WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans are showing signs of impatience with their new president as Barack Obama enters a pivotal period facing a raft of critical decisions ranging from healthcare to Afghanistan.
A wide variety of public opinion polls paint a difficult picture for Obama, with Americans expressing doubts about his handling of the U.S. economy, healthcare and Afghanistan. His job approval rating has drifted down to around 50 percent. It was at 68 percent when he took office in January.
White House officials are aware of the challenges and are working to try to regain the initiative on his top domestic priority, a healthcare overhaul by year's end, after a tumultuous summer. Obama will give a speech to a joint session of Congress on September 9 and may use the rare forum to argue for his retooled strategy.
"The president is considering all of his options on how to advance the debate and get reform passed. This includes possibly laying out a more specific vision. No decisions have been made though," said a senior official.
Complicating the picture for Obama, there has been no broad feeling of economic rebirth despite gains in the stock market, a slowing in job losses and other signs of improvement.
He also faces foreign-policy challenges.
Amid mounting American casualties, he is reviewing a U.S. military report on Afghanistan and is facing conflicting pressures on how to confront the deteriorating situation there, with some liberals arguing for fewer troops and some at the Pentagon wanting to send more.
FULL AGENDA
He is trying to coax Middle East peace moves back to life, engage Iran in diplomatic negotiations over its nuclear program with an end-of-September deadline approaching, and get North Korea back to nuclear talks.
His administration is also conducting policy reviews on a cluster of challenges -- Burma, Sudan and missile defense.
"It is a pivotal phase of his presidency on how he not only resolves healthcare but also deals with North Korea, Afghanistan and energy," said Democratic strategist Doug Schoen, who worked in the Clinton White House.
The Democratic president also is trying to nurse the U.S. economy out of a lingering recession that did not start on his watch but has lasted long enough to create political problems for him.
"Part of the problem here is the American public's appetite for immediate resolution of everything," said Democratic strategist Bud Jackson. "The biggest thing that President Obama could hope for is more patience from people."
Opposition Republicans, hoping to gain ground on Democratic majorities in the U.S. Congress in 2010 congressional elections, charge a $787 billion economic stimulus plan has done nothing to cure the country's 9.4 percent unemployment rate.
His financial regulatory reform plans are working their way through Congress and he sits down with world leaders at both the U.N. General Assembly in New York and at a Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh this month to try to work out ways to boost the global economy.
NOVEMBER TESTS
Elections in November to determine governors of Virginia and New Jersey are looming as an early referendum on the president. The races are far from over but Republican candidates are in the lead.
"Obama is on the ballot, front and center, like it or not," said Republican strategist Scott Reed.
The first issue to confront Obama on his return next week from a two-week working vacation is healthcare, after raucous town hall meetings conducted by lawmakers showed that Americans are far from agreement on how deeply to revamp the system and confused as to what the overhaul would mean for them.
Many experts believe he will be forced to accept an agreement that is less than what he desired, well under the $1 trillion price tag and not as sweeping, without a government-run insurance option to compete with private insurers.
Some liberals say he should use the Democrats' power to ram through his plan even if by a slim majority, while some Republicans urge him to start afresh and conduct a more bipartisan approach.
"The American people believe we're headed in the wrong direction on healthcare and believe we should come back to Washington next week and start over," said Tennessee Republican Senator Lamar Alexander.
Pollster John Zogby said to some extent Obama is a victim of the high expectations that accompanied his ascension to power last January.
"This was bound to happen. The expectations were very high, at least relative to the previous administration where expectations had sort of bottomed out. Here's a new president, young and dynamic, lots of promise and promises, and this is what happens," he said.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Afghan election officials defend vote-counting
KABUL-- Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission sought to reassure voters Saturday that it was impartially tallying the results of the August presidential election.
The IEC was mainly responding to accusations by Abdullah Abdullah, the main challenger to President Hamid Karzai, who wants a second term in office. Abdullah is Karzai's former foreign minister.
According to the latest vote counts released by the commission, Karzai is getting close to having the 50 percent of votes needed to avoid a runoff.
Abdullah has called the alleged vote rigging "state-engineered fraud." He is demanding that the IEC stop announcing vote tallies from the provinces, and that the Electoral Complaints Commission inform Afghans about the status of its investigations.
By September, election officials said they had received nearly 2,500 complaints, with about 560 of them deemed serious enough to potentially affect the outcome. The grievances include polling irregularities, voter intimidation and ballot stuffing.
The complaints commission said that in order for election results to be certified, it must resolve the complaints.
"This is the blatant violation of the procedure, and I think it's stealing in daylight," Abdullah said at a Saturday news conference. He claimed the alleged malfeasance is reflected in the provisional results released so far.
"Today we see that everybody seems to be paralyzed. If there is an effort for cover-up, the cost of it is not for one candidate or another candidate. The cost of it is for the country," he said.
The IEC defended its work in Afghanistan.
The "IEC assures all the Afghan people, presidential and provincial council candidates that IEC has been doing its job impartially and faithfully," the commission said in a news release.
The IEC said it was considering Abdullah's allegations and statements to the media that there was "massive fraud" orchestrated by the government with the help of the commission.
"These statements are out of the expectation of IEC, since IEC has done its best to preserve its impartiality, and avoid any kinds of frauds without supporting any particular candidates.
"IEC has been processing the elections results with transparency and we assure you that the final result will be announced by the relevant commissions, and all the doubt and skepticism regarding the work of the IEC will be solved."
The IEC was mainly responding to accusations by Abdullah Abdullah, the main challenger to President Hamid Karzai, who wants a second term in office. Abdullah is Karzai's former foreign minister.
According to the latest vote counts released by the commission, Karzai is getting close to having the 50 percent of votes needed to avoid a runoff.
Abdullah has called the alleged vote rigging "state-engineered fraud." He is demanding that the IEC stop announcing vote tallies from the provinces, and that the Electoral Complaints Commission inform Afghans about the status of its investigations.
By September, election officials said they had received nearly 2,500 complaints, with about 560 of them deemed serious enough to potentially affect the outcome. The grievances include polling irregularities, voter intimidation and ballot stuffing.
The complaints commission said that in order for election results to be certified, it must resolve the complaints.
"This is the blatant violation of the procedure, and I think it's stealing in daylight," Abdullah said at a Saturday news conference. He claimed the alleged malfeasance is reflected in the provisional results released so far.
"Today we see that everybody seems to be paralyzed. If there is an effort for cover-up, the cost of it is not for one candidate or another candidate. The cost of it is for the country," he said.
The IEC defended its work in Afghanistan.
The "IEC assures all the Afghan people, presidential and provincial council candidates that IEC has been doing its job impartially and faithfully," the commission said in a news release.
The IEC said it was considering Abdullah's allegations and statements to the media that there was "massive fraud" orchestrated by the government with the help of the commission.
"These statements are out of the expectation of IEC, since IEC has done its best to preserve its impartiality, and avoid any kinds of frauds without supporting any particular candidates.
"IEC has been processing the elections results with transparency and we assure you that the final result will be announced by the relevant commissions, and all the doubt and skepticism regarding the work of the IEC will be solved."
63 militants killed in Khyber Agency
BARA: At least 63 militants were killed and several others injured in a military operation in Tirah valley and Kambarkhel areas of Khyber Agency on Saturday, said security sources. Troops pounded Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) bases in Gogrina and Sandapal areas of Tirah valley. An LI centre – being used as a hideout and training facility – was destroyed, and at least 63 militants killed in that attack. The sources said six militants were killed in Kambarkhel area of the Bara tehsil, while two suspects were arrested from Shakas area. They said 15 houses were also demolished in Kambarkhel area of Khyber Agency’s Bara tehsil.
PUKHTUNKHWA(NWFP)s security is Pakistan’s security
DAILYTIMES.COM
The Chief of the Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, inaugurating a rehabilitation centre for captive children trained as suicide-bombers by the Taliban, has said that the army has broken the back of the Taliban rebellion; but that the army will not leave the affected areas until the last vestige of the militants is removed. A news report parallel to his statement says there is a 62 percent decrease in terrorist attacks in the country after the success of the military operation in Malakand and FATA.
It is clear that the security of the entire country now depends on the state of war against terrorism in the above region. But more significantly, it is the security of the NWFP that has improved, meaning that one entire province of the country is in the process of regaining its governance. One can also note here the security linkage of the NWFP with the tribal areas — Malakand and FATA. Only Malakand is one-fourth of the area of the province with 3 million people inhabiting it.
What has been achieved is a significant pacification of a terrain that was held hostage by the Taliban and their mercenary warlords. The remnants of terror are still there and will have to be gotten rid of completely; but the interim period too provides a lot of satisfaction to those who want the NWFP to get its fair share from the central divisible pool and implement its development projects without being assailed by the Taliban. The truth that peace in the NWFP depends on peace in the tribal areas has now dawned on everyone; it is also clear that peace in the NWFP means peace in the rest of Pakistan.
The army operation has killed hundreds of terrorists. The Taliban are divided and their decision-making process is affected by a simmering ongoing contest for leadership. The effect on the NWFP has been very pronounced; but it is also recognised now that without sorting out the Khyber Agency of FATA, Peshawar can hardly be at rest. The army is getting to grips with the problem of Lashkar-e-Islam in Khyber run by a local warlord that easily trespasses into parts of Peshawar and kills people there. Khyber is also penetrated by the Taliban because of their strategy of attacking the NATO supply route.
All this has been achieved because of clarity of thinking in Pakistan, the government and the people both. The old policy of abstaining from designating the enemy clearly and interpreting the activity of the warlords correctly led to the consolidation of the illegal writ of the warlords. No one can measure the extent of damage done to the public mind in this period. The child suicide-bomber who says he will not hesitate to kill his parents is just one manifestation of it. There is a general lack of trust in the ability of the state to assert itself, which means that the public mind is free to opt for the worldview of those who control their lives with guns.
The army has its priorities right, but does the rest of the nation? One has to admit that the war against terror is not the uppermost thought among the politicians and some professional sections of civil society. While there is no opposition as such to the military operations, there seems to be a consensus that putting General Pervez Musharraf (retd) on trial for treason is more urgent. There is a tendency in favour of what is called “dittoism”, i.e., everyone thinking the same thought without a healthy tendency to break the uniformity of thought.
The politicians are busy in their infighting, barely hiding their instinct of revenging themselves upon each other. People with no expertise in economics are railing against shortages caused by the demand-push of Ramazan and want the government’s head as trophy, forcing Prime Minister Gilani to say he is not going anywhere. Few realise in this environment that if the war against terror doesn’t go well, all these priorities will be overthrown and the warlords will make their comeback, this time not on the peripheries, but right in the centre called Islamabad where they can still attack a federal minister at will.
The Chief of the Army Staff, General Ashfaq Kayani, inaugurating a rehabilitation centre for captive children trained as suicide-bombers by the Taliban, has said that the army has broken the back of the Taliban rebellion; but that the army will not leave the affected areas until the last vestige of the militants is removed. A news report parallel to his statement says there is a 62 percent decrease in terrorist attacks in the country after the success of the military operation in Malakand and FATA.
It is clear that the security of the entire country now depends on the state of war against terrorism in the above region. But more significantly, it is the security of the NWFP that has improved, meaning that one entire province of the country is in the process of regaining its governance. One can also note here the security linkage of the NWFP with the tribal areas — Malakand and FATA. Only Malakand is one-fourth of the area of the province with 3 million people inhabiting it.
What has been achieved is a significant pacification of a terrain that was held hostage by the Taliban and their mercenary warlords. The remnants of terror are still there and will have to be gotten rid of completely; but the interim period too provides a lot of satisfaction to those who want the NWFP to get its fair share from the central divisible pool and implement its development projects without being assailed by the Taliban. The truth that peace in the NWFP depends on peace in the tribal areas has now dawned on everyone; it is also clear that peace in the NWFP means peace in the rest of Pakistan.
The army operation has killed hundreds of terrorists. The Taliban are divided and their decision-making process is affected by a simmering ongoing contest for leadership. The effect on the NWFP has been very pronounced; but it is also recognised now that without sorting out the Khyber Agency of FATA, Peshawar can hardly be at rest. The army is getting to grips with the problem of Lashkar-e-Islam in Khyber run by a local warlord that easily trespasses into parts of Peshawar and kills people there. Khyber is also penetrated by the Taliban because of their strategy of attacking the NATO supply route.
All this has been achieved because of clarity of thinking in Pakistan, the government and the people both. The old policy of abstaining from designating the enemy clearly and interpreting the activity of the warlords correctly led to the consolidation of the illegal writ of the warlords. No one can measure the extent of damage done to the public mind in this period. The child suicide-bomber who says he will not hesitate to kill his parents is just one manifestation of it. There is a general lack of trust in the ability of the state to assert itself, which means that the public mind is free to opt for the worldview of those who control their lives with guns.
The army has its priorities right, but does the rest of the nation? One has to admit that the war against terror is not the uppermost thought among the politicians and some professional sections of civil society. While there is no opposition as such to the military operations, there seems to be a consensus that putting General Pervez Musharraf (retd) on trial for treason is more urgent. There is a tendency in favour of what is called “dittoism”, i.e., everyone thinking the same thought without a healthy tendency to break the uniformity of thought.
The politicians are busy in their infighting, barely hiding their instinct of revenging themselves upon each other. People with no expertise in economics are railing against shortages caused by the demand-push of Ramazan and want the government’s head as trophy, forcing Prime Minister Gilani to say he is not going anywhere. Few realise in this environment that if the war against terror doesn’t go well, all these priorities will be overthrown and the warlords will make their comeback, this time not on the peripheries, but right in the centre called Islamabad where they can still attack a federal minister at will.
Guv backs letting students watch to Obama speech
Republican Gov. Gary Herbert supports President Barack Obama's plan to deliver a televised back-to-school speech to the nation's students on Tuesday, saying he sees "nothing but good coming out of this."
Herbert said he favors letting students listen to the speech, and he thinks it will foster a dialogue between parents and their children.
"I think it's great. To hear from the president of the United States is an important thing," he said Saturday. "I'd like to hear what he has to say.
"I hope parents will take the opportunity to discuss the issues with their children, hear what the presidents views are and what his vision is for the future of America. If they agree, then explain that. If they disagree, explain to their children why. I see nothing but good coming out of this," he said.
The governor, who has grandchildren in the Utah school system, said he can't imagine that they wouldn't watch the speech.
