The Agonist - Iraq

'Afghan quagmire negates US-Iran war'

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:08:37 -0800

Nov 19

Jerusalem Post - The US is too bogged down in Afghanistan to engage Iran militarily over its nuclear program, an ex-CIA South Asia expert and current adviser to US President Barack Obama said in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

Bruce Riedel, a senior Brookings Institute and Saban Center fellow for political transitions in the Middle East and South Asia, addressed scholars and journalists at Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies.

He warned that the US was fighting a losing battle against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, and that Washington would soon have to make difficult choices on beefing up troop levels there.

"Israelis need to understand that there's going to be a huge drain on resources, attention and capital, and that will have implications," Riedel told The Jerusalem Post before his talk.

He acknowledged that those implications would primarily affect the Iran question.

During his address, Riedel referred to the US's commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and said, "We've got two wars. You've got to be bold to say, let's start a war against a third party, particularly when the third party can hit you in the first two fronts."
The US has learned that it "can't fight two medium-sized wars simultaneously," he said (h/t Bernhard)

Iraq & Afghanistan Update/ Nov 17

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 01:25:23 -0800

Nov 17

Gordon Brown hopes to fix Afghan pullout date

Gordon Brown tonight raised the prospect of agreeing a timetable for international withdrawal from Afghanistan, in a speech in which he claimed that almost half of al-Qaida's leadership had now been killed. Brown said he hoped a UN- sponsored London conference in the new year would set a timetable for a transition to Afghan security forces taking charge of their own country.

Delivering the traditional prime minister's foreign policy speech at the Lord Mayor's banquet in the City of London, Brown said the damage already inflicted on al-Qaida gave international forces the chance to set a timetable for pulling out.

His speech came amid growing anxiety over strategy in the region. At the same time, there are signs of fracturing support within Westminster over Britain's involvement and the civilian and military casualties sustained.

_{** Tomgram: Pratap Chatterjee, Afghanistan as a Patronage Machine

** Taliban on motorcycles prove no match for U.S. helicopters

** US Military Deaths in Afghanistan Region at 839

** In Bed with the Rapists in Afghanistan

** UK's Brown Wants NATO Summit For Afghan Exit Timetable}

War-torn nations 'most corrupt'

War-torn nations remain the world's most corrupt, Transparency International (TI) has said.

Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia are the lowest-ranked countries in TI's annual global survey. They were all at the bottom of the list last year as well.

"When essential institutions are weak or non-existent, corruption spirals out of control," TI said.

_{** US military deaths in Iraq war at 4363

** Sunni politician, 12 others killed in Iraq

** Baghdad's once ravaged zoo comes back to life

** The day that all hell broke loose in Basra}

Please check comments for more related news and updated stories

Claim: US funding Taliban

In 'grotesque carnival,' contractors pay insurgents to protect supply lines.

Welcome to the wartime contracting bazaar in Afghanistan. It is a virtual carnival of improbable characters and shady connections, with former CIA officials and ex-military officers joining hands with former Taliban and mujahedeen to collect US government funds in the name of the war effort.

In this grotesque carnival, the US military's contractors are forced to pay suspected insurgents to protect American supply routes. It is an accepted fact of the military logistics operation in Afghanistan that the US government funds the very forces American troops are fighting. And it is a deadly irony, because these funds add up to a huge amount of money for the Taliban. "It's a big part of their income," one of the top Afghan government security officials told The Nation in an interview. In fact, US military officials in Kabul estimate that a minimum of 10 percent of the Pentagon's logistics contracts--hundreds of millions of dollars--consists of payments to insurgents. ~ The Nation

US envoy warns against troop surge in Afghanistan

Eikenberry claims extra US troops 'not a good idea' until Karzai government shows willingness to tackle corruption, says report. YaY!

American Adviser to Kurds Stands to Reap Oil Profits

Peter W. Galbraith, an influential former American ambassador, is a powerful voice on Iraq who helped shape the views of policy makers like Joseph R. Biden Jr. and John Kerry. In the summer of 2005, he was also an adviser to the Kurdish regional government as Iraq wrote its Constitution — tough and sensitive talks not least because of issues like how Iraq would divide its vast oil wealth.

