Posted by Maggie On September - 7 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
BAGHDAD — An Iraqi soldier sprayed gunfire at American troops guarding one of their commanders as he visited an Iraqi military base on Tuesday and killed two of them, the first U.S. servicemen to die since President Barack Obama declared an official end to combat operations in the country last week.
Even after the U.S. dramatically reduced the number of troops and rebranded its mission in Iraq, the attack was a reminder that Americans still have to defend themselves in a dangerous country where Iraqi forces only have a tenuous hold on security. Nine Americans were wounded in Tuesday’s shooting.
The attack also showed that even within the walls of U.S. and Iraqi military bases, American soldiers can still be drawn into fighting.
The American commander was meeting with Iraqi military personnel at the base near the city of Tuz Khormato, about 130 miles north of Baghdad.
The assailant opened fire after an argument and was killed in the shootout that followed, said the city’s police chief, Col. Hussein Rashid. He did not provide details on the nature of the argument.
“This is a tragic and cowardly act and is certainly not reflective of the Iraqi security forces,” said Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo, the American commander in charge of U.S. forces in northern Iraq.
The U.S. military is investigating, and the soldiers’ names were being withheld until their families were notified.
The deaths raise to at least 4,418 the number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The American military has reduced its footprint in Iraq from a one-time high of 170,000 troops to just under 50,000 troops as of Aug. 31.
The remaining troops are tasked with training the Iraqi security forces, providing security for some State Department missions and assisting the Iraqi forces in hunting down insurgent groups.
But U.S. troops are still able to defend themselves and their bases and still come under attack.
On Sunday, American troops in eastern Baghdad helped Iraqi forces repel an assault on an Iraqi military headquarters in what was the first exchange of gunfire involving Americans since the August deadline.
In a statement posted on a militant website, the Islamic State of Iraq took responsibility for the hour-long assault Sunday on the headquarters of the Iraqi Army’s 11th Division. It was the second assault on the complex in less than a month and showed the challenges Iraqi security forces are facing after the U.S. change of mission
Iran is paying Taliban fighters $1,000 for each U.S. soldier they kill in Afghanistan, according to a report in a British newspaper.
The Sunday Times described how a man it said was a “Taliban treasurer” had gone to collect $18,000 from an Iranian firm in Kabul, a reward it said was for an attack in July which killed several Afghan government troops and destroyed an American armored vehicle.
The treasurer left with the cash hidden in a sack of flour, the newspaper said, and then gave it to Taliban fighters in the province of Wardak. In the past six months, the treasurer claimed to have collected more than $77,000 from the company.
The Sunday Times said its investigation had found that at least five Kabul-based Iranian companies were secretly passing funds to the Taliban.
The newspaper’s correspondent, Miles Amoore, said he met and interviewed the treasurer, who he said had been an illiterate farmer who was taught to read and write, plus basic accountancy, by the Taliban last winter.
“We don’t care who we get money from,” the treasurer was quoted as saying. He described the relationship with Iran as a “marriage of convenience.” Iran is a predominantly Shiite country, while the Taliban is dominated by Sunni Muslims.
‘For jihad’
“Iran will never stop funding us because Americans are dangerous for them as well. I think the hatred is the same from both us and Iran. The money we get is not dirty. It is for jihad,” the treasurer told Amoore.
In addition to the $1,000 bounty on U.S. troops, the unnamed man said Iran paid $6,000 for the destruction of a U.S. military vehicle.
“I have to sign off on all the receipts and I have to add up how much each fighter deserves after each operation. I also have to communicate in the Iranian language,” the treasurer told the newspaper.
The report came as the Taliban threatened Sunday to derail elections this month and warned Afghans to boycott the vote in their first explicit threat against the poll.
The Sept. 18 parliamentary election is seen as a litmus test of stability in Afghanistan before U.S. President Barack Obama conducts a war strategy review in December that will examine the pace and scale of U.S. troop withdrawals from July 2011.
Despite the presence of almost 150,000 foreign troops, violence is at its worst across Afghanistan since the Taliban were ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001.
“This (election) is a foreign process for the sake of further occupation of Afghanistan and we are asking the Afghan nation to boycott it,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said.
“We are against it and will try with the best of our ability to block it. Our first targets will be the foreign forces and next the Afghan ones. So we are asking people to not take part,” he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Security is a major concern ahead of the vote, with four candidates killed already in recent weeks, according to the United Nations and government officials.
Another candidate was wounded, and 10 of his campaign workers killed, in an air strike in northern Takhar province on Friday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai has said.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) is investigating the incident but maintains it killed a senior member of the al-Qaida-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan in the air strike. – MSNBC
With drug labs and supply routes under growing pressure, the insurgents have less than half the cash they had a year ago, said Major General Richard Mills, who leads coalition troops in Helmand province, the key poppy-growing region for the Taliban.
“We have intelligence that indicates to us he has a financial crisis on his hands, he has a cash flow problem,” Maj Gen Mills said of the Taliban.
Since a mostly American force pushed back the Taliban in the Marjah area of Helmand in February and targeted the militants’ opium “treasury,” the insurgents had less money to resupply fighters, buy explosives and attract new recruits, he said Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province.
“We believe that the local insurgency here within the province has less than one half of what they had last year in operating funds,” said Maj Gen Mills, citing “sensitive intelligence” reports.
His comments came as Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, said a Nato airstrike killed campaign workers seeking votes in this month’s parliamentary elections. Nato had claimed the strike killed about a dozen insurgents.
A blight on the poppy harvest this year, along with efforts by local Afghan authorities to offer farmers alternative crops, had also helped undermine the Taliban’s opium profits, the general said.
He said coalition and local forces were making steady progress in Marjah and across Helmand province, and that the Afghan army and police soon could be ready to take over security duties in some districts.
“I do believe in the coming months ahead there will be areas in which we can turn over a significant portion of the security to them for their execution,” Mills said.
He cited the provincial capital Lashkar Gah, and Nawa and Garmshir as towns where Afghan forces could gradually take on more responsibility from foreign troops.
The allied strategy in the war hinges on building up Afghan army and police units so that they can take over from foreign troops, with President Barack Obama promising to begin pulling out some US forces by July 2011.
Violence has spiked in southern and eastern Afghanistan with US and coalition troops suffering record casualties over the summer.
A total of 326 US soldiers have been killed in the Afghan war in 2010, compared with 317 for all of 2009, according to statistics.
The number of international troops killed in Afghanistan so far in 2010 stands at 493, not far off the 2009 total of 521.
The commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, has said coalition troops have seized the initiative against the Islamist insurgents. – Telegraph UK
Posted by Maggie On September - 3 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
An American Muslim organization is asking the U.S. Army to deny a Muslim soldier’s request for conscientious objector status, accusing him of treason and urging the military to punish him to the full extent of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Pfc. Naser Abdo, a 20-year-old infantryman who joined the Army one year ago, filed for conscientious objector status in June, saying his faith and the military don’t mix. “As a Muslim, we stand against injustice, we stand against discrimination, and I feel it’s my duty as an individual to do this,” Abdo told FoxNews.com.
The Army has deferred his scheduled deployment to Afghanistan.
But the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) says Abdo’s claim is “patently false.”
“Muslims serve with distinction throughout the United States Military and AIFD sees Abdo’s traitorous public assertions as a slap in the face to all American Muslims especially those Muslims who fight in our armed forces for the liberty and freedom guaranteed by the American Constitution,” the group said in a statement it issued on Friday.
Said Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, president of AIFD: “Abdo’s actions are an affront to every American Muslim who has proudly donned a U.S. military uniform. His assertions are not built on Islamic teachings but on a feeble adherence to the global political ideology of Islamism that threatens our security and radicalizes our Muslim youth.”
Abdo said that in addition to conflicting with his religion beliefs, his military duties were also consuming every part of his day and interfering with his religious duties. “I knew that if I went to Afghanistan and, God forbid, something were to happen, that my faith was so weak that I wouldn’t be admitted into heaven,” he said.
But AIFD on Friday called Abdo’s claim a cowardly attempt to use his faith to make a political statement and said it belies the religious experience of the vast majority of Muslim-American troops who have found the time to perform their spiritual rituals.
“The Military has made the application for CO status extremely clear so that soldiers, sailors and marines can not abuse the system and run from their military responsibility,” said Jasser, a former lieutenant commander in the United States Navy.
Fort Campbell spokeswoman Kelly DeWitt said Abdo’s deployment had been deferred, but according to Army regulations he may be deployed to Afghanistan at any time like other members of his unit.
“The Army recognizes that even in our all-volunteer force, a soldier’s moral, ethical or religious beliefs may change over time,” an Army statement read. “The Army and Fort Campbell has procedures in place for soldiers who declare themselves to be conscientious objectors and who apply for conscientious objector status.”
AIFD says it hopes the military denies Abdo’s claim and punishes him to the full extent of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The group is also asking other American Muslim organizations to speak out and make it clear that no loyal American Muslim should ever seek CO status.
Abdo’s attorney, James Branum, says if Abdo’s claim is denied, he can re-file with new evidence, seek to take the matter to a federal civilian court, refuse to deploy or drop the matter altogether. He acknowledged that Abdo could go to jail if he refuses to obey orders to deploy.
“We’re trying to avoid that kind of showdown,” Branum told FoxNews.com. “At this moment, Abdo is in a place where he’s not going to violate his conscience.” – FOX News
Posted by Maggie On September - 2 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
Denver (AP) – A chaplain killed in Afghanistan this week was the first Army clergyman killed in action since the Vietnam War, the military said Thursday.
Capt. Dale Goetz of the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colo., was among five soldiers killed by an improvised bomb on Monday.
Before Goetz, the last Army chaplain to die in action was Phillip Nichols, who was killed by a concealed enemy explosive in Vietnam in October of 1970, said Chaplain Carleton Birch, a spokesman for the Army chief of chaplains.
The Air Force said none of its chaplains were killed later than 1970. A spokesman for the Navy Chaplain Corps, which also provides clergy to the Marines, didn’t immediately return a phone call.
Goetz, 43, listed his hometown as White, S.D. He once served there as pastor of First Baptist Church, the Argus-Leader in Sioux Falls, S.D., reported. Goetz, his wife and their three sons recently joined High Country Baptist Church in Colorado Springs, where Fort Carson is located, the newspaper reported.
A church spokeswoman referred questions to the Army on Thursday, and Army officials declined to comment, citing the family’s wishes.
Officials said Goetz had hitched a ride on a resupply convoy when he was killed.
Birch said chaplains are considered noncombatants and don’t carry weapons, but they are accompanied by a chaplain’s assistant, a soldier who is armed.
A chaplain’s assistant, Staff Sgt. Christopher Stout of Worthville, Ky., was killed in Afghanistan in July, Birch said.
Chaplains don’t go on combat patrols but do go onto battlefields to conduct services and counsel soldiers, Birch said.
“Many of those places where they travel are very dangerous,” he said.
Army chaplains go through their own training, which includes combat survival skills, Birch said. They don’t go through the same training that enlisted personnel or officers do.
Birch said commanders in Afghanistan would decide whether chaplains’ procedures will be reviewed or revised after Goetz’s death.
“Traveling in a war zone is very risky business …. Chaplains will continue to go where soldiers are on the battlefield to minister to their soldiers,” Birch said.
“It was my father’s film. So, it was in his basement until he passed away,” says retired Army Colonel Bill Kosco. Kosco’s father is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. When retired Captain George Kosco died in 1985 he left behind mementos from his time as a meteorologist and navigator in the Navy. “This is an album my father put together, files and photographs he obtained on board the USS Missouri.” – Breitbart
Posted by Marc On September - 2 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
U.S. Soldier, Citing His Muslim Religion, Seeks Conscientious Objector Status
By Joshua Rhett Miller
September 02, 2010
FoxNews.com
Pfc. Naser Abdo, 20, filed for conscientious objector status in June, claiming his faith and the military simply don’t mix. The Texas native says he’s endured harassment and discrimination due to his religious beliefs since joining the military last year.
A Muslim soldier from Texas who joined the U.S. Army last year now wants to leave the military, claiming he is a conscientious objector whose devotion to Islam has suffered since he took an oath to defend the United States against all enemies.
Pfc. Naser Abdo, a 20-year-old infantryman assigned to the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., filed for conscientious objector status in June because his faith and the military simply don’t mix, he told FoxNews.com. The Army has deferred his scheduled deployment to Afghanistan.
“Islam is a peaceful religion, it’s not a religion of warfare,” Abdo said. “And it’s not a religion of terror. As a Muslim, we stand against injustice, we stand against discrimination, and I feel it’s my duty as an individual to do this.”
Abdo, the Texas-born son of a Muslim father and a Christian mother, said his relatives and wife stand by his decision and that he will likely refuse to deploy if his application for CO status is denied.
“I was more faithful to God before I joined the military and that’s what kind of stirred me,” he said. Military duties have really consumed every part of my day and did not allow me time to involve myself with the Islamic community to maintain what duties I felt that I owed God. This is really what made me come to the conclusion that I’m not ready to die….
Posted by Maggie On September - 1 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
A senior Swedish prosecutor is reopening a rape investigation against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange – the latest twist to a case in which prosecutors of different ranks have overruled each other.
The case was dropped by a Stockholm prosecutor last week who said there was nothing suggesting Assange had raped a Swedish woman who reported him to police.
The woman’s lawyer appealed the decision and Director of Public Prosecution Marianne Ny on Wednesday decided to reopen the case.
Ny also said that another complaint against Assange should be investigated on suspicion of “sexual coercion and sexual molestation.”
That overruled a previous decision to only investigate the case as “molestation,” which is not a sex offense under Swedish law.
Leif Silbersky, a lawyer for Mr Assange, said was questioned by police in Stockholm for about an hour late Monday and was formally informed of the suspicions against him.
Mr Silbersky his client denies the allegations and is hopeful the prosecutor will drop the case.
Police started investigating Mr Assange earlier this month after two Swedish women accused him of rape and molestation, but the prosecutor later closed the rape investigation.
Molestation is not a sex crime under Swedish law, but covers offenses such as reckless conduct or inappropriate physical contact. It can result in fines or up to one year in prison. – Telegraph UK
FOX EXCLUSIVE: VA Spends Millions to Maintain Vacant and Hazardous Buildings
The Veterans Affairs Administration is spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars every year to maintain hundreds of buildings – most of them vacant – that have fallen into such a state of disrepair that many of them are considered health hazards, an investigation by FoxNews.com reveals.
Exactly how much it costs to maintain the run-down and abandoned buildings is a matter of dispute. The General Accountability Office estimates that the VA has spent $175 million every year since 2007. But the VA disputes that figure, saying it spent $85 million on the buildings in 2007 and only $37 million last year.
Whatever the figure, the timing couldn’t be worse for the VA, as tens of thousands of American troops, many of whom have served multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, prepare to return to the U.S. and will require the expensive medical, psychological and support services it provides.
From Augusta, Ga., to Menlo Park, Calif., from Milwaukee, Wis., to Perry Point, Md., the VA maintains 5,507 buildings across the country. But as many as 314 of them are currently vacant — and they require huge outlays of money just to remain standing.
Some veterans’ advocates have called for the structures to be renovated or razed and rebuilt to provide housing for homeless veterans — but demolishing them or making them habitable could cost even more money, because many of the buildings contain hazardous materials.
Others say the government should sell these buildings to developers or non-profits that can make use of the facilities. But the VA is restricted by complex federal property and historical building guidelines and sanctioned share lease agreement programs that require outside organizations to come up with big bucks — no small feat for cash-strapped municipalities and non-profits in the midst of a recession.
And some of these buildings are just too old or too bizarre — anyone looking for a 325-square-foot pink, octagonal monkey house in Dayton, Ohio? — to drum up interest.
A FoxNews.com investigation has uncovered scores of these decrepit or abandoned buildings across the country that are home to rats, vermin, bird’s nests, septic rainwater, exposed asbestos, lead paint, wall-to-wall fungal growth, mold, radon, fiberglass insulation, old clothes, spare tires, barrels of unidentified chemicals and even abandoned children’s dolls, according to documents and first-hand observations.
The VA owns a total of 145.6 million gross square feet, of which 6.6 million gross square feet are vacant. Add another 4 million gross square feet of underutilized space — areas that are occupied but not utilized most effectively — and 7 percent of VA property is wasting both space and money.
In 2007, according to a GAO report the following year, the VA spent $175 million annually to maintain vacant or underutilized buildings. The report noted that 5 percent of VA buildings were vacant — the same percentage of vacancy reported this year.
GAO officials told FoxNews.com that they believe the VA is still spending that same amount — $175 million a year — on vacant or underutilized buildings.
But the VA disputes the GAO’s calculations, saying it spent only $85 million in 2007 and spent only $37 million last year. (The VA’s current calculations are based on a national average of $2 per square foot of vacant space; GAO’s calculations take into account the specific costs associated with particular buildings and uses regional averages. GAO also says the VA underreported costs and excluded property, maintenance and operational expenses.)
Meanwhile, advocates for homeless veterans are urging the VA to find some way to utilize these structures to provide health and psychological services to veterans across the country — and to prepare for the thousands more who will return home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“You got dormant buildings? You want to give them away? Refurbish them! Use them!” said Larry Van Kurant, spokesman for Veterans of Foreign Wars who is against VA’s divestment of property.
Bob Young, who served on President Bush’s advisory council for historic preservation and has testified before VA committees on adaptive reuse of historic properties, acknowledged that the “VA does not have enough housing for the veterans it treats.”
But, he said, “VA has limited funds and it must weigh the balance between spending money on patient care and infrastructure. If constructing a new building or leasing a building is less expensive than rehabilitating a historic structure, it’s easy to see why the historic building option would not be the choice to make.”
“It’s all about the money,” he said.
VA spokesman Drew Brookie gave FoxNews.com this statement:
“VA places its highest priority on the delivery of quality services and benefits to veterans and their families — first and foremost. Demolishing unneeded buildings is often costly and requires the careful balancing of priorities for resources, especially since our department’s mission is to care — often 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — for our nation’s veterans.”
“VA understands the importance and implications associated with an inventory of vacant and underutilized buildings. VA has been and continues to actively work on reducing its inventory of unneeded facilities.”
Many of the vacant VA buildings FoxNews.com visited have been declared health hazards, documents show.
— An environmental site report prepared by Brilliant Lewis Environmental Services at the VA campus in Montrose, N.Y. found a risk of lead and radon contamination in the local drinking water supply; contamination also was suspected from lead-based pipes lining the water towers. Reports from VA sites elsewhere in the country suggest radon and lead seepage may have contaminated potable water supplies at health care facilities or in surrounding areas.
— Outside Chicago, at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Medical Center, the basement of a 58,000-square-foot former nurses’ residence is flooded with chemical-laden water. The VA spends an estimated $20,000 a year to maintain this building, which has been empty for at least 15 years. Demolition must be approved by the state historic agency and will cost $500,000; hazmat removal costs $426,000.
— In Menlo Park, Calif., FoxNews.com found Building 301, a 15,200-square-foot structure built in 1929, formerly outleased to Stanford University. It was slated for demolition in 2001 but is still standing, albeit barely, and is filled with garbage and old clothes. The state historic agency must approve demolition.
— At the Sepulveda branch of the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center, two former treatment buildings not used for patients since 1999 have been leased to a nonprofit with plans to build 147 temporary homeless residences. The 2010 taxpayer cost, records show, is $48 million. But construction is on hold while funding is sought.
— In Augusta, Ga., FoxNews.com found two boarded-up buildings at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center, where property surveyors found 300 gallons of hazardous materials and antiseptic cleaners — some dangerously close to active electrical fuses, records say. The VA spends about $12,000 a year on both buildings.
But the Augusta buildings are success stories. A nonprofit has plans to turn them into housing facilities. At the end of 2009, the VA says, similar projects provided 1,015 beds for homeless veterans by leasing vacant VA buildings across the country to outside groups who turned the buildings into housing.
The VA concedes it has mismanaged historical properties and just awarded a $2.5 million contract to companies who will help it stop wasting millions on vacant buildings—and use that money elsewhere.
Mark Walker, deputy director of the American Legion’s economic division and an advocate for facilities to house homeless vets, has a few ideas on what to do with the money the VA will save. “We could really do a lot with that $175 million,” he said.
7 U.S. Troops Killed In Latest Afghan Fighting
August 29, 2010
FoxNews.com
Seven U.S. troops have died in weekend attacks in Afghanistan’s embattled southern and eastern regions, while officials found the bodies Sunday of five kidnapped campaign workers for a female candidate in the western province of Herat.
Two servicemen died in bombings Sunday in southern Afghanistan, while two others were killed in a bomb attack in the south on Saturday and three in fighting in the east the same day, NATO said. Their identities and other details were being withheld until relatives could be notified.
The latest deaths bring to 42 the number of American forces who have died this month in Afghanistan after July’s high of 66. A total of 62 international forces have died in the country this month, including seven British troops.
Fighting is intensifying with the addition of 30,000 U.S. troops to bring the total number of international forces in Afghanistan to 120,000 — 100,000 of them American. Most of those new troops have been assigned to the southern insurgent strongholds of Helmand and Kandahar provinces where major battles are fought almost daily as part of a gathering drive to push out the Taliban.
Posted by Maggie On August - 28 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
KABUL, Afghanistan – U.S. and Afghan troops repelled attackers wearing American uniforms and suicide vests in a pair of simultaneous assaults before dawn Saturday on NATO bases near the Pakistani border, including one where seven CIA employees died in a suicide attack last year.
The raids appear part of an insurgent strategy to step up attacks in widely scattered parts of the country as the U.S. focuses its resources on the battle around the Taliban’s southern birthplace of Kandahar.
Also Saturday, three more American service members were killed — two in a bombing in the south and the third in fighting in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. command said. That brought to 38 the number of U.S. troops killed this month — well below last month’s figure of 66.
The militant assault in the border province of Khost began about 4 a.m. when dozens of insurgents stormed Forward Operating Base Salerno and nearby Camp Chapman with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons, according to NATO and Afghan police.
Two attackers managed to breach the wire protecting Salerno but were killed before they could advance far onto the base, NATO said. Twenty-one attackers were killed — 15 at Salerno and six at Chapman — and five were captured, it said.
Three more insurgents, including a commander, were killed in an airstrike as they fled the area, NATO said.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said two Afghan soldiers were killed and three wounded in the fighting. Four U.S. troops were wounded, NATO officials said.
U.S. and Afghan officials blamed the attack on the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based faction of the Taliban with close ties to al-Qaida. Camp Chapman was the scene of the Dec. 30 suicide attack that killed the seven CIA employees.
Afghan police said about 50 insurgents took part in the twin assaults. After being driven away from the bases, the insurgents approached the nearby offices of the governor and provincial police headquarters but were also scattered, said Khost provincial police Chief Abdul Hakim Ishaqzai.
“Given the size of the enemy’s force, this could have been a major catastrophe for Khost. Luckily we prevented it,” he said.
Small-arms fire continued through the morning, while NATO helicopters patrolled overhead. The dead were wearing U.S. Army uniforms, which can be easily purchased in shops in Kabul and other cities, possibly pilfered from military warehouses.
The twin attacks appeared to be part of a growing pattern of insurgent assaults far from the southern battlefields of Kandahar and Helmand provinces, which have been the main focus of the U.S. military campaign. Last December, President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan, most to the Kandahar area where the Islamist movement was organized in the mid-1990s.
On Saturday, a candidate running for a seat in parliament from Herat province in northwestern Afghanistan was shot and killed on his way to a mosque, said Lal Mohammad Omarzai, deputy governor of Shindand district. He said two men on a motorbike opened fire on Abdul Manan, a candidate in the September balloting. He later died of his wounds.
Late Friday, insurgents stormed a police checkpoint in Takhar province near the northern border with Tajikistan. The Interior Ministry said nine insurgents were killed and 12 wounded with no losses on the government side. The day before, Taliban fighters killed eight Afghan policemen in a raid on a checkpoint outside the northern city of Kunduz.
And on Wednesday, an Afghan police driver with family links to the Taliban killed three Spaniards — two police trainers and their interpreter — at a training center in the northern province of Badghis.
A joint NATO-Afghan investigative team found the shooter, whose brother-in-law is a Taliban commander, had been arrested and disarmed a year ago for links to insurgents but was reinstated after two local elders vouched for him, NATO said in a statement Saturday.
Although the Afghan capital is relatively secure, incidents apparently directed at female students have raised concern about Taliban intimidation within the city.
The Health Ministry said 48 pupils and teachers at the Zabihullah Esmati High School were rushed to hospitals Saturday after falling ill with breathing problems and nausea. All but nine were treated and released after blood samples were taken to try to determine the cause.
On Wednesday, dozens of students and teachers at another Kabul girls’ school became sick when an unknown gas spread through classrooms, education officials said. The cause of that incident has not been determined, but officials fear the apparent poisonings could be part of an insurgent campaign to frighten girls from attending school.
Also Saturday, the government criticized U.S. media reports that alleged numerous Afghan officials had received payments from the CIA. A presidential office statement did not address or deny any specific allegations, but called the reports an insult to the government and an attempt to defame people within it.
The New York Times reported Thursday that the CIA had been paying Mohammed Zia Salehi, the chief of administration for Afghanistan’s National Security Council, who was arrested last month as part of an investigation into corruption. The Washington Post reported the next day the agency was making payments to a large number of officials in President Hamid Karzai’s administration.
“Afghanistan believes that making such allegations will not strengthen the alliance against terrorism and will not strengthen an Afghanistan based on the law and rules, but will have negative effects in those areas,” the statement by Karzai’s office said, without commenting on the substance of the reports.
“We strongly condemn such irresponsible allegations which just create doubt and defame responsible people of this country,” it said.
Meanwhile, NATO issued a statement saying coalition helicopter pilots were not responsible for the deaths of three Afghan policemen killed Aug. 20 in what had been considered a friendly fire incident in Jowzjan province’s Darzab district.
It said the helicopters showed up hours after fighting began and it was possible the three had been killed earlier.
All Afghan forces had also been ordered to remain inside compounds at the time the two helicopters fired a missile and 80 30-millimeter rounds at an insurgent firing position, NATO said.
Protecting the rights of active duty military to have their vote counted is apparently not a priority for this administration.
In Washington, politicians always like to release bad news on a Friday, as fewer people notice. Today, the Pentagon announced that it had granted the waiver requests of five states seeking to escape requirements to protect military voters.
I have written previously here at PJM that all waiver requests should be denied. Unfortunately, if you are an overseas servicemember from Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, or Washington, the protections in the MOVE Act aren’t going to apply to you this year. And if you are from one of the states who still aren’t in compliance with MOVE — like Colorado, Wisconsin, or Alaska — don’t be surprised if you get scant help from Attorney General Eric Holder.
Waivers can be granted from MOVE only if states find a way to make sure the votes of servicemembers are still counted.
Washington, despite having plenty of time after an August 17 primary to get the job done, received a waiver today. Washington was unwilling to change their schedule of ballot preparation to allow for 45 days mailing time. Though modern printing technology makes the Washington waiver unnecessary, it was granted.
Delaware election director Elaine Manlove says the state can get ballots out in time — but applied for a waiver “just in case.” Delaware’s waiver was motivated by caution, but caution isn’t a basis for the granting of a waiver. The law says “undue hardship.” However, waiver granted.
Rhode Island shared Delaware’s risk aversion: Spokesman Chris Barnett says they asked for a waiver in case they had a recount in the primary. A hypothetical “undue hardship.” Waiver granted.
Since MOVE passed last October, Massachusetts did nothing to adjust their late September 14 primary to comply. (This was the same state that introduced and passed legislation in mere days so that Senator Paul Kirk could be sworn in to vote for ObamaCare. The legislature previously stripped Republican Mitt Romney of the power to appoint replacements and required a special election.) It’s a shame soldiers aren’t as important as Senator Kirk’s vote was. Waiver granted.
New York sought a waiver. No surprise there: seven years after the passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, New York still wasn’t in compliance. Waiver granted.
Calls to Bob Carey, the director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), were not returned in time for this article, but a spokesman told me that these waivers are in compliance with the MOVE Act standards.
FVAP never published the waiver requests prior to today — including the Hawaii request received back on March 24, 2010. Many state officials, such as Massachusetts Secretary of State Bill Galvin, made no mention whatsoever of the waiver requests on their websites.
Given that few things could make Americans angrier than another 17,000 lost votes from soldiers — as happened in 2008 — the secrecy was understandable.
Some waivers place undue faith in technology to compensate for the delays. One waiver grant cites the use of the electronic “FVAP Voting Wizard Project” and a state’s comprehensive plans to use fax and email transmission of ballot forms. Yet Congress expressly rejected such work-arounds when debating the MOVE Act in 2009.
Congress rejected computer solutions because they knew that forward deployed troops don’t have computers.
Those most hurt by reliance on technology as a solution are the frontline soldiers like the Navy Seals, the 10th Mountain Division, the Marines, and others who hear the sounds of bullets whistling by but don’t see a computer screen for weeks. They eat MREs and sleep under the stars — they don’t carry laser printers and iPads. Waivers based on technological solutions are useful to servicemembers back in Wiesbaden, Okinawa, and Molesworth. But those solutions don’t help those directly fighting the War on Terror.
Anyone remember that war?
Bureaucracies tend to creek and groan when they have something new to do, and the creaking and groaning was deafening with MOVE Act implementation. Take the failure of the Department of Justice Voting Section to ever respond to the Pentagon’s draft final waiver guidance for states. FVAP officials wanted to give states early guidance about what would or would not justify a waiver, and the Pentagon wanted to publish the information well in advance of the July 28 deadline for states to submit waiver applications. So FVAP sent draft guidance to bureaucrats in the Voting Section last spring.
While they waited for the DOJ, the Pentagon had to issue “interim” guidance on May 24, 2010. It foreshadowed the problem:
Please be advised that [FVAP] will not to be able to provide guidance … until detailed guidance is available.
In a dereliction of their responsibility to provide advice to FVAP, officials in the Voting Section allowed the Pentagon draft to gather dust. In fact, the Department of Justice never replied. As a result, states never received the long-promised final waiver guidance, and were forced to submit waiver applications at the last minute without any hint of administration policy.
Back in March 2010, Hawaii was begging for policy clarity from the Pentagon. Scott Nago, the Hawaii chief election official, wrote to them:
We were told your office was still in consultation with the attorney general and that we would be informed once that consultation was complete. It is our understanding that no application has been submitted by any jurisdiction with a late primary election as they are waiting for further guidance from your office.
We all are still waiting. This abdication of MOVE Act duty by DOJ officials may explain why this article about waiver decisions is appearing in late August, instead of late May.
This example also demonstrates the difference between a bureaucracy run by Robert Gates, and one run by Eric Holder. General Holder should find out on whose desk the Pentagon’s draft was allowed to gather dust for months, and he should take swift and appropriate action against the bureaucrat. Because states submitted late waivers, full implementation of MOVE waiver policy was delayed to the outer limits of the statute.
To complicate matters further, DOJ officials were actively undermining MOVE Act protections throughout the spring. Not only did one Voting Section official tell states that the provisions of the new law were “vague” and a lawsuit “was a last resort,” an analysis Senator John Cornyn has characterized as laughable, they encouraged states to apply for waivers.
State election officials who were in attendance for Justice Department presentations said they couldn’t believe what they were hearing.
Worse yet, these same Justice Department officials told multiple officials that once a MOVE waiver was granted, it might be permanent, carrying over to the 2012 presidential election, despite express statutory language to the contrary. Such staggeringly bad legal advice came from both political appointees as well as career attorneys in the Voting Section. So embarrassing was the position, that senior political DOJ appointees retreated from the position once Senator Cornyn heard about it.
The apologists for the waivers and lack of DOJ enforcement cite the fact this is a “transitional year,” a term that appears nowhere in the law. They say the waiver provisions contemplate a “late” primary. But every state with a late primary could have done something about it to comply with MOVE.
Florida did. Georgia did. Vermont did.
It was simply a question of legislative priorities, and states like New York, Massachusetts, and Colorado did nothing to fix the problem.
The ball is now in the Justice Department court once again. Will they sue the states like Colorado and Wisconsin who are blatantly noncompliant with the MOVE Act?
Ballots need to mail in just a few weeks to Iraq and Afghanistan. We all know who is breaking the law, right now. It isn’t rocket science. Every day that DOJ delays a lawsuit means some solider guarding a dangerous frontier will lose their vote. Shameful bureaucratic inaction by the DOJ in the days ahead will have real and tragic consequences. The attorney general should immediately order the Voting Section to file lawsuits against Colorado, Alaska, and Wisconsin.
It would take diligent Justice lawyers a day, at most, to draft and file a complaint. Our heroes serving overseas don’t have the luxury of going AWOL. – J. Christian Adams @ PJM
Israel ready to destroy LAF in 4 hours’
by JPOST.COM STAFF
August 28, 2010
Report: US envoy told LAF about IDF’s plan to another border incident.
The US warned Lebanon that if it did not prevent any recurrence of the border-fire incident that occurred earlier this month, the IDF would destroy the Lebanese Armed Forces within four hours, Israel Radio cited a report by Lebanese newspaper A-Liwaa on Friday.
According to the report, Frederick Hoff, assistant to US Middle East Peace Envoy George Mitchell, told Lebanese Army chief of staff Jean Kahwaji that Israel was ready to implement a plan to destroy within four hours all Lebanese military infrastructure, including army bases and offices, should a similar confrontation occur in the future.
Posted by Maggie On August - 27 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
House GOP leader John Boehner said on Friday the administration is taking credit for ending the combat mission in Iraq, but that it’s the troop surge — which President Obama opposed as a senator — that made it possible.
Previewing a speech he’ll give on Iraq next week, the Ohio Republican published an op-ed on the conservative Human Events website and released a Web video that credits the troops and the 2007 troop “surge” for turning around the security situation — and ultimately allowing the withdrawal of combat troops. Boehner argued that Democrats, such as Obama, then-Sen. Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who argued against the surge at the time, were “on the wrong side of history.”
“While the administration continues seeking credit for ‘ending the combat mission’ in Iraq, it is important to remember that this transition was made possible by the very surge that President Obama and Vice President Biden opposed,” Boehner wrote. “With all due respect to them, our troops who have served so courageously in Iraq deserve the credit for the success of the surge and, along with the Iraqi people, the turnaround in Iraq.”
The video splices comments from high-profile Democrats expressing skepticism over the surge.
Obama and Boehner have clashed for the last few weeks over the economy, but the Republican leader is looking to transition to the Iraq war, at least for the next few days. His office said it will continue to highlight the contrast between the GOP and Democrats on the war.
Boehner’s office is also working to get its message out against Obama, who will deliver a major prime-time address on the Iraq war from the Oval Office on Tuesday.
The Republican leader will speak at the American Legion’s national convention in Milwaukee, Wis., earlier on the same day.
Obama is expected to express gratitude to U.S. forces, note that he kept his campaign promise for a “responsible” withdrawal of U.S. troops and will put the war in the broader context of the country’s national security goals.
The GOP and Democrats are grappling over the Iraq war narrative after a major drawdown of troops that began last week. Fewer than 50,000 troops remain in the country, the lowest number since the beginning of the war in 2003 under former President George W. Bush.
Vice President Joe Biden spoke about the war in a speech before a veterans group this week, stressing the importance of the end of combat operations but also saying that the U.S. will be involved in Iraq in the long term.
Troops Deserve Credit for Iraq Progress
by Minority Leader John Boehner
In January 2007, the situation in Iraq was grim. The evening news was dominated by horrific accounts of indiscriminate violence—torture, kidnapping and killing—that had left millions of innocent civilians desperate and defenseless against a ruthless terrorist enemy.
Our men and women in uniform had fought bravely and forcefully for years, but the future remained bleak. Calls for withdrawing our troops were increasing, and the patience of the American people was waning.
When President Bush announced the troop surge, it was widely viewed as our last chance to prevent Iraq from spiraling into an irreversible descent towards chaos—an outcome which would have given terrorists a safe haven to plan attacks against the United States and our allies and to directly threaten our national interests in the region.
It was our last chance—and the only option—to turn around the security environment. That’s why I and my fellow Republicans stood on principle and supported the new strategy in Iraq, fortified by a surge of U.S. troops.
Not everyone was convinced, however. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) claimed that the strategy had failed just weeks after it had begun. Her views were echoed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.), who declared in April 2007 that “this war is lost.”
Then-Sen. Barack Obama, who campaigned on his opposition to the Iraq war, flatly declared that the troop surge would not work: “I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse.”
I’m sure glad our troops proved them wrong. And I’m sure glad President Obama didn’t listen to Sen. Obama.
On August 31, the U.S. mission in Iraq will shift from a combat role to an advisory mission to support the Iraqi government and its security forces. Our troops have already begun performing these roles in many parts of the country. While the administration continues seeking credit for “ending the combat mission” in Iraq, it is important to remember that this transition was made possible by the very surge that President Obama and Vice President Biden opposed.
With all due respect to them, our troops who have served so courageously in Iraq deserve the credit for the success of the surge and, along with the Iraqi people, the turnaround in Iraq.
The success of the troop surge is undeniable. By taking the fight to al Qaeda, other terrorist threats, and the insurgency, our men and women in uniform succeeded in providing greater security to the Iraqi population and giving the government the time to build capacity to more effectively meet the needs of the Iraqi people. As a result, the drawdown of U.S. troops that began in 2008 has been able to continue. I commend President Obama for listening to our commanders in the field and working closely with them, the Iraqi people, and the Congress to ensure that we continue making significant strides there.
We know there is much difficult work that remains. The United States, having invested blood and treasure in Iraq, must maintain an active role in helping the Iraqi government build, foster, and sustain institutions that build national unity within the country. Iraqi political parties and leaders must end the political stalemate that has stalled the formation of a new government in Baghdad. Iraq is critical to our immediate and long-term national security interests, and we must protect the economic, political, and security progress that has been made.
This discussion wouldn’t have been possible, however, were it not for the courage and sacrifices made by our troops, as well as their families. It is with great pride and profound gratitude that we reflect on all that our men and women in uniform have done, and all that they continue to do, to advance freedom abroad and strengthen our security here at home.
U.S. Warns Taliban Planning Attack on Aid Workers in Pakistan
FoxNews.com
August 26, 2010
The Pakistani Taliban are planning to attack foreigners assisting in the aftermath of devastating floods in the country, a senior U.S. official warned.
“According to information available to the U.S. government, Tehrik-e-Taliban plans to conduct attacks against foreigners participating in the ongoing flood relief operations in Pakistan,” the official told the BBC on condition of anonymity.
The Taliban “also may be making plans to attack federal and provincial ministers in Islamabad,” the British broadcaster quoted the official as saying.
Pakistani Taliban spokesman Azam Tariq hinted at an attack himself, claiming Thursday that the United States and other countries were not really focused on providing aid to flood victims but had other “intentions” he did not specify.
Tariq strongly hinted that the militants could resort to violence.
Massive rainfall has caused the deadliest floods in Pakistan since 1929. As the natural disaster entered its third week of destruction, the U.N. warned that many of the 20 million people affected by the disaster have yet to receive any emergency aid.
“When we say something is unacceptable to us one can draw his own conclusion,” he said.
It is not yet clear what effect the terror warning will have on U.S. involvement in the relief efforts, but Pakistan has assured the U.S. it will press its campaign against insurgents inside its borders despite the extraordinary demands on the country’s military from the floods, officials said.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban faction is a key architect of extremist violence that has left more than 3,500 dead in Pakistan over the last three years, according to AFP.
U.S. officials had previously said they had not encountered any hostilities in flying aid to stricken parts of the country.
The U.S. military official leading the American flood relief mission in Pakistan said he was confident that Islamabad would continue the fight but deflected questions about whether the pace or scope of its efforts might change.
Pakistan will maintain a “dedicated, committed struggle against violent extremism,” Brig. Gen. Michael Nagata said.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he worries the insurgents will take advantage of the flooding. Insurgent groups could benefit by providing aid that the central government cannot, or by launching attacks or widening their reach during a period when the Army is occupied elsewhere.
At least one of the Muslim charities involved in aid work is alleged to be a front for Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned militant organization blamed for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, India.
“There are millions who are affected right now in Pakistan, and the Pakistani military is heavily engaged in responding to the needs that are generated by these floods,” Mullen said after an appearance in Chicago. “In priorities right now, the Pakistani leadership, civil and military, as well as the Pakistani people, have to take care of the floods.”
Other U.S. officials cautioned that Pakistan’s army will be stretched thin by flood relief efforts for at least several more weeks.
The United States wants Islamabad to expand its pursuit of insurgents farther into North Waziristan, a border area next to Afghanistan often described as lawless. U.S. officials are hoping for assurances that Pakistan will not rule out that expansion because of the demands of flood relief.
Two U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the delicate military relationship with Islamabad.
The U.S. military official leading the American flood relief mission in Pakistan said he was confident that Islamabad would continue the fight but deflected questions about whether the pace or scope of its efforts might change.
Pakistan will maintain a “dedicated, committed struggle against violent extremism,” Brig. Gen. Michael Nagata said.
Posted by Maggie On August - 26 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
Netanyahu asks Putin to stop deal involving sale of advanced P-800 Yakhont supersonic cruise missiles; Israel considers this weaponry dangerous to its navy vessels in Mediterranean Sea.
Israel is trying to prevent an arms deal between Russia and Syria, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to stop the arms sale involving advanced anti-shipping missiles.
The deal involves the sale of advanced P-800 Yakhont supersonic cruise missiles to the Syrian military. Israel considers this weaponry capable of posing significant danger to its navy vessels in the Mediterranean Sea.
In a conversation with Putin, Netanyahu told the Russian leader that missiles his country had delivered to Syria were then transferred to Hezbollah and used against IDF troops during the Second Lebanon War.
Meanwhile, Ehud Barak is scheduled to travel to Moscow for what will be the first-ever visit by an Israeli Defense Minister to the Russian capital, where he plans to discuss the matter with his host, Anatoly Serdyukov.
A senior Israeli official who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the issue, said Israel and Russia have been engaged in discreet dialogue over arms deals to the region.
But as these talks have not yielded any results, the decision was made to upgrade the level of discussions with a senior political figure.
“We have been working on such a visit for more than a year and it is very important to us,” the official said.
As the Russian Defense Ministry is considered to be overwhelmingly pro-Arab, the opportunity for an Israeli Defense Minister to make an official visit is considered a historic development.
Netanyahu called Putin on Friday, after a long period of time in which the two had not communicated. The prime minister updated his Russian counterpart on the direct talks with the Palestinians that are expected to begin next week, and some of the conversation centered on the arms deal with Syria.
In addition to Syria’s transfer of advanced Russian anti-tank missiles to Hezbollah, Netanyahu also mentioned the incident in which Syrian-acquired Chinese-made C-802 anti-shipping missiles were used by Hezbollah to target an Israeli destroyer. He expressed Israel’s concern that the new missiles from Russia will also make their way to Hezbollah.
The latest arms deal was first reported in the foreign press in late 2009, and is said to include P-800 missiles which now come in models that can be launched from land.
The highly accurate missiles have a maximum range of 300 kilometers and carry a 200-kilogram warhead. The weapon’s unique feature is its ability to cruise several meters above the surface, making it difficult to identify on radar and therefore intercept.
The C-802 missiles currently in the Syrian arsenal have a range of 120 kilometers, carry a smaller warhead and lack the accuracy of the more advanced missiles.
Israel’s defense analysts are concerned that these missiles in the hands of Hezbollah would pose a serious threat to Israel Navy ships operating out of the Haifa port, and possibly also out of Ashdod. – HAARETZ
Posted by Maggie On August - 25 - 2010ADD COMMENTS
Armed insurgents provide quite enough for our fighting men and women overseas to worry about but this fall’s jam-packed election calendar is also ambushing them.
Ten states, Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands are all seeking waivers exempting them from complying with the new law — the Move Act — that requires all states to mail absentee ballots to overseas military voters 45 days before Election Day.
“The waiver process is kind of recognition, probably, that 2010 was going to be a transition year, that some states would have to do things like move their electoral calendar, which is not easy,” said Chip Levengood of the Overseas Vote Foundation.
In Delaware, for example, primary day, Sept. 14, 47 days before Election Day, leaving not enough time for officials in Washington to certify a winner, print ballots and ship them to Mazar-I-Sharif fast enough to comply with the new law.
“It’s been very clear that some of these states were not going to be in compliance with the Move Act a long time ago,” said Eric Eversole, executive director of the Military Voter Protection Project. “And the Department of Justice, each step of the way, has simply not taken the actions to ensure that the Move Act would be implemented in each of the 50 states.”
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who co-authored the Move Act, wrote Attorney General Eric Holder last month to complain that a top Justice Department official had called the law “fairly general” with some provisions “an open question.”
“If a state is not in compliance with the statute,” Cornyn wrote Holder, “there is little room for ‘dialogue’ or negotiation, and (the department’s) Voting (Rights) Section should take immediate steps to enforce the law.”
An assistant attorney general fired back four days later, writing to Cornyn, “The department (is) forming a team of attorneys to monitor state compliance with the act’s requirements.”
Despite repeated requests by Fox News, the Pentagon refused to make the officer charged with deciding on the 10 states’ waiver requests — Robert Carey, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program — available for an interview. – FOX News
Petraeus: Reconciliation With Taliban is Ultimate Goal for Afghanistan’s Future
Reconciliation with the Taliban will ultimately be a goal for Afghanistan once U.S. and Afghan forces create conditions to allow it, Gen. David Petraeus said Wednesday.
Speaking in Afghanistan to Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin — in her first overseas assignment since recovering from breast cancer — Petraeus said that orders approved by provincial governors and local leaders Wednesday enable implementation of measures ordered by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to reintegrate the “$10-a-day Taliban” into society.
Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said those low-budget fighters are the first to return to society’s fold since they are “local individuals, almost chameleon-like sometimes, in their allegiances because that’s how they stay alive over 30 years of war here in this country.”
Petraeus described how in the last two days, small groups of individuals and lower-level leaders came in, “laid down their weapons and, in one case, were given reintegration certificates by the governor of the province.”
As a result, the prospect of large-scale reintegration “is very real,” Petraeus said.
The military chief’s comment is the first from a U.S. commander offering a firm endorsement for the reintegration approach that has been reported by leaks in recent months.
Other commanders have been more cagey about openly supporting such talks with the Taliban, but Petraeus acknowledged that U.S. forces safeguard the movement of officials to those meetings with the Taliban officials.
He said reconciliation is a broader matter than reintegration because it takes place at higher levels. Karzai has offered a list of conditions Taliban fighters must meet to be a part of Afghanistan’s future — accept the constitution, lay down weapons, cut ties to Al Qaeda and become productive or participating members of society.
If those “redlines” are met, Petraeus said he doesn’t see “why you would not support reconciliation.”
“We sat down across the table in Iraq from individuals who had our blood on their hands. That’s what was done in northern Ireland. It’s what’s done in just about any insurgency as you get to the end stages of it,” he said.
“If there’s a willingness of those at the high-levels to do that, and they do indeed agree to the safeguards. … then certainly you would want to reconcile,” he said.
Petraeus added that the U.S. is not facilitating those meetings, but “is very much in the information loop and in a couple of cases has helped in a sense, but is not doing the negotiation.”
But getting the Taliban to the point where they are ready to give up fighting is the tricky part. This week, several dozen schoolgirls and some of their teachers were poisoned. Petraeus noted that the Taliban have tried that tactic in other locations — schools and police forces — along with other barbarities like stoning, flogging and killing of medical teams — an indication they are not ready to retreat.
To that end, he has been refining the tactical directives given to U.S. forces by lower-level commanders. Petraeus described the rules of engagement as “fundamentally sound” but said in practice some officers had been adding further restrictions to the plan created by his predecessor Gen. Stanley McChrystal, which he fully supported.
The recent changes — implemented just in the past weeks — along with a full complement of 100,000 U.S. troops, additional civilian forces and funding for 100,000 Afghan troops — have enabled enactment of a strategy that has been in development for 18 months.
That strategy is seeing progress in Helmand Province, where Marines are fighting in Marja and unlikely to be done by July 2011, the self-imposed U.S. deadline for a drawdown.
The Taliban would “really like (to) recapture that very important command-and-control mode and narcotics industry nexus,” Petraeus said.
But the fact is, Petraeus said, in this past week, Marjans were able to register to vote and are now opening shops. One third of the 30,000-strong population has returned from hiding since six months ago, when the streets in Marja were controlled by Taliban.
In Kandahar, the U.S. has started “clear, hold and build operations,” while Kabul City’s security perimeter is expanding, and is being led by Afghan forces.
“Kabul City itself is one-sixth of the population in the entire country. So again that’s a pretty significant task. And they’re generally doing quite a good job,” Petraeus said.
Critics had called the timetable for a July 2011 a forecast to Taliban fighters that they merely need to hang on for a while longer and the U.S. will leave. But Petraeus said the deadline was designed to send a message of urgency to the Afghans and is not a date at which the U.S. will turn out the lights and go home.
Petraeus said he understands the impatience at home, but the core objective and the vital U.S. national security interest is “not to see Afghanistan once again become a sanctuary for transnational extremists the way it was prior to the 9/11 attacks.”
“And the only way to do that that any of us can fathom is by doing what it is that we are attempting to do. And that is to carry out a comprehensive civil military counterinsurgency campaign,” he said.
Petraeus, who called the WikiLeaks scandal — in which a website published nearly 100,000 pages of classified U.S. military documents — “absolutely reprehensible,” said he’s not aware of any lives lost as a result of the documents, but it remains a concern.
Those documents published by WikiLeaks offered details about Iranian efforts to undermine the U.S. war in Afghanistan and fund the insurgency. Petraeus said he thinks Iran does “provide a modicum of assistance to the Taliban, but not an enormous amount,” and certainly not as much as it did in Iraq.
“They don’t love the Taliban either,” he said.
Nonetheless, Petraeus said he sees credibility in assessments that Iran is seeking to influence the upcoming parliamentary elections, though no weapons caches from Iran have been found in Taliban hands recently nor has there been evidence that violence in the north is inspired by Iranian support. – FOX News
Canadian Fighter Jets Intercept Russian Bombers
by Hugh Collins
FoxNews.com
August 25, 2010
Canadian fighter jets turned away two Russian bombers that were heading for Canadian airspace, a government spokesman said today.
Two Canadian CF-18s shadowed the Russian bombers that were detected to the north of Canada on Tuesday. The planes flew within 30 nautical miles of Canada’s airspace before the Russians flew away, according to Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
This photo shows a Canadian Air Force F-18 Hornet jet, left, escorting a Russian TU-95 Bear heavy bomber out of Canadian airspace, according to U.S. military. Fighter jets similar to the Canadian jet shown were scrambled to intercept two Russian bombers on Tuesday.
“Thanks to the rapid response of the Canadian Forces, at no time did the Russian aircraft enter sovereign Canadian airspace,” Soudas said, according to The Associated Press.
Fighter jets from Canada and the United States have intercepted between 12 and 18 Russian bombers a year since 2007, according to The Calgary Sun.
A similar incident occurred last month when Canadian planes were scrambled to intercept Russian bombers that had entered a zone claimed by Canada but not part of the country’s sovereign airspace.
The encounters heightened a debate over planned defense spending in Canada.
Last month, Defense Minister Peter MacKay said Canada will spend about $9 billion Canadian on 65 new fighter jets, Bloomberg BusinessWeek reported.
Lawmakers from the opposition Liberal Party vowed to cancel the purchase if they win control of Parliament.
Harper is on a trip this week to the Arctic region of Canada, which is a potential area of dispute between Canada and Russia because of its vast oil and mineral resources.
This is meant as eye candy for the girls out there. The rest of you, I ain't askin so don't bother tellin!
The top US Marine on Tuesday said most Marines would prefer not to share a room with gay comrades, despite plans by President Barack Obama to lift a ban on gays serving openly in the military.
General James Conway, who has made clear his opposition to ending the ban, said if the law is changed the Marine Corps might look for volunteers willing to share quarters with gays as some “very religious” members objected to rooming with homosexuals.
“I can tell you that an overwhelming majority would like not to be roomed with a person who is openly homosexual,” Conway told a Pentagon press conference.
“Some do not object. And perhaps, you know, perhaps a voluntary basis might be the best way to start without violating anybody’s sense of moral concern or a perception on the part of their mates,” he said.
He added that “in some instances we will have people that say that homosexuality is wrong and they simply do not want to room with a person of that persuasion because it would go against their religious beliefs.”
Conway has made no secret of his views on lifting the ban on openly gay troops and his remarks will likely be seized on by opponents of the move in Congress.
Unlike other US military services, the Marines assign members a roommate to share living quarters.
The general, who is due to retire in the fall, said if the ban is lifted the Marine Corps would obey the law and carry out the change without delay.
“There will be 100 issues out there that we have to solve if the law changes in terms of how we do business, and we cannot be seen as dragging our feet or in some way delaying implementation,” he said.
Asked why opposition to ending the ban seemed to be stronger in the Marine Corps, Conway said it was unclear but that “we recruit a certain type of young American, a pretty macho guy or gal, that is willing to go fight and perhaps die for their country.”
The House of Representatives has voted to abolish the law and the repeal now needs approval from the Senate, which could take up the bill soon.
Under a White House-supported compromise, if the repeal were to pass Congress, the new policy would not be put in place until the Pentagon completed a review of the issue later this year.
More than 13,500 service members have been dismissed under the law since it was adopted in 1993.
Some 78 percent of Americans say gays should be allowed to serve in the military, according to a recent CNN/Opinion Research poll.
