February 26, 2008
Obama-McCain Squabble Injected Into Army Readiness Hearing
A controversial anecdote relayed by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in last week's Texas debate wended its way into a Senate Armed Forces hearing on Army readiness today.
Obama claimed that he'd "heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon" that was sent to Afghanistan grossly undermanned and underequipped. "They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief," Obama said during Thursday night's debate.
Lindsey Graham, who lately has been stumping hard for Republican John McCain, relayed the story to Army Secretary Peter Geren and Army Chief of Staff William Casey during the hearing. "Has Sen. Obama talked to you or anyone in the department about this?" the South Carolina Republican asked.
"I have not discussed this with Sen. Obama," Geren replied, before handing the baton to Casey.
"As we looked into this, the best we could tell was this incident occurred back in 2003 and 2004," Casey said. "We talked to the brigade commander, looked at readiness reports. The brigade was manned over 100 percent and stayed 100 percent manned when they were there."
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February 25, 2008
Canada May Withdraw From Afghanistan In 2011
Canada's Conservative government proposed a withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan by 2011 at the open of parliamentary debate on the future of the Canadian mission there.
"It is the opinion of the House that Canada should continue a military presence in Kandahar beyond February 2009 to July 2011 in a manner fully consistent with the U.N. mandate on Afghanistan," said Royal Galipeau, the Conservative deputy chair of Committees of the Whole House.
The Canadian House of Commons is debating that country's lead role in the Afghanistan mission. Support for the ongoing mission has dwindled among Canadians, who have seen a disproportionately large number of casualties in the Afghan conflict.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government has bristled at what it sees as reluctance among the other large NATO members to contribute resources and manpower to the fight against the resurgent Taliban. The patchwork-style NATO mission -- with Canadians, Britons, Dutchmen and Americans doing the lion's share of security and reconstruction work -- is facing Taliban fighters who have adopted tactics used by al-Qaida and insurgents in Iraq (e.g., suicide bombings) and a rampant opium trade that Afghan farmers are reluctant to abandon.
Ahead of a contentious NATO meeting in Lithuania early this month, Harper's government threatened to bring the Canadian mission to an end if other NATO countries did not increase their contributions. That threat still holds as the Canadian parliament hammers out its Afghanistan timeline.
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February 21, 2008
CRS: Military Can Cover War Costs Longer Than Expected
The Pentagon has several budgetary options at its disposal to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan well into August -- weeks longer than Defense Department officials have estimated, according to the latest Congressional Research Service report on war costs. Congress already has approved $70 billion to pay for the overseas military operations and another $16.8 billion to buy new mine-resistant vehicles in FY08, but senior Pentagon officials have warned they need another $102.5 billion for the wars before accounts dry up early this summer.
"Although CRS estimates also suggest that the Army's current funding will be exhausted by... early July 2008, DOD could extend that time line by one to two months -- or until mid-to-late August 2008 if necessary by using available authority to transfer additional funds to the Army," according to the Feb. 8 CRS report.
The military could make use of $7.7 billion in general transfer authority in its base FY08 budget and the $70 billion supplemental to pay for operations for an additional four weeks, the report said. Pentagon planners could also tap into $2.1 billion in excess balances in working capital funds -- umbrella accounts to pay for commercial and industrial activities -- to cover another week of operations.
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February 20, 2008
Can These Guys Run Pakistan?
Pervez Musharraf, who seized power illegally and whose unpopularity now prompts rioting in Pakistan's streets, isn't going anywhere.
Not if he can help it, anyway. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal (subscription), Musharraf stubbornly insisted on his relevance to Pakistani politics and said he would help shepherd in the newly elected government.
But the leaders of the two parties that won big in Monday's parliamentary election -- former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-N Party and Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan Peoples Party -- called on Musharraf to step down. The two are meeting today to discuss, in all likelihood, forming a broad-based coalition government that does not include Musharraf.
"He used to say that when people expressed no confidence in him that he would leave. Now the people have announced their decision," said Sharif, who was tossed out of office in the military coup led by the former general in 1999.
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February 19, 2008
Military Poll: Armed Forces -- And U.S. -- Highly Vulnerable
Is the military broken?
That is a question the Pentagon and Washington have been asking since late 2003, when then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld inadvertently signaled that the country was in for a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Soldiers themselves have been generally more positive about their mission than American civilians are. A new survey of military officers shows that while most maintain that the military is not broken, it cannot persevere under present conditions for long.