Conservative critics have charged that the speech is an underhanded attempted at political indoctrination.
White House officials say the 15- to 20-minute speech is about getting students to work hard and stay in school.
Herbert said he favors letting students listen to the speech, and he thinks it will foster a dialogue between parents and their children.
"I think it's great. To hear from the president of the United States is an important thing," he said Saturday. "I'd like to hear what he has to say.
"I hope parents will take the opportunity to discuss the issues with their children, hear what the presidents views are and what his vision is for the future of America. If they agree, then explain that. If they disagree, explain to their children why. I see nothing but good coming out of this," he said.
The governor, who has grandchildren in the Utah school system, said he can't imagine that they wouldn't watch the speech.
Conservative critics have charged that the speech is an underhanded attempted at political indoctrination.
White House officials say the 15- to 20-minute speech is about getting students to work hard and stay in school.
Obama Expands Workers' Retirement Options
VOA.COM
U.S. President Barack Obama has announced new initiatives designed to make it easier for Americans to save for retirement. In his weekly national radio and Internet address, Mr. Obama noted the "painful toll" the global economic downturn has had on "retirement security."He said the government will make it easier for small companies to set up retirement savings plans in which all workers are automatically enrolled, unless they ask to be omitted.The government will also begin allowing people to check a box on their federal tax returns asking that any refund be sent as a savings bond. another new option will make it possible for workers when leaving a job to put payments for unused vacation and sick days into their retirement account, rather than taking it in cash.The president said the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department are creating an easy-to-follow manual, as well as a Web site, to help people navigate the "complicated waters" of changing jobs and continuing their retirement savings. Mr. Obama said the "common-sense changes," will help families put away money for the future. He said "tens of millions" of families have not been able to put away enough money for a secure retirement.
U.S. President Barack Obama has announced new initiatives designed to make it easier for Americans to save for retirement. In his weekly national radio and Internet address, Mr. Obama noted the "painful toll" the global economic downturn has had on "retirement security."He said the government will make it easier for small companies to set up retirement savings plans in which all workers are automatically enrolled, unless they ask to be omitted.The government will also begin allowing people to check a box on their federal tax returns asking that any refund be sent as a savings bond. another new option will make it possible for workers when leaving a job to put payments for unused vacation and sick days into their retirement account, rather than taking it in cash.The president said the Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department are creating an easy-to-follow manual, as well as a Web site, to help people navigate the "complicated waters" of changing jobs and continuing their retirement savings. Mr. Obama said the "common-sense changes," will help families put away money for the future. He said "tens of millions" of families have not been able to put away enough money for a secure retirement.
Blast Targets German Troops in Afghanistan
VOA News
A roadside bomb exploded Saturday near a convoy of German troops in northern Afghanistan, a day after German military commanders ordered a NATO airstrike in the region, killing up to 90 people, many of them civilians.
Authorities say the blast damaged vehicles, but there are no report of any serious injuries from Saturday's explosion.
NATO is calling for an investigation of Friday's air strike that blew up two fuel trucks in a massive explosion.
The pre-dawn strike was ordered by German military commanders after fuel trucks that had been hijacked earlier by Taliban militants were spotted on a river bank in the Northern Kunduz province, surrounded by what appeared to be insurgents, in the process of unloading the tankers.
German officials say the order to attack was given because the trucks could be used as weapons in a suicide attack against nearby German troops.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the NATO command in Afghanistan are promising full investigations into the civilian deaths.
Mr. Karzai issued a statement saying "targeting civilians is unacceptable."
Provincial officials say the strike killed 56 Taliban militants and a large number of civilians, including children who had been called to the area by the Taliban members to remove fuel from the tankers.
An Interior Ministry spokesman, Zemarai Bashary, said the government is working to confirm civilian casualties.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs expressed concern about the reports of civilian deaths.
Afghan civilian deaths during foreign military operations have caused resentment among the public.
U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal ordered U.S. and NATO troops in July to limit the use of air strikes to try to reduce such casualties.
U.S. military commanders say protecting Afghan civilians and providing security is a focal point of the Obama administration's revamped strategy in Afghanistan.
A roadside bomb exploded Saturday near a convoy of German troops in northern Afghanistan, a day after German military commanders ordered a NATO airstrike in the region, killing up to 90 people, many of them civilians.
Authorities say the blast damaged vehicles, but there are no report of any serious injuries from Saturday's explosion.
NATO is calling for an investigation of Friday's air strike that blew up two fuel trucks in a massive explosion.
The pre-dawn strike was ordered by German military commanders after fuel trucks that had been hijacked earlier by Taliban militants were spotted on a river bank in the Northern Kunduz province, surrounded by what appeared to be insurgents, in the process of unloading the tankers.
German officials say the order to attack was given because the trucks could be used as weapons in a suicide attack against nearby German troops.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the NATO command in Afghanistan are promising full investigations into the civilian deaths.
Mr. Karzai issued a statement saying "targeting civilians is unacceptable."
Provincial officials say the strike killed 56 Taliban militants and a large number of civilians, including children who had been called to the area by the Taliban members to remove fuel from the tankers.
An Interior Ministry spokesman, Zemarai Bashary, said the government is working to confirm civilian casualties.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs expressed concern about the reports of civilian deaths.
Afghan civilian deaths during foreign military operations have caused resentment among the public.
U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal ordered U.S. and NATO troops in July to limit the use of air strikes to try to reduce such casualties.
U.S. military commanders say protecting Afghan civilians and providing security is a focal point of the Obama administration's revamped strategy in Afghanistan.
Troops kill 35 militants in Khyber strikes
JAMRUD: Troops backed by helicopter gunships killed about 35 militants on Saturday in attacks on militant hideouts in the northwestern Khyber Pass region, a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps said.The Khyber Pass is a main route for supplies being trucked from Karachi to western forces battling al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in Afghanistan.The airstrikes come as troops continue mopping up militant positions in the northwestern Swat valley, where the military says more than 2,000 militants have been killed since an offensive was launched in April.Troops began a new operation in the Khyber this week against militants, including some who had fled from the Swat offensive.‘Our forces targeted a headquarters of Lashkar-i-Islam and about 15 militants were killed in the attack,’ said a Frontier Corps spokesman in Peshawar, referring to a group under the command of Mangal Bagh, an ethnic Pashtun militant.Another 20 were killed elsewhere in the region on strikes on hideouts of militants loyal to Bagh.Khyber is one of seven Pakistani tribal regions with a high degree of autonomy based on tribal laws. On August 27 a suicide bomber killed 22 border guards at the main crossing to Afghanistan.In Swat, security forces killed a militant commander and arrested five others, according to a military statement.Another seven militants surrendered to security forces.
Troops also destroyed two militant hideouts in the neighbouring Dir region, the military said.The show of force in Swat and elsewhere has helped allay fears among allies —particularly the United States and others with troops in Afghanistan — that Pakistan was failing to confront militants.
Swat Museum to be re-opened
PESHAWAR: The NWFP government on Friday decided to reopen the Swat Museum, while all preperations have been finalised in this regard.During Operation Rah-e-Rast the Swat Museum was closed for an indefinite period of time, while the heritage of the museum was shifted to Peshawar to safeguard it.However after the successful operation of the security forces and the safe return of all IDPs, all offices have now been reopened.
As law and order situation is improving in Swat, the provincial government has now decided to reopen the museum. -Online
Friday, September 4, 2009
NATO must tell Russia of Afghan plans in case of fiasco’
MOSCOW: NATO should keep Russia informed on operations in Afghanistan as they could heighten unrest near Russian borders, the Russian envoy to the alliance said on Friday on Echo of Moscow radio station.
“We want to know about military strategy, about military planning and political planning in case NATO runs into a total fiasco,” Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s ambassador to NATO in Brussels, said. “If they leave there like they left Vietnam, they will leave behind broken china, a shaken hornet’s nest, with only Russia and our Central Asian partners nearby,” the envoy added. He noted that Russia was supporting NATO operations in Afghanistan by allowing the alliance to use Russian territory to transit supplies to NATO forces, and was also providing direct bilateral aid to the Afghan government. “As we help, we also need to know what is going on there,” Rogozin said.
Coordination: He said the situation for NATO in Afghanistan was becoming increasingly “dramatic” and pointed to a NATO airstrike on Friday that Afghan authorities say killed around 90 people as proof of alliance disorganisation in the country. “In truth, there is not serious coordination among various NATO contingents inside Afghanistan so far despite all the efforts that have been made over the past few years,” he said.
“We want to know about military strategy, about military planning and political planning in case NATO runs into a total fiasco,” Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s ambassador to NATO in Brussels, said. “If they leave there like they left Vietnam, they will leave behind broken china, a shaken hornet’s nest, with only Russia and our Central Asian partners nearby,” the envoy added. He noted that Russia was supporting NATO operations in Afghanistan by allowing the alliance to use Russian territory to transit supplies to NATO forces, and was also providing direct bilateral aid to the Afghan government. “As we help, we also need to know what is going on there,” Rogozin said.
Coordination: He said the situation for NATO in Afghanistan was becoming increasingly “dramatic” and pointed to a NATO airstrike on Friday that Afghan authorities say killed around 90 people as proof of alliance disorganisation in the country. “In truth, there is not serious coordination among various NATO contingents inside Afghanistan so far despite all the efforts that have been made over the past few years,” he said.
‘Army to chase Taliban till end’
DailyTimes
MINGORA/RAWALPINDI: Inaugurating a rehabilitation centre for young men taken and trained to become terrorists and suicide bombers by Taliban, Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said the military has broken the terrorists’ backs and Operation Rah-e-Rast would continue as long as the last terrorist was not eliminated.
The army chief, visiting Malakand on Friday, later told a gathering of local leaders and soldiers that the terrorist network had been dismantled and peace restored to the Swat valley. He also discussed issues of rehabilitating and resettling the internally displaced population of the area.
“The army will chase these militants till the very end.” He also hoped that the people of these areas would support the armed forces in their mission. Local elders assured Kayani of their complete support to the army.
According to an ISPR statement, Gen Kayani visited the newly-built community police-training centre in Kalam, where he also met with recruits.
Rehabilitation centre: According to military officials, the ‘Sabawoon’ (morning light) Rehabilitation Centre will look after the young men brainwashed and indoctrinated by Taliban for suicide attacks on security forces and other targets in Swat. Many such youths were arrested by troops or found in camps raided by security forces during search and clearance operations in the valley.
Based in Malakand, the would-be Taliban will be nursed back to a “proper state of mental health”. “A team of specialist doctors, both from the Army and civil, is dedicated for this purpose. 32 children are presently undergoing the rehabilitation process,” the ISPR release said.
MINGORA/RAWALPINDI: Inaugurating a rehabilitation centre for young men taken and trained to become terrorists and suicide bombers by Taliban, Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Pervez Kayani said the military has broken the terrorists’ backs and Operation Rah-e-Rast would continue as long as the last terrorist was not eliminated.
The army chief, visiting Malakand on Friday, later told a gathering of local leaders and soldiers that the terrorist network had been dismantled and peace restored to the Swat valley. He also discussed issues of rehabilitating and resettling the internally displaced population of the area.
“The army will chase these militants till the very end.” He also hoped that the people of these areas would support the armed forces in their mission. Local elders assured Kayani of their complete support to the army.
According to an ISPR statement, Gen Kayani visited the newly-built community police-training centre in Kalam, where he also met with recruits.
Rehabilitation centre: According to military officials, the ‘Sabawoon’ (morning light) Rehabilitation Centre will look after the young men brainwashed and indoctrinated by Taliban for suicide attacks on security forces and other targets in Swat. Many such youths were arrested by troops or found in camps raided by security forces during search and clearance operations in the valley.
Based in Malakand, the would-be Taliban will be nursed back to a “proper state of mental health”. “A team of specialist doctors, both from the Army and civil, is dedicated for this purpose. 32 children are presently undergoing the rehabilitation process,” the ISPR release said.
Signs of progress in Afghanistan
CNN.COM-The first surprise is Kabul airport. The new terminal — “a gift of the people of Japan” — appears to have been airlifted in from a small American city; light-filled, modern and staffed by young men in uniforms of khaki pants and blue shirts who politely answer travelers’ questions as they direct traffic through the quiet, marble halls of the terminal.
This is quite a change from the old Kabul airport terminal, which was not much more than a big shed that broiled in summer and froze in winter with one wheezing baggage belt disgorging luggage to a chaotic press of travelers.
I have visited the Kabul airport since 1993 and it has been an accurate barometer of Afghanistan’s shifting fortunes. In the mid-90s the country was in the grip of a civil war in which hundreds of thousands died and the airport of the capital was littered with the carcasses of airplanes large and small that had crashed on landing or takeoff during the past decade-plus of war.
Under the Taliban — whose fantasies about establishing a 7th century utopia here on earth did not extend to the simplest acts of real governance — no effort was made to clear up this mess. Once their regime fell in 2001, gradually the rusting hulks of the crashed planes were cleared from the runways.
Then came the mine sweepers. Afghanistan is one of the most heavily mined countries in the world and the strategically significant Kabul airport was mined particularly heavily. It took years for the mine sweepers to clear the airport runways but now they are long gone, as they are from much of the country.
Lost in the deluge of the recent media coverage of the rising violence and the flawed presidential election in Afghanistan are the markers of real progress over the past eight years, which in a small but important way is exemplified by the turnaround at Kabul airport.
Consider that:
• More than five million refugees have returned home since the fall of the Taliban. This is one of the most substantial refugee repatriations in history, yet it is little remarked upon because it has largely gone so smoothly.
• One in six Afghans now has a cell phone. Under the Taliban there was no phone system.
• Millions of kids are now in school, including many girls. Under the Taliban girls were not allowed to be educated.
• In 2008, Afghanistan’s real GDP growth was 7.5 percent. Under the Taliban the economy was in free fall.
• You were more likely to be murdered in the United States in 1991 than an Afghan civilian is to be killed in the war today.
Some reading this may be thinking — can this really be right? But do the math: In 1991, almost 25,000 people were murdered in the United States at a time when the American population was approximately 260 million. In Afghanistan today some 2,000 Afghan civilians are killed each year by the Taliban and coalition forces out of a population of around 30 million
A comparison with Iraq is also instructive. As the violence peaked in Iraq in early 2007 more than 3,500 Iraqi civilians were being killed every month. Adjusting for population sizes, civilians in Iraq were 20 times more likely to be killed two years ago than they are today in Afghanistan.
