Literally...

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan —Deeply angered over reports that U.S. troops had burned copies of the Koran, Islam’s holy text, thousands of protesters on Tuesday tried to storm the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan.

The protests erupted early in the morning, after Afghans working inside the Bagram air base reported to local residents that a number of copies of the Koran had been burned. The incident prompted the top U.S. military officer in Afghanistan, Gen. John R. Allen, to offer a public apology and order a prompt investigation.

Feb 21

The Guardian - US and Nato forces have rushed to apologise for discarding and possibly burning copies of the Qur'an, as thousands of furious Afghans gathered to protest outside Bagram military airbase.

Some carried ancient hunting rifles and others used slingshots to pelt the outer walls of the airbase with stones for several hours, shouting "down with America" and other slogans, despite the bitter cold.

The crowd swelled to between two and three thousand, and police stationed on roads leading to the base turned back other would-be protesters from further away, according to Parwan provincial police chief General Mohammad Akram Bekzad.

Any destruction of, or damage to, Islam's holy book is an extremely sensitive issue in Afghanistan, and has sparked violent and sometimes deadly riots in the past.

As details of the apparent burning emerged, a speedy and unusually heartfelt statement was issued by the top US and Nato general in Afghanistan, apologising and promising an inquiry – seemingly designed to try and contain the spreading outrage.

"I assure you … I promise you … this was NOT intentional in any way," General John Allen said in a statement addressed to the "noble people of Afghanistan".

Copies of the Qur'an taken from prisoners at the airbase had been handed over for incineration late on Monday, and were spotted by Afghan workers, according to Afghan and western officials.

It is routine practice to burn waste documents on military bases in Afghanistan, and police chief Bekzad said the copies of the Qur'an were discarded together with many other papers.

Gareth Porter reports that any deal to allow the US to keep a presence in Afghanistan after 2014 is hung up on the US tactic of night raids, part of the special-forces run "assassination" phase that Bacevich identifies as the latest phase of the perpetual war America has waged for over a decade. Afghan president Karzai wants the US to hand leadership of the raids to Afghans, complaining about infringements of Afghan sovereignty, while the US flatly refuses. One military source told Gareth that "They're not going to give them up,"..."This is the last offensive tactic we will have available."

Is there anyone in the world who thinks the people in this photo didn't know what they were standing in front of?

The Nazi SS symbol has to be one of the most recognized of all time, certainly rivaling CocaCola and the McDonald's Golden Arches, but the Marine Corps tried to spin the facts anyway.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the Marine Corps on Friday to re-investigate and take appropriate action against the Marine snipers who posed with a logo resembling a notorious Nazi symbol.

...An initial Marine investigation into the matter concluded that the troops would not be disciplined because there was no malicious intent. The Marines mistakenly believed the "SS" in the shape of white lightning bolts on the blue flag were a nod to sniper scouts – not members of Adolf Hitler's special unit that murdered millions of Jews, Catholics, gypsies and others, said Maj. Gabrielle Chapin, a spokeswoman at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

And for $10 at CPAC you can buy a T-shirt immortalizing Marines pissing on corpses. Hearts and minds, dude.

Having now read the entirety of Lt. Colonel Daniel Davis' 84-page unclassified report (PDF) on Afghanistan which Michael Hastings at Rolling Stone says is "damning", I find myself distinctly underwhelmed. His thesis is that General Petraeus and other senior military figures have consistently lied to lawmakers and the public about positive "momentum" in Afghanistan. Really, who knew?

I get that the significance of this report is that it is by "a 17-year Army veteran recently returned from a second tour in Afghanistan" rather than a journalist or anti-war activist who can more easily be written off as not having the full picture by the powers-that-be. Still, the bulk of the report is a compilation of open-source articles by journalists, and it's badly drafted to boot. I fail to see why the Pentagon refused to release it themselves and can only think they've made a tactical error by doing so, giving the report a cachet it would otherwise not have had.
Davis is correct that Petraeus, McChrystal, Caldwell and the rest would in a perfect world be forced to testify under oath before Congress about their misrepresentations and spin. The trouble is, who is going to make that happen? The mighty of both main parties have a vested interest in not doing so. If there were true revelations in the report maybe I'd feel differently, but as it is...meh. Write it off to my cynicism.