Now Mr. Galbraith, 58, son of the renowned economist John Kenneth Galbraith, stands to earn perhaps a hundred million or more dollars as a result of his closeness to the Kurds, his relations with a Norwegian oil company and constitutional provisions he helped the Kurds extract.

Charges Prompt Iraqis to Look Into Blackwater

A senior Iraqi official said Wednesday that he had ordered an investigation into whether top officials of Blackwater Worldwide approved of bribes to Iraqi government officials after shootings by Blackwater guards in 2007 left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.

Blackwater Said to Pursue Bribes to Iraq After 17 Died

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:59:12 -0800

Mark Mazzetti and James Risen | Washington | November 10

New York Times -

Gary Jackson, left, then the company president, approved bribes for Iraqi officials, former executives say. When Cofer Black, then the vice chairman, center, learned of the scheme, he reportedly confronted the chairman, Erik Prince, right.

WASHINGTON — Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, according to former company officials.

Blackwater approved the cash payments in December 2007, the officials said, as protests over the deadly shootings in Nisour Square stoked long-simmering anger inside Iraq about reckless practices by the security company’s employees. American and Iraqi investigators had already concluded that the shootings were unjustified, top Iraqi officials were calling for Blackwater’s ouster from the country, and company officials feared that Blackwater might be refused an operating license it would need to retain its contracts with the State Department and private clients, worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Four former executives said in interviews that Gary Jackson, who was then Blackwater’s president, had approved the bribes and that the money was sent from Amman, Jordan, where the company maintains an operations hub, to a top manager in Iraq. The executives, though, said they did not know whether the cash was delivered to Iraqi officials or the identities of the potential recipients. Snip

n late 2008, the Bush administration and the Iraqi government hammered out an agreement governing the role of security contractors in Iraq. Under the new rules, security contractors lost their immunity from Iraqi laws, which had been granted in 2004 by L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran the country after the start of the American-led war. The Iraqi government also made it mandatory for security contractors to obtain licenses to operate in the country.

Full article

Iraq & Afghanistan Update/ Nov 4

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:17:05 -0800

Nov 4

Rogue Afghan officer kills five British soldiers

The Taliban claimed responsibility today for the killing of five British soldiers by a rogue Afghan policeman.

The servicemen, three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police, died when the officer turned his gun on them at a checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand Province yesterday.

Another six British soldiers and two Afghan policemen were wounded in the shooting, which sent shockwaves through the coalition mission in Afghanistan.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the House of Commons that the Taliban had claimed responsibility for the killings.

** Former Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah has said Hamid Karzai's re-election is "illegal".

More bomb blasts rock Baghdad

Separate explosions in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad injured at least 16 people Wednesday, Iraqi police say.

Five people were injured when a car bomb exploded near a checkpoint in the al-Athamiyah neighborhood while at least seven others suffered injuries in an explosion in the al-Eskan neighborhood, KUNA, the Kuwait News Agency, reports.

Police said four more Iraqis were injured in a third explosion on a highway in the northern part of the capital.

** Whatever Happened To Iraqi Oil?

please check comments for more articles and updates

Iraq & Afghanistan Update/ Oct 28

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:00:27 -0700

Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on C.I.A. Payroll

NYT - Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

The agency pays Mr. Karzai for a variety of services, including helping to recruit an Afghan paramilitary force that operates at the C.I.A.’s direction in and around the southern city of Kandahar, Mr. Karzai’s home.

The financial ties and close working relationship between the intelligence agency and Mr. Karzai raise significant questions about America’s war strategy, which is currently under review at the White House.

The ties to Mr. Karzai have created deep divisions within the Obama administration. The critics say the ties complicate America’s increasingly tense relationship with President Hamid Karzai, who has struggled to build sustained popularity among Afghans and has long been portrayed by the Taliban as an American puppet. The C.I.A.’s practices also suggest that the United States is not doing everything in its power to stamp out the lucrative Afghan drug trade, a major source of revenue for the Taliban.