Of course none of this is to deny the existence of epic corruption in Afghanistan, the massive drug trade, the scandal of billions of dollars of aid wasted on failed aid projects that have principally enriched giant American contractors like DynCorp, and the resurgence of the Taliban.
These are all too real, but they are only part of the story, and for Afghans who have lived through an invasion by a totalitarian superpower that killed one in ten of their family members, then a civil war that killed many more, and then the Taliban who brought security at the price of living in a completely failed theocratic state, the most important fact is that history is now behind them and that the future promises something better.
Editor’s Note: Peter Bergen is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a Washington-based think tank that promotes innovative thought from across the ideological spectrum, and at New York University’s Center on Law and Security. He’s the author of “The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda’s Leader,” and the editor of the AfPak Channel.
Shoot-out in Swat
THE NEWS
A lashkar shot dead three militants after an hour-long gun battle in the Kabal tehsil of Swat. The area had been among those where militants had the strongest hold. Elsewhere in Swat too we are hearing of people identifying militants and in several cases handing them over to authorities. The fear that the militants had exerted has clearly begun to fade. For months local people had been unable to defy the Taliban. They speak now of the kind of terror they suffered under for months, often with great bitterness. We were also informed that support for the extremists was widespread. Indeed even the ANP government had contributed to this misperception by enforcing the Nizam-e-Adl regulation in Swat. It was said people wanted Shariah law and that there was support for those who advocated it.
The actions we are seeing now in the area suggest this is simply not accurate. People are ready to act against militants and to take matters into their own hands to do so. Most seem to hold little sympathy for them. They are indeed ready to challenge them at some risk to themselves, as the actions of the lashkar demonstrated. But there is also the fact that the militants possessed sufficient gun power to hold out for a prolonged battle. They also seemed sufficiently motivated to do so. These are somewhat ominous signs and suggest there is a need to drive home the victory that is being claimed. For the moment top militant leaders, including Maulana Fazalullah, remain free; their whereabouts are unknown and until they are apprehended the risk of some attempt at reorganization in the future will remain. The authorities need to lay out their strategy in this respect. Troops, who still man check posts and pickets across Swat and remain posted in cities, cannot be kept deployed forever. It may be necessary to think about a local force to defend Swat and perhaps the lashkars that have come up spontaneously in some places can be used for this purpose. But this should not form the lone pillar of official strategy. Events in Swat in the past have shown that, more than anything else, people seek access to equitable justice. They also seek opportunity and development. It is offering them this that will prove the hardest blow to militancy.
US Official Reaffirms Need for Afghanistan Society Building
VOA.COM
It has been about six months since the Obama Administration unveiled a new strategy boosting efforts to rebuild Afghan civil society. That is part of a comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. A top State Department official is acknowledging the need to show real progress soon.A senior U.S. official acknowledges the clock is ticking on showing the effectiveness of America's multibillion dollar attempt to rebuild Afghanistan. The effort has been deemed a foreign policy priority of the Obama administration.The Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Jack Lew, on a visit to India, spoke with a small group of Indian and American reporters in the capital. He told them it is critical to continue the effort to transfer skills and tools to Afghans so foreigners do not need to have a permanent presence there.
"It is a challenge after just a few months of implementation to be able to speak with confidence about when these things will occur," said Lew. "But the president has been clear, the Administration has been clear that there's a need for demonstrable progress on a short order."
The deputy secretary, who is the State Department's chief operating officer, adds that Congress and the administration itself will hold those responsible accountable to show a difference is being made in Afghanistan.
Programs underway include training the Afghan National Army and police, as well as building capacity in Afghan government ministries. President Obama, in late March, outlined a comprehensive plan to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida in order to bring security to Afghanistan and to construct a civil infrastructure.Lew says these efforts "address a direct threat to the United States." The deputy secretary is to visit Afghanistan next week. His trip comes at a critical time with the results of the country's presidential election still uncertain and worries a disputed outcome, due to allegations of widespread ballot box stuffing, could spark further civil violence.The White House is now reviewing strategic recommendations made by the top U.S. military officer in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal. Details are confidential but they are believed to include the possibility of adding more troops to the already 60 thousand Americans in uniform deployed there in the eight-year old war. This comes at a time when opinion polls show dropping support among Americans for the military effort in Afghanistan, where Afghan, American and NATO coalition forces together are fighting the Taliban.
It has been about six months since the Obama Administration unveiled a new strategy boosting efforts to rebuild Afghan civil society. That is part of a comprehensive strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. A top State Department official is acknowledging the need to show real progress soon.A senior U.S. official acknowledges the clock is ticking on showing the effectiveness of America's multibillion dollar attempt to rebuild Afghanistan. The effort has been deemed a foreign policy priority of the Obama administration.The Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources, Jack Lew, on a visit to India, spoke with a small group of Indian and American reporters in the capital. He told them it is critical to continue the effort to transfer skills and tools to Afghans so foreigners do not need to have a permanent presence there.
"It is a challenge after just a few months of implementation to be able to speak with confidence about when these things will occur," said Lew. "But the president has been clear, the Administration has been clear that there's a need for demonstrable progress on a short order."
The deputy secretary, who is the State Department's chief operating officer, adds that Congress and the administration itself will hold those responsible accountable to show a difference is being made in Afghanistan.
Programs underway include training the Afghan National Army and police, as well as building capacity in Afghan government ministries. President Obama, in late March, outlined a comprehensive plan to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida in order to bring security to Afghanistan and to construct a civil infrastructure.Lew says these efforts "address a direct threat to the United States." The deputy secretary is to visit Afghanistan next week. His trip comes at a critical time with the results of the country's presidential election still uncertain and worries a disputed outcome, due to allegations of widespread ballot box stuffing, could spark further civil violence.The White House is now reviewing strategic recommendations made by the top U.S. military officer in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal. Details are confidential but they are believed to include the possibility of adding more troops to the already 60 thousand Americans in uniform deployed there in the eight-year old war. This comes at a time when opinion polls show dropping support among Americans for the military effort in Afghanistan, where Afghan, American and NATO coalition forces together are fighting the Taliban.
Furor over Obama's speech 'silly season'
Associated Press
The White House on Friday dismissed as pointless the furor over President Barack Obama's plan to deliver a televised back-to-school speech to the nation's students.
"I think we've reached a little bit of the silly season when the president of the United States can't tell kids in school to study hard and stay in school," presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "I think both political parties agree that the dropout rate is something that threatens our long-term economic success."
Obama's planned address to students has prompted a surprising push-back from some quarters over what the White House sees as an important but innocuous topic.
Some conservative critics say Obama is trying to promote a political agenda and overstepping his bounds, taking the federal government too far into public school business.
Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a potential presidential contender in 2012, said Obama's speech is "uninvited" and that the president's move raises questions of content and motive.
Many school districts have decided not to show Obama's speech, to be delivered at 12 noon EDT Tuesday, partly in response to concerns from parents.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, on Friday defended Obama's plan to address students.
"The bottom line is we need the president of the United States of America to use his bully pulpit to talk to kids about the importance of education and to help inspire kids," she said on "The John Gambling Show" on radio station WOR NewsTalk Radio 710 in New York.
Gibbs said former Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush delivered similar speeches to students. He said Obama's speech will not be partisan but rather a chance for children to get "a little encouragement as they start the school year."
The White House spokesman said he couldn't speak to the motivations of some school districts.
"Look, there are some school districts that won't let you read 'Huckleberry Finn,' " Gibbs said.
He said the administration understands that some districts have logistical concerns with the timing of Obama's speech.
The White House plans to release the speech online Monday so parents can read it. Obama will deliver the speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.
The White House on Friday dismissed as pointless the furor over President Barack Obama's plan to deliver a televised back-to-school speech to the nation's students.
"I think we've reached a little bit of the silly season when the president of the United States can't tell kids in school to study hard and stay in school," presidential spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "I think both political parties agree that the dropout rate is something that threatens our long-term economic success."
Obama's planned address to students has prompted a surprising push-back from some quarters over what the White House sees as an important but innocuous topic.
Some conservative critics say Obama is trying to promote a political agenda and overstepping his bounds, taking the federal government too far into public school business.
Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, a potential presidential contender in 2012, said Obama's speech is "uninvited" and that the president's move raises questions of content and motive.
Many school districts have decided not to show Obama's speech, to be delivered at 12 noon EDT Tuesday, partly in response to concerns from parents.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, on Friday defended Obama's plan to address students.
"The bottom line is we need the president of the United States of America to use his bully pulpit to talk to kids about the importance of education and to help inspire kids," she said on "The John Gambling Show" on radio station WOR NewsTalk Radio 710 in New York.
Gibbs said former Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush delivered similar speeches to students. He said Obama's speech will not be partisan but rather a chance for children to get "a little encouragement as they start the school year."
The White House spokesman said he couldn't speak to the motivations of some school districts.
"Look, there are some school districts that won't let you read 'Huckleberry Finn,' " Gibbs said.
He said the administration understands that some districts have logistical concerns with the timing of Obama's speech.
The White House plans to release the speech online Monday so parents can read it. Obama will deliver the speech at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va.
NATO airstrike in Afghanistan kills up to 90
KABUL -- A NATO jet blasted two fuel tankers hijacked by the Taliban in northern Afghanistan, setting off a huge fireball Friday that killed up to 90 people, Afghan officials said.
The NATO command said a "large number of insurgents" were killed or injured in the pre-dawn attack near the village of Omar Khel in Kunduz province. An Afghan police officer said the 90 dead included about 40 civilians who were siphoning fuel from the trucks.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
The top NATO commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has ordered curbs on airstrikes after a strong backlash among Afghans against the high number of civilians killed in such military operations.
Police Chief Gulam Mohyuddin said Taliban fighters stopped the vehicles as they were about to cross the Kunduz River.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a public affairs officer, said NATO warplanes attacked and destroyed the two tankers after determining that there were no civilians in the area.
She said that NATO and the Afghan government are investigating reports of civilian casualties.
Another NATO spokesman said one reason the fuel tankers were targeted was they are frequently used in suicide attacks.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said insurgents hijacked the trucks as they were headed from Tajikistan to supply NATO forces in Kabul.
When the hijackers tried to drive them across the Kunduz River, the vehicles became stuck in the mud and the insurgents opened valves to release fuel and lighten the loads, he said. He said about 500 villagers swarmed the trucks to collect the fuel despite warnings that they might be hit with an airstrike, he said.
Mujahid said no Taliban died in the attack.
Kunduz Gov. Mohammad Omar, who also gave the 90 deaths figure, said a local Taliban commander and four Chechen fighters were among those killed.
Many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.
Humanyun Khmosh, director of the Kunduz hospital, said 12 people were being treated for severe burns. He could not say whether they were civilians or insurgents, although one was a 10-year-old boy.
He said the hospital had only one confirmed death - a truck driver.
In Kabul, the deputy chief of the U.N. mission, Peter Galbraith, said he was "very concerned" by reports of civilian casualties in Kunduz and that all efforts must be undertaken to care for the wounded and compensate families of the dead.
"Steps must also be taken to examine what happened and why an air strike was employed in circumstances where it was hard to determine with certainty that civilians were not present," he said, adding that a U.N. team would be sent to Kunduz to investigate.
Kunduz province had been relatively peaceful until violence began rising earlier this year. German forces who are based there come under almost daily attack, including rockets and mortars at their bases and small arms fire against patrols.
Violence has soared across much of the country since President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, shifting the focus of the U.S.-led war on Islamic extremism from Iraq.
Fifty-one U.S. troops died in Afghanistan in August, making it the bloodiest month for American forces there since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.
Rising casualties during this summer's fighting have undermined support for the war in the U.S., Britain and other allied countries.
On Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the war is worth fighting and signaled for the first time he may be willing to send more troops after months of publicly resisting a significant increase.
At a Pentagon news conference, Gates said Obama's efforts are "only now beginning" to take effect and should be given a chance to succeed.
"I don't believe that the war is slipping through the administration's fingers," Gates said. Later, he added: "I absolutely do not think it is time to get out of Afghanistan."
The NATO command said a "large number of insurgents" were killed or injured in the pre-dawn attack near the village of Omar Khel in Kunduz province. An Afghan police officer said the 90 dead included about 40 civilians who were siphoning fuel from the trucks.
He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
The top NATO commander, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, has ordered curbs on airstrikes after a strong backlash among Afghans against the high number of civilians killed in such military operations.
Police Chief Gulam Mohyuddin said Taliban fighters stopped the vehicles as they were about to cross the Kunduz River.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a public affairs officer, said NATO warplanes attacked and destroyed the two tankers after determining that there were no civilians in the area.
She said that NATO and the Afghan government are investigating reports of civilian casualties.
Another NATO spokesman said one reason the fuel tankers were targeted was they are frequently used in suicide attacks.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said insurgents hijacked the trucks as they were headed from Tajikistan to supply NATO forces in Kabul.
When the hijackers tried to drive them across the Kunduz River, the vehicles became stuck in the mud and the insurgents opened valves to release fuel and lighten the loads, he said. He said about 500 villagers swarmed the trucks to collect the fuel despite warnings that they might be hit with an airstrike, he said.
Mujahid said no Taliban died in the attack.
Kunduz Gov. Mohammad Omar, who also gave the 90 deaths figure, said a local Taliban commander and four Chechen fighters were among those killed.
Many of the bodies were burned beyond recognition.
Humanyun Khmosh, director of the Kunduz hospital, said 12 people were being treated for severe burns. He could not say whether they were civilians or insurgents, although one was a 10-year-old boy.
He said the hospital had only one confirmed death - a truck driver.
In Kabul, the deputy chief of the U.N. mission, Peter Galbraith, said he was "very concerned" by reports of civilian casualties in Kunduz and that all efforts must be undertaken to care for the wounded and compensate families of the dead.
"Steps must also be taken to examine what happened and why an air strike was employed in circumstances where it was hard to determine with certainty that civilians were not present," he said, adding that a U.N. team would be sent to Kunduz to investigate.
Kunduz province had been relatively peaceful until violence began rising earlier this year. German forces who are based there come under almost daily attack, including rockets and mortars at their bases and small arms fire against patrols.
Violence has soared across much of the country since President Barack Obama ordered 21,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan, shifting the focus of the U.S.-led war on Islamic extremism from Iraq.
Fifty-one U.S. troops died in Afghanistan in August, making it the bloodiest month for American forces there since the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.
Rising casualties during this summer's fighting have undermined support for the war in the U.S., Britain and other allied countries.
On Thursday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the war is worth fighting and signaled for the first time he may be willing to send more troops after months of publicly resisting a significant increase.
At a Pentagon news conference, Gates said Obama's efforts are "only now beginning" to take effect and should be given a chance to succeed.
"I don't believe that the war is slipping through the administration's fingers," Gates said. Later, he added: "I absolutely do not think it is time to get out of Afghanistan."
China and India Dispute Enclave on the Edge of Tibet
NewYorkTimes
TAWANG, India — This is perhaps the most militarized Buddhist enclave in the world.
Perched above 10,000 feet in the icy reaches of the eastern Himalayas, the town of Tawang is not only home to one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most sacred monasteries, but is also the site of a huge Indian military buildup. Convoys of army trucks haul howitzers along rutted mountain roads. Soldiers drill in muddy fields. Military bases appear every half-mile in the countryside, with watchtowers rising behind concertina wire.
A road sign on the northern edge of town helps explain the reason for all the fear and the fury: the border with China is just 23 miles away; Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, 316 miles; and Beijing, 2,676 miles.
“The Chinese Army has a big deployment at the border, at Bumla,” said Madan Singh, a junior commissioned officer who sat with a half-dozen soldiers one afternoon sipping tea beside a fog-cloaked road. “That’s why we’re here.”
Though little known to the outside world, Tawang is the biggest tinderbox in relations between the world’s two most populous nations. It is the focus of China’s most delicate land-border dispute, a conflict rooted in Chinese claims of sovereignty over all of historical Tibet.
In recent months, both countries have stepped up efforts to secure their rights over this rugged patch of land. China tried to block a $2.9 billion loan to India from the Asian Development Bank on the grounds that part of the loan was destined for water projects in Arunachal Pradesh, the state that includes Tawang. It was the first time China had sought to influence the territorial dispute through a multilateral institution. Then the governor of Arunachal Pradesh announced that the Indian military was deploying extra troops and fighter jets in the area.The growing belligerence has soured relations between the two Asian giants and has prompted one Indian military leader to declare that China has replaced Pakistan as India’s biggest threat.Economic progress might be expected to bring the countries closer. China and India did $52 billion worth of trade last year, a 34 percent increase over 2007. But businesspeople say border tensions have infused business deals with official interference, damping the willingness of Chinese and Indian companies to invest in each other’s countries.
“Officials start taking more time, scrutinizing things more carefully, and all that means more delays and ultimately more denials, “ said Ravi Bhoothalingam, a former president of the Oberoi Group, the luxury hotel chain, and a member of the Institute of Chinese Studies in New Delhi. “That’s not good for business.”
The roots of the conflict go back to China’s territorial claims to Tibet, an enduring source of friction between China and many foreign nations. China insists that this section of northeast India has historically been part of Tibet, and should be part of China.Tawang is a thickly forested area of white stupas and steep, terraced hillsides that is home to the Monpa people, who practice Tibetan Buddhism, speak a language similar to Tibetan and once paid tribute to rulers in Lhasa. The Sixth Dalai Lama was born here in the 17th century. The Chinese Army occupied Tawang briefly in 1962, during a war with India fought over this and other territories along the 2,521-mile border.
More than 3,100 Indian soldiers and 700 Chinese soldiers were killed and thousands wounded in the border war. Memorials here highlighting Chinese aggression in Tawang are big draws for Indian tourists.“The entire border is disputed,” said Ma Jiali, an India scholar at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a government-supported research group in Beijing. “This problem hasn’t been solved, and it’s a huge barrier to China-India relations.”
In some ways, Tawang has become a proxy battleground, too, between China and the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of the Tibetans, who passed through this valley when he fled into exile in 1959. From his home in the distant Indian hill town of Dharamsala, he wields enormous influence over Tawang. He appoints the abbot of the powerful monastery and gives financial support to institutions throughout the area. Last year, the Dalai Lama announced for the first time that Tawang is a part of India, bolstering the India’s territorial claims and infuriating China.Traditional Tibetan culture runs strong in Tawang. One morning in June, the monastery held a religious festival that drew hundreds from the nearby villages. As red-robed monks chanted sutras, blew horns and swung incense braziers in the monastery courtyard, the villagers jostled each other to be blessed by the senior lamas.
At the monastery, an important center of Tibetan learning, monks express rage over Chinese rule in Tibet, which the Chinese Army seized in 1951.“I hate the Chinese government,” said Gombu Tsering, 70, a senior monk who watches over the monastery’s museum. “Tibet wasn’t even a part of China. Lhasa wasn’t a part of China.”
Few expect China to try to annex Tawang by force, but military skirmishes are a real danger, analysts say. The Indian military recorded 270 border violations and nearly 2,300 instances of “aggressive border patrolling” by Chinese soldiers last year, said Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the Center for Policy Research, a research organization in New Delhi. Mr. Chellaney has advised the Indian government’s National Security Council.“The India-China frontier has become more ‘hot’ than the India-Pakistan border,” he said in an e-mail message.Two years ago, Chinese soldiers demolished a Buddhist statue that Indians had erected at Bumla, the main border pass above Tawang, a member of the Indian Parliament, Nabam Rebia, said in a session of Parliament.Tawang became part of modern India when Tibetan leaders signed a treaty with British officials in 1914 that established a border called the McMahon Line between Tibet and British-run India. Tawang fell south of the line. The treaty, the Simla Convention, is not recognized by China.“We recognize it because we agreed to it,” said Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile. “If China agreed to it now, it would be a recognition of the power of the Tibet government at that time.”China has grown increasingly hostile to the Dalai Lama after severe ethnic unrest in Tibet in 2008. This year, it turned its diplomatic guns on India over the Tawang issue. China moved in March to block a $2.9 billion loan to India from the Asian Development Bank, a multination group based in Manila that has China on its board, because $60 million of the loan had been earmarked for flood-control projects in Arunachal Pradesh. The loan was approved in mid-June over China’s heated objections.
“China expresses strong dissatisfaction to the move, which can neither change the existence of immense territorial disputes between China and India, nor China’s fundamental position on its border issues with India,” Qin Gang, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a written statement.
In May, weeks after China first tried to block the loan, the chief of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi, now retired, told a prominent Indian newspaper that China posed a greater threat than Pakistan.
Another official, J. J. Singh, the governor of Arunachal Pradesh and a retired chief of the Indian Army, said the next month that the Indian military was adding two divisions of troops, totaling 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers, to the border region over the next several years. Four Sukhoi fighter jets were immediately deployed to a nearby air base.
Since 2005, when Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China visited India, the two countries have gone through 13 rounds of bilateral negotiations over the issue. A round was held just last month, with no results.
“The China-India border has got to be one of the most continuously negotiated borders in modern history,” said M. Taylor Fravel, an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is a leading expert on China’s borders. “That shows how intractable this dispute is.”
TAWANG, India — This is perhaps the most militarized Buddhist enclave in the world.
Perched above 10,000 feet in the icy reaches of the eastern Himalayas, the town of Tawang is not only home to one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most sacred monasteries, but is also the site of a huge Indian military buildup. Convoys of army trucks haul howitzers along rutted mountain roads. Soldiers drill in muddy fields. Military bases appear every half-mile in the countryside, with watchtowers rising behind concertina wire.
A road sign on the northern edge of town helps explain the reason for all the fear and the fury: the border with China is just 23 miles away; Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, 316 miles; and Beijing, 2,676 miles.
“The Chinese Army has a big deployment at the border, at Bumla,” said Madan Singh, a junior commissioned officer who sat with a half-dozen soldiers one afternoon sipping tea beside a fog-cloaked road. “That’s why we’re here.”
Though little known to the outside world, Tawang is the biggest tinderbox in relations between the world’s two most populous nations. It is the focus of China’s most delicate land-border dispute, a conflict rooted in Chinese claims of sovereignty over all of historical Tibet.
In recent months, both countries have stepped up efforts to secure their rights over this rugged patch of land. China tried to block a $2.9 billion loan to India from the Asian Development Bank on the grounds that part of the loan was destined for water projects in Arunachal Pradesh, the state that includes Tawang. It was the first time China had sought to influence the territorial dispute through a multilateral institution. Then the governor of Arunachal Pradesh announced that the Indian military was deploying extra troops and fighter jets in the area.The growing belligerence has soured relations between the two Asian giants and has prompted one Indian military leader to declare that China has replaced Pakistan as India’s biggest threat.Economic progress might be expected to bring the countries closer. China and India did $52 billion worth of trade last year, a 34 percent increase over 2007. But businesspeople say border tensions have infused business deals with official interference, damping the willingness of Chinese and Indian companies to invest in each other’s countries.
“Officials start taking more time, scrutinizing things more carefully, and all that means more delays and ultimately more denials, “ said Ravi Bhoothalingam, a former president of the Oberoi Group, the luxury hotel chain, and a member of the Institute of Chinese Studies in New Delhi. “That’s not good for business.”
The roots of the conflict go back to China’s territorial claims to Tibet, an enduring source of friction between China and many foreign nations. China insists that this section of northeast India has historically been part of Tibet, and should be part of China.Tawang is a thickly forested area of white stupas and steep, terraced hillsides that is home to the Monpa people, who practice Tibetan Buddhism, speak a language similar to Tibetan and once paid tribute to rulers in Lhasa. The Sixth Dalai Lama was born here in the 17th century. The Chinese Army occupied Tawang briefly in 1962, during a war with India fought over this and other territories along the 2,521-mile border.
More than 3,100 Indian soldiers and 700 Chinese soldiers were killed and thousands wounded in the border war. Memorials here highlighting Chinese aggression in Tawang are big draws for Indian tourists.“The entire border is disputed,” said Ma Jiali, an India scholar at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a government-supported research group in Beijing. “This problem hasn’t been solved, and it’s a huge barrier to China-India relations.”
In some ways, Tawang has become a proxy battleground, too, between China and the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of the Tibetans, who passed through this valley when he fled into exile in 1959. From his home in the distant Indian hill town of Dharamsala, he wields enormous influence over Tawang. He appoints the abbot of the powerful monastery and gives financial support to institutions throughout the area. Last year, the Dalai Lama announced for the first time that Tawang is a part of India, bolstering the India’s territorial claims and infuriating China.Traditional Tibetan culture runs strong in Tawang. One morning in June, the monastery held a religious festival that drew hundreds from the nearby villages. As red-robed monks chanted sutras, blew horns and swung incense braziers in the monastery courtyard, the villagers jostled each other to be blessed by the senior lamas.
At the monastery, an important center of Tibetan learning, monks express rage over Chinese rule in Tibet, which the Chinese Army seized in 1951.“I hate the Chinese government,” said Gombu Tsering, 70, a senior monk who watches over the monastery’s museum. “Tibet wasn’t even a part of China. Lhasa wasn’t a part of China.”
Few expect China to try to annex Tawang by force, but military skirmishes are a real danger, analysts say. The Indian military recorded 270 border violations and nearly 2,300 instances of “aggressive border patrolling” by Chinese soldiers last year, said Brahma Chellaney, a professor of strategic studies at the Center for Policy Research, a research organization in New Delhi. Mr. Chellaney has advised the Indian government’s National Security Council.“The India-China frontier has become more ‘hot’ than the India-Pakistan border,” he said in an e-mail message.Two years ago, Chinese soldiers demolished a Buddhist statue that Indians had erected at Bumla, the main border pass above Tawang, a member of the Indian Parliament, Nabam Rebia, said in a session of Parliament.Tawang became part of modern India when Tibetan leaders signed a treaty with British officials in 1914 that established a border called the McMahon Line between Tibet and British-run India. Tawang fell south of the line. The treaty, the Simla Convention, is not recognized by China.“We recognize it because we agreed to it,” said Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile. “If China agreed to it now, it would be a recognition of the power of the Tibet government at that time.”China has grown increasingly hostile to the Dalai Lama after severe ethnic unrest in Tibet in 2008. This year, it turned its diplomatic guns on India over the Tawang issue. China moved in March to block a $2.9 billion loan to India from the Asian Development Bank, a multination group based in Manila that has China on its board, because $60 million of the loan had been earmarked for flood-control projects in Arunachal Pradesh. The loan was approved in mid-June over China’s heated objections.
“China expresses strong dissatisfaction to the move, which can neither change the existence of immense territorial disputes between China and India, nor China’s fundamental position on its border issues with India,” Qin Gang, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in a written statement.
In May, weeks after China first tried to block the loan, the chief of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi, now retired, told a prominent Indian newspaper that China posed a greater threat than Pakistan.
Another official, J. J. Singh, the governor of Arunachal Pradesh and a retired chief of the Indian Army, said the next month that the Indian military was adding two divisions of troops, totaling 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers, to the border region over the next several years. Four Sukhoi fighter jets were immediately deployed to a nearby air base.
Since 2005, when Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China visited India, the two countries have gone through 13 rounds of bilateral negotiations over the issue. A round was held just last month, with no results.
“The China-India border has got to be one of the most continuously negotiated borders in modern history,” said M. Taylor Fravel, an associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who is a leading expert on China’s borders. “That shows how intractable this dispute is.”
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Bia Daraglam ... “Here I Come Again,”
BARA: The security forces continued demolition of houses owned by militants or their supporters in Bara sub-division of Khyber Agency on the third day of the military operation on Thursday.Thirteen houses were destroyed with the help of explosives and heavy machinery in different parts of Bara including Shlobar, Malikdinkhel, Kamarkhel and Sipah. Eighteen tribesmen described as suspects were arrested during the search operation.The houses of Said Rasan, Habib Shakir and Imtiaz, all reportedly affiliated to the outlawed Lashkar-e-Islam, were destroyed in Kamarkhel area as the troops resumed action around 10am on Thursday.Two more houses owned by Sirajuddin and Shahid were razed to the ground in Malikdinkhel area. The former is known to be one of the founding members of Lashkar-e-Islam.In Shlobar area, houses of Haji Qasim and Gulmat were demolished. Haji Qasim was accused of funding the banned Lashkar-e-Islam while Gulmat is stated to be a member of Shlobar unit of the organization.The house of Lashkar-e-Islam chief Mangal Bagh was demolished in Sipah area. His house was earlier destroyed in the military operation conducted in June last year.Bia Daraglam, or “Here I Come Again,” is the name of the military action now underway in Bara area. This is the second military operation after the one carried out last year.Federal Minister Hamidullah Jan Afridi, who belongs to Bara, has criticized the military action and demanded an end to it. The government is claiming successes in the operation but tribesmen are complaining that innocent people have been killed and arrested during the action.People complained about the indefinite curfew and said they were running out of food and other items of daily use. Said Ayaz, general secretary of the shopkeepers association in Bara, told The News that the food items, vegetables and fruit in their shops were rotting. He said the security forces should relax the curfew for some time so that they might bring the perishable items out.
Majority affected by sugar crisis
PESHAWAR: Majority of Pakistanis claimed to be affected by the recent sugar crisis in the country. According to a Gilani Research Foundation survey carried out by Gallup Pakistan, more than two third of all Pakistanis (79%) have complained about facing difficulties in purchasing sugar, while 20% faced no problem. High price is one of the major hurdles respondents (78%) claimed to have faced during the recent sugar crisis, followed by other problems like unavailability (9%), long queues (8%), and bad quality (4%). Seventy percent (70%) believe it is an artificially created crisis and a conspiracy. Target of blame for the price hike is split between government (47%), manufacturers (28%) and traders/exporters (24%). A nationally representative sample of men and women from across the country were asked “In the past few months there has been an extreme shortage of sugar in the country and people are facing difficulties in buying sugar. Have you also faced such difficulties?” Seventy nine percent (79%) said yes, while 20% seemed to have not been affected by this sugar crisis. One percent (1%) gave no response. “In the past few months there has been an extreme shortage of sugar in the country and people are facing difficulties in buying sugar. In a follow up question the respondents were asked “If yes, which one type of the following problems did you face with regards to buying sugar?” Majority (78%) said that while sugar is available in the market, it is exceptionally expensive. Amongst the remaining respondents 9% claimed sugar is not available, 8% complained about having to stand in long queues to buy a sugar bag, and 4% said the sugar quality is very bad. One percent (1%) gave no response. It is noted that while comparatively more urbanites complained about long queues, people from rural areas said sugar is not available in the market. To understand what people think is the real cause of this recent sugar shortage in the country, respondents were asked “In your view, do you think our country is going through a real sugar crisis or is it happening because of some planned conspiracy?” While 28% believe it is a real shortage, majority 70% think it is a planned conspiracy. Two percent (2%) gave no response. The findings show that men, adults of above 50 years of age, and more people from urban areas tend to believe sugar crisis is a conspiracy and artificially created. “In your view, do you think our country is going through a real sugar crisis or is it happening because of some planned conspiracy?” When the respondents were asked who they thought was responsible for this exorbitant increase in sugar prices, majority of them (47%) blames the government, 28% believe it’s the fault of sugar mill owners, 19% think businessmen are responsible, while 5% believe exporters are guilty of creating such a mess. One percent (1%) gave no response. The study was released by Gilani foundation and carried out by Gallup Pakistan, the Pakistani affiliate of Gallup International. The latest survey was carried out among a sample of 2765 men and women in rural and urban areas of all four provinces of the country.
Gates Signals He’s Open to More Troops in Afghanistan
NewYorkTimes
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates signaled on Thursday that he was open to an increase in American troops in Afghanistan and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there was now a “sense of urgency” about the eight-year-old war and that “time is not on our side.”
In a joint news conference with Admiral Mullen at the Pentagon, Mr. Gates said his previous concerns about the American “footprint” becoming too big in Afghanistan had been “mitigated” by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, President Obama’s hand-picked commander who took over American and NATO forces in the country in June.
Mr. Gates said that although he had long been worried that a large number of American forces would alienate the Afghan population, as happened when the Russians had 120,000 troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s, he was taking seriously the views of General McChrystal, who has indicated that the size of the force is less important than what it does.
“Where foreign forces have had a large footprint and failed in no small part has been because the Afghans concluded they were there for their own imperial interests and not there for the interests of the Afghan people,” Mr. Gates said. But he said that Mr. McChrystal’s efforts since June to reduce civilian casualties and interact more with Afghans “has given us a greater margin of error in that respect.”
The change of view on the part of Mr. Gates is important because he is expected to be an influential adviser to Mr. Obama as the president weighs in the next weeks whether to add more American troops to Afghanistan. In the past, Mr. Gates has expressed some skepticism about a buildup.
The defense secretary made his remarks two days after General McChrystal submitted a report to his superiors at the Pentagon on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. Mr. Gates said he has since forwarded the report, which has not been made public, to Mr. Obama, and that he and Admiral Mullen would be offering their views to the president next week. General McChrystal is expected to ask for additional forces within the month.
Military strategists close to the Pentagon say that General McChrystal might offer three options for troop increases, with what he sees as associated risks for the American effort in Afghanistan. A high-risk option, the strategists said, might be 10,000 to 15,000 additional troops. A medium-risk option could be 25,000 troops and a low-risk option might be 45,000 troops.
Defense analysts said it was possible that Mr. Gates might recommend to the president what Pentagon officials call the “Goldilocks option,” the medium-risk one in the middle.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, cautioned that talk about troop levels was speculation. “Anyone who tells you that they know how many troops the commander is going to ask for and the options he may or may not present doesn’t know what he’s talking about because that has not been determined yet,” Mr. Morrell said. He said that Mr. Gates had not made up his mind about any level of troop increase he would recommend to the president.
A wily former C.I.A. director who has worked for eight presidents of both parties, Mr. Gates will also take cues on troop increases from Mr. Obama, whose schedule and public speeches have been dominated this summer by the health care debate.
At the news conference, Mr. Gates said he understood why public support for the war in Afghanistan was slipping, but counseled patience. “The fact that Americans would be tired of having of their sons and daughters at risk and in battle is not surprising,” Mr. Gates said.
He asked that Americans give the strategy time to work. “Our new commander appeared on the scene in June,” he said, adding that not all of the 21,000 additional American troops Mr. Obama approved for Afghanistan in March are in place yet.
When they are, sometime this fall, the United States will have 68,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Mr. Gates, a Republican who served as defense secretary in 2007 and 2008 for President George W. Bush, also said he was not of the same view as the syndicated columnist George F. Will, who wrote in a column published Tuesday that the United States should significantly reduce its presence in Afghanistan.
“I have a lot of respect for Mr. Will, but in this case I do disagree with him,” Mr. Gates said. “I absolutely do not think it is time to get out of Afghanistan.”
Asked if the administration needed to do more to clarify for the American public the reason for the war, Mr. Gates said he thought that the president had been “crystal clear” in a recent speech about Afghanistan to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Mr. Gates also said that “I don’t believe that the war is slipping through the administration’s fingers.”
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates signaled on Thursday that he was open to an increase in American troops in Afghanistan and Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there was now a “sense of urgency” about the eight-year-old war and that “time is not on our side.”
In a joint news conference with Admiral Mullen at the Pentagon, Mr. Gates said his previous concerns about the American “footprint” becoming too big in Afghanistan had been “mitigated” by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, President Obama’s hand-picked commander who took over American and NATO forces in the country in June.
Mr. Gates said that although he had long been worried that a large number of American forces would alienate the Afghan population, as happened when the Russians had 120,000 troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s, he was taking seriously the views of General McChrystal, who has indicated that the size of the force is less important than what it does.
“Where foreign forces have had a large footprint and failed in no small part has been because the Afghans concluded they were there for their own imperial interests and not there for the interests of the Afghan people,” Mr. Gates said. But he said that Mr. McChrystal’s efforts since June to reduce civilian casualties and interact more with Afghans “has given us a greater margin of error in that respect.”
The change of view on the part of Mr. Gates is important because he is expected to be an influential adviser to Mr. Obama as the president weighs in the next weeks whether to add more American troops to Afghanistan. In the past, Mr. Gates has expressed some skepticism about a buildup.
The defense secretary made his remarks two days after General McChrystal submitted a report to his superiors at the Pentagon on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. Mr. Gates said he has since forwarded the report, which has not been made public, to Mr. Obama, and that he and Admiral Mullen would be offering their views to the president next week. General McChrystal is expected to ask for additional forces within the month.
Military strategists close to the Pentagon say that General McChrystal might offer three options for troop increases, with what he sees as associated risks for the American effort in Afghanistan. A high-risk option, the strategists said, might be 10,000 to 15,000 additional troops. A medium-risk option could be 25,000 troops and a low-risk option might be 45,000 troops.
Defense analysts said it was possible that Mr. Gates might recommend to the president what Pentagon officials call the “Goldilocks option,” the medium-risk one in the middle.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, cautioned that talk about troop levels was speculation. “Anyone who tells you that they know how many troops the commander is going to ask for and the options he may or may not present doesn’t know what he’s talking about because that has not been determined yet,” Mr. Morrell said. He said that Mr. Gates had not made up his mind about any level of troop increase he would recommend to the president.
A wily former C.I.A. director who has worked for eight presidents of both parties, Mr. Gates will also take cues on troop increases from Mr. Obama, whose schedule and public speeches have been dominated this summer by the health care debate.
At the news conference, Mr. Gates said he understood why public support for the war in Afghanistan was slipping, but counseled patience. “The fact that Americans would be tired of having of their sons and daughters at risk and in battle is not surprising,” Mr. Gates said.
He asked that Americans give the strategy time to work. “Our new commander appeared on the scene in June,” he said, adding that not all of the 21,000 additional American troops Mr. Obama approved for Afghanistan in March are in place yet.
When they are, sometime this fall, the United States will have 68,000 troops in Afghanistan.
Mr. Gates, a Republican who served as defense secretary in 2007 and 2008 for President George W. Bush, also said he was not of the same view as the syndicated columnist George F. Will, who wrote in a column published Tuesday that the United States should significantly reduce its presence in Afghanistan.
“I have a lot of respect for Mr. Will, but in this case I do disagree with him,” Mr. Gates said. “I absolutely do not think it is time to get out of Afghanistan.”
Asked if the administration needed to do more to clarify for the American public the reason for the war, Mr. Gates said he thought that the president had been “crystal clear” in a recent speech about Afghanistan to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Mr. Gates also said that “I don’t believe that the war is slipping through the administration’s fingers.”
Sixteen militants killed in second day of Bara operation
LANDI KOTAL: At least 16 suspected militants were killed and 35 others arrested on the second day of a military operation in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency on Wednesday.
Commander of the operation Brigadier Fayyaz told journalists in Jamrud that security forces had faced stiff resistance in Akkakhel and Kohi localities, but cleared the areas after a clash which left several militants dead.Journalists were shown hundreds of AK-47, 12-bore, .303 and 7mm rifles, machineguns, airguns, pistols, rocket-propelled grenades and thousands of rounds seized from militants’ bases and an arms market in Bara.The arrested men, including pro-administration tribal elder Malik Duran Gul Malikdin Khel, were also brought before the journalists.Khyber Agency’s Political Agent Tariq Hayat said Malik Duran had been arrested for violating curfew and he was later released.Mr Hayat said that Bara-based militant organisations were getting financial support from abroad and had links with the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan.He said security forces had seized a large quantity of drugs from militants’ bases.He said two explosive-laden vehicles had been found at the house of Lashkar-i-Islam leader Sabeel, adding that these were intended to be used in suicide attacks in Peshawar.The houses of militant leaders Sabeel, Hastam, Murad, Habib, Kashkol, Tayyab and Saifoor were demolished and the two vehicles were blown up.Mr Hayat said the operation would be expanded to other areas in Khyber Agency.‘We do not have any deal and will not have any deal with anyone who challenges the government,’ he said.
Pakistan's new winged weapon
Pakistan has a new weapon to combat the Taliban - a domestically made, unmanned aircraft that is expected to replace the country's use of controversial US drones.
With more than 50 air attacks in the last two years, hundreds of civilians have been killed and public attitude towards the government has been inflamed.The Pakistani military has said it has made gains on the Taliban this year with the aid of US drones, and that it has also been providing reliable information about targets which the US has not taken out.With greater control over its skies, the Pakistani military hopes that will change.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Forty suspected militants killed in Bara operation
LANDI KOTAL: At least 40 suspected militants were killed and 43 others captured in a new military offensive in the Bara area of Khyber tribal region on Tuesday. Helicopter gunships provided cover to troops.The local administration imposed curfew in Bara tehsil in the morning before the operation, Biya Daraghlam (Here I come again), was launched.In an earlier operation, named ‘Here I come’, the army did not succeed to enforce the writ of the government in Bara and the area remained under the control of the outlawed Lashkar-i-Islam.Briefing journalists, Khyber Agency’s Political Agent Capt (retd) Tariq Hayat Khan said there was no time-limit for the new operation and it would continue till the achievement of all its objectives.He said the operation had been launched at the request of the people of Bara whose lives had been made miserable by anti-social elements. He said the curfew would be lifted only after the security forces had gained control of the situation. Capt Hayat said that peaceful people of the area would not be harmed, but those who had challenged the writ of the government would be severely dealt with.Referring to deaths of security personnel in recent attacks, he said: ‘It’s payback time and we are going to pay back with interest.’He said the operation was not only against the Lashkar-i-Islam, but against all groups, organisations and individuals who had challenged the government.He said the people who had been detained would be released if they proved their innocence.He refuted allegations that some captured people had been shot at close range and said that militants were killed only when they put up resistance.Military commander for Khyber Agency Brig Fayyaz was present at the briefing. Two leaders of the banned group, Murad and Abdur Rehman, were among those killed. Security personnel blocked all points of entry to Bara and the local bazaar was closed.Troops operated mainly in Shalobar, Qamakhel and Malikdinkhel areas.
Ali Hazrat Bacha adds from Peshawar: Police arrested at least 20 suspected militants who were fleeing towards Peshawar after the operation was launched in Bara.SSP (Operation) Abdul Ghafoor Afridi said around 500 policemen had been deployed at 35 points on the Kohat road, Bara road and around Hayatabad Township.According to sources, police intended to launch an operation in the outskirts of Peshawar against people who were supporting militants and criminals.
Ali Hazrat Bacha adds from Peshawar: Police arrested at least 20 suspected militants who were fleeing towards Peshawar after the operation was launched in Bara.SSP (Operation) Abdul Ghafoor Afridi said around 500 policemen had been deployed at 35 points on the Kohat road, Bara road and around Hayatabad Township.According to sources, police intended to launch an operation in the outskirts of Peshawar against people who were supporting militants and criminals.
Suicide Bomber Kills 23 in Eastern Afghanistan
VOA News
A suicide bomber has detonated explosives in a crowd of government officials in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 23 people, including the country's deputy chief of intelligence.
The bombing occurred Wednesday morning at a mosque in the city of Mehtarlam in Laghman province, about 100 kilometers east of Kabul.
Authorities suspect intelligence official Abdullah Laghmani was the target of the attack.
A Taliban spokesman says the militant group was responsible for the bombing.
A suicide bomber has detonated explosives in a crowd of government officials in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 23 people, including the country's deputy chief of intelligence.
The bombing occurred Wednesday morning at a mosque in the city of Mehtarlam in Laghman province, about 100 kilometers east of Kabul.
Authorities suspect intelligence official Abdullah Laghmani was the target of the attack.
A Taliban spokesman says the militant group was responsible for the bombing.
US senators raise Balochistan issue
ISLAMABAD: Three US senators called on President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday and expressed concern over the law and order situation in Balochistan.
According to sources, Senators Carl Levin and Jack Reed of the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee and Edward Kaufman of the Foreign Relations Committee stressed the need for complete peace in Balochistan and asked the government to settle all outstanding issues with the Baloch people.
The US believes that peace in Balochistan is imperative to winning the ‘war on terror’ because security agencies will not be able to concentrate on other fronts if they remain engaged in the province.
President Zardari called upon the US to expedite reimbursement of $1.6 billion outstanding payments relating to the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) and work for early adoption of the Kerry Lugar Bill and legislation to set up reconstruction opportunity zones (RoZs) in war-affected areas.
He also sought help in the energy sector and for a $2.5 billion plan for rehabilitation of displaced people and reconstruction of their area.
Briefing journalists after the meeting, presidency’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the president had urged the senators to try to expedite the reimbursement and supply of critically needed equipment, including helicopter gunships.
‘Payment of outstanding amounts in the support funds is important for the security forces to continue the ongoing military operation against militants,’ he said.
The president said inordinate delays in reimbursement of the CSF claims were not conducive for the fight against militancy.
He said that security forces had cleared 94 per cent of Swat and a large number of displaced people had returned to their homes.
A national consensus and support of a cross-section of people had made the success possible, he said.
The president said Isaf and Nato forces in Afghanistan should ensure that there was no direct or indirect support to militant factions from Afghanistan. He called for increased access of Pakistani goods to the US and EU markets.
President Zardari said attaching conditions to aid would be counter-productive and impart a transactional nature to the relationship which must be avoided.
Terming the RoZ legislation a critically important national security initiative, he called for increasing its area as well as product coverage.
He said that a deadlock over the legislation would send wrong signals to the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan who badly need a peace dividend.
He welcomed President Barack Obama’s commitment to help Pakistan address its energy needs and said the US government and private sector could help by supporting projects and mobilising investment.
According to sources, Senators Carl Levin and Jack Reed of the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee and Edward Kaufman of the Foreign Relations Committee stressed the need for complete peace in Balochistan and asked the government to settle all outstanding issues with the Baloch people.
The US believes that peace in Balochistan is imperative to winning the ‘war on terror’ because security agencies will not be able to concentrate on other fronts if they remain engaged in the province.
President Zardari called upon the US to expedite reimbursement of $1.6 billion outstanding payments relating to the Coalition Support Fund (CSF) and work for early adoption of the Kerry Lugar Bill and legislation to set up reconstruction opportunity zones (RoZs) in war-affected areas.
He also sought help in the energy sector and for a $2.5 billion plan for rehabilitation of displaced people and reconstruction of their area.
Briefing journalists after the meeting, presidency’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar said the president had urged the senators to try to expedite the reimbursement and supply of critically needed equipment, including helicopter gunships.
‘Payment of outstanding amounts in the support funds is important for the security forces to continue the ongoing military operation against militants,’ he said.
The president said inordinate delays in reimbursement of the CSF claims were not conducive for the fight against militancy.
He said that security forces had cleared 94 per cent of Swat and a large number of displaced people had returned to their homes.
A national consensus and support of a cross-section of people had made the success possible, he said.
The president said Isaf and Nato forces in Afghanistan should ensure that there was no direct or indirect support to militant factions from Afghanistan. He called for increased access of Pakistani goods to the US and EU markets.
President Zardari said attaching conditions to aid would be counter-productive and impart a transactional nature to the relationship which must be avoided.
Terming the RoZ legislation a critically important national security initiative, he called for increasing its area as well as product coverage.
He said that a deadlock over the legislation would send wrong signals to the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan who badly need a peace dividend.
He welcomed President Barack Obama’s commitment to help Pakistan address its energy needs and said the US government and private sector could help by supporting projects and mobilising investment.
Pakistan's religion minister shot
Pakistan's Minister for Religious Affairs, Hamid Saeed Kazmi, has been injured in a gun attack on his car in the capital, Islamabad, police say.
A man believed to be Mr Kazmi's driver was killed in the attack and another passenger injured, said police.No one has claimed to have carried out the attack. Mr Kazmi has been an outspoken critic of the Taliban.He was behind a conference in May which denounced the Taliban's suicide bombing tactics as un-Islamic."Gunmen sprayed bullets on the minister's car," a police officer who identified himself as Qasim told Reuters news agency.
A man believed to be Mr Kazmi's driver was killed in the attack and another passenger injured, said police.No one has claimed to have carried out the attack. Mr Kazmi has been an outspoken critic of the Taliban.He was behind a conference in May which denounced the Taliban's suicide bombing tactics as un-Islamic."Gunmen sprayed bullets on the minister's car," a police officer who identified himself as Qasim told Reuters news agency.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Afghan Situation 'Serious'
WashingtonPost.com
The top U.S. commander for Afghanistan called the situation there "serious" but salvageable, in a sobering assessment issued Monday that is expected to pave the way for a request for more American troops, funds for Afghan forces and other resources. White House and Pentagon officials, while welcoming the assessment, cautioned that there is no guarantee such requests would be met.
The report by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who has been tasked by President Obama to implement a revitalized strategy for the war in Afghanistan, concludes that the Taliban insurgency in the country is stronger than previously realized, according to senior Pentagon and administration officials familiar with McChrystal's thinking.
To tackle the problem, McChrystal believes above all that the ranks of Afghan soldiers and police must be increased, and that they must be trained more quickly, the officials said. That training is expected to require more U.S. and allied forces, although the assessment did not provide specific requests.
"The situation in Afghanistan is serious, but success is achievable," McChrystal said in a statement. He added that progress will demand a revised strategy, greater "resolve" and a "unity of effort" by the NATO-led multinational force.
Although the assessment, which runs more than 20 pages, has not been released, officials familiar with the report have said it represents a hard look at the challenges involved in implementing Obama's strategy for Afghanistan. The administration has narrowly defined its goal as defeating al-Qaeda and other extremist groups and denying them sanctuary, but that in turn requires a sweeping counterinsurgency campaign aimed at protecting the Afghan population, establishing good governance and rebuilding the economy.
For instance, McChrystal thinks a greater push by civilian officials is vital to shore up local Afghan governments and to combat corruption, officials said. He is emphatic that the results of the recent Afghan presidential election be viewed as legitimate, but is also realistic in acknowledging that the goals of the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the coalition are not always as closely aligned as they could be, they said.
Separately, officials said, McChrystal's assessment finds that U.S. and other NATO forces must adopt a less risk-averse culture, leaving bases and armored vehicles to pursue insurgents on foot in a way that minimizes Afghan civilian deaths.
The appraisal comes amid declining U.S. public support for the war and growing tension between U.S. commanders in need of resources and a White House wary of committing to fresh troops. It echoes recent gloomy statements by top military officials such as Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that the conflict is "deteriorating" and that the Taliban is far more sophisticated than it was just a few years ago. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Monday called Afghanistan "a mixed picture" and said "a very tough fight" lies ahead.
This year, tens of thousands of additional U.S. and allied troops have flowed into the volatile country, bringing the total to more than 100,000, of which 62,000 are American. Casualties among troops have risen to their highest levels since the U.S. military overthrew the Taliban government in the fall of 2001.
McChrystal, who took command in June after his predecessor was fired, is expected to follow his assessment with a formal, detailed request for forces, officials said. That request, expected to be primarily for military trainers, will be weighed in turn by the head of U.S. Central Command, Gen. David H. Petraeus, and by Mullen, Gates and the military service chiefs before being delivered to Obama.
McChrystal could request any additional non-U.S. NATO forces through a separate NATO chain of command.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that it is too soon to say whether Obama will authorize more troops for Afghanistan, and that McChrystal's report has not yet reached the president's desk. Still, he asserted, for years the war had been neglected.
"I think there's broad agreement that for many years, our effort in Afghanistan has been under-resourced politically, militarily, economically," Gibbs said. He called the mounting U.S. casualties and other problems in Afghanistan a consequence of the Bush administration's strategy there.
Gates said McChrystal's upcoming "resource recommendations" will be carefully examined, but he noted that "there are larger issues" to be considered.
"I have expressed some concerns in the past about the size of the American footprint, the size of the foreign military footprint in Afghanistan," Gates said on a trip to Fort Worth. "And, clearly, I want to address those issues. And we will have to look at the availability of forces; we'll have to look at costs. There are a lot of different things that we'll have to look at, once we get his recommendations, before we make any recommendations to the president."
In an interview with The Washington Post last week, Mullen said it might not be possible to fill requests from McChrystal for new troops.
If the demand for troops in Afghanistan goes up and is not offset by reductions in Iraq, it would delay the ability of the Army and Marine Corps to give heavily deployed ground troops more time at home between combat tours.
"That's a huge concern that I have," Mullen said in the interview. He noted that the concern was shared by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, as well as by other service chiefs.
Tensions grow over U.S. resources for Afghanistan war
www.miamiherald.com
The prospect that U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal may ask for as many as 45,000 additional American troops in Afghanistan is fueling growing tension within President Barack Obama's administration overthe U.S. commitment to the war there.
On Monday, McChrystal sent his assessment of the situation in Afghanistan to the Pentagon, the U.S. Central Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and NATO.
Although the assessment didn't include any request for more troops, senior military officials said they expect McChrystal later in September to seek between 21,000 and 45,000 more troops. There currently are 62,000 American troops in Afghanistan.
The assessment came on a day that bombs were reported to have killed four NATO troops -- two Americans and two Britons -- ending the deadliest month of the war, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. military said the two Americans were killed in separate explosions in southern Afghanistan but gave no further details. Their deaths brought to 47 the number of U.S. troops who have died in the Afghan War in August -- three more than in July, which had been the deadliest month.
In London, the British Ministry of Defence said the two British soldiers on a foot patrol were killed by a bomb north of Lashkar Gah, a southern Afghan city where Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid a surprise visit last weekend, the AP said.
Administration officials said that amid rising violence and casualties, polls show a majority of Americans now think the war in Afghanistan isn't worth fighting. With tough battles ahead on health care, the budget and other issues, Vice President Joe Biden and other officials are increasingly anxious about how the American public would respond to sending additional troops.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media, said Biden has argued that without sustained support from the American people, the U.S. can't make the long-term commitment that would be needed to stabilize Afghanistan and dismantle al Qaeda. Biden's office declined to comment.
``I think they [the Obama administration] thought this would be more popular and easier,'' a senior Pentagon official said. ``We are notgetting a Bush-like commitment to this war.''
Monday's assessment initially was to include troop recommendations, but political concerns prompted White House and Pentagon officials to agree that those recommendations would come later, advisors to McChrystal said. Although the White House took a hands-off approach toward Afghanistan earlier this summer, Pentagon officials said they're now getting more questions about how many troops might be needed and for how long.
The prospect that U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal may ask for as many as 45,000 additional American troops in Afghanistan is fueling growing tension within President Barack Obama's administration overthe U.S. commitment to the war there.
On Monday, McChrystal sent his assessment of the situation in Afghanistan to the Pentagon, the U.S. Central Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and NATO.
Although the assessment didn't include any request for more troops, senior military officials said they expect McChrystal later in September to seek between 21,000 and 45,000 more troops. There currently are 62,000 American troops in Afghanistan.
The assessment came on a day that bombs were reported to have killed four NATO troops -- two Americans and two Britons -- ending the deadliest month of the war, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. military said the two Americans were killed in separate explosions in southern Afghanistan but gave no further details. Their deaths brought to 47 the number of U.S. troops who have died in the Afghan War in August -- three more than in July, which had been the deadliest month.
In London, the British Ministry of Defence said the two British soldiers on a foot patrol were killed by a bomb north of Lashkar Gah, a southern Afghan city where Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid a surprise visit last weekend, the AP said.
Administration officials said that amid rising violence and casualties, polls show a majority of Americans now think the war in Afghanistan isn't worth fighting. With tough battles ahead on health care, the budget and other issues, Vice President Joe Biden and other officials are increasingly anxious about how the American public would respond to sending additional troops.
The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media, said Biden has argued that without sustained support from the American people, the U.S. can't make the long-term commitment that would be needed to stabilize Afghanistan and dismantle al Qaeda. Biden's office declined to comment.
``I think they [the Obama administration] thought this would be more popular and easier,'' a senior Pentagon official said. ``We are notgetting a Bush-like commitment to this war.''
Monday's assessment initially was to include troop recommendations, but political concerns prompted White House and Pentagon officials to agree that those recommendations would come later, advisors to McChrystal said. Although the White House took a hands-off approach toward Afghanistan earlier this summer, Pentagon officials said they're now getting more questions about how many troops might be needed and for how long.
Accusation of Brazen Ballot-Stuffing Casts New Doubt on Karzai
NewYorkTimes
KABUL, Afghanistan — Just a week before this country’s presidential election, the leaders of a southern Afghan tribe called Bariz gathered to make a bold decision: they would abandon the incumbent and local favorite, Hamid Karzai, and endorse his challenger, Abdullah Abdullah.
Mr. Abdullah flew to the southern city of Kandahar to receive the tribe’s endorsement. The leaders of the tribe, who live in a district called Shorbak, prepared to deliver a local landslide.
But it never happened, the tribal leaders said.
Instead, aides to Mr. Karzai’s brother Ahmed Wali — the leader of the Kandahar provincial council and the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan — detained the governor of Shorbak, Delaga Bariz, and shut down all of the district’s 45 polling sites on election day. The ballot boxes were taken to Shorbak’s district headquarters, where, Mr. Bariz and other tribal leaders said, local police officers stuffed them with thousands of ballots.
At the end of the day, 23,900 ballots were shipped to Kabul, Mr. Bariz said, with every one marked for President Karzai.
“Not a single person in Shorbak District cast a ballot — not a single person,” Mr. Bariz said in an interview here in the capital, where he and a group of tribal elders came to file a complaint. “Mr. Karzai’s people stuffed all the ballot boxes.”
The accusations by Mr. Bariz, and several other tribal leaders from Shorbak, are the most serious allegations so far that have been publicized against Mr. Karzai’s electoral machine, which faces a deluge of fraud complaints from around the country.
The Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission said Tuesday that the number of complaints about vote stealing and other frauds had reached 2,615. Mr. Karzai’s campaign is accused of forging ballots, stealing votes and preventing people from going to the polls.
Mr. Karzai and his aides deny any sort of fraud, and they have hunkered down in the presidential palace to await the final results. But the allegations are casting a cloud over his re-election campaign, raising the prospect that even if he wins his presidency could be seriously tainted.
At the same time, the allegations are increasing the pressure on American officials to ensure that the accusations of fraud are properly investigated. An election widely perceived as having been stolen could deal a serious setback to the Obama administration, which has committed itself to prevailing here in the nearly eight-year-old war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Allegations like those described by Mr. Bariz are throwing the basic integrity of the election into question. Much of the story told by Mr. Bariz and the other tribal elders was impossible to verify. But their story appeared credible for a number of reasons; all three men spoke in great details. And all of them were willing to be publicly named and to have their photographs taken.
As recently as 10 months ago, Mr. Bariz said, he had considered himself an ally of President Karzai. He had been nominated by a group of Bariz elders to be the governor of the Shorbak District, a desolate stretch of sand and scrub that sits on the country’s southwestern border with Pakistan. Mr. Bariz’s nomination was ratified by Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar Province, who was appointed by President Karzai.
But as election day neared, Mr. Bariz and other leaders in his tribe said they could not bring themselves to support Mr. Karzai for another five-year term. The reason, he said: Mr. Karzai’s government had done so little good.
“There are no clinics, no schools, no roads, no water dams — nothing,” Mr. Bariz said. “We decided to support someone who would unify the country.” The leaders of the Bariz tribe picked Mr. Abdullah, a former foreign minister.
In theory, the decision by the elders sealed Mr. Abdullah’s victory in Shorbak: nearly everyone in Shorbak belongs to the Bariz tribe. As is common in many such societies, tribal leaders in Afghanistan often negotiate with politicians to deliver the votes of their tribe.
Mr. Abdullah’s campaign manager in southern Afghanistan, Esmatullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name, said the candidate met a large group of Bariz tribal elders in Kandahar on Aug. 12 to receive their endorsement. It was a joyous affair, Mr. Esmatullah said, for which even women turned out. But not everyone who wanted to come to the endorsement ceremony was able to make it.
“The police were blocking the roads,” Mr. Esmatullah said.
The next day, Mr. Bariz said, officials in Kandahar were furious. One of Kandahar’s senior officials, Mohammed Anas, ordered Mr. Bariz not to return to his home in Shorbak. Mr. Anas said he had no choice.
“When I asked him why he wouldn’t let me go home, he said, ‘Because your whole tribe is going to vote for Dr. Abdullah,’ ” Mr. Bariz said.
Mr. Bariz did not speak to Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president’s younger brother, only to more junior officials like Mr. Anas. But few decisions of any import are believed to be taken in Kandahar without the approval of Ahmed Wali Karzai. On the streets, his nickname is “The King of the South.” Last year, for instance, Ahmed Wali Karzai was widely seen as having replaced the governor, Rahmatullah Raufi, when he fell out of favor.
Attempts to contact Ahmed Wali Karzai were unsuccessful.
When election day finally came, the ballots were never delivered to the polling centers in Shorbak, said two Bariz tribal leaders who were charged with overseeing the sites. Instead of going to the polling places, all the ballots and ballot boxes were delivered to the district government’s headquarters. That place, the tribal leaders said, had been commandeered by the Afghan Border Police.
“The ballots were never delivered,” said Abdul Quyoum, a farmer from the village of Karaze, where one of the polling sites was supposed to be. “I waited all day.”
Mr. Quyoum was one of two tribal elders from Shorbak who traveled to Kabul with Mr. Bariz. The other was Fazul Mohammed, who told a nearly identical story.
When the ballots were not delivered to the polling site, Mr. Mohammed said, he walked to the district government headquarters to see what was wrong. The building, he said, was being guarded by officers of the Afghan Border Police. As an election official, Mr. Mohammed said, he was allowed to go inside.
“The border police were stuffing the ballots, hundreds of them, into the boxes,” he said. “And there were other people who were counting the ballots and keeping the records.”
Mr. Mohammed said he protested but was told to leave. Later, he said, he was told that a total of 23,900 ballots had been filled out, all in Mr. Karzai’s name.
“Dr. Abdullah did not receive a single vote,” he said.
Mr. Bariz, the governor, said he had not returned to Shorbak.
“I don’t think I am going to be governor much longer,” he said.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Just a week before this country’s presidential election, the leaders of a southern Afghan tribe called Bariz gathered to make a bold decision: they would abandon the incumbent and local favorite, Hamid Karzai, and endorse his challenger, Abdullah Abdullah.
Mr. Abdullah flew to the southern city of Kandahar to receive the tribe’s endorsement. The leaders of the tribe, who live in a district called Shorbak, prepared to deliver a local landslide.
But it never happened, the tribal leaders said.
Instead, aides to Mr. Karzai’s brother Ahmed Wali — the leader of the Kandahar provincial council and the most powerful man in southern Afghanistan — detained the governor of Shorbak, Delaga Bariz, and shut down all of the district’s 45 polling sites on election day. The ballot boxes were taken to Shorbak’s district headquarters, where, Mr. Bariz and other tribal leaders said, local police officers stuffed them with thousands of ballots.
At the end of the day, 23,900 ballots were shipped to Kabul, Mr. Bariz said, with every one marked for President Karzai.
“Not a single person in Shorbak District cast a ballot — not a single person,” Mr. Bariz said in an interview here in the capital, where he and a group of tribal elders came to file a complaint. “Mr. Karzai’s people stuffed all the ballot boxes.”
The accusations by Mr. Bariz, and several other tribal leaders from Shorbak, are the most serious allegations so far that have been publicized against Mr. Karzai’s electoral machine, which faces a deluge of fraud complaints from around the country.
The Afghan Electoral Complaints Commission said Tuesday that the number of complaints about vote stealing and other frauds had reached 2,615. Mr. Karzai’s campaign is accused of forging ballots, stealing votes and preventing people from going to the polls.
Mr. Karzai and his aides deny any sort of fraud, and they have hunkered down in the presidential palace to await the final results. But the allegations are casting a cloud over his re-election campaign, raising the prospect that even if he wins his presidency could be seriously tainted.
At the same time, the allegations are increasing the pressure on American officials to ensure that the accusations of fraud are properly investigated. An election widely perceived as having been stolen could deal a serious setback to the Obama administration, which has committed itself to prevailing here in the nearly eight-year-old war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Allegations like those described by Mr. Bariz are throwing the basic integrity of the election into question. Much of the story told by Mr. Bariz and the other tribal elders was impossible to verify. But their story appeared credible for a number of reasons; all three men spoke in great details. And all of them were willing to be publicly named and to have their photographs taken.
As recently as 10 months ago, Mr. Bariz said, he had considered himself an ally of President Karzai. He had been nominated by a group of Bariz elders to be the governor of the Shorbak District, a desolate stretch of sand and scrub that sits on the country’s southwestern border with Pakistan. Mr. Bariz’s nomination was ratified by Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar Province, who was appointed by President Karzai.
But as election day neared, Mr. Bariz and other leaders in his tribe said they could not bring themselves to support Mr. Karzai for another five-year term. The reason, he said: Mr. Karzai’s government had done so little good.
“There are no clinics, no schools, no roads, no water dams — nothing,” Mr. Bariz said. “We decided to support someone who would unify the country.” The leaders of the Bariz tribe picked Mr. Abdullah, a former foreign minister.
In theory, the decision by the elders sealed Mr. Abdullah’s victory in Shorbak: nearly everyone in Shorbak belongs to the Bariz tribe. As is common in many such societies, tribal leaders in Afghanistan often negotiate with politicians to deliver the votes of their tribe.
Mr. Abdullah’s campaign manager in southern Afghanistan, Esmatullah, who like many Afghans uses only one name, said the candidate met a large group of Bariz tribal elders in Kandahar on Aug. 12 to receive their endorsement. It was a joyous affair, Mr. Esmatullah said, for which even women turned out. But not everyone who wanted to come to the endorsement ceremony was able to make it.
“The police were blocking the roads,” Mr. Esmatullah said.
The next day, Mr. Bariz said, officials in Kandahar were furious. One of Kandahar’s senior officials, Mohammed Anas, ordered Mr. Bariz not to return to his home in Shorbak. Mr. Anas said he had no choice.
“When I asked him why he wouldn’t let me go home, he said, ‘Because your whole tribe is going to vote for Dr. Abdullah,’ ” Mr. Bariz said.
Mr. Bariz did not speak to Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president’s younger brother, only to more junior officials like Mr. Anas. But few decisions of any import are believed to be taken in Kandahar without the approval of Ahmed Wali Karzai. On the streets, his nickname is “The King of the South.” Last year, for instance, Ahmed Wali Karzai was widely seen as having replaced the governor, Rahmatullah Raufi, when he fell out of favor.
Attempts to contact Ahmed Wali Karzai were unsuccessful.
When election day finally came, the ballots were never delivered to the polling centers in Shorbak, said two Bariz tribal leaders who were charged with overseeing the sites. Instead of going to the polling places, all the ballots and ballot boxes were delivered to the district government’s headquarters. That place, the tribal leaders said, had been commandeered by the Afghan Border Police.
“The ballots were never delivered,” said Abdul Quyoum, a farmer from the village of Karaze, where one of the polling sites was supposed to be. “I waited all day.”
Mr. Quyoum was one of two tribal elders from Shorbak who traveled to Kabul with Mr. Bariz. The other was Fazul Mohammed, who told a nearly identical story.
When the ballots were not delivered to the polling site, Mr. Mohammed said, he walked to the district government headquarters to see what was wrong. The building, he said, was being guarded by officers of the Afghan Border Police. As an election official, Mr. Mohammed said, he was allowed to go inside.
“The border police were stuffing the ballots, hundreds of them, into the boxes,” he said. “And there were other people who were counting the ballots and keeping the records.”
Mr. Mohammed said he protested but was told to leave. Later, he said, he was told that a total of 23,900 ballots had been filled out, all in Mr. Karzai’s name.
“Dr. Abdullah did not receive a single vote,” he said.
Mr. Bariz, the governor, said he had not returned to Shorbak.
“I don’t think I am going to be governor much longer,” he said.
Schools, colleges still closed in Darra Adamkhel
KOHAT: Like other parts of the province, schools and colleges reopened on Tuesday after the long summer break with the exception of Darra Adamkhel where institutions were still closed.In a notification, the Education Department has directed the concerned officials in all the tribal and semi-tribal areas including Orakzai and Kurram agencies and the Frontier Regions to reopen schools and colleges. However, the sources said schools and colleges in Darra Adamkhel were yet to be reopened. They said in Darra Adamkhel the militants destroyed 17 educational institutes with explosives.The destroyed seats of learning included four govt-run high schools for boys, two for girls, six middle schools for girls, four primary schools for girls and a degree college for boys.District Coordination Officer Siraj Ahmad said the government was making final arrangements to raise tents at destroyed schools for the students to continue education. He added that soon the damaged bridges would be reconstructed and the Friendship Tunnel would be opened for 24 hours traffic.
105 militants surrendered in Pakistan's Swat
At least 105 militants surrendered to the Pakistani security forces in the insurgency-hit Swat valley on Tuesday, a military commander said.
The militants, including 18 wanted and a Taliban council member, were produced at a news conference at Kanju, three kilometers of Mingora, the main city in Swat of North West Frontier Province.
Brig Salman Akbar, who is in charge of military operations, said that all those surrendered militants belonged to Kabal area of the Swat. He said a Taliban council member Abdul Jabar was among those surrendered.
It is the second time in less than 10 days that Taliban militants surrendered in groups to the security forces. Last week, a group of 65 suspected militants surrendered to the security forces.
The surrendered militants also included a group of teenagers, who, according to the officials, were recruited for suicide bombings.
All surrendered men were sitting on benches during the press conference and were not allowed to speak to reporters.
"The locals inform us about the presence and activities of the militants," Akbar said. He said that those who did not surrender to security forces will be eliminated.
The surrendered militants will be produced in the Islamic courts, the army commander said.
"We are trying to boost up the operation in areas where the militants were resisting the forces", he said. The operation will continue till the goals are achieved, he added.
Meanwhile, search and clearance operations are continuing in Swat and 15 militants were arrested and cache of arms and ammunition recovered on Tuesday.
The militants, including 18 wanted and a Taliban council member, were produced at a news conference at Kanju, three kilometers of Mingora, the main city in Swat of North West Frontier Province.
Brig Salman Akbar, who is in charge of military operations, said that all those surrendered militants belonged to Kabal area of the Swat. He said a Taliban council member Abdul Jabar was among those surrendered.
It is the second time in less than 10 days that Taliban militants surrendered in groups to the security forces. Last week, a group of 65 suspected militants surrendered to the security forces.
The surrendered militants also included a group of teenagers, who, according to the officials, were recruited for suicide bombings.
All surrendered men were sitting on benches during the press conference and were not allowed to speak to reporters.
"The locals inform us about the presence and activities of the militants," Akbar said. He said that those who did not surrender to security forces will be eliminated.
The surrendered militants will be produced in the Islamic courts, the army commander said.
"We are trying to boost up the operation in areas where the militants were resisting the forces", he said. The operation will continue till the goals are achieved, he added.
Meanwhile, search and clearance operations are continuing in Swat and 15 militants were arrested and cache of arms and ammunition recovered on Tuesday.
Shutter down strike observed in Balochistan
A shutter down strike is being observed in certain parts of Balochistan against the killing of Baloch National Movement leader Rasool Bakhsh Mengal.
Rasool Bakhsh went missing on August 23rd from Uthal area of Lasbela district and his body was found by police on the 30th of August from Bela area of the same district.
The call for the strike had been given by the Baloch National Front which was also endorsed by other Baloch nationalist parties.
The strike is being observed in Turbat, Awaran, Panjgur, Khuzdar, Kalat and some other parts of the province.
Sources say that all markets and shopping centres in these areas are completely closed and no business activity is being witnessed anywhere. Traffic was minimal on the roads while the turn out in offices and schools was also low.
The local administration has taken strict security measures to avert any untoward incident.
Rasool Bakhsh went missing on August 23rd from Uthal area of Lasbela district and his body was found by police on the 30th of August from Bela area of the same district.
The call for the strike had been given by the Baloch National Front which was also endorsed by other Baloch nationalist parties.
The strike is being observed in Turbat, Awaran, Panjgur, Khuzdar, Kalat and some other parts of the province.
Sources say that all markets and shopping centres in these areas are completely closed and no business activity is being witnessed anywhere. Traffic was minimal on the roads while the turn out in offices and schools was also low.
The local administration has taken strict security measures to avert any untoward incident.
West faces losing battle over Afghan poll fraud
The Times
Widespread and systematic fraud during the Afghan presidential elections has tarnished the legitimacy of any future government and undermined the Nato campaign there, Western and Afghan officials have admitted.
Two more British soldiers were killed yesterday and the commander of the Nato forces in Afghanistan warned President Obama that the eight-year war was in a “serious” state and that big changes were needed if victory was to be achieved.
General Stanley McChrystal is understood to have recommended in a strategic review that counter-insurgency efforts be focused on protecting civilians rather than fighting militants.
August was one of Nato’s bloodiest months in Afghanistan, with 74 soldiers killed. More than 300 have died so far this year, making 2009 the worst year for Western forces since the Taleban were overthrown.
The latest British casualties — killed by a bomb while on foot patrol in Helmand — were from 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland. They bring to 19 the number of British troops killed in August.
David Kilcullen, one of the architects of Nato’s anti-insurgency campaign, said that the failure of the Afghan Government to provide basic services in many areas was allowing the Taleban to establish its own courts, hospitals and security. “A government that is losing to a counter-insurgency isn’t being outfought, it is being outgoverned,” he said.
There have been more than 2,500 complaints about the August 20 vote, 691 of them involving serious charges of vote rigging, meaning that they could affect the overall outcome of the election.
One international election observer, who asked not to be named, said: “The pattern is of systematic and widespread fraud, which really does call into question the legitimacy of the election. This is large scale and it is across the country.”
Ahmad Nader Nadery, head of the Afghan Free and Fair Election Foundation, said the scale of the vote rigging was serious. The fraud presents Washington with a dilemma: to back President Karzai, who is already seen as an unreliable partner, after a disputed and discredited first-round victory or to force a second-round run-off. The latter could lead to months of political paralysis and a rapid erosion of support for a war that less half of Americans now view as worthwhile.
Widespread and systematic fraud during the Afghan presidential elections has tarnished the legitimacy of any future government and undermined the Nato campaign there, Western and Afghan officials have admitted.
Two more British soldiers were killed yesterday and the commander of the Nato forces in Afghanistan warned President Obama that the eight-year war was in a “serious” state and that big changes were needed if victory was to be achieved.
General Stanley McChrystal is understood to have recommended in a strategic review that counter-insurgency efforts be focused on protecting civilians rather than fighting militants.
August was one of Nato’s bloodiest months in Afghanistan, with 74 soldiers killed. More than 300 have died so far this year, making 2009 the worst year for Western forces since the Taleban were overthrown.
The latest British casualties — killed by a bomb while on foot patrol in Helmand — were from 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland. They bring to 19 the number of British troops killed in August.
David Kilcullen, one of the architects of Nato’s anti-insurgency campaign, said that the failure of the Afghan Government to provide basic services in many areas was allowing the Taleban to establish its own courts, hospitals and security. “A government that is losing to a counter-insurgency isn’t being outfought, it is being outgoverned,” he said.
There have been more than 2,500 complaints about the August 20 vote, 691 of them involving serious charges of vote rigging, meaning that they could affect the overall outcome of the election.
One international election observer, who asked not to be named, said: “The pattern is of systematic and widespread fraud, which really does call into question the legitimacy of the election. This is large scale and it is across the country.”
Ahmad Nader Nadery, head of the Afghan Free and Fair Election Foundation, said the scale of the vote rigging was serious. The fraud presents Washington with a dilemma: to back President Karzai, who is already seen as an unreliable partner, after a disputed and discredited first-round victory or to force a second-round run-off. The latter could lead to months of political paralysis and a rapid erosion of support for a war that less half of Americans now view as worthwhile.
Groundwork Is Laid for New Troops in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — A new report by the top commander in Afghanistan detailing the deteriorating situation there confronts President Obama with the politically perilous decision of whether to deepen American involvement in the eight-year-old war amid shrinking public support at home.
The classified assessment submitted Monday by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who took over American and NATO forces in Afghanistan in June, did not request additional American troops, American officials said, but they added that it effectively laid the groundwork for such a request in coming weeks.
While details of the report remained secret, the revised strategy articulated by General McChrystal in recent public comments would invest the United States more extensively in Afghanistan than it has been since American forces helped topple the Taliban government following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Taking a page from the 2007 strategy shift in Iraq, he has emphasized protecting civilians over just engaging insurgents.
For Mr. Obama, who already ordered an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan this year, the prospect of a still larger deployment would test his commitment to a war he did not launch even as it grows more violent by the month.
He already faces growing discontent among his liberal base, not only over the war but also over national security policy, health care, gay rights and other issues.
An expanded American footprint would also increase Mr. Obama’s entanglement with an Afghan government widely viewed as corrupt and illegitimate. Multiplying allegations of fraud in the Aug. 20 presidential election have left Washington with little hope for a credible partner in the war once the results are final.
The latest tally, with nearly half of the polling stations counted, showed President Hamid Karzai leading with 45.9 percent against 33.3 percent for his main opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, Reuters reported.
But the White House left open the possibility that Mr. Obama would send more troops. “There’s broad agreement that for many years, our effort in Afghanistan has been under-resourced politically, militarily and economically,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said Monday. He went on to use the words “under-resourced” and “under-resource” six more times during his daily briefing.
The report comes after a sharp escalation of violence in Afghanistan, where more American troops died in August than in any month since the beginning of the war.
The military announced Monday that two American soldiers died in separate attacks involving homemade bombs, bringing the total killed last month to 51, according to the Web site icasualties.org. The number of such attacks has nearly quadrupled since 2007, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The situation in Afghanistan is serious, but success is achievable and demands a revised implementation strategy, commitment and resolve, and increased unity of effort,” General McChrystal said in a statement after sending his report to Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of all Middle East forces.
A military official said General Petraeus immediately endorsed its findings and forwarded it on Monday to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who will review it before sending it to the White House.
The report coincides with an effort by the Obama administration to develop a series of benchmarks, or metrics, to measure progress in Afghanistan, much as was done in Iraq. Congress has insisted on evidence of improvement to justify the additional troops, financial investment and civilian reconstruction teams already committed by Mr. Obama.
Mr. Gates said Monday that despite the “gloom and doom” that has characterized recent discussion, Afghanistan today is a “mixed picture.”
He said he would consider any troop requests in the coming weeks, but told Bloomberg News that he was concerned about “the implications of significant additional forces in terms of the foreign footprint in Afghanistan, whether the Afghans will see this as us becoming more of an occupier or their partner, and how do you differentiate those.”
Shortly after taking office Mr. Obama ordered 17,000 more combat troops and 4,000 more trainers to Afghanistan, and once they all arrive the American force there will number 68,000. As the NATO commander, General McChrystal also has 40,000 additional foreign forces available to him, but some of their home governments have placed restrictions on how they can be used.
General McChrystal wants a large expansion of Afghan security forces and an acceleration of their training, according to American commanders. The Afghan government currently has about 134,000 police officers and 82,000 soldiers, although many of them are poorly equipped and have little logistical support.
Under the strategy described by General McChrystal and other commanders in recent weeks, the overriding goal of American and NATO forces would not be so much to kill Taliban insurgents as to make ordinary Afghans feel secure, and thus isolate the insurgents. That means using force less and focusing on economic development and good governance.
General McChrystal also intends to try to unify the effort of American allies like Britain, Canada, Germany and France, and possibly to ask them to contribute more troops, money and training.
With polls showing falling support for the Afghan war, critics in Congress have grown increasingly vocal in calling for withdrawal.
Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, returned from Afghanistan last week and said that despite the capable Americans now there, he was pessimistic about the chances of success and did not even know how to define it.
“I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that we’re getting sucked into an endless war here,” he said in an interview.
Some Afghanistan specialists said Mr. Obama might have to swallow his own doubts and defy his base. “I think he’s going to have to tough it out,” said James Dobbins, a former American envoy to Afghanistan. “The downside of a policy of disengagement and what would happen for now would be more severe both for the president and for the country.” Mr. Obama has said that deciding to send the additional troops was the hardest decision he has made during his young presidency. On Sunday, just before ending his vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, he visited briefly at the Cape Cod Air Station with the family of a 21-year-old Marine who was killed in Afghanistan in July.
Mr. Obama had met the Marine, Cpl. Nicholas Xiarhos, who was born in Hyannis, Mass., in February when he visited Camp Lejeune, N.C., to announce his plan to withdraw combat forces from Iraq. He told a story then of two Marines who stood in the path of a suicide bomber’s truck and stopped it from entering a Marine outpost in Ramadi, Iraq, losing their own lives but saving dozens of their colleagues.
One of those saved was Corporal Xiarhos. He later shipped out to Afghanistan, where he was killed in action in July.
The classified assessment submitted Monday by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who took over American and NATO forces in Afghanistan in June, did not request additional American troops, American officials said, but they added that it effectively laid the groundwork for such a request in coming weeks.
While details of the report remained secret, the revised strategy articulated by General McChrystal in recent public comments would invest the United States more extensively in Afghanistan than it has been since American forces helped topple the Taliban government following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Taking a page from the 2007 strategy shift in Iraq, he has emphasized protecting civilians over just engaging insurgents.
For Mr. Obama, who already ordered an additional 21,000 troops to Afghanistan this year, the prospect of a still larger deployment would test his commitment to a war he did not launch even as it grows more violent by the month.
He already faces growing discontent among his liberal base, not only over the war but also over national security policy, health care, gay rights and other issues.
An expanded American footprint would also increase Mr. Obama’s entanglement with an Afghan government widely viewed as corrupt and illegitimate. Multiplying allegations of fraud in the Aug. 20 presidential election have left Washington with little hope for a credible partner in the war once the results are final.
The latest tally, with nearly half of the polling stations counted, showed President Hamid Karzai leading with 45.9 percent against 33.3 percent for his main opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, Reuters reported.
But the White House left open the possibility that Mr. Obama would send more troops. “There’s broad agreement that for many years, our effort in Afghanistan has been under-resourced politically, militarily and economically,” Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said Monday. He went on to use the words “under-resourced” and “under-resource” six more times during his daily briefing.
The report comes after a sharp escalation of violence in Afghanistan, where more American troops died in August than in any month since the beginning of the war.
The military announced Monday that two American soldiers died in separate attacks involving homemade bombs, bringing the total killed last month to 51, according to the Web site icasualties.org. The number of such attacks has nearly quadrupled since 2007, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“The situation in Afghanistan is serious, but success is achievable and demands a revised implementation strategy, commitment and resolve, and increased unity of effort,” General McChrystal said in a statement after sending his report to Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of all Middle East forces.
A military official said General Petraeus immediately endorsed its findings and forwarded it on Monday to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who will review it before sending it to the White House.
The report coincides with an effort by the Obama administration to develop a series of benchmarks, or metrics, to measure progress in Afghanistan, much as was done in Iraq. Congress has insisted on evidence of improvement to justify the additional troops, financial investment and civilian reconstruction teams already committed by Mr. Obama.
Mr. Gates said Monday that despite the “gloom and doom” that has characterized recent discussion, Afghanistan today is a “mixed picture.”
He said he would consider any troop requests in the coming weeks, but told Bloomberg News that he was concerned about “the implications of significant additional forces in terms of the foreign footprint in Afghanistan, whether the Afghans will see this as us becoming more of an occupier or their partner, and how do you differentiate those.”
Shortly after taking office Mr. Obama ordered 17,000 more combat troops and 4,000 more trainers to Afghanistan, and once they all arrive the American force there will number 68,000. As the NATO commander, General McChrystal also has 40,000 additional foreign forces available to him, but some of their home governments have placed restrictions on how they can be used.
General McChrystal wants a large expansion of Afghan security forces and an acceleration of their training, according to American commanders. The Afghan government currently has about 134,000 police officers and 82,000 soldiers, although many of them are poorly equipped and have little logistical support.
Under the strategy described by General McChrystal and other commanders in recent weeks, the overriding goal of American and NATO forces would not be so much to kill Taliban insurgents as to make ordinary Afghans feel secure, and thus isolate the insurgents. That means using force less and focusing on economic development and good governance.
General McChrystal also intends to try to unify the effort of American allies like Britain, Canada, Germany and France, and possibly to ask them to contribute more troops, money and training.
With polls showing falling support for the Afghan war, critics in Congress have grown increasingly vocal in calling for withdrawal.
Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, returned from Afghanistan last week and said that despite the capable Americans now there, he was pessimistic about the chances of success and did not even know how to define it.
“I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that we’re getting sucked into an endless war here,” he said in an interview.
Some Afghanistan specialists said Mr. Obama might have to swallow his own doubts and defy his base. “I think he’s going to have to tough it out,” said James Dobbins, a former American envoy to Afghanistan. “The downside of a policy of disengagement and what would happen for now would be more severe both for the president and for the country.” Mr. Obama has said that deciding to send the additional troops was the hardest decision he has made during his young presidency. On Sunday, just before ending his vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, he visited briefly at the Cape Cod Air Station with the family of a 21-year-old Marine who was killed in Afghanistan in July.
Mr. Obama had met the Marine, Cpl. Nicholas Xiarhos, who was born in Hyannis, Mass., in February when he visited Camp Lejeune, N.C., to announce his plan to withdraw combat forces from Iraq. He told a story then of two Marines who stood in the path of a suicide bomber’s truck and stopped it from entering a Marine outpost in Ramadi, Iraq, losing their own lives but saving dozens of their colleagues.
One of those saved was Corporal Xiarhos. He later shipped out to Afghanistan, where he was killed in action in July.
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