Glenn Greenwald | Feb 9

SALON - The New York Times‘ Scott Shane reported this morning on the Bureau of Investigative Journalism study I wrote about yesterday, detailing that the U.S. drone program, as the NYT put it, “repeatedly targeted rescuers who responded to the scene of a strike, as well as mourners at subsequent funerals.” Shane’s article contains this paragraph:

A senior American counterterrorism official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, questioned the report’s findings, saying “targeting decisions are the product of intensive intelligence collection and observation.” The official added: “One must wonder why an effort that has so carefully gone after terrorists who plot to kill civilians has been subjected to so much misinformation. Let’s be under no illusions — there are a number of elements who would like nothing more than to malign these efforts and help Al Qaeda succeed.”

Also see how our piloted flights are continuing to win hearts and minds:
Afghan children killed in NATO air strike

Greg Miller | Washington D.C. | February 7

WaPo - The CIA is expected to maintain a large clandestine presence in Iraq and Afghanistan long after the departure of conventional U.S. troops as part of a plan by the Obama administration to rely on a combination of spies and Special Operations forces to protect U.S. interests in the two longtime war zones, U.S. officials said.

U.S. officials said that the CIA’s massive stations in Kabul and Baghdad will probably remain the agency’s largest overseas outposts for years, even if they shrink from record staffing levels set at the height of American efforts in those nations to fend off insurgencies and install capable governments.

Lt. Col Daniel L. Davis has caused a bit of a stir by taking to the pages of the Armed Forces Journal to accuse America's political and military leadership of lying about how well things are going in Afghanistan. His public statements are unusual in the extreme for a serving officer.

During his deployment last year, he writes:

I saw the incredible difficulties any military force would have to pacify even a single area of any of those provinces; I heard many stories of how insurgents controlled virtually every piece of land beyond eyeshot of a U.S. or International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) base.

It just goes on and on my friends.

The United States’ plan to wind down its combat role in Afghanistan a year earlier than expected relies on shifting responsibility to Special Operations forces that hunt insurgent leaders and train local troops, according to senior Pentagon officials and military officers. These forces could remain in the country well after the NATO mission ends in late 2014.

...Under the emerging plan, American conventional forces, focused on policing large parts of Afghanistan, will be the first to leave, while thousands of American Special Operations forces remain, making up an increasing percentage of the troops on the ground; their number may even grow.

Three things.

1) You just knew this whole new "combat mission ends in 2013, troops out by 2014" was election-year spin, didn't you?

Rod Norland | Kabul | Feb 5

NYT - The following children froze to death in Kabul over the past three weeks after their families had fled war zones in Afghanistan for refugee camps here:

Mirwais, son of Hayatullah Haideri. He was 1 ½ years old and had just started to learn how to walk, holding unsteadily to the poles of the family tent before flopping onto the frozen ridges of the muddy floor.

Abdul Hadi, son of Abdul Ghani. He was not even a year old and was already trying to stand, although his father said that during those last few days he seemed more shaky than normal.

Naghma and Nazia, the twin daughters of Musa Jan. They were only 3 months old and just starting to roll over.

Ismail, the son of Juma Gul. “He was never warm in his entire life,” Mr. Gul said. “Not once.”

It was a short life, 30 days long.

These children are among at least 22 who have died in the past month, a time of unseasonably fierce cold and snowstorms. The latest two victims died on Thursday.

The deaths, which government officials have sought to suppress or play down, have prompted some soul-searching among aid workers here.

After 10 years of a large international presence, comprising about 2,000 aid groups, at least $3.5 billion of humanitarian aid and $58 billion of development assistance, how could children be dying of something as predictable — and manageable — as the cold?