More broadly, some American officials argue that the reliance on Ahmed Wali Karzai, the most powerful figure in a large area of southern Afghanistan where the Taliban insurgency is strongest, undermines the American push to develop an effective central government that can maintain law and order and eventually allow the United States to withdraw.

“If we are going to conduct a population-centric strategy in Afghanistan, and we are perceived as backing thugs, then we are just undermining ourselves,” said Maj. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, the senior American military intelligence official in Afghanistan.

_{** U.S. defense bill would pay Taliban to switch sides

** Karzai's Narco-Trafficking Brother Is On CIA's Payroll ~ Newshoggers

** UN staff killed in Kabul attack

** Obama meets with Joint Chiefs on Friday over Afghanistan

** Brit bullets too small to beat high on opium Taliban militants ~ anyone seen this report?

** United Against Afghanistan Escalation}

Iraq goes nuclear with plans for new reactor programme

Iraq has started lobbying for approval to again become a nuclear player, almost 19 years after British and American war planes destroyed Saddam Hussein's last two reactors, the Guardian has learned.

The Iraqi government has approached the French nuclear industry about rebuilding at least one of the reactors that was bombed at the start of the first Gulf war. The government has also contacted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and United Nations to seek ways around resolutions that ban Iraq's re-entry into the nuclear field.

_{** ‘Occupation’ captures inner battles of war

** USDA-funded project helping revitalize Iraq’s agriculture

** Baghdad provincial Council demands resign two top security officials

** Fate of oil-rich Kirkuk stalls Iraq election law}

Please check comments for updates and related articles, previous updates after the jump

Oct 27

U.S. official resigns over war in Afghanistan

Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows why his nation is fighting war, which he believes simply fueled insurgency.

"I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter(PDF)(HTML) to the department's head of personnel. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end."

_{** Karzai rebuffs calls for vote chief's sacking

** Afghanistan: Bilateral agreement gives microcredit to Afghans

** Afghan Army MIA

** Runoff splits Afghanistan in three}

Gulf Air starts flights to Northern Iraq

Gulf Air, the national carrier of Bahrain, has commenced services to Erbil in Northern Iraq, its third destination in the country.

The airline had earlier launched services to Baghdad and Najaf in September.

The airline will operate three flights per week to Erbil, which is the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq and one of the fastest growing commercial cities in Iraq.

_{** Extremist group claims responsibility for Baghdad bombs

** Washington worried by Iraqi electoral dispute

** Auditor Faults Work on U.S. Embassy in Iraq}

Oct 26

US: 14 Americans killed in 2 helicopter crashes

A U.S. statement says seven U.S. troopers and three U.S. civilians working for the government died when their helicopter went down early Monday in western Afghanistan. Twelve Americans and 14 Afghans were injured.(Taliban claims responsibility)

Also Monday, two U.S. helicopters collided in southern Afghanistan, killing four American troops and wounding two others.
140 killed, 700 wounded in Baghdad bombings

The death toll of Baghdad bombings which occurred on Sunday targeting the Ministry of Justice and Baghdad provincial council increased to 140 dead and more than 700 wounded most of them in critical conditions.

Oct 25

Double explosions in Baghdad kill four

Two powerful explosions rocked central Baghdad killing four people on Sunday, the interior ministry has said.

One of the blasts severely damaged the justice ministry while the second struck near the governor's office, an AFP correspondent said.

The first blast at 9.30 am (0630 GMT) caused massive damage to the justice ministry and minutes later the second blast struck the building housing the offices of the Baghdad governor. (136 dead - AP)

_{** The Kirkuk conundrum

** CSI, Iraq: Old treasures' new storyline

** Some troops in Iraq look longingly to Afghanistan}

Afghans oppose U.S. hit list of drug traffickers

A U.S. military hit list of about 50 suspected drug kingpins is drawing fierce opposition from Afghan officials, who say it could undermine their fragile justice system and trigger a backlash against foreign troops.

The U.S. military and NATO officials have authorized their forces to kill or capture individuals on the list, which was drafted within the past year as part of NATO's new strategy to combat drug operations that finance the Taliban. The list is thought to include people with close ties to the Afghan government and others who have served as intelligence assets for the CIA and the U.S. military, according to current and former U.S. and Afghan officials.

Afghan counternarcotics officials expressed frustration that U.S. and NATO military leaders have refused to divulge the names on the list, a decision that they said could undercut joint operations to hunt down opium traffickers.

_{** Protests: desecration of the Koran by foreign troops

** UN Election Body Head Admits Afghan Runoff Will Be Just As Fraud-Filled

** NATO approves US troop surge, but not one of their own?

** President Obama’s Lonely Walk to the Situation Room

** Afghan vote: Questions over how free, safe can be

** Did The Fat Lady Just Sing In Afghanistan?}

Karzai Agrees to Run-Off Election in Afghanistan

Under heavy international pressure, President Hamid Karzai conceded Tuesday that he fell short of a first-round victory in the nation’s disputed presidential election, and agreed to hold a runoff election with his top challenger on Nov. 7

Flanked at a news conference in Kabul by Senator John Kerry, the head of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Kai Eide, the top United Nations official in Afghanistan, Mr. Karzai said he would accept the findings of an international audit that stripped him of nearly one third of his votes in the first round, leaving him below the 50 percent threshold that would have allowed him to avoid a runoff and declare victory over his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah.

** Afghan vote runner-up pushes for interim gov't
** Karzai to accept final vote result: spokesman
** US troop move may come without Afghan 'legitimacy': Gates
** U.S. counts on some insurgents in Afghanistan to switch sides
** Bomb kills four Fort Carson engineers in Afghanistan

NATO "a corpse" fumes former Canada military boss

The splits inside NATO over the Afghan war have turned the alliance into a rotting corpse that will be virtually impossible to revive, says the former head of Canada's armed forces.

General Rick Hillier also said the 28-member alliance was "dominated by jealousies and small, vicious political battles" and bemoaned its "lack of cohesion, clarity and professionalism" at the start of the Afghan mission.

Thousands of poor Iraqis queue for oil jobs

With a clutch of deals between Iraq and global oil majors in the pipeline, unemployed Iraqis hope to finally benefit from their country's oil wealth.

Thousands have been queuing this month to apply for 1,670 new jobs at Iraq's South Oil Company (SOC), which oversees most of Iraqi oil exports and is gearing up to work with some of the world's biggest oil firms.

Overnight lines, angry crowds and scuffles with police are a taster of what Britain's BP (BP.L), China's CNPC, Italy's ENI (ENI.MI) and others may face when they start work in Iraq, which has seen little foreign investment since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

As part of contracts to rehabilitate Iraq's crumbling oil sector, foreign oil majors must employ Iraqis wherever possible, and set aside $5 million for training.

** Iraqi Campus Is Under Gang’s Sway
** Unique program brings injured vets back to Iraq -- to heal

Judge Refuses to Dismiss War Crimes Case Against Blackwater

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:49:14 -0700

Jeremy Scahill | Alexandria, VA | October 22

The Nation - On Wednesday, a federal judge rejected a series of arguments by lawyers for the mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater seeking to dismiss five high-stakes war crimes cases brought by Iraqi victims against both the company and its owner, Erik Prince. At the same time, Judge T.S. Ellis III sent the Iraqis' lawyers back to the legal drawing board to amend and refile their cases, saying that the Iraqi plaintiffs need to provide more specific details on the alleged crimes before a final decision can be made on whether or not the lawsuits will proceed.

"We were very pleased with the ruling," says Susan Burke, the lead attorney for the Iraqis. Burke, who filed the lawsuits in cooperation with the Center for Constitutional Rights, is now preparing to re-file the suits. Blackwater's spokesperson Stacy DeLuke said, "We are confident that [the plaintiffs] will not be able to meet the high standard specified in Judge Ellis's opinion."

Ellis's ruling was not necessarily a response to faulty pleadings by the Iraqis' lawyers but rather appears to be the result of a Supreme Court decision that came down after the Blackwater cases were originally filed. In a 5-4 ruling in May 2009 in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, the court reversed decades of case law and imposed much more stringent standards for plaintiffs' documentation of facts before going to trial. According to Ellis's ruling, which cites Iqbal, the Iraqis must now file complaints that meet these new standards.

Judge Ellis, a Reagan appointee with a mixed record on national security issues, rejected several of the central arguments Blackwater made in its motion to dismiss, namely the company's contention that it cannot be sued by the Iraqis under US law and that the company should not be subjected to potential punitive damages in the cases. The Iraqi victims brought their suits under the Alien Tort Statute, which allows for litigation in US courts for violations of fundamental human rights committed overseas by individuals or corporations with a US presence. Ellis said that Blackwater's argument that it cannot be sued under the ATS is "unavailing," adding that corporations and individuals can both be held responsible for crimes and torts. He said bluntly that "claims alleging direct corporate liability for war crimes" are legitimate under the statute.

Ellis also rejected Blackwater's argument that "conduct constitutes a war crime only if it is perpetrated in furtherance of a 'military objective' rather than for economic or ideological reasons." Ellis said that under Blackwater's logic "it is arguable that nobody who receives a paycheck would ever be liable for war crimes. Moreover, so narrow is the scope of [Blackwater's] standard that it would exclude murders of civilians committed by soldiers where there was no legitimate 'military objective' for committing the murders."

"What is important here is that the judge is saying that violations of war crimes can be committed by private people or corporations," says Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He said Ellis's ruling is "an affirmation of the precedent set by CCR thirty years ago" when it brought the first successful Alien Tort suit in 200 years "that those who engage in violations of fundamental human rights abroad can be held liable in the US." Ellis's ruling, he says, "is sympathetic to the idea that the Blackwater case is an appropriate use of the law."

Pickens says U.S. firms 'entitled' to Iraqi oil

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:06:37 -0700

Washington | Oct 21

Reuters - Oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens told Congress on Wednesday that U.S. energy companies are "entitled" to some of Iraq's crude because of the large number of American troops that lost their lives fighting in the country and the U.S. taxpayer money spent in Iraq.

Boone, speaking to the newly formed Congressional Natural Gas Caucus, complained that the Iraqi government has awarded contracts to foreign companies, particularly Chinese firms, to develop Iraq's vast reserves while American companies have mostly been shut out.

"They're opening them (oil fields) up to other companies all over the world ... We're entitled to it," Pickens said of Iraq's oil. "Heck, we even lost 5,000 of our people, 65,000 injured and a trillion, five hundred billion dollars."

President Barack Obama has pledged to withdraw U.S. troops in Iraq.

"We leave there with the Chinese getting the oil," Pickens said.

Iraq & Afghanistan Update /Oct 7

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:40:53 -0700

Oct 7

U.N. Data Show Discrepancies in Afghan Vote

Voter turnout data kept confidential by the United Nations' chief envoy in Kabul after Afghanistan's disputed August presidential election show that in some provinces the official vote count exceeded the estimated number of voters by 100,000 or more, providing further indication that the contest was marred by fraud.

In southern Helmand province -- where 134,804 votes were recorded, 112,873 of them for President Hamid Karzai -- the United Nations estimated that just 38,000 people voted, and possibly as few as 5,000, according to a U.N. spreadsheet obtained by The Washington Post.

The disclosure of the data seems likely to worsen a credibility crisis for the U.N. special envoy, Kai Eide, who is already facing allegations that he sided with Karzai. In the past week, two U.N. political officers in Kabul have resigned because of a lack of confidence in Eide's leadership, according to U.N. officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel issues.

The departures were triggered by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's decision last week to fire Eide's American deputy, Peter W. Galbraith, after he accused his boss of failing to provide Afghan and international officials with evidence of fraud, primarily by Karzai's supporters.

** Afghan Taliban say they pose no threat to the West

Scuffle With Security Contractors Highlights Iraqis' New Clout in Green Zone

In a dramatic illustration of shifting authority in the Green Zone, once an American preserve here, Iraqi soldiers confronted a security detail contracted by the U.S. government, detained four of the guards and beat them in a standoff last week that lasted at least two hours, according to Iraqi officials, the company and the U.S. Embassy.

The U.S. military negotiated the guards' release several hours later, the U.S. Embassy said, and the four men were flown out of Iraq, for fear that charges might be filed against them.

Please check comments for updated and new stories

Iraq and Afghanistan Update/Sept 30

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:12:35 -0700

US envoy removed from Afghan post

Mr Galbraith had been critical of the Afghan election commission

A senior UN official in Afghanistan has been removed from his post following a row about how to handle the country's disputed election, the BBC has learned.

Peter Galbraith had angered Afghan President Hamid Karzai by criticising the country's election commission.

Mr Galbraith, from the US, was said to have called for a complete recount.

AFP - The United States and NATO countries with forces in Afghanistan have told the government of President Hamid Karzai they believes he will be re-elected despite problems with the August 20 vote, the Washington Post reported Monday.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization foreign ministers reached "consensus" that Karzai would probably "continue to be president" at a Friday meeting in New York with Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta, a US official told the newspaper.

** UN gives fraud a pass
** White House Embraces Fraudulent Win, Calls for 'Reconciliation'
** Afghan government must earn people's trust: Clinton

Turkey seeks to extend mandate to fight rebels in Iraq

Turkey's government said on Tuesday it would ask parliament to extend for one year a mandate that allows its military to attack Kurdish rebels in north Iraq.

The government's move follows pledges by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to address decades-old Kurdish grievances and find an end to the conflict with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has claimed some 40,000 lives since 1984.

previous updates after the jump, please check comments for updated and current articles

McChrystal submits Afghanistan troops request

The commander of Western forces in Afghanistan returned to Kabul on Saturday after flying to Europe to deliver his request for more troops in person to U.S. and NATO commanders, his spokesman said.

General Stanley McChrystal gave his long-awaited request for more troops to U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen and NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Admiral James Stavridis, said spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Tadd Sholtis.

"At the end of that meeting General McChrystal did provide a copy of the force requirements to Admiral Mullen on the U.S. side and Admiral Stavridis on the NATO side," Sholtis said. The unannounced meeting took place at an air base in Germany.

Officials have not said exactly how many extra troops McChrystal believes he needs, although U.S. defence and congressional officials have suggested the request would be for about 30,000 extra troops.

** US drone crashes into Iraq political party office

Watada discharged

First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned military officer to refuse deployment to Iraq because he believed it was an illegal war, has won his three-year legal battle with the Army.

With little fanfare the Army at Fort Lewis, Wash., accepted the resignation of the 1996 Kalani High School graduate, and he will be discharged the first week in October.

Rather than seek a second court-martial against the artillery officer, the Army will grant Watada a discharge under "other than honorable conditions."

Ken Kagan, one of Watada's Seattle attorneys, said last night, "Lt. Watada had previously tendered his resignation on more than one occasion, and each time, it was rejected. This time, however, it was accepted, apparently only when the Army realized it could not defeat Lt. Watada in a courtroom."

Sept 25

Five US soldiers die in Afghanistan: NATO

Another five US soldiers have died after fighting insurgents in the troubled south of Afghanistan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said Friday.

Two of the soldiers were killed outright and three later died of their injuries in a trio of separate incidents on Thursday, the military said.

_{** Afghan critic quits top Army role

** Army medics save Afghan girls – with crushed prawn shells

** Andrea Mitchell: McChrystal wants 500,000 troops for five years (Updated) ~ Steve Hynd/Newshoggers

** Snake Eyes in Afghanistan ~ Derrick Crowe/FDL

** Pakistan reluctant to give route for India-Afghan transit trade}

Over half of vets still waiting for G.I. Bill money

Nearly a month into the fall college semester, the Department of Veterans Affairs has paid benefits for fewer than half the former Iraq and Afghanistan veterans requesting under the new post-9/11 G.I. Bill, according to a VA estimate.

Keith Wilson, director of the VA Education Service office, said about half of the 50,000 veterans owed money for tuition and expenses have been paid. Others are still waiting .

Another estