little doubt that our greatest military challenge right now is Afghanistan," Gates told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "President Obama has made it clear that the Afghanistan theater should be our top overseas military priority."

Gates repeated the new administration's pledge to substantially increase the American troop levels there – a near doubling to more than 60,000 U.S. troops is expected – but he said the coordination with allies, development agencies and aid groups needed improvement.

"Coordination of these international efforts has been difficult, to say the least," Gates stated.

"While this will undoubtedly be a long and difficult fight, we can attain what I believe should be among our strategic objectives: above all an Afghan people who do not provide a safe haven for Al Qaeda, reject the rule of the Taliban and support the legitimate government that they have elected and in which they have a stake," Gates added...

...He added that the strategy now should be to define "more concrete goals that can be achieved realistically within three to five years in terms of re-establishing control in certain areas [emphasis added], providing security for the population, going after Al Qaeda, preventing the reestablishment of terrorism, better performance in terms of delivery of services to the people, some very concrete things."..

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found January 28, 2009

B.C. doctor disciplined for writing about soldier's death in Afghanistan
16 hours ago
Article Link

VANCOUVER, B.C. — A British Columbia doctor has been fined and ordered to undertake ethics training for publishing a graphic account of the death of a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan.

Dr. Kevin Lee Patterson admitted to unethical and unprofessional conduct for breaching confidentiality when he wrote the story that identified Cpl. Kevin Megeney and gave a detailed account of his March 2007 death.

The B.C. College of Physicians has ordered Patterson to pay $5,000 for the cost of his hearing and make a charitable donation of $7,000 - the amount he received for the story published in Mother Jones magazine.

"The penalty imposed by the College took into account Dr. Patterson's admission of guilt, his contriteness and remorse for his conduct, and his full co-operation throughout the College's investigative process," college registrar Dr. Heidi M. Oetter said in a statement issued Tuesday.

Patterson could not be reached for comment
More on link

Afghanistan sets dateline to end civilian killings by NATO
South Asia News Jan 28, 2009, 12:36 GMT
Article Link

Kabul - Afghan government said Wednesday that it would seek a 'national decision' on what to be done with international military operations in the country if the NATO-led alliance does not respond to a draft agreement that calls for an end to civilian casualties within the period of one month.

  The government sent an eleven-article draft to NATO headquarters in January 10, asking the alliance to avoid civilian casualties during their war against Taliban and al-Qaeda targets by coordinating their operations closely with Afghan authorities.

  The draft also demands the unilateral operations by international forces to be stopped and the house searches and detentions of the Afghans, which have been so far conducted by NATO-led troops and US soldiers, be shifted to Afghan security forces.

  'NATO and the international military forces should make their stance clear how much of the Afghan draft agreement is acceptable for them,' presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada said.

  He said if Kabul does not receive any response within one month, it would seek a 'national decision' through a referendum to decide the future role of international fores in the country.
More on link

 

[Journeyman]

B.C. doctor disciplined for writing about soldier's death in Afghanistan

CBC also carried the story online.
In the public commentary section, some dingbat named "flu888" writes:

This article states: “The Canadian Forces did not charge Patterson for writing the account, but Cpl. Matthew Wilcox faces multiple charges in connection with the death.”

I wonder what is the circumstances surrounding the shooting. Are there any cover-ups to preserve military’s good name and for public good?

Gotta love those wacko conspiracy theorists  :

 

[MarkOttawa]

First batch of extra U.S. troops in east Afghanistan
Reuters, Jan. 27
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE50Q3A020090127?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

The first deployment of a planned United States surge of up to 30,000 troops, has moved into bases in two key provinces of east Afghanistan, officials said on Tuesday.

The U.S. has pledged between 20,000 and 30,000 additional troops for Afghanistan, where violence has increased markedly since Taliban-led insurgents regrouped in 2005.

The first batch, from the 3rd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, have settled in Logar and Wardak provinces neighboring Kabul. They are reinforcing an existing deployment of the 101st Airborne, "the Screaming Eagles."

"The brigade is the first element of its size to deploy exclusively into these two provinces, increasing the U.S. presence there by thousands," U.S. forces said in a statement.

A typical U.S. brigade consists of around 3,500 soldiers.

U.S. forces said key members of the brigade, who started to arrive in late November 2008, have met with community leaders in Logar and Wardak as part of a wider strategy to engage with local systems of governance.

President Barack Obama, who has pledged to make Afghanistan the cornerstone of his foreign policy, is expected to approve the remaining troop increase, which has been in the pipeline since last year.

Obama Afghan strategy to stress non-military role
Reuters, Jan. 28
http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE50R55820090128

President Barack Obama will press Afghan President Hamid Karzai to extend government control beyond the capital and fight corruption in a new U.S. policy that will have a "significant non-military component," a White House official said on Wednesday.

The White House is conducting a review of all aspects of Afghan policy which is not yet complete.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates this week named Afghanistan as the new administration's greatest military challenge. The United States is considering almost doubling its force to more than 60,000 to battle an intensifying insurgency.

Obama is focused on a "more-for-more" strategy, said a White House official who asked not to be named.

"We're hoping for more from the Afghan government, we're hoping for more from our allies, but we're also prepared to do more as it relates to military and non-military resources.

"Exactly what those military resources will look like is still subject to discussion and debate," the official said.

"But there's no question that we'd like to see more from the Afghan government as it relates to extending governance beyond Kabul, as it relates to fighting corruption which is ultimately vitally important to the delivery of services and governance to the Afghan people," he said.

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said a successful long-term U.S. strategy would encompass a mix of approaches.

"What we need to have is the right mix of the three elements -- political, economic and military -- to really make a difference long-term," he said...

NATO key to more Australian troops in Afghanistan
AP, Jan. 28
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090128.waustafghan0128/BNStory/Afghanistan/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20090128.waustafghan0128

Australia would consider sending additional troops to Afghanistan if its NATO allies also increase their contributions and develop a plan for victory against the insurgents, Defense Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said Wednesday.

Mr. Fitzgibbon signalled that Australia was open to help after U.S. President Barack Obama made the war in Afghanistan a major priority for his new administration....

Mr. Fitzgibbon said the Obama administration had not asked Australia to increase the 1,000 Australian troops already deployed in the chaotic Central Asia nation.

Australia would consider such a request, but the response would hinge on several conditions, including that “the international partners have the will and a plan to win,” Mr. Fitzgibbon told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

The risks to Australian troops would also have to be considered.

“We'd need to be convinced that others are prepared to do more and doing more from our side of the world would make a difference,” Mr. Fitzgibbon said.

“Even doubling our troops in Afghanistan will make no difference if others are not prepared to do more and there is no overarching plan for better success,” he added.

“A substantial number of countries would have to do substantially more [emphasis added],” he said...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 29

Afghan presidential poll delayed for poor security
AP, Jan. 29
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012900701.html?wprss=rss_world/wires

Afghanistan's presidential elections will be delayed four months until Aug. 20 to allow extra international forces enough time to bolster security, the election commission said Thursday.

Lawmakers were expected to make provisions to avoid a power vacuum after President Hamid Karzai's five-year term officially expires May 22, said Azizullah Lodin, the head of the Independent Election Commission.

However, some legislators decried the delay as unconstitutional and warned of a crisis of power, saying there is no legal way to extend the president's term.

Afghanistan's constitution says the election should be held by late April, but Lodin told reporters in Kabul that the security situation was not strong enough for polls to occur that soon.

He said the commission had agreed to wait for additional international forces, who will arrive in the coming months, because their presence would improve security during the vote. U.S. military leaders have said up to 30,000 new American forces could be sent to Afghanistan in 2009. Thousands of those troops are being sent to the south, Afghanistan's most violent region...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

NATO High Commander Issues Illegitimate Order to Kill
Spiegel Online, Jan. 28
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,604183,00.html

The approach to combatting the drug mafia in Afghanistan has spurred an open rift inside NATO. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, top NATO commander John Craddock wants the alliance to kill opium dealers, without proof of connection to the insurgency. NATO commanders, however, do not want to follow the order.

A dispute has emerged among NATO High Command in Afghanistan regarding the conditions under which alliance troops can use deadly violence against those identified as insurgents. In a classified document, which SPIEGEL has obtained, NATO's top commander, US General John Craddock, has issued a "guidance" providing NATO troops with the authority "to attack directly drug producers and facilities throughout Afghanistan."

According to the document, deadly force is to be used even in those cases where there is no proof that suspects are actively engaged in the armed resistance against the Afghanistan government or against Western troops. It is "no longer necessary to produce intelligence or other evidence that each particular drug trafficker or narcotics facility in Afghanistan meets the criteria of being a military objective," Craddock writes...

The directive was sent on Jan. 5 to Egon Ramms, the German leader at NATO Command in Brunssum, Netherlands, which is currently in charge of the NATO ISAF mission, as well as David McKiernan, the commander of the ISAF peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. Neither want to follow it [emphasis added]. Both consider the order to be illegitimate and believe it violates both ISAF rules of engagement and international law, the "Law of Armed Conflict."

A classified letter issued by McKiernan's Kabul office in response claims that Craddock is trying to create a "new category" in the rules of engagement for dealing with opposing forces that would "seriously undermine the commitment ISAF has made to the Afghan people and the international community ... to restrain our use of force and avoid civilian casualties to the greatest degree predictable."..

Afghanistan: goals, strategy, future
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, Jan. 29
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1233258102

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 30

Canadian firm to hire Afghan guards as dam refurbished
Canwest News, Jan. 30
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Canadian+firm+hire+Afghan+guards+refurbished/1233659/story.html

A Canadian company is recruiting a private Afghan security team to help guard Canada's "signature" aid project in Kandahar, the province's governor said yesterday.

Canada will spend $50 million to refurbish the Dahla Dam in the northern part of Kandahar province. After the Canadian International Development Agency announced the project earlier last year, violence across Afghanistan -- especially in the south -- spiked to record levels, sparking concerns the dam would become a prime target of Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents.

The Canadian government has not discussed in detail the project's security arrangements, but in an interview with Canwest News Service, newly installed Kandahar governor Tooryalia Wesa outlined how the project will be kept safe so that it can bring economic prosperity to the region.

"The company doing the project, they're also recruiting their own security," Mr. Wesa explained after a meeting with Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon in Ottawa. "They are hiring local companies for security."

Earlier this month, the government announced that Montreal's SNC-Lavalin was awarded the contract to lead the project. The company is Canada's largest engineering firm and has a long track record of working in world hot spots. It is also the primary civilian contractor for the Canadian Forces in Kandahar.

Mr. Wesa said he has "proposed about 120 soldiers from the Afghan government" to bolster security at the project site. He said a Canadian base around the dam is well positioned to help as well, something government officials have confirmed in the past.

"There are Americans coming to that part of the district [emphasis added]," Mr. Wesa added.

Kandahar leader asks for tractors, not tanks
Toronto Star, Jan. 30
http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/579586

OTTAWA–Tractors and training, not necessarily more troops, are the ways to stanch the insurgency and improve security in Afghanistan, says the governor of Kandahar province.

Tooryalai Wesa, who's here to meet with top Canadian government officials, is a month into his new job and sees only possibility where most of the rest of the world has seen violence and despair.

He spent yesterday impressing on Tory cabinet ministers the need for advanced agricultural technology, international markets and teachers. He wants to twin the four colleges of the crumbling Kandahar University, which he founded in 1991, with Canadian universities, and find financial donors for girls' schools in the province.

"I don't want to concentrate on the number of troops, the number of tanks, artillery. If I have the choice, I will restore security by another approach, by creating more jobs," Wesa, who left his Coquitlam, B.C. home to take the governor's job in December, said in an interview.

"We should learn from history. The Russians came with what, more than 100,000 troops? ... If the Russians were in Afghanistan with 50,000 tractors or threshers or combines rather than 50,000 tanks we would have not been in this situation today."

Wesa understands the logistical hurdles that stand in the way of progress, and he's also aware that major change is expected in southern Afghanistan this year.

A new U.S. and NATO strategy will send the number of foreign troops in the country to more than 100,000. Analysts and military officials are predicting a spike in violence in 2009 and presidential elections, slated for late May, have been pushed back to Aug. 20 because of safety concerns and lack of money.

U.S. Removes Kashmir From Envoy's Mandate; India Exults
Washington Post, Jan. 30
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/29/AR2009012903737.html

NEW DELHI, Jan. 29 -- Inside a chandeliered ballroom Thursday, Indian diplomats and business leaders and American officials held forth about a new "Cooperation Triangle" for the United States, China and India. But little mention was made at the Asia Foundation's conference on Indo-U.S. relations of the Indian government's recent diplomatic slam-dunk.

India managed to prune the portfolio of the Obama administration's top envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard C. Holbrooke -- basically eliminating the contested region of Kashmir from his job description. The deletion is seen as a significant diplomatic concession to India that reflects increasingly warm ties between the country and the United States, according to South Asia analysts.

Indian diplomats, worried about Holbrooke's tough-as-nails reputation, didn't want him meddling in Kashmir, according to several Indian officials and Indian news media reports. Holbrooke is nicknamed "the Bulldozer" for arm-twisting warring leaders to the negotiating table as he hammered out the 1995 Dayton peace accords that ended the war in Bosnia, a peace that has stuck...

Interview: For Holbrooke, Situation in Pakistan, Afghanistan Is 'Dim and Dismal'
NY Times, Jan. 29
http://www.nytimes.com/cfr/world/slot3_20090128.html

Interviewee: Bruce O. Riedel, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution

Interviewer: Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor, Council on Foreign Relations

Bruce O. Riedel, an expert on South Asia, who has worked for the CIA, Pentagon, and National Security Council, says new special envoy Richard Holbrooke inherits a "dim and dismal" situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan. What is needed, he says, is for Holbrooke to reverse the negative momentum in both countries. He says the Taliban's military successes in Afghanistan have to be reversed, and Pakistan must help close their sanctuaries on Pakistani territory. But Riedel says "trying to get that cooperation out of the Pakistani government in my judgment will be the single hardest test that Ambassador Holbrooke faces and in fact may be the single hardest foreign policy challenge President Obama faces."

With Richard Holbrooke being named the new special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, what's going on in that part of the world? When Asif Ali Zardari, the new president of Pakistan, was inaugurated last year, he invited Afghan President Hamid Karzai to the inauguration. Is there better coordination between the two countries?

The good news is that the relationship between President Zardari and President Karzai is a fairly good one, and the two of them are comfortable working with each other. That has yet to translate, though, into a real productive relationship along the border. It's an opening, certainly, that we should exploit. The inheritance that Ambassador Holbrooke gets, though, on the whole is pretty dim and dismal. The war in Afghanistan is going badly, the southern half of the country is increasingly in chaos, and the Taliban is encroaching more and more frequently into Kabul and the surrounding provinces. And in Pakistan, the jihadist Frankenstein monster that was created by the Pakistani army and the Pakistani intelligence service is now increasingly turning on its creators. It's trying to take over the laboratory.

Does the Pakistani military have a strategy for the FATA [the Federally Administered Tribal Areas] along the borders with Afghanistan?

It's of two minds about the FATA. On the one hand, it has always used the Federally Administered Tribal Areas as the place where it could create groups like the Taliban, or encourage the development of the Taliban, where it could train people to operate in Kashmir or to operate in India. But now that it sees that it's losing control of that area, it's increasingly concerned about the future. Unfortunately, the Pakistani army is not very well prepared either in training or in equipment for the kind of counterinsurgency warfare that needs to be fought in the badlands along the Afghan border. And here is another opening for the United States to offer to Pakistan the kinds of counterinsurgency training and doctrine and the kinds of equipment that would be useful in this war. Helicopters in particular. The Bush administration gave Pakistan about a dozen helicopters. What they really need is several hundred to operate in this very difficult terrain where air mobility is really the key to battlefield success.

And is there a lot of talk about the U.S. Predator attacks on supposedly al-Qaeda targets in that area? Is there an implicit agreement that these attacks should go ahead even as Pakistan protests?

I don't know what the discussions between Washington and Islamabad have been over that. These Predator attacks have scored some important successes. Significant al-Qaeda figures have been killed. But they also have a counterproductive element to them, which is that they further the alienation of the Pakistani people away from us. One of the biggest challenges, if not the biggest challenge we face in Pakistan today, is that the American brand image has been badly eroded. Polling in Pakistan shows that a majority of Pakistanis blame America for the country's internal violence. India comes in second place, and al-Qaeda and the militancy comes in third place. Any time that you are outpolling India as the bad guy in Pakistan, you're in deep, deep trouble...

Mark
Ottawa

 

[MarkOttawa]

ARTICLES FOUND JAN. 31

Great expectations for U.S. Afghan reinforcements
Surge of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will take weight off Canadians, allow more reconstruction, training
Toronto Star, Jan. 31
http://www.thestar.com/SpecialSections/article/580159

It's the new broom for sweeping terrorism from Afghanistan. The silver bullet aimed at the heart of the Taliban insurgency.

For Canada, the surge of up to 12,000 extra American troops promised by President Barack Obama's administration is the cavalry coming over the hill, after years of pleading for reinforcements in the country's embattled south...

It will put new boots on the ground in southern Afghanistan – alongside those of some 2,500 Canadian soldiers – and take the fight to the provinces of Wardak and Lowgar in the neglected central region, where the Taliban has rebounded in recent months.

But Obama's new administration has already warned expectations should not be too high, that the boosted numbers will end the Taliban insurgency. The militants have infiltrated parts of Afghanistan and restored a regime of fear with bombings, assassinations, kidnappings, rapes and a draconian crackdown on women and girls.

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates told reporters the campaign would be "a long slog," adding "we need to be very careful about the nature of the goals we set for ourselves in Afghanistan."..

For Canada's troops – and government – the immediate effect will be relief. As the military death toll mounts, public support for the Afghan operation has waned.

Canada is committed to two more years in Afghanistan, with a new emphasis on reconstruction and training. The U.S. escalation, scheduled for this summer, will also change the focus of Canadian forces in Afghanistan.

"It will free them to pull back and assume responsibility largely for Kandahar city and surrounding area and focus the mission on protecting civilians instead of fighting the Taliban [emphasis added]," says Janice Stein, co-author of The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar, and director of University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies.

"That responds better to the capabilities we have. But there is a large risk we need to understand. It means being present on the ground on foot. There will be more foot patrols, more contact with civilians, and obviously more risks from roadside (bombs), still the principal weapon causing death."..

The new troops will concentrate on clearing and holding territory, a near-impossible mission for smaller forces that were thinly stretched [emphasis added]. But the gains won't solidify without a longer-term strategy.

"Ultimately, the clock is ticking in Afghanistan," says Seth Jones, a Rand Corporation expert on Afghanistan. "Numbers are a tiny fraction of the game. The solution lies in trying to link up with local institutions."

Ideally, Canada and other western countries would hand over secured territory to the Afghan National Army and security forces, which are still in the training stage. Alarmed by the prospect that they will be unready for the task, strategists are turning to other solutions...

U.S. eyeing plan for fifth brigade in Afghanistan
Reuters, Jan. 31
http://uk.reuters.com/article/featuredCrisis/idUKN30373652

U.S. President Barack Obama could eventually send five combat brigades to Afghanistan, including one devoted wholly to training the Afghan army, Pentagon officials said on Friday.

The White House is expected to announce up to three new brigade-size deployments for Afghanistan as early as next week to help meet a long-standing request for additional forces from field commanders.

The Obama administration is examining plans to send as many as 30,000 extra troops overall in the next 12 to 18 months to quell violence that has surged to the highest levels since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban regime.

The Pentagon has talked of adding four combat brigades -- units of about 3,500 soldiers. But a fifth could be deployed later this year to train Afghan troops [emphasis added], according to officials who stressed that the planning was subject to revision.

Small groups of soldiers from the brigade would be assigned to operate within Afghan army units as part of a training and mentoring program intended ultimately to have Afghan soldiers lead security operations.

"That's what's being looked at right now," said one official.

Some extra U.S. troops have already begun arriving in Afghanistan, including 3,700 soldiers from a combat brigade of the Army's 10th Mountain Division that deployed this month.

The three brigades expected in Obama's announcement would include a large Marine task force [emphasis added] and would increase the number of U.S. troops to the Afghan combat zone by up to 17,000.

Add to that an additional 5,000 support troops heading for Afghanistan and the United States could wind up sending a total of 25,000 extra forces by mid-summer, officials said.

There are currently 36,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, including 17,000 under NATO's 55,000-strong International Security Assistance Force...

The current plan, intended to put an Afghan "face" on the struggle against the Taliban and other militant groups, is to grow the Afghan army to an active force of about 134,000 soldiers from about 84,000, according to U.S. officials.

Earlier:

Illinois Guardsmen count days till they’re in Afghanistan
2,700 to help Afghans defend against Al Qaeda and Taliban forces
Chicago Tribune, Nov. 19, 2008
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/nov/19/local/chi-guard-trainingnov19

A group of sweaty, tired Illinois National Guardsmen, a fraction of the 1,400 still training on a North Carolina military base standing-in for Afghanistan, hunched over rifles and stared downrange in the last days before deployment.

In freshly learned Pashtu they shouted for cooperation from pop-up targets. The response was a mock mortar explosion behind them every bit as surprising as the real thing, and a resulting cacophony of live fire that tested the Illinois troops ability to communicate, reload and defend themselves. The staged firefight was one of their last opportunities to train for war before facing life-or-death decisions for real.

The Guard soldiers at Ft. Bragg are the main body of a 2,700-strong force of Illinois Guardsmen and are nearly done with a 57-day training cycle before heading to Afghanistan. They leave in December, when they will join 65,000 American and NATO forces battling Al Qaeda and a resurgent Taliban...

...the military has requested 20,000 troops to follow Illinois’ 33rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team [emphasis added].
http://www.il.ngb.army.mil/Army/Brigade.asp?BDE=33D+BRIGADE+COMBAT+TEAM
The Illinois troops have reached Afghanistan in stages, with the critical assignment to advise the police and Afghan National Army [emphasis added]. Three Illinois soldiers already have died there.

“Everybody’s focused on getting all their training finished, so that without a question, you’re ready to go,” said Capt. Mark Lueken, 29, of Springfield.

Only about 300 of the Illinois troops will live and work in the 16-person teams that train Afghanis, and have already begun their mission. An additional 2,400 will support that effort, said Illinois Guard Col. Scott Thoele, the force deputy commander.

The Illinois soldiers will be spread around the country. Trainers who advised Afghan forces in the past say the situation has only grown more complicated...

Afghan Strategy Poses Stiff Challenge for Obama
NY Times, Dec. 1, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/02/world/asia/02strategy.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

...the Pentagon is already planning to send more than 20,000 additional troops in response to a request from Gen. David D. McKiernan, the top commander in Afghanistan. Pentagon officials say that force would include four combat brigades, an aviation brigade equipped with attack and troop-carrying helicopters, reconnaissance units, support troops and trainers for the Afghan Army and the police [emphasis added].

The first of the combat brigades is to deploy in the eastern part of Afghanistan [emphasis added], while the rest of the brigades are expected to be sent to southern and southwestern Afghanistan. All told, it would increase the number of American troops in Afghanistan to about 58,000 from the current level of 34,000, and add to the approximately 30,000 other foreign troops who are operating there under a NATO-led command...

Mark
Ottawa