UN: 34 Aid Workers Killed in Afghanistan

Monday October 29, 2007 9:46 AM

By FISNIK ABRASHI

Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The United Nations on Monday said 34 aid workers have been killed in Afghanistan this year and called on Taliban fighters and criminal gangs to stop attacking humanitarian convoys so food can reach millions of needy Afghans before winter.

Tom Koenigs, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission to Afghanistan, also said that insurgents and criminal gangs have abducted 76 aid workers and attacked or looted 55 aid convoys this year.

``The attacks on humanitarian aid must stop,'' Koenigs told reporters in Kabul.

``Those responsible for these attacks and for the insecurity are pushing the most vulnerable people outside of our reach,'' he said. ``Those responsible for these attacks need to know that they are attacking the welfare of Afghanistan's most vulnerable communities.''

The U.N. didn't immediately have a breakdown of how many of the 34 aid workers were U.N. employees and how many worked for other organizations. It also didn't provide a breakdown of nationalities, though most of the 34 were believed to be Afghan.

This year has been Afghanistan's deadliest since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. More than 5,300 people have died so far due to insurgency related violence, according to an Associated Press count based on figures from Afghan and Western officials.

The number of attacks on aid convoys have also spiked, increasing six-fold this year over 2006, said Rick Corsino, the country director for the U.N.'s World Food Program. There have been 30 attacks on WFP food convoys so far this year, mainly in the country's south, compared with five attack in the whole of 2006.

``In a majority of these incidents, food was looted ... and so far we have lost something like 100,000 tons of food,'' Corsino said.

The violence that has swept the country's south has prevented WFP from moving any aid convoys on the main highway that connects the country's south and west, he said.

``We have not moved any food between (southern city of) Kandahar and Herat (in the west) for the past six weeks,'' Corsino said.

more

PressTV (FBA/BGH), October 29

The British base at Basra International Airport, 25 kilometers northwest of the city, has come under Katyusha rocket attack.

British forces have fired back at the source of the rockets in the Mohandessin neighborhood, a spokesman for the multinational forces in Iraq, Major Matthew Bird, confirmed.

There was no immediate word on possible casualties or damage.

British soldiers are now stationed in only one base, the Basra International Airport, after handing over other military bases to the Iraqi forces.

The British forces in Basra, 590 kilometers south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, have 5,250 troops in Iraq after withdrawing 1,850 soldiers in the past few months.

Britain was the United States' prime ally in the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

In fact, 60 Minutes was surprised to hear this: while the enemy has killed hundreds of civilians this year, a similar number of civilians have been killed by American forces. With relatively few troops there, the U.S. and NATO rely on air power. The number of civilians killed in air strikes has doubled

sheesh maybe they should read more often

Pakistan in new Taliban peace process

Unprecedented US-backed tribal councils involving Afghan, Pakistani and, crucially, Taliban representatives are due to begin within weeks. The goal is to get the US talking about an exit strategy from Afghanistan. At the same time, former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto and President General Pervez Musharraf will respectively wield a big stick and dangle carrots in moves aimed at isolating those Taliban and al-Qaeda militants who don't want to give peace a chance. - Syed Saleem Shahzad (Oct 29, '07)

CBS 60 Minutes revealed last night that the US military in Afghanistan uses air strikes in situations it knows will kill innocent civilians, if the commanders also believe enough Taliban might be killed. The result has been a doubling of civilian casualties, such that we now kill as many civilians as the Taliban and al Qaeda.

And all Aghfan President Karzai can do is plead with George Bush, so far unsuccessfully, that the US stop using air strikes against civilian targets.

In one of many such incidents this year, US forces announced they had carried out an air strike and had killed several suspected militants. However, the military declined to provide further information on who might have been killed, and when reports leaked out that most of the victims had been women and children — innocent civilians — 60 Minutes sent a team to find out what happened.

In interviews with 60 Minutes, US military acknowledged that field commanders had clearance to call in air strikes on civilian targets, knowing that innocent deaths would likely occur, provided they made what one official described as a “macabre kind of calculus” about whether the “target” was “worth” the likely number of civilian deaths.

more w/links

Fukuda Fails to Get Backing on Japan's Afghan Mission (Update1)

By Keiichi Yamamura and Sachiko Sakamaki

Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda failed to get support from opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa for a law to allow Japan's navy to aid the U.S. war in Afghanistan, two days before existing legislation expires.

Fukuda met Ozawa for more than one hour at the parliament in Tokyo today to try to get his support for a bill the government submitted earlier this month.

``I cannot accept the new anti-terrorism law,'' Ozawa said after meeting with Fukuda. ``We didn't reach agreement.''

The opposition Democratic Party of Japan won control of the upper house of the Diet in July elections, giving it more power to oppose legislation. It says it will vote against the bill because it doesn't believe the mission has United Nations authorization.

Since December 2001, Japanese vessels in the Indian Ocean have provided fuel worth 22 billion yen ($192 million) to the navies of the U.S. and other nations to support operations in Afghanistan.

Japan's navy supplied fuel to a Pakistani destroyer yesterday, the last refueling operation, and Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba is expected to order a withdrawal before the law backing the mission expires on Nov. 1, Kyodo reported yesterday, citing unidentified ministry officials

bit more

State Loses Its Army

by emptywheel

I've imagined (and it's largely imagination) that Condi's little PR campaign of the last week was a desperate attempt to stave off DOD control over State's bodyguards--an attempt to retain an army for the exclusive use of the State Department. Condi went to (for her) unheard of lengths to try to play nice and pretend that State could manage a very large band of mercenaries.

Is it just coincidence that that effort ends as it becomes clear that State tried to cover-up the September 16 killings?

All State Department security convoys in Iraq will now fall under military control, the latest step taken by government officials to bring Blackwater Worldwide and other armed contractors under tighter supervision.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates agreed to the measure at a lunch on Tuesday after weeks of tension between their departments over coordination of thousands of gun-carrying contractors operating in the chaos of Iraq.

Mr. Gates appears to have won the bureaucratic tug-of-war, which accelerated after a Sept. 16 shooting in central Baghdad involving guards in a Blackwater convoy who Iraqi investigators say killed 17 Iraqis. Military coordination of contractor convoys will include operations of not only Blackwater, formerly known as Blackwater USA, but also those of dozens of other private firms that guard American diplomats, aid workers and reconstruction crews.

Much as I may believe that Condi is an incompetent jerk, this is not a good thing. It means that anything State tries to do will be beholden to the political interests of those running DOD. This was a fatal problem in summer 2003--when Rummy was able to pre-empt Colin Powell's more mature plans for Iraqi reconstruction by withholding logistical support. And it may become a fatal problem to Condi's attempts to support diplomacy over bombing. I've long believed this fight was about retaining the mercs in Iraq long enough to defend the military in the event of bombing campaign in Iran, and DOD control over the mercenaries makes this an easier scenario.

In other words, Condi's charm offensive appears to have failed. Gates has won the round. And that may well mean the advocates of diplomacy have lost the critical round.

The Next Hurrah, be sure to read the comments, lots of info

Report: Poland May Pull Out of Iraq

Wednesday October 31, 2007 2:16 PM

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Polish Prime Minister-designate Donald Tusk said his future government would seek to end the nation's military mission in Iraq next year, according to an interview published Wednesday.

Poland, a staunch U.S. ally, sent combat troops to the 2003 war in Iraq and still has some 900 soldiers stationed in the southeast, despite public displeasure with the mission. Polish troops now primarily train Iraqi forces and renovate schools and hospitals.

``We want to finish the mission in this form in 2008,'' Tusk was quoted as saying by the daily Polska. He did not elaborate.

Tusk made pulling out of Iraq a top issue in his recent election campaign, in which his pro-European Union party, Civic Platform, ousted the socially conservative government of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who is to resign Nov. 5.

Tusk's comments on Wednesday are his first on Iraq since the election win, and the first time he has reiterated his party's stance on bringing a quick end to Poland's military mission since opening coalition talks last week.

Tusk said Tuesday that he is close to wrapping up talks with the EU-friendly Polish People's Party on forging a new government to take over from Kaczynski.

According to the interview published Wednesday, Tusk vowed to continue good relations with Washington, but did not say whether Poland would permit a proposed U.S. missile defense base on its territory.

``We must know whether (the base) increases or diminishes Poland's security before making the final decision,'' Tusk was quoted as saying. ``Thus far, the Polish government has not been able to answer these questions.''

US diplomats refuse Iraq postings

About 300 angry diplomats attended a meeting at the state department, at which one labelled the decision a "potential death sentence".

If too few volunteer, some will be forced to go to Iraq - or risk dismissal, except those exempted for medical or personal hardship reasons.

Iraq postings have previously been filled on a voluntary basis.

'Prime candidates'

The meeting was called to explain the "forced assignments" order made by state department human resources director Harry Thomas.

Who will raise our children if we are dead or seriously wounded?
Jack Croddy
Senior US diplomat

Last Friday, he notified about 250 "prime candidates" that they had been selected for one of 48 one-year postings at the embassy in Baghdad or in a Provincial Reconstruction Team elsewhere in the country.

They were given 10 days to reply.

Senior diplomat Jack Croddy, who once worked as a political adviser with Nato forces, highlighted safety fears of staff who would be forced to serve in a war zone.

"It's one thing if someone believes in what's going on over there and volunteers, but it's another thing to send someone over there on a forced assignment," Mr Croddy said.

"I'm sorry, but basically that's a potential death sentence and you know it. Who will raise our children if we are dead or seriously wounded?

"You know that at any other [country] in the world, the embassy would be closed at this point." more

At the two official border crossings in the south, where as many as 300 trucks a day arrive from Iran, customs and border police have managed to crack down on the movement of drugs, illegal cars, banned perishable foods and other illicit goods.

But so far, nothing approximating a rocket has been found.

"They're either not smuggling it through there, or we're looking in the wrong place," said a British intelligence officer wryly. "But one way or another, it's coming in."

sheesh, or maybe they are not smuggling them in? I love Rumsfeldian logic LOL

Iran-Iraq border trade heavy but no weapons found

By Luke Baker

BASRA, Iraq, Nov 1 (Reuters) - Business is booming on the Iran-Iraq border.

Despite a war in one country and Western sanctions against the other's nuclear programme, trucks full of everything from fresh produce to furniture and clothes to consumer electronics trundle to the 1,400 km (900 mile) frontier every day.

But British officials say along with trade in legitimate goods, which has grown in the past year, there is also a steady flow of "lethal aid" from Iran to Iraq, including rockets and explosives used to make road-side bombs.

Iran denies arming Iraqi Shia Muslim militias, which have carried out scores of deadly attacks against British and American troops in Iraq.

But British officials are sure Iranian weaponry is coming through. As evidence they mention rocket shrapnel that bears Iranian markings, but at the same time say they have no concrete proof that Iran is supplying Iraq.

"It's fair to say that no one has caught anyone red-handed bringing in lethal aid across the border," said Major Anthony Lamb, who oversees training of Iraqi border enforcement units.

"Hundreds of searches are carried out every day, but as yet, there hasn't been a direct seizure of lethal aid."

Lamb says on some days, when British forces visit the major border crossing points in southern Iraq, they can see some Iranian trucks turning back, but there's no certainty they're doing so because they're carrying illicit weapons.

"They could be carrying ladies' underwear and be embarrassed about that," he said.

SHEEP SMUGGLING

What's likely, those who monitor the border say, is either that corruption in the form of bribes is allowing weaponry to come through, or smugglers are managing to move small amounts at a time across the vast, porous border.

As well as being nearly 1,500 km long, the border is mountainous in the north and marshy in large parts of the south, making it ideal for clandestine movement. Nomadic tribes have also long made their home along large sections of the frontier.

"Trade between tribes on either side has existed for centuries. The border means nothing to them," said Lamb.

"For some, economic smuggling has long been a way of life. They might smuggle sheep, or other things."

Since the invasion in 2003, the United States has built hundreds of "forts" along Iraq's borders, including more than 60 along a 500-km stretch along the edge with Iran in the south.

Each fort is manned by 12 to 40 guards who carry out frequent patrols, although the frontier, heavily mined since the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, is not fenced. The Iranians have guards all along their side too, visible in the near distance.

As well as the forts, there are two battalions of Iraqi border commandos trained to hunt down smugglers and staunch the flow of illegal goods into the country.

At the two official border crossings in the south, where as many as 300 trucks a day arrive from Iran, customs and border police have managed to crack down on the movement of drugs, illegal cars, banned perishable foods and other illicit goods.

But so far, nothing approximating a rocket has been found.

"They're either not smuggling it through there, or we're looking in the wrong place," said a British intelligence officer wryly. "But one way or another, it's coming in."

Tom Dispatch

Tom's intro, with internal links, to an interesting article by Michael Schwarz, which can be found at the link above. October 30

History… phooey!

Or, more mildly, Americans traditionally aren't much interested in it and the media largely don't have time for it either. For one thing, the past is often just so inconvenient. On Monday, for instance, there was a front-page piece in the New York Times by Elisabeth Bumiller on Robert Blackwill, one of the "Vulcans" who helped Condoleezza Rice advise George W. Bush on foreign policy during the 2000 election campaign, Iraq Director on the National Security Council during the reign in Baghdad of our viceroy L. Paul Bremer III, and the President's personal envoyto the faltering occupation, nicknamed "The Shadow"), among many other things.

He is now -- here's a giant shock -- a lobbyist. And, among those he's lobbying for (in this case to the tune of $300,000) is Ayad Allawi, former CIA asset and head -- back in Saddam's day -- of an exile group, the Iraq National Accord. Bumiller identifies Allawi as "the first prime minister of the newly sovereign nation -- America's man in Baghdad." She also refers to him as having had "close ties to the CIA" and points out that he was not just Bremer's, but Blackwill's "choice" to be prime minister back in 2004. Now, he's Blackwill's "choice" again. Allawi is, it seems, yet once more on deck, with his own K-Street lobbyist, ready to step in as prime minister if the present PM, Nouri al-Maliki, were to fall (or be shoved aside).

But there's another rather inconvenient truth about Allawi that goes unmentioned -- and it's right off the front page of the New York Times, no less -- a piece by Joel Brinkley
"Ex-C.I.A. Aides Say Iraq Leader Helped Agency in 90's Attacks," published in early June 2004, just at the moment when Allawi had been "designated" prime minister. In the early 1990s, Brinkley reported, Allawi's exile organization was, under the CIA's direction, planting car bombs and explosive devices in Baghdad (including in a movie theater) in a fruitless attempt to destabilize Saddam Hussein's regime. Of course, that was back when car bombs weren't considered the property of brutes like Sunni extremists, al-Qaeda in Iraq, and the Taliban. (Just as, inconveniently enough, back in the 1980s the CIA bankrolled and encouraged the training of Afghan "freedom fighters" in mounting car-bomb and even camel-bomb attacks in a terror campaign against Soviet officers and soldiers in Russian-occupied Afghan cities (techniques personally "endorsed," according to Steve Coll in his superb book Ghost Wars, by then-CIA Director William Casey).

But that was back in the day -- just as, to randomly cite one more inconvenient piece of history also off the front page of the New York Times (Patrick Tyler, "Officers Say U.S. Aided Iraq in War Despite Use of Gas," August 18, 2002), years before we went into Iraq to take out Saddam's by then nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, we helped him use them. The Reagan Pentagon had a program in which 60 officers from the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency "were secretly providing detailed information on Iranian deployments" to Saddam's forces, so that he could, among other things, wield his chemical weapons against them more effectively. ("The Pentagon 'wasn't so horrified by Iraq's use of gas,' said one veteran of the program. 'It was just another way of killing people -- whether with a bullet or phosgene, it didn't make any difference.'")

Of course, when it comes to America's oily history in Iraq, there is just about no backstory -- not on the front page of the New York Times, not basically in the mainstream. Even at this late date, with the price of crude threatening to head for the $100 a barrel mark, Iraqi oil is -- well, not exactly censored out -- just (let's face it) so darn embarrassing to write about. In fact, now that all those other explanations for invading Iraq -- WMD, freedom, you name it -- have long since flown the coop, there really is no explanation (except utter folly) for Bush's invasion. So, better to move on, and quickly at that. These last months, however, Tomdispatch has returned repeatedly to the subject as a reminder that history, even when not in sight, matters. And the deeper you go, as Michael Schwartz proves below, the more likely you are to find that gusher you're looking for.

Go to the link.

...to emphasize (and a bit as to which data sources one uses):

White House says Iraq nearing normalcy - however as Think Progress points out, military deaths are thankfully down but civilian deaths rose:
At least 887 Iraqis were killed last month, compared to 840 in September, according to the data compiled by the interior, defence and health ministries.

Iraqi civilian deaths plunge

Ned Parker | November 1

LA Times - Iraq's civilian body count in October was less than half that at its height in January, reflecting both the tactical successes of this year's U.S. troop buildup and the lasting impact of waves of sectarian death squad killings, car bombings and neighborhood purges.

October also marked the lowest monthly death toll for American troops, 36 fatalities, since March 2006, when 31 were killed, according to icasualties.org.

American commanders credit the buildup, which reached full strength in June, with slowing sectarian bloodshed.

They say the decision to send 28,500 more troops to Iraq has made a difference by allowing them to send soldiers to live on the fault lines between Sunni Arab and Shiite neighborhoods in Baghdad, and to conduct sweeping offensives in provinces east and south of the capital against strongholds of Shiite Muslim militias and Sunni militants linked to foreign insurgents.

But others say that the picture is more complicated than that because those seeking to cleanse their neighborhoods of rival religious sects have largely succeeded. The civilian death toll plummeted nationwide in the last two months; the toll was 2,076 in January but 884 in September and 758 in October, according to the Iraqi Health Ministry.

[Comment: Odd that 887 should show up as a datapoint on the other graph. Wonder if someone hasn't transposed figures somewhere in this mess. ~ JPD]

"A survey data set containing imputed values should not be analyzed uncritically as if all the data were real values." ~ Graham Kalton