The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread October 2010

[MarkOttawa]

Talking w/the Taliban - smoke or substance?
Conference of Defence Associations' media round-up, Oct. 25
http://www.cdaforumcad.ca/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1288035889/0#0

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found October 26, 2010


Canadian military using private Afghan security despite pending ban

Article Link
Published On Mon Oct 25 2010 Jonathan Montpetit The Canadian Press

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN—As the Afghan government insists on pushing forward with a plan to ban private security companies, the Canadian military has acknowledged it recently made use of an unlicensed firm to protect one of its bases.

Canada’s military command in Kandahar undertook a review of its contracts with private security companies following President Hamid Karzai’s decree this summer requiring those without a licence to end operations by Dec. 17.

The review found that of the four firms used by the Canadian military, one had failed to register with the Afghan government, marking it for closure.

“We reviewed all of the contracts as the Afghan government had asked,” said Lt.-Col. Tim Marcella, the commanding officer of Canada’s National Support Element, which oversees private contracts.

“Three of them are now registered contractors with the Afghan government. (As for) the fourth, we are in the process of assisting that company to register itself.”

The military refuses to provide the names of the companies it uses or describe where they provide their services, citing security concerns.
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Australian medics making a difference in Afghanistan
Article Link
26 October 2010
Sergeant Bernadette Rogash waits to move a coalition soldier wounded by an Improvised Explosive Devise into the Role 3 Trauma Room in Kandahar.

At Kandahar Air Field a NATO hospital is providing a critical service for the coalition troops currently deployed on ISAF operations in the Zabul, Uruzgan and Kandahar regions of Afghanistan.

As one of the busiest medical facilities in Afghanistan the hospital has 270 clinical professionals working there with an average of 80 surgeries a week. In addition, each week there are another 400 medical cases; 1000 inpatients scripts to be filled at the pharmacy; over 5000 lab tests and over 1000 x-rays and digital scans.

Being the first NATO hospital in Afghanistan the Role 3 Multi-National Medical Facility is the most advanced hospital in Regional Command (South) and supports all operations in the region.

Canadian Lieutenant Colonel Doug Fromery, the facility's Executive Officer, has been involved with the hospital since its inception and said the role undertaken by the Australian medics at the hospital is second to none.

"Since the hospital opened in 2006, we've had Australians just turning up wanting to help out. They've been part of the team here since, despite them not being an official part of the organisation," he explained.
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[GAP]

Articles found October 27, 2010

Afghanistan: Russia steps in to help Nato
Article Link
By Kim Sengupta in Brussels Wednesday, 27 October 2010

Russia has agreed to return to the war in Afghanistan at the request of the Western states which helped the mujahedin to drive its forces out of the country 21 years ago.

The Independent has learnt that Moscow is engaged in training the Afghan army and counter-narcotics troops and has agreed in principle to supply Nato with several dozen helicopters for use in Afghanistan.

A number of aircraft have already been sold to Poland, a member of the US-led coalition, for use in the conflict. Now Nato is in talks with the Russians over direct supplies of more helicopters, training the pilots, and allowing arms and ammunition to be transported through Russian territory as an alternative to a Pakistani route which has come under repeated Taliban attack
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Mikhail Gorbachev: victory in Afghanistan is 'impossible'
Mikhail Gorbachev, the former leader of the Soviet Union, has warned that Afghanistan risks turning into another Vietnam, telling Nato that victory is impossible.
  Article Link
Published: 10:42AM BST 27 Oct 2010

Mr Gorbachev, who pulled Russian troops out of Afghanistan in 1989 after a 10-year war, said the US had no alternative but to withdraw troops.

"Victory is impossible in Afghanistan. [Barack] Obama is right to pull the troops out. No matter how difficult it will be," he told the BBC.

Mr Gorbachev added that as the Soviets prepared to withdraw from Afghanistan, the US was training militants, "the same ones who today are terrorising Afghanistan and more and more of Pakistan".

He said that because of this, withdrawal would be more difficult.

"But what's the alternative - another Vietnam? Sending in half-a-million troops? That wouldn't work."

His comments came amid news that Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, will attend a Nato summit next month, to discuss plans for Russian forces to return to Afghanistan.

Nato officials said Russia had agreed to sell helicopters to Afghanistan and provide training.
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Inside Afghanistan: Captain Abi Bradley on patrol
  Article Link and Video
Jane Mingay (camera) and Roland Hancock (edit) Published: 10:00AM BST 09 Aug 2010

In the first of an intimate set of portraits, Captain Abi Bradley of the Gurkha Rifles describes the particular challenges facing female soldiers operating in one of the world's deadliest environments, the Helmand Province.