“The fact that every year there’s winter shouldn’t come as a surprise,” said Federico Motka, whose German aid group, Welthungerhilfe, is one of the few at work in these camps, which aid workers call the Kabul informal settlements — since describing what they actually are, camps for displaced persons or war refugees, is politically sensitive. The Afghan government insists that the residents should and could return to their original homes; the residents say it is too dangerous for them to do so.

The deaths occurred at two of the largest camps, Charahi Qambar (8 cold-related deaths), and Nasaji Bagrami (14 such deaths). Both camps are populated largely with refugees who fled the fighting in areas like Helmand Province in the south. Some people have been in the camps for as long as seven years; others arrived in the past year.

“There are 35,000 people in those camps in the middle of Kabul, with no heat or electricity in the middle of winter; that’s a humanitarian crisis,” said Michael Keating, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan. “I just don’t think the humanitarian story is sufficiently understood here. You’ve got a lot of people who really are in dire straits.”

From the NYT:

A record number of Afghan civilians were killed in the conflict here last year, the majority at the hands of the Taliban and other insurgent groups whose use of homemade bombs became more prevalent and whose suicide bombers killed more people each time, according to the annual United Nations report on civilian casualties.

Although the number killed — 3,021 civilians — represented a relatively small 8 percent increase in casualties over 2010, it was the fifth straight year in which civilian casualties rose. The overall trend suggested that the fighting was worsening and that, for all the talk about peace efforts and a drastic increase in the number of insurgents that NATO had killed and captured, day-to-day dangers for Afghan civilians were rising.

Here's the rub: the fact that most civilian casualties are caused by the insurgency doesn't matter. NATO and its allies are supposedly still there because they are protecting the Afghan populace so they get the blame from Afghans for failing to do so. That means they become ever more disenchanted with the coalition and ever more likely to aid the Taliban and other groups, enabling them to make more attacks that kill more civilians and thus driving the cycle ever further down. It's been that way for several years now.

That's just one of the reasons why "Hastening the day Americans stop dying for a lost cause is the right call".

Romney charges that the Obama administration's announcement of a 2013 end to combat missions in Afghanistan and 2014 pull-out date "makes absolutely no sense."

One of the few moderate, sane Republicans left, James Joyner, responds:

Critics who worry that this announcement of a withdrawal severely undercuts our negotiating position with the Taliban are surely correct. They can easily bide their time now that they have a date certain.

So how can a decision that undermines our allies and our own negotiating power nonetheless be the right one? Because the alternative is to continue getting people killed -- not to mention inadvertently killing innocents -- in a fight we can't win.

From A.P.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta laid out the administration’s most explicit portrayal of the U.S. drawdown in Afghanistan, saying Wednesday that U.S. and other international forces in Afghanistan expect to end their combat role in 2013 and continue a training and advisory role with Afghan forces through 2014.

Excuse me if I'm skeptical about the sudden cessation of combat duties, the ability of Afghan security forces to guard a henhouse or indeed about all of Panetta's statement in this election year.

Doha, Qatar | January 29

VOA - Taliban negotiators are meeting with U.S. officials in Qatar for a series of discussions aimed at building trust and preparing both sides for upcoming peace talks.

Former Taliban official Maulavi Qalamuddin, who once led the group's religious police, says about five Taliban negotiators are there for the preliminary talks. He says the talks include the possible release of Taliban prisoners from the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Qalamuddin says the Taliban delegation currently in Doha includes several former Taliban officials and a former secretary to the Taliban's leader Mullah Omar.

Jay Price | Fayetteville | Jan 25

The (Raleigh) News & Observer - Jonathan Keith "Jack" Idema, the con man extraordinaire from Fayetteville who spent years in an Afghan prison for running a private jail and torture chamber while claiming to be a secret Pentagon operative, has reportedly died in Mexico.

His death at age 55 marks the end of perhaps the most colorful, unpleasant and self-dramatizing character to tread North Carolina soil since Blackbeard.

Idema was a former soldier who reinvented himself repeatedly as he ran cons from Fayetteville, N.C. to Uzbekistan. At various times he claimed to be a businessman, author, “superpatriot” terrorist hunter, drug and gun smuggler, bodyguard, security consultant, CIA paramilitary operator, Pentagon-backed special operator and, finally, charter boat captain.

The cause of death was complications from AIDS, according to local newspaper reports in Mexico and a former girlfriend, Penny Alessi, who was in contact with him until days before his death.

He apparently succumbed several days ago, but a U.S. State Department official in Washington said the government has not been able to confirm his death. A consulate official in Merida, Mexico, said the office is being careful because they’ve had trouble confirming his identity.

They are hardly the first.

Kapisa province, Afghanistan | January 20

BBC - Four French soldiers have been killed in northern Afghanistan after a serviceman from the Afghan National Army opened fire, officials say.

Another 16 French soldiers were injured, some seriously, in the incident in Kapisa province.

An official told the BBC that an Afghan non-commissioned officer got into a "verbal clash" and opened fire.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said France was suspending its training programmes in Afghanistan following the attack.

. . . how and why coalition troops have died in Afghanistan? Too bad. You don't need to know.

Brian M. Downing | Jan 14

Asia Times - Hopes for a negotiated settlement in Afghanistan are beginning once more, but the problematic Byzantine geopolitics are not readily apparent. It is not the bipolar confrontation between Britain and Russia that it was in the 19th century. Nor is it simply the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) against the Taliban.

The war in Afghanistan involves Pakistan against India, China against India, the Pashtun Afghans against the northern peoples, Saudi Arabia against Iran, and Russia against China. So arcane and intricate are these conflicts that the US is allied with enemies and at odds with allies.

continue reading here

Chris McGreal | Washington | Jan 11

The Guardian - US forces in Afghanistan are facing fresh accusations of war crimes after film emerged of American marines urinating on dead bodies and laughing.

The US military command in Kabul, which was severely embarrassed last year by revelations that Americans soldiers were running a "kill squad" murdering Afghan civilians, said it will investigate the undated video but that if proves to be authentic then desecration of corpses would be regarded as a serious crime.

In the graphic short video, four soldiers in combat gear and carrying weapons are seen acting in unison as they urinate on three bloodied corpses. One of the soldiers sighs with relief, another says "yeah" and a third laughs. One remarks: "Have a great day, buddy". Another says: "Golden, like a shower".

A fifth soldier films the incident.

The video was posted anonymously on Wednesday along with a caption that said: "scout sniper team 4 with 3rd battalion 2nd marines out of camp lejeune peeing on dead talibans".

Military officials confirmed that the soldiers appear to be carrying rifles of a kind issued to sniper teams in Afghanistan.

A US department of defence spokesman, Captain John Kirby, told CNN: "Regardless of the circumstances or who is in the video, this is egregious, disgusting behaviour. It's hideous. It turned my stomach."

In 2010 the Defense Department spend $20 billion on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan. That's the same amount as NASA's entire budget.

Graham Bowley & Sharifullah Sahak | Kabul | Jan 9

NYT - An Afghan soldier turned his gun on American military personnel while they were playing volleyball at a camp in southern Afghanistan, killing one and wounding three others before being fatally shot, the Afghan police said on Monday.

It was the third time in just over two weeks that a man wearing an Afghan Army uniform attacked NATO personnel. In the earlier cases, the Taliban claimed responsibility, although there was no immediate claim in this case that the Afghan soldier had Taliban sympathies.

The attack took place on Sunday afternoon in Qalat, the capital of Zabul Province. The Afghan soldier approached the volleyball game and appeared to watch the soldiers play before opening fire with an M-16 assault rifle, said Ghulam Jilani Farahi, deputy police chief of Zabul Province. Another American soldier who heard the firing shot and killed the attacker, he said.

The coalition released a brief statement Sunday saying that a service member “was killed today in southern Afghanistan apparently by a member of the Afghan National Army.”

Afghan soldiers have repeatedly shot NATO counterparts in recent years, and there is concern among NATO and Afghan commanders that insurgents may be infiltrating the ranks of the Afghan security forces.

Mohammad Ashraf Nasiri, the governor of Zabul Province, had a slightly different account of Sunday’s shooting. He said only one American soldier was wounded, in addition to the one American who was killed.

Deputy Chief Farahi said the police were investigating what had caused the Afghan soldier, whom he identified as Shafiullah, to open fire at the camp.

Julian Borger | Jan 8

The Guardian - Britain wonders if local police force can keep stability, while Germans argue the units are not easy to control

A split between the US and its European allies has emerged over the role of rural Afghan paramilitary units, seen by American commanders as critical to the military exit strategy.

A year after the Afghan local police (ALP) was launched, the US military has announced a plan to triple its numbers from a current strength of 9,800 to 30,000 by the end of 2013, with further expansion beyond that. According to the US strategy, the lightly-armed groups of men hired to protect their villages are expected to help contain a Taliban resurgence as the US and its Nato allies withdraw combat troops over the next three years.

General John Allen, the American commander of the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) sees the ALP as the key to success in Helmand, from where some 14,000 US marines are departing in the next few months, leaving a 9,000-strong British garrison and some Georgian and Danish troops to manage until Afghan regular soldiers and police can be deployed.

British officials, however, have voiced anxiety over the strategy, particularly over the capabilities of the ALP, described by Allen's predecessor, General David Petraeus, as "a community watch with AK-47s". In northern Afghanistan, German officers have warned their American counterparts the local forces could run out of control once their US mentors and paymasters leave.

Kabul | January 7

BBC - Afghan investigators have accused the US Army of abusing detainees at its main prison in the country, saying inmates had reported being tortured and held without evidence.

The findings come days after President Hamid Karzai called for the facility at Bagram air base to be handed over to Afghan control within a month.

The move surprised the US, which had been working with the Afghans on a phased handover over two years.

The US says it will examine the claims.

Kabul | Jan 2

AFP - Beards, eyeliner and jihadi ringtones - these are the latest defensive weapons in the war in Afghanistan, as travellers take novel steps to keep themselves safe from the Taliban.

Setting off on Afghanistan's roads can be a dangerous business, with the threat of roadside bombs and the presence of armed insurgents who often stop cars and buses.

Those carrying dollar bills, documents written in English, or phones with the numbers of foreigners, can expect to be dragged out, interrogated, and even beaten or killed.

So cautious travellers have taken to moving in Taliban-friendly disguise.

One 30-year-old, who gave his name as Abdulwali, sits nervously on a bus in Kabul waiting to set off on a six-hour journey for Kandahar, the country's southern heartland and the birthplace of the Taliban.

He has a turban on his lap, black kohl around his eyes, and a few days' growth of beard. And when his phone rings it unleashes the sound of gunfire before a male vocalist launches into song.

"We will continue our jihad against the enemy! If we die during jihad we will enter paradise!" it sounds.

Abdulwali says he is "not really a Taliban-supporting kind of guy" but is travelling in disguise because he has to go to Kandahar for work.

"People say the Taliban are psychologists, that they read your face, and learn whether you are a supporter or not. That's why I've uploaded Taliban songs on my mobile, and now I'm ready to play them if the Taliban stop our bus," he says.

"I also started growing a beard days ago and put kohl on my eyes. The more you look and sound like them, the more safe you are. Hopefully nothing will happen to me."

Dec 31

AFP - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Saturday welcomed US Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks that the Taliban “per se is not our enemy”.

Biden’s comments to Newsweek magazine last week caused uproar in the US, which has been fighting a 10-year war against the Taliban-led insurgency, but reflected an increasing focus on finding a political settlement.

“We are very happy that America has announced that Taliban are not their enemy. This will bring peace and stability to the people of Afghanistan,” Karzai said during a ceremony in Kabul.

Karzai has agreed that if the United States wants to set up a Taliban liaison office in Qatar to enable peace talks he will not stand in the way, as long as Afghanistan is involved in the process.