More than 3,400 active and retired officers -- 10 percent of whom served in Iraq, Afghanistan or both -- were surveyed by Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for a New American Security [PDF], a centrist think tank.
Just 42 percent of respondents described the military as broken, compared with 56 percent who disagreed. But 60 percent said the military was weaker. Just 25 percent said the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan had helped the military grow stronger.
The results are largely in line with other surveys of military officers, such as those conducted by the Military Times publishing group. But as warnings from the military about its own health have intensified over the years, the strain placed on active-duty troops has only grown. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the new 15/12 deployment schedule last April, and there are no indications that those rotations will be eased this year, even as troop levels are brought back down to pre-surge levels. If anything, the Pentagon appears to be hinting that they will not.
When asked whether the war in Iraq had stretched the military "dangerously thin," a whopping 88 percent of respondents said yes. More gravely, the officers said, the military is currently ill-prepared to respond to other major conflicts. More than 80 percent said it was unreasonable to expect the military to engage in another war today. And on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 meaning completely ready, the officers gave America's readiness to go to war with Iran a 4.5.
That may be because many see the current mission in Iraq as untenable: Nearly three-quarters said the goals set for the military by civilian leadership after the fall of Saddam Hussein were unreasonable.
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February 07, 2008
More Warnings Delivered On Afghanistan
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied that her surprise visit to Kandahar today was Washington's way of sticking it to NATO allies not doing their fair share in Afghanistan.
"It's just the rationale of being able to get outside of Kabul and see one of the areas that's been very active," Rice said before touching down, according to Reuters. "I don't think there's any message there to anyone."
Poignantly -- or not, if Rice's statement is taken at face value -- she and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband were touring Kandahar, a former Taliban stronghold in the country's south. Most trips by top foreign dignitaries are confined to the much safer capital city of Kabul. Kandahar remains dangerous, but it is also a prime example of the effectiveness of NATO forces in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida.
And in what has over the years become a ritual, Afghan President Hamid Karzai denied there were tensions between his government and its Western allies.
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February 06, 2008
What's The Point Of NATO, Anyway?
The U.S. and Britain have been fighting an uphill battle to win deeper commitments from NATO allies in Afghanistan. With recent independent reports warning that Afghanistan may be tipping back into failed statehood, and a critical upcoming vote in Canada that could determine that country's ongoing security contributions, NATO member nations are facing a kind of do-or-die moment.
The question at hand is: What is NATO's mission in the 21st century?
NATO was formed during the Cold War to fend off the Soviet threat. It was a mutual security pact, in which an attack on one was to be perceived as an attack on all.
After the 9/11 attacks, it became clear that al-Qaida was now the biggest threat facing the West. With little debate, NATO's mission was updated for the 21st century, and forces were sent to Afghanistan.
More than six years later, the success of NATO's fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida is in dispute. The war in Iraq sapped resources from Afghanistan, and more importantly sapped confidence in the United States' and Britain's leadership roles there. Nations have withdrawn forces over the last several years, and now the fighting -- and dying -- falls disproportionately on the U.S., Britain, the Netherlands and Canada.
Member nations privately blame the U.S. and Britain for being so preoccupied with the war in Iraq -- overwhelmingly unpopular among member nations -- that they delivered a seemingly half-hearted effort in Afghanistan. Washington and 10 Downing Street vehemently deny this is the case.
Without positing it directly, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is challenging member nations to remember the point of NATO and step up their contributions. "I do think the alliance is facing a real test here. And it is a test of the alliance's strength," she said at a press conference with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband today.
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January 31, 2008
Reports: Top Al-Qaida Operative Killed
One of al-Qaida's top commanders in Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi, has been killed, reportedly near the Afghan-Pakistan border, several sources confirm. However, the details of his death are still fuzzy.
The news first appeared on Ekhlaas.org, a Web site used by Islamist groups, BBC News reports. It has since been confirmed by the Washington-based SITE Institute and various news organizations.
Al-Libi, a senior leader of the terrorist organization, served as a "key liaison" with the Taliban, according to AP. Citing Pakistani intelligence officials and locals, AP reports that "a missile hit a compound in a village about 2.5 miles outside Mir Ali in North Waziristan late Monday or early Tuesday, destroying the facility." Pakistani officials said they did not know the source of the missile. BBC News reports that about a dozen militants were killed in the attack, including al-Libi.
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January 14, 2008
At Least Six Killed In Kabul Attack
At least six people were killed and six more injured when a suicide bomber exploded and militants opened fire on a luxury hotel in Kabul earlier today, according to U.S. officials and a Taliban spokesman.
State Department officials told AP that at least one American died in the attack, which was aimed at Western civilians staying at the Serena Hotel. A Norwegian journalist was also reportedly killed.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the militants were targeting Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, who was in the hotel basement at the time and survived unhurt.
According to the New York Times, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, "calling it a coordinated assault by four men armed with guns and suicide belts." The attack was "one of the most brazen assaults by the Taliban in the heavily protected heart of the Afghan capital," the Times reports.
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December 05, 2007
Gates Urges Patience But Sees Iraq's Stability 'Within Reach'
UPDATED.
On an unannounced visit to Iraq today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he believed "that a secure, stable Iraq is within reach," but he cautioned that "much remains to be done" to bring full stability to the country.
Underscoring his pleas for patience, Gates' comments came as a car bomb exploded near a Shiite mosque in Baghdad. Reuters reports that 15 people were killed in that attack and eight more were killed in bombings in three other Iraqi cities today.
The defense secretary has remained cautious in his assessments of the progress being made in Iraq. His visit this week, the sixth he's made since taking over for Donald Rumsfeld a year ago, comes amid a recent spate of positive news coming out of the war-torn country. Pentagon officials said Gates is on the ground to assess whether reported declines in violence and cooperation from Iran in preventing arms imports are accurate, and whether those improvements can be sustained in the long term.
"Senior defense officials said the jury is still out on both fronts, and the Pentagon is being cautious not to declare victory yet in either case," AP reported this morning.
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December 03, 2007
Afghan Support For U.S.-Led Coalition Trending Downward
The ongoing military and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan rarely make front-page news, but it would be unwise to neglect the country's continuing challenges, not the least of which are a resurgent Taliban and increasing opium production [PDF]. A new poll [PDF] from ABC News, BBC and German broadcaster ARD, conducted in face-to-face interviews with over 1,300 Afghans, finds that broad popular support remains for the initial toppling of the Taliban and the continuing presence of coalition forces. But there are also some troubling signs, such as the steady erosion of that support, growing anxiety about the Taliban and increased reports of violence in some regions.
See today's Poll Track (subscription) for analysis of this rare glimpse into Afghan public opinion.
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November 09, 2007
Iran On Tap For Merkel's First Visit To The Ranch
Completing this week's U.S.-Old Europe bonding experience, German Chancellor Angela Merkel heads to Texas today to discuss a host of global issues in the rustic setting of the Bush family ranch.
Like President Bush's meeting with new French President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this week, the Bush-Merkel talks will hinge primarily on Iran, as the president seeks to shore up U.S. allies against Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, told Reuters that "strategically," Merkel and the Bush administration "see eye-to-eye" in opposing Iran's plans to develop nuclear technology. "Tactically, there are some slight differences," he said, adding that the discussions this weekend are part of an ongoing effort and aren't likely to yield any major developments.
Merkel is no softie on Iran, but Bush is seeking stronger commitments from allies to take a hard line against Tehran if it continues to defy orders to stop its nuclear program. In its preview of her visit this weekend, Germany's Der Spiegel notes that Germans are concerned about the Bush administration's perceived "saber-rattling" on Iran. Calling Merkel "the queen of the backroom deal," the magazine writes that "German politicians at both ends of the political spectrum will expect her to voice clear opposition to further military escapades" when she meets with Bush.
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November 08, 2007
House May Take Up War Funding Tomorrow
The House could vote as early as tomorrow on a measure providing a $50 billion bridge fund to continue military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for about four months, on the condition that troops be withdrawn from combat zones in Iraq by Christmas 2008.
"This is not a blank check for the president," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The funding is a little more than one-quarter of President Bush's $189.3 billion FY08 request, and Democratic leaders hesitated to approve that much given heavy opposition to the Iraq war. But Democrats changed course under pressure from the Pentagon, which fears a significant funding shortfall in January, and from Republicans ready to pounce at any sign of "shortchanging" the troops.
The measure's target date of Dec. 15, 2008, is nonbinding, meaning it could lose support from die-hard Iraq war opponents in the House. It also faces a steep hurdle in clearing the Senate, where the measure would be open to amendment and would need 60 votes to overcome a filibuster.
"I think we should take it a step at a time," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who said the Senate probably would take up the bill next week. He declined to comment on whether he expected more support from Republicans.
"I have in the past thought that we would have more Republicans than... we did. I hope so," Reid said.
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October 23, 2007
'We're Going To Lose You'
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen is getting an earful from soldiers who are stressed by the 15/12 deployment schedule for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
"That year we're back, it's just not good enough," an Army captain told Mullen during a stop on a two-day tour of bases.
Army Times reports that the press withheld the soldiers' names so that they could speak freely in the Q&A session at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. The resounding message was that the military has to restore the 1:3 or 1:4 deployment schedule to give soldiers sufficient time to train and be with their families.
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October 22, 2007
Bush Pressures Congress To OK $196B War Budget
Seeking to head off a fight that hasn't yet begun, President Bush warned Democratic lawmakers not to resist new emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as he tacked on $46 billion to the $150.5 billion the White House had already requested for the new fiscal year.
Recalling recent reports on progress in Iraq, Bush said that the extra funding was "crucial to maintaining this policy of success." General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker appeared on Capitol Hill in September to tell lawmakers that the "surge" strategy was making headway in Iraq, and that as a result troops could be safely drawn down back to pre-surge levels.
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Navy SEAL Gets First Medal Of Honor For Afghan Combat
This afternoon, President Bush will award the first Medal of Honor for combat in Afghanistan to the family of Lt. Michael Murphy, a Navy SEAL who was mortally wounded while making a radio distress call to save other members of his team who were trapped by enemy fire.
The fierce gun battle occurred on June 28, 2005, "the darkest day in the history of the Navy SEALs," according to Navy Times reporter Philip Creed, who notes that 11 special operators were killed in the Afghan mountains on that single day. Murphy and three other team members, on the hunt for terrorists, were spotted by locals, who apparently tipped off the Taliban. The fierce firefight that ensued forced the outnumbered SEALs to take shelter amid the mountain rocks, but Murphy, who was already wounded, left his position of cover to radio for help, exposing himself to enemy fire and thereby sacrificing his life to save his fellow soldiers.
Two other SEALs in Murphy's team, Matthew Axelson and Danny Dietz, were also killed and subsequently honored with Navy Crosses for aiding in the escape of the fourth member of their team -- Hospital Corpsman Marcus Luttrell, the lone survivor of the two-hour battle.
Murphy is the first Navy SEAL to earn the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War, AP reports. He was 29 years old and engaged to be married when he died. The New York Times and Newsday have profiles of Murphy, a native of Long Island.
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October 16, 2007
DOD Opposes Afghan Reconstruction Oversight Measure
The Pentagon is urging House-Senate conferees on the FY08 defense authorization bill to drop a provision in the House measure that would create a special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction. The office would be modeled largely on the independent investigator examining rebuilding efforts in Iraq, where billions of dollars of contract waste and fraud have been uncovered.
In May, House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo., called the proposal one of his bill's most significant provisions, and stressed that the inspector general in Afghanistan would "ensure even greater accountability" of efforts there. But in a package of appeals on the authorization measure sent last week to the House and Senate Armed Services committees, DOD officials said they viewed the appointment of an Afghanistan investigator as a redundant move that would deplete the Pentagon's inspector general, who already is tasked with oversight there, of necessary personnel.
The Senate version of the bill also created the Afghanistan inspector general, but the Pentagon did not address that provision.
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October 11, 2007
Could Marines Salvage Mission In Afghanistan?
The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times are reporting that the U.S. Marines Corps is requesting redeployment from Iraq to Afghanistan, where Taliban fighting has increased considerably. The reasons are not officially explicated, but there are a few obvious possibilities.
Now that Anbar province is relatively calm, the Marines sent there to wrest back control from Sunni insurgents seem mostly to be serving in an overwatch and training capacity, a role better suited for the Army. The LAT obtained an e-mail from one officer there, Lt. Col. Beau Higgins, noting the dramatic drop in attacks on U.S. forces. Higgins concluded, "It's critical that we stay here to continue to assist... but our role as fire fighters in the zone moving from hot spot to hot spot has truly gone."
The hallmarks of the USMC are rapid readiness and targeted strikes, not occupation. In 2004, for instance, the Marines were sent to calm the spiraling-out situation in Fallujah. The LAT reports that the 2nd Battalion, 5th Regiment returned from Anbar on Monday after a seven-month deployment without having lost one of their number; in an earlier deployment, the unit suffered 15 deaths.
The current military mission in Iraq is to replicate the successes of Anbar elsewhere. It's not clear what the mission now is in Afghanistan, mostly because it isn't talked about as much.
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October 02, 2007
Blackwater CEO Confident -- And For Good Reason
In his testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Blackwater USA chief Erik Prince defended his employees as patriotic veterans tasked with protecting Americans in hostile zones.
"Blackwater personnel supporting our overseas missions are all military and law enforcement veterans, many of whom have recent military deployments," said Prince, who founded Blackwater and is himself a former Navy SEAL. "No individual ever protected by Blackwater has ever been killed or seriously injured. There is no better evidence of the skill and dedication of these men."
The Democrats on the panel cited various reports in their portrayal of Blackwater as a lawless army whose hired guns have killed innocent civilians without repercussions. Indeed, Blackwater, which has a contract with the State Department, is not beholden to either Iraqi law or U.S. military law. And that's because Congress either forgot or did not bother to make it so.
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September 26, 2007
Bush & Karzai Tout Security Gains In Afghanistan
When President Bush met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at the United Nations today to discuss the security situation in that country, the meeting was bolstered by the news that coalition forces had killed about 160 Taliban insurgents in two separate battles yesterday. Only one foreign soldier was felled in the clashes, the U.S.-led coalition announced. The Taliban disputed those numbers, calling them propaganda, Reuters reports.
In New York this morning, Bush and Karzai "discussed drug-fighting operations, the battle against al-Qaida and the Taliban and the development of energy using Afghanistan's natural resources," AP reports.
"Afghanistan has indeed made progress," Karzai said, as Bush reassured the Afghan president that "you've got strong friends here." Bush went on to say that he expects "progress" to continue in Afghanistan, despite the resurgence of the Taliban and the escalating drug trade there.
Agence France-Presse has more on the meeting, and Bloomberg News reports on the U.N.'s call for negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
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September 06, 2007
Foiled Plot Raises Questions About Germany's Role In Afghanistan
After yesterday's announcement of three arrests in an alleged plot to bomb the Frankfurt International Airport and a U.S. air base near Ramstein-Miesenbach, German authorities are now searching for as many as 10 more suspects in the thwarted attacks.
According to the Washington Post, German officials are seeking Germans, Turks and suspects of other nationalities, several of whom are Muslim converts, who are "believed to be part of a support group helping with plans for a massive bombing to kill Americans." German Deputy Interior Minister August Hanning told public television network ARD that the al-Qaida affiliated group was not believed to be planning other attacks and no longer posed a security risk. Yesterday, Lebanese officials announced they had arrested a fourth man in connection with the case.
The thwarted attacks have raised concerns in Germany over whether the country's involvement in the Afghan peacekeeping mission in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. has made it a prime target for terrorists. Germany's mandate for that mission is currently up for renewal, and some lawmakers wanted to scale it back even before the recent plot was revealed.
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August 30, 2007
Taliban Releases More South Korean Hostages
The Taliban released four more South Korean hostages and is expected to release the remaining three sometime today, ending a six-week crisis. Twelve captives were released on Tuesday.
The Taliban originally kidnapped 23 Christian missionaries on July 19 as they were traveling from Kabul to the Ghazni province, a Taliban stronghold. Two male hostages were shot and killed when Taliban demands for a prisoner exchange were not met. In mid-August, two female hostages were released as a show of goodwill.
The 12 hostages freed on Tuesday were released in three separate groups in scattered locations after South Korean diplomats reached an agreement with Taliban representatives. It is reported that no money exchanged hands, but that the South Korean government reiterated previously agreed upon plans to withdraw 200 non-combat troops from Afghanistan, as well as to halt missionary work in the Muslim country.
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August 28, 2007
Taliban To Release South Korean Hostages
Over a month after the Taliban abducted a group of South Korean aid workers in central Afghanistan, the militants agreed to release the 19 remaining hostages in captivity.
The South Korean government reported today that the Taliban had agreed to let the Christian aid workers go after face-to-face talks mediated by the Red Cross in the Afghan city of Ghazni. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi confirmed the deal to the Associated Press but declined to give specifics on the date or location of the hostages' release.
Bloomberg cited a negotiator and tribal elder who told the Agence France-Presse that the South Koreans "will be freed in three or four days," and Thomson Financial reports that the hostages are expected to be transferred to Kabul.
In exchange, South Korea promised to withdraw its 200 troops stationed in Afghanistan by the end of the year -- which had already been scheduled -- and end missionary activities in the country.
Twenty-three hostages were originally captured. The group's leader was killed a few days after the July 19 kidnapping, and a second was killed in late July after the Afghan government failed to appease the kidnappers. Two female hostages were released a few weeks ago in a sign that negotiations were progressing.
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August 27, 2007
Afghan Opium Production Booming
Opium production in Afghanistan has reached "frightening" new levels, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime announced today. The opium business there is up 17% from last year, and now comprises 93% of the drug's worldwide output.
"No other country in the world has ever had such a large amount of farmland used for illegal activity, besides China 100 years ago," UNODC executive director Antonio Maria Costa told AP.
The report did note one positive development: The drug trade in Afghanistan's northern provinces has significantly declined. The opium boom has taken place almost entirely in the troubled Helmand province in the south, where the presence of Taliban and other insurgent fighters is strongest.
Costa blamed not only insurgents in Helmand for the crisis but also the Hamid Karzai government's "benign tolerance of corruption."
See the full UNODC report here [PDF]. Reuters has a fact sheet on the Afghan poppy trade, and the New York Times reports on firefights in Helmand province over the weekend.
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August 15, 2007
White House Seen Leaning Toward Hawks On Iran
Off-the-record sources in the Bush administration informed two of the nation's most widely read papers that the U.S. will soon label Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization. Why?
There's nothing in either account in the Washington Post or New York Times that indicates the topic is highly controversial within the administration. Heated internal debates have fueled quite a few leaks to the press from individuals alarmed by one executive action or the other.
So, why leak the news when both papers report the unprecedented decision is all but a done deal? (This isn't a rhetorical question, by the way -- we're genuinely curious. Send theories.)
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August 13, 2007
Taliban Releases Two S. Korean Hostages
More than three weeks after taking 23 South Korean church volunteers hostage in the Ghazni province of Afghanistan, Taliban captors have released two female hostages in what they said was a show of goodwill. The two women, identified as Kim Kyung-ja and Kim Ji-na, were delivered to a Red Cross convoy on a deserted road this morning.
South Korean officials began talks with the militants on Friday. Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi said releasing the two hostages today was a gesture "for the sake of good relations between the Korean people and the Taliban," but reiterated earlier demands for the release of Taliban prisoners by Afghan and U.S. forces. The Afghan government, for its part, has taken any prisoner swap off the table.
The Taliban's gesture comes after militants executed two male hostages in the group late last month.
The Korea Times, CNN and the Glasgow Herald have more on the story. The London Guardian has a timeline of this and other Taliban hostage crises.
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August 09, 2007
Pakistan: An Inconvenient Autocracy
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's intervention this morning may have averted a worsening of the political crisis in Pakistan, but that nation's troubles, which in many ways are linked to the U.S.'s, are far from over.
According to Financial Times sources, it's likely Rice "underlined the negative impact of declaring an emergency and how this would affect Gen. [Pervez] Musharraf's image in the US Congress." Impatience with Pakistan's ineffectiveness at quelling the Taliban and al-Qaida insurgencies along its border is palpable in Congress, and taking a star turn in the presidential campaigns as well.
The death knell for Musharraf's rule is only getting louder, and serves as a useful reminder of President Bush's conveniently flexible definitions of freedom and democracy, two of the mainstays of his presidency.
Continue reading "Pakistan: An Inconvenient Autocracy"
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August 07, 2007
Taliban Stages Raid On U.S.-Led Base
One day after Hamid Karzai declared the Taliban "a force that is defeated" in Afghanistan, the militant Islamist group attempted to storm a U.S.-led military base in the southern part of the country.
In what AP described as a "rare frontal attack" on Firebase Anaconda, Taliban insurgents approached the base on foot from three sides and fired guns, grenades and rockets. Coalition fighters responded "with mortars, machine guns and air support," resulting in the deaths of about two dozen militants, the coalition confirmed in a statement.
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August 06, 2007
Bush, Karzai Upbeat On Afghanistan Despite Setbacks
President Bush today got an earful of two words he hasn't heard much lately: Thank you.
That effusive gratitude came courtesy of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, whom Bush is hosting at Camp David.
"I'm here to once again thank you and the American people for all that you've done for Afghanistan," Karzai said during a joint press conference at the presidential compound. He went on to repeatedly thank Bush and the American public "for our liberation first and then for our stability and prosperity," adding that Afghanistan has "come a long way."
Karzai went on to say that since U.S. and NATO forces toppled the Taliban in 2001, the infant and child mortality rates had greatly improved. "Afghanistan would not have 85,000 children living today had you not been there to help us," he told the president.
Still, there are signs that progress in Afghanistan may be hitting a wall.
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July 31, 2007
Second Slain South Korean Hostage Found
The Taliban killed another hostage from the group of 23 South Korean Christians kidnapped in Afghanistan on July 19. The body of Shim Sung-Min was found riddled with bullets soon after the Taliban announced yesterday that the Afghan government had missed a late-afternoon deadline for their demands.
South Korean officials reacted angrily to the news. A government statement reiterated that the country "strongly condemns and urges an immediate end to these heinous acts of killing innocent people in order to press for demands that it can't meet." The kidnappers have demanded that the Afghan government release 23 Taliban prisoners in return for the hostages.
A Taliban spokesman claimed the other hostages were safe but any rescue attempt would endanger their lives.
There are conflicting reports about the location of the body. The New York Times places it in a province in central Afghanistan, the Warzu area of the Andar district. AFX News reports that it was found in the southern province of Ghazni -- the same place as the body of the first hostage, who was killed last week.
Posted at 7:37 AM
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July 30, 2007
Taliban Claims To Have Killed Another Hostage
Taliban kidnappers are claiming to have killed another South Korean hostage after the Afghan government failed to meet their demands by a late afternoon deadline today, Reuters and AFP report.
"We shot dead a male captive because the government did not listen to our demands," Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf reportedly told Reuters.
Kidnappers have been holding the 22 hostages for over a week. They are demanding that the Afghan government free 23 Taliban prisoners in exchange for the hostages' safe return. Kidnappers shot and killed another male hostage last week and have repeatedly threatened more violence if their demands are not met.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai spoke out against the Taliban's tactics for the first time publicly over the weekend. "Hostage taking and abuse of foreign guests, especially women, is against Islam and the Afghan culture," Karzai reportedly told South Korean envoy Baek Jong-chun yesterday. Eighteen of the remaining hostages are women.
Afghan officials today asked for more time in their negotiations with the kidnappers. Reuters reports that the group's spokesman did not mention a new deadline when he spoke with reporters by telephone about the latest killing.
Posted at 1:45 PM
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July 25, 2007
Taliban Kills South Korean Hostage
An Afghan official has confirmed that one of the 23 South Korean hostages in Afghanistan has been shot and killed, Reuters reports.
The victim, identified by the Korean media as 42-year-old pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, was among a group of church volunteers kidnapped by Taliban militants on July 19 in central Ghazni province. His body was riddled with 10 bullets, according to reports.
AP reports that several of the hostages have been freed. The militants are demanding release of Taliban prisoners by this afternoon in exchange for the remaining hostages.
Afghan officials said negotiations were also centering on money. Foreign governments have been criticized after paying for the release of hostages there.
Posted at 12:58 PM
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July 23, 2007
Taliban Threatening To Kill South Korean Hostages
Taliban kidnappers in Afghanistan have increased their demands and are threatening to begin killing 23 South Korean hostages captured last Thursday if those demands are not met, AP reports.
Officials in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, where the hostages are being held, said kidnappers did not show up for a planned meeting earlier today, but instead declared by telephone that they wanted provincial leaders to release all militant Taliban prisoners in exchange for the Korean hostages. Reuters reports that the kidnappers have extended their deadline for the Afghan government to meet their demands to 14:30 GMT Tuesday.
A Taliban spokesman claimed today that the hostages were currently being held "in good health," but that any rescue attempt would endanger their lives.
The Washington Post reported this morning that Afghan security forces were surrounding the site where the hostages were being held and preparing for a possible strike if negotiations failed. And Yonhap News reports on the South Korean government's efforts to secure the safe release of the hostages, who hail from the Saemmul Christian Church in Bundang, a city outside of Seoul.
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June 22, 2007
Civilian Death Toll In Afghanistan Continues To Mount
Officials announced today that 25 civilians, including nine women and three young children from one family, were killed in a NATO airstrike aimed at Taliban insurgents in a small village in southern Afghanistan last night. A NATO spokesman said the strike, which also killed 20 fighters, was in response to an insurgent attack earlier in the evening.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Smith of NATO expressed regret for the casualties but insisted that "it was insurgents who initiated this attack, and in choosing to conduct such attacks in this location and at the time, the risk to civilians was probably deliberate.”
A U.S. airstrike in eastern Afghanistan also killed seven children on Sunday, just as human rights groups were issuing reports blaming both coalition and insurgent forces for a huge spike in civilian deaths in 2006. Afghan President Hamid Karzai discussed the issue with Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Kabul earlier this month.
Posted at 10:38 AM
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June 18, 2007
U.S. Attack On Mosque Kills Afghan Children
UPDATED.
U.S. forces said today that they had inadvertently killed seven children in an airstrike against a mosque and religious school in eastern Afghanistan that were being used as an al-Qaida safehouse. Several insurgents were also killed in the attack, which took place Sunday.
A coalition spokesman blamed al-Qaida for the casualties, claiming they were using the children as shields. "We are saddened by the innocent lives that were lost as a result of militants' cowardice," said Major Chris Belcher. Belcher said surveillance leading up to the attack had not revealed the children's presence at the mosque.
It was a bloody weekend in Afghanistan. Earlier Sunday in Kabul, a suicide bombing on a bus carrying police officers to a training compound killed 35 people and wounded 52. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the deadliest of its kind since the war began in 2001.
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May 15, 2007
Reports: Army General Tapped As 'War Czar'
Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, a three-star general currently posted at the Pentagon, has been chosen to oversee coordination among federal agencies in Washington and commanders on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, news agencies are reporting.
According to Army Times, the 30-year veteran "served much of his early career in Germany during the Cold War," and also served in the first Gulf War and in Kosovo. Should he pass scrutiny in the Senate, Lute will assume the title of "Special Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan Policy and Implementation."
AP and Bloomberg have more on Lute.
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May 11, 2007
Taliban Frees French Hostage
Eric Damfreville, a French aid worker kidnapped by Taliban fighters over a month ago, was released today to tribal elders in Kandahar. The Red Cross confirmed Damfreville's release and said its workers have him in their custody.
The Taliban credited the action to recent comments from France's new president-elect, Nicolas Sarkozy, who said on April 26 -- before his election -- that he would consider pulling his country's troops out of the NATO force in Afghanistan and that France could not remain in Afghanistan indefinitely.
Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters that the Taliban's leadership council "decided to free him for the newly elected French president" who "had said in his utterances that France will deliberate over withdrawing French troops from Afghanistan."
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May 07, 2007
Petraeus Says DOD Must Combat GI Abuses
The top U.S. commander in Iraq suggested that a "redoubling of our education efforts" in the military was called for following a survey of service members that found many would not report the killing or wounding of an innocent civilian by someone in their unit.
“We can never sink to the level of the enemy,” Gen. David Petraeus said via video link at the Associated Press' annual meeting. "We have done that at times in theater and it has cost us enormously."
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April 24, 2007
Tillmans, Lynch Testify Before House Panel
Testifying before Congress today, Kevin Tillman, the brother Pat Tillman, and Mary Tillman, their mother, accused the U.S. government of engaging in "deliberate and calculated lies" in covering up what they called the intentional killing of the late Army Ranger by his fellow soldiers.
Pat Tillman, a former player for the Arizona Cardinals, famously gave up a multimillion-dollar NFL contract to sign up with the Army after the 9/11 attacks. After he was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004, he was hailed by the government and media as the epitome of the all-American hero. Later, it was revealed that Tillman's fellow soldiers and superiors knew he had actually been killled in a friendly-fire incident but allowed the hero "narrative," as his brother put it, to come out in the media. Moreover, Tillman's family wasn't told the truth for weeks.
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