The Telegraph joins Captain Abi Bradley (above) on patrol with the men of the Gurkha Rifles and talks to Sergeant Carly Lambert about how she copes being away from her daughter in the UK.

Lance Corporal Laura Roberts describes what life is like for a single girl surrounded by hundreds of young men while Lance Corporal Sophie Wright recounts how she recreates her home comforts.

And Lance Corporal Ashton Mulligan, who joined up at 16, explains why she now has ambivalent feelings towards 'home'.

Each one of these remarkable women casts a different perspective on a long Afghan war.
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[MarkOttawa]

U.S. military campaign to topple resilient Taliban hasn't succeeded
Washington Post, Oct. 27
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/26/AR2010102606571.html

An intense military campaign aimed at crippling the Taliban has so far failed to inflict more than fleeting setbacks on the insurgency or put meaningful pressure on its leaders to seek peace, according to U.S. military and intelligence officials citing the latest assessments of the war in Afghanistan.

Escalated airstrikes and special operations raids have disrupted Taliban movements and damaged local cells. But officials said that insurgents have been adept at absorbing the blows and that they appear confident that they can outlast an American troop buildup set to subside beginning next July.

“The insurgency seems to be maintaining its resilience,” said a senior Defense Department official involved in assessments of the war. Taliban elements have consistently shown an ability to “reestablish and rejuvenate,” often within days of routed by U.S. forces, the official said, adding that if there is a sign that momentum has shifted, “I don’t see it.”..

The blunt intelligence assessments are consistent across the main spy agencies responsible for analyzing the conflict, including the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, and come at a critical juncture. Officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly…

Kandahar diary: Watching conventional forces conduct a successful COIN campaign
Best Defense, Oct. 27
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/10/27/kandahar_diary_watching_conventional_forces_conduct_a_successful_coin_campaign

By Paula Broadwell
Best Defense Kandahar bureau chief

“We don’t know if what we’re seeing is the start of a trend or an anomaly,” one Counterinsurgency Advise and Assist Team (CAAT) senior advisor admitted when discussing ground operations in Kandahar, Afghanistan. “We just don’t know. It’s like the blind men with the elephant.”

That’s the sentiment I picked up while in Afghanistan recently. “We would be the first to caution that victory is not just around the corner,” said a senior official in Kabul this week. He also noted that while some members of the media may have rushed to change the narrative from one of ‘all is lost’ to ‘winning is inevitable,’ but quickly clarified that “Neither is true.”

So what is true, and what exactly is going on in Kandahar, the “heart of darkness,” as it’s now been coined? What appears to be true is that our conventional forces can still conduct major combat operations, and they’re making some progress…

Mark
Ottawa

 

[GAP]

Articles found October 28, 2010

Canadian Forces stop using Dubai for transit flights
  Article Link
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News October 27, 2010

The Canadian military has stopped flying troops to and through its base in Dubai.

The end of a practice that involved the movement of tens of thousands of Canadian troops and millions of tonnes of gear to and from Afghanistan over the past few years is directly related to a diplomatic fracas between the United Arab Emirates and Ottawa that led the U.A.E. to demand earlier this month that Canada quit the base by the first week of November.

That decision by the U.A.E. was made after Canada refused a demand by the wealthy Gulf sheikdom to allow more flights to and from Canada by its two national carriers, Emirates Airlines and Etihad Airways.
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No Public Packages for Military Overseas: CF
Article Link
Josh Pringle Thursday, October 28, 2010

The Canadian Military says Santa can't deliver care packages or gifts from the public to Canadian troops overseas.

With the holiday season approaching, the Department of National Defence says that while the military appreciates the public support it receives, getting gifts and packages to deployed troops overseas is difficult.

Canadians can show their support through email messages on the Canadian Forces website or by sending postcards and letters without enclosures.

The Canadian Forces says special measures have been taken to ensure all deployed members receive a Christmas gift package through Operation Santa Claus.

Canada Post will be providing free regular-parcel service to January 7th to family and friends of deployed military personnel.
end

Missing Afghan Teen May Have Defected To Canada
Teen Staying In Ohio Last Seen At FFA Convention
Article Link
POSTED: 5:55 pm EDT October 27, 2010

INDIANAPOLIS -- A missing 15-year-old foreign exchange student from Afghanistan may have defected to Canada, police said.

Mohammed Karim Azizi, from Kabul, was with a group of students from his exchange high school in Ohio who were visiting Indianapolis for the National FFA Convention when he was last seen Thursday night on Monument Circle.

Indianapolis missing persons detectives told 6News' Jack Rinehart that World Links, the group that arranged Azizi exchange program, said they believe Azizi has defected to Canada.
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Afghan women fear the worst amidst possible peace talks
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Posted by Amy Watson on October 27, 2010

The Province reports that in the face of rumours that ‘high-level’ Taliban leaders are interested in a dialogue with the Afghan government, Afghan women fear the worst for their human rights.

Canada is scheduled to withdraw troops next summer, and the US next year – the Afghan army and police are currently unable to hold insurgents at bay by themselves. As such, negotiations with the Taliban are seen to hold promise for ending the nine year Afghan war.

But Lauryn Oates, a senior adviser to the Canada Afghanistan Solidarity Committee, has said: “The Taliban have no intention of lessening their stance on the status of women. Their discriminatory policies and misogynistic beliefs are part of the core of their ideology. It’s not something I think they will be willing to negotiate on.”

Furthermore, Mark Sedra, a global security expert at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ontario, has said that Afghan women are right to be scared, and that he does not see a great willingness on the part of the Taliban to make serious compromises. Sedra does add, however, that the Afghan government and western backers could secure a deal which would require the Taliban to abide by the Afghan constitution, which guarantees women’s rights.

Whether this would translate into enforceable and policeable practice remains to be seen.

Murwaid Ziayee, Afghanistan director for Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, has said “our government always compromises human rights and women’s rights, and they will do it again.”
end

 

[GAP]

Articles found October 29, 2010

Russia and US collaborate in Afghanistan drug raid
Article Link
29 October 2010 Last updated at 06:45 ET

Russian and US agents have taken part in a joint operation to destroy drug laboratories in Afghanistan, the head of Russia's drug control agency says.

More than a tonne of heroin and opium was seized during the raids, which took place on Thursday close to the border with Pakistan, Viktor Ivanov announced.

Mr Ivanov said the haul had a street value of $250m (£157m) and was believed to have been destined for Central Asia.

Correspondents say it is the first time there has been such a joint operation.

Russian officials have in the past accused coalition forces in Afghanistan of doing "next to nothing" to tackle drug production, and thereby helping to sustain the estimated 2.5 million heroin addicts in Russia alone.

Much of the heroin enters the territory of the former Soviet Union through Afghanistan's northern borders with Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

It then travels westwards across Kazakhstan, before entering the central and Ural regions of Russia, where there are large numbers of addicts
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New well illustrates difficult choices Afghans must face
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Descended from a saint, Haji Malange Agha is a soft-spoken old man with a healing touch, a love of expensive horses and a troubling dilemma.

The village he leads lies in an insurgent corridor, where Taliban fighters expect to find sanctuary from Canadian and allied forces hunting them down.

But God, or the vagaries of geology, made the sand on which Regay stands rich in salt and alkaline. Their well water is too brackish to drink, and despite years of effort by the United Nations and other agencies, they don’t have fresh water.

So Agha, guardian of the Haji Babak shrine, saviour of the sick and disabled, needs to be on the good side of Canadian soldiers to get a well. But he can’t risk ending up on the wrong side of the insurgents, who would just as soon destroy it.
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Canadian soldiers resume mentoring Afghan National Army after turbulent spring
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By: Jonathan Montpetit, The Canadian Press Posted: 28/10/2010

HAJI BABA, Afghanistan - It was shaping up to be a boring summer for Capt. Pete Reintjes and his small team of mentors for the Afghan National Army.

That was back in the spring.

A lot of things have changed since then, and they were in the thick of the action by August around Nakhonay, a town now infamous as a killing zone.

During this period, their unit _ the Operational Mentor and Liaison Team _ underwent a series of radical changes that reflected the shifting priorities of NATO.

Those changes have emerged as a costly confirmation of the cliche: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

After months of training in Canada, the U.S. and Germany, the OMLT suddenly stopped mentoring Afghan army troops on the ground this spring. Only senior-level officers would get that benefit.

Since it was first assembled in 2005, the OMLT has earned accolades for having fashioned a reputable fighting force from the 1st Brigade of the ANA's 205th Corps.

It did so by applying a time-honored Special Forces technique — embedding small teams within a host army — on a large scale.

Yet when Reintjes and his team arrived in Afghanistan, most were given clerical and administrative tasks. They had little interaction with the Afghan soldiers they had prepared so long to train.

"We were bored out of our minds," Reintjes said. "There was nothing for us to do."

That seems a long time ago now. U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal was still in charge of all NATO forces in Afghanistan, and Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard was commanding the Canadian contingent at the time.
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[GAP]

Articles found October 30, 2010

Nato troops repel insurgent attack in Afghanistan
Article Link
30 October 2010 Last updated at 04:35 ET

Nato says its forces in Afghanistan have killed at least 30 Taliban fighters who tried to storm a combat outpost under cover of darkness.

The attack happened at a base in Paktika province, bordering Pakistan.

The militants are reported to have attacked from all directions, using rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

Five coalition soldiers were wounded in the fighting, which was so fierce that soldiers at the camp had to call in air attacks to repel the assault.
Continue reading the main story

A statement from the International Security and Assistance Force (Isaf) said that none of its troops were killed. Most of the soldiers in the area are from the US.
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Canadian target Taliban supply lines in Panjwaii, prompting counter-attack
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By: The Canadian Press Posted: 30/10/2010

ADAMZAI, Afghanistan - Canadian soldiers have wrapped up a two-day operation aimed at cutting off insurgent supply lines in Kandahar's Panjwaii district.

The operation was focused around the village of Adamzai, which is considered a logistical node for insurgents in east Panjwaii.

Military engineers blew craters in several small roads used by insurgents to access other strongholds, including Nakhonay, where as many as six Canadians have been killed in recent months.

Taliban fighters responded by attacking a compound where Canadians were resting up after their operation.

But Canadian troops drove off the insurgents with machine-gun fire and shoulder-held rocket launchers, and no casualties were reported.
end

Pakistan flood funding dries up
  Article Link
Oxfam warns financial aid still needed
By Nasir Jaffry, Agence France-Presse October 30, 2010 5:07 AM

International aid agency Oxfam warned Friday that, three months into Pakistan's unprecedented flood crisis, funds were drying up, putting millions at risk with huge swathes of farmland still under water.

The warning came as the United Nations refugee agency said thousands of people displaced by the floods were likely to spend the winter in camps.

The UN issued a record $2-billion appeal for funds to cope with Pakistan's worst humanitarian disaster, which ravaged an area roughly the size of England and affected 21 million people.

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank have estimated the damage at $9.7 billion, almost twice that of Pakistan's 2005 earthquake which killed more than 73,000 people.
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U.S. takeover of Kandahar PRT base harbinger of Canada's withdrawal
  Article Link
By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News October 29, 2010

KANDAHAR CITY, Afghanistan — The troop surge ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama that has swept southern Afghanistan this year has led to dramatic changes at what until recently was an entirely Canadian base in Kandahar's provincial capital.

While Camp Nathan Smith's population has more than tripled recently, Canada's numbers have dwindled to the point where there are now only about 175 Canadian soldiers and civilians left. Every one of the other 1,300 people now shoe-horned into every nook and cranny of the tiny base is American — a visible sign that after eight years Canada's mission is on its way out of Afghanistan.

Canadians used to be responsible for the city's quick reaction force, making safe homemade bombs and manning guard towers at the camp. These days they have a small group of construction engineers working on civil affairs projects, an even smaller number of signallers and an infantry platoon that still runs several convoys every day to escort civilians such as Corrections Canada officers to places such as Sarpoza Prison.

"Our principal role is to transport Canadians, but we help the Americans and they help us," said. Maj. Mark Anthony, the senior Canadian soldier. "The relationship is so good that we have our barbecues together."
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It’s all about people, Hillier tells leaders
Published On Fri Oct 29 2010
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Lisa Wright Business Reporter

The inside jacket of his new book starts simply with one of his famous quotes and well-used philosophies: “Lead, Follow or Get Run Over.”

After a successful 36-year career in the Canadian Forces, retired Gen. Rick Hillier has never been one to mince words, or to get run over.

The renowned straight talker has just followed up his memoir A Soldier First with a second book since leaving the army in 2008 entitled Leadership: 50 Points of Wisdom For Today’s Leaders (published Saturday by HarperCollins Canada).

His views on leadership were formed over nearly four decades as a soldier, first by watching many of his superiors make what he considered bad decisions, then by learning first-hand as the head of emergency rescue operations in Canada and international task forces in eastern Europe and Afghanistan.

When Hillier hung up his uniform just over two years ago, he had completed a three-year stint as Chief of Defence Staff – the highest position in the Canadian Forces. So it’s fair to say he knows what he’s talking about on the leadership front.

It all boils down to people, he says, noting you have to win over the folks you need to work with in order to be a successful leader anywhere, be it the battlefield or the boardroom.
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[GAP]

Articles found October 31, 2010

Canadians target Taliban supply lines, prompting counterattack
Published On Sat Oct 30 2010
Article Link

ADAMZAI, AFGHANISTAN—The noose has been tightened around one of the lingering insurgent strongholds where Canadian soldiers operate in Kandahar’s Panjwaii district.

But a two-day operation aimed at cutting insurgent supply lines into the volatile town of Nakhonay also angered locals and prompted a retaliatory attack by the Taliban.

Teams of Canadian engineers and infantry troops were dropped by helicopter earlier this week on the southern edge of Khenjakak, a village southwest of Kandahar city.

They charged out of Chinook helicopters as daylight broke Wednesday morning, prepared for contact. As they moved north through the town, however, they only found traces of the shadowlike insurgency. In a grape hut, a patrol came across an extensive cache of medical supplies.

“It’s probably a stopover for injured insurgents,” said Warrant Officer Todd Weber.

NATO has had little presence in this area until now, allowing the insurgents to use it as a staging area for attacks further north.

It is considered the main Taliban supply route — “rat-line” in military parlance — for Nakhonay, a fiercely contested town that has been the site of the deaths of at least six Canadian soldiers in recent months, not to mention several other severe injuries.
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Negotiating with Taliban will crush Afghan women
  Article Link
For The Calgary Herald October 30, 2010

Reading his Oct. 23 New York Times column from Kabul, I was appalled at journalist Nicholas Kristof's naivete when it comes to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Kristof, author of Half the Sky and often identified as a proponent for women's empowerment, argues for a reduction of American troops in Afghanistan and for a peace deal with the Taliban.

In seeking to convince himself that this turn of events will not be harmful to Afghan women, he optimistically provides some astoundingly slim anecdotal evidence to convince us that the Taliban are really not so bad.

Kristof feels uncomfortable with what he terms the U.S. "occupation"-- though I know few Afghans who refer to the U.S. or international presence here that way -- and so waves away his own discomfort over the spectre of a new Taliban government in Afghanistan by essentially saying, don't worry, the Taliban might let girls have some schools, in some mosques, in some cases. This is hardly a reassuring argument to girls and women -- who have gained the most since the fall of the Taliban -- and conversely, have the most to lose from a Taliban return.
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ANALYSIS-Why the military plays down vital Afghan battle
31 Oct 2010 08:18:22 GMT
Source: Reuters
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By Emma Graham-Harrison

KABUL, Oct 31 (Reuters) - The battle for Kandahar, its importance played down even before it began, has been eclipsed in the media and in Washington by a focus on corruption and peace talks, but its outcome is crucial to the wider Afghan war.

Operation Dragon Strike is the first major attempt since 2001 to regain control of a city that is the Taliban's spiritual home. This autumn may be the last time that the NATO-led alliance has sufficient boots on the ground to try the push.

Victory would give NATO and the Afghan government more leverage in potential peace negotiations, as acceptance grows in Kabul and abroad that a political solution may be the most likely end to a war now in its tenth year.

If winter arrives and insurgents are still capable of mounting major attacks and intimidating the local population, it could further chill Western governments' already diminishing appetite for a long-term presence in Afghanistan.

"To strike at the heart of the insurgency, strike at the historical and spiritual home of the Taliban movement sends a very clear message -- with the resources we have, we are on the offensive," said Dakota Wood, Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
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Afghan President Karzai criticises US-Russia drugs raid
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31 October 2010 Last updated at 01:21 ET

Hamid Karzai (25 October 2010) Mr Karzai said Afghanistan's relationship with Russia had to be based on mutual consent

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has criticised the first joint operation by Russian and US agents to destroy drug laboratories in his country.

Mr Karzai said he had not been informed of Russia's participation - a sensitive issue in Afghanistan ever since the Soviet occupation ended 21 years ago.

He called it a violation of Afghan sovereignty and international law.

Russia said more than a tonne of heroin and opium, with a street value of $250m (£157m), was destroyed in the raid.

Officials in Moscow have in the past accused coalition forces in Afghanistan of doing little to tackle drugs, and thereby helping to sustain the estimated 2.5 million heroin addicts in Russia.
'No authorisation'

On Friday, the head of Russia's drug control agency said its agents had taken part in an operation on Thursday to destroy a "major hub" of drug production about 5km (three miles) from the Pakistani border, near the city of Jalalabad.
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