Category Archives: Afghanistan

Taliban Attacks

The View from Harsani

The View from Harsani

In little more than a week, Afghani insurgents have killed Genaral Mohammad Musa Rasuli, a regional police chief, attacked the national chief of intelligence, (BBC) and kidnapped a foreign physician working for an aid group. All, presumably, had competent security details assigned to them.

Here’s how I read it:

We fought off the British in the 19th Century, the Soviets / Russians in the 1980s, and today we are fighting off the Americans and their allies, including Afghans. It is our country.

 

If anyone can put a better spin on these facts, please do so in the comments. We’d be happy to run a guest post, and even happier to be wrong.

We offer our condolences to the family and colleagues of Petty Officer 1st Class Nicolas D. Checque, 28, who died in the rescue attempt, and those who died protecting the targets of those attacks. (CNN / NBC).

Three marines murdered after accepting dinner invitation in Afghanistan; number of coalition forces killed by Afghans rises

, writing on NPR’s news blog “The Two-Way,” reports on the latest attack by Afghanis posing as allies of coalition force. From Three U.S. Troops Killed In Latest ‘Green On Blue’ Attack:

“Three U.S. Forces-Afghanistan service members died following an attack by an individual wearing an Afghan uniform in southwest Afghanistan today,” according to a statement from the International Security Assistance Force – Afghanistan.

NPR’s Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, who is in Kabul, says more than one individual in an Afghan military or police uniform may have done the shooting. She’s reports that “a senior Afghan police official” said the Americans were invited to a dinner and that during the meal several police recruits stood up and opened fire.

The New York Times writes that “Muhammad Sharif, the governor of Sangin District of Helmand Province, where the killings took place,” said it was a local police commander who invited the Americans “to eat dinner at his check post on Thursday.”

There’s been a claim of responsibility from someone saying he speaks for the Taliban.

CNN notes that today’s attack “came a day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned an attack in the eastern Kunar province that killed USAID Foreign Service Officer Ragaei Abdelfattah, three ISAF service members and an Afghan civilian, and injured a State Department Foreign Service officer. That led Clinton to issue a statement “strongly” condemning the attack — but adding that “it strengthens our resolve to continue working with the Afghan people to build their economy, democratic institutions, rule of law, and security so that Afghanistan can stand on its own as a stable, secure, and increasingly prosperous country.”

Taliban escape tunnel effective and also profitable

We missed this account of the May 2011 Kandahar jailbreak, which has some details which, we think, should be sobering to anyone who writes off the Taliban as adversaries. They’ve demonstrated that they can learn, adapt, improvise and coordinate complicated projects involving many people without being stopped by an informant, eavesdropping of any type, or other counter-intelligence techniques. From  Taliban tunnel jailbreak account reveals initial setbacks/Tunnellers veered off course before emerging in Kandahar prison cell and leading 500 prisoners to escape, published in The Guardian (UK) on 16 May, by reporting from Kabul.

Taliban tunnellers who burrowed into Kandahar’s main jail in April dug a superfluous 120 metres after veering off course, according to an account of the prison break published by the insurgent group. The escape of nearly 500 Taliban prisoners without a shot being fired was a spectacular coup for the group. But the version of events that appeared last week in al-Somood, an Arabic magazine published by the Taliban, revealed the setback after the tunnel, which was supposed to enter the wing of the prison housing political prisoners, veered off to the right, “reaching a village close to the prison”. The problem was rectified after insurgents “downloaded the prison map from the internet”. and used “earth measurement tools” to dig 100m back to where they needed to be, according to a translation published on the website of Alex Strick van Linschoten, a researcher who studies the Taliban. The tunnellers had difficulties ensuring they emerged in the right cell in the political prisoners’ wing of Sarposa jail. They were assisted by one of a few inmates who were in on the plot. He found excuses to bang loudly on his cell floor to guide the tunnellers. All inmates except two conspirators were corralled into a Qur’an recitation session in order to keep secret that the tunnellers had successfully pushed a test blade through the floor. With the Arab world an important source of funds for insurgents, the articles go out of their way to demonstrate the remarkable cunning and organisational skills of a small group who pulled off a feat that David Petraeus, commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, conceded was a “setback” to improving security in the south. Just two weeks after their escape, many former prisoners took part in a two-day assault on government buildings in Kandahar . The article said the mission cost $20,000 (£12,000), with the bill offset by a business enterprise. Tunnelling began from a building outside the prison walls that the Taliban turned into a cement workshop, which employed workers and produced building materials. Work began on the tunnel only after the cement workers had finished work for the day, and cement blocks produced during the five-month operation were sold “making much profit”. The Taliban made more money from the earth excavated by the tunnellers, which they drove out of the compound in trucks and sold in a nearby market, the article said. The magazine carried an interview with Muhammad Idris, a 23-year-old escapee, who described being told of the escape attempt just hours before it happened, and the moment when tunnellers burst through the prison’s concrete floor using metal poles and car jacks. Taliban commanders did not allow prisoners to carry luggage in order to prevent delays, and anyone with more than about $65 in cash had their extra money redistributed to other prisoners. The process of getting all the prisoners through the main tunnel, as well as a secondary spur that led to a detention area, was eased by a telephone wire that ran through the tunnel and allowed commanders to talk to one another. Weapons were brought so “state spies” in the political wing could be dealt with. “The decision was made if such spies were to cause trouble or attempt telling the prison guards we would kill them by these arms and knives,” Idris said.The articles revealed that the Taliban customised conventional wheelbarrows by attaching wheels from children’s bicycles bought in a local market, which they then dragged through the tunnel with ropes. The finished structure boasted a ventilation tube and 45 electric lights.

(Emphasis added)

See also

NATO: Taliban prison attack, “isolated incident”

 

CIA contractor who shot two in controversial incident in Pakistan accused in Colorado parking lot confrontation

The Associated Press reports that Raymond  Davis, the CIA contractor jailed in Pakistan after a shooting in which he shot and killed two assailants, has been charged following an altercation in a parking lot: CIA operative charged in Colo parking spot fight.

HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (AP) — A CIA contractor freed by Pakistani authorities after the families of two men he killed in a shootout agreed to accept a $2.34 million “blood money” payment was charged Saturday in Colorado, with authorities saying he got into a fight over a shopping center parking spot.

Deputies responding to an altercation between two men outside an Einstein Bagel in Highlands Ranch, south of Denver, took Raymond Davis into custody Saturday morning, said Douglas County Sheriff’s Lt. Glenn Peitzmeier. He was charged with third-degree assault and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.

Further details on his arrest, which was first reported by KMGH-TV Channel 7 in Denver, were not immediately available.

Peitzmeier said the victim, who was not identified, refused medical treatment at the scene. Davis was freed from the Douglas County jail after posting bond, Peitzmeier said.

The Denver Post has since reported that Davis may face serious charges:  Former CIA contractor may face felony count in parking fight.

It’s easy to draw a simple inference:  Davis is bad-tempered with a short fuse, and the parking lot incident shows that he’s really a bad guy. We reject this inference for the following reasons

  1. Mr. Davis  – no matter what happened in the original incident in Pakistan, has clearly  not gotten a fair shake; he’s been used as a pawn in an international game of chicken between the United States and Pakistan, a government which contains powerful factions which, with some regularity, attack targets in India, within Pakistan, and within Afghanistan. Some of those attacks are best described as assassinations; others are, using any reasonable definition, terrorism.
  2. Because he’s merely a “contractor,” he’s entirely expendable if it suits U.S. diplomatic interests;
  3. And – again, because he’s a “contractor,” he’s not entitled to the same consideration as he would if he were an employee:  pension  or disability payments, psychological help, medical help, employment – not least the comfort and community provided by colleagues.

We don’t know what happened in the parking lot – perhaps he did do something reprehensible. But maybe not.  At a minimum, he’s entitled to a fair hearing on the Colorado charges. And whatever happened in Colorado, in moral terms, what makes him different than any other person serving abroad for CIA, the State Department, AID, or the military?

One more argument against “outsourcing” critical functions.

 

 

Karzai half-brother assassinated by confidant

Ahmed Wali Karzai  Tweet Follow LJF97 on Twitter   As reported in The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and elsewhere, Ahmed Wali Karzi was killed by Sardar Mohammed. Mr. Mohammed, who is described as “an associate,” was a commander of security posts south of Kandahar. He was reported killed by Mr. Karzai’s bodyguards. The late Mr. Karzai had been linked to the drug trade and corrupt security companies.  The Christian Science Monitor sited Wikileaks here as quoting official US concern regarding Ahmad Karzi.

“AWK [Ahmad Wali Karzai] operates parallel to formal government structures, through a network of political clans that use state institutions to protect and enable licit and illicit enterprises,” wrote a US official in one of the leaked cables.

What will happen next? What other shoes will drop?

Given the relative opacity of the situation(s)  in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the United States’ troubled relationships with both countries, the potential parallels to the plot of The Godfather and MacBeth are unsettling. Continue reading →

The Costs Of War: Billions In Air Conditioning

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Steven Anderson, Brigadier General, Retired, has estimated the costs of air-conditioning U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan to $20.2 Billion. Anderson served  as chief logistics officer for General David Petraeus in Iraq.

The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan: $20.2 billion, according to a former Pentagon official.That’s more than NASA’s budget. It’s more than BP has paid so far for damage from the Gulf oil spill. It’s what the G-8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia.”When you consider the cost to deliver the fuel to some of the most isolated places in the world — escorting, command and control, medevac support — when you throw all that infrastructure in, we’re talking over $20 billion,” Steven Anderson tells weekends on All Things Considered guest host Rachel Martin. He’s a retired brigadier general who served as chief logistician for Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq. He’s now in the private sector, selling technologies branded as energy-efficient to the Defense Department.

Excerpted from”Among The Costs Of War: Billions A Year In A.C.?”, broadcast June  25th on the weekend edition of All Things Considered:

This is a more complicated because it includes the logistics costs of building roads in order to deliver equipment and fuel. Building and rebuilding road infrastructure, of course, have lasting value apart their use for delivering fuel to U.S. outposts.

Anderson further estimates that 1,000 U.S. troops – excluding private contractors – have been killed guarding fuel convoys.

This is illustrative of the scale of our logistical lines and expenses – and the centrality of energy in military logistics.

What can be done and what could have been done?

Having invested this much in capital and overhead (fuel), and with the future of our engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan uncertain, what can be done. From Among The Costs Of War: Billions A Year In A.C.?”

The 33,000 troops who will return home by the end of next year match the numbers sent to Afghanistan in 2010, at a cost of about $30 billion. That comes out to about $1 million a soldier. But the savings of withdrawing those troops won’t equal out, experts say.

“What history has told us is that you don’t see a proportional decrease in spending based on the number of troops when you draw them down,” says Chris Hellman, a senior research analyst at the National Priorities Project.

“In Afghanistan that’s going to be particularly true because it’s a very difficult and austere environment in which to operate,” he says.

That means most war expenditures lie not in the troops themselves but in the infrastructure that supports them — infrastructure that in some cases will remain in place long after troops are gone.

“We’re building big bases,” American University professor Gordon Adams says, describing the money invested as, in economic terms, “sunk” costs.

“We’re seeing this in Iraq. We’re turning over to the Iraqis — mostly either for a small penny or for free — the infrastructure that we built in Iraq. But we won’t see back any money from that infrastructure.”

General Anderson has proposed what is usually the most efficient initial strategy: “negawatts, which is to say, conserving energy and reconfiguring the U.S. tents to resist heat and thereby use less power in keeping the tents comfortable.  Below are images of tents modified with polyurethane to increase their ability to resist heat:

Courtesy Steven Anderson and NPR/All Things Considered (weekend edition).

Courtesy Brig. General Steven Anderson (United States Army, retired) and NPR's All Things Considered (weekend editio).

NATO: Taliban prison attack, "isolated incident"

The BBC reports that NATO is calling the Taliban attack on a prison in Kandahar – releasing 900 inmates, under half of them members of the Taliban – is an “isolated incident.” One supposes that this probably is better for Taliban morale, and from their point of view, might be thought a “major tactical breakthrough” or a “show of strength.” More from the BBC report after the jump: Continue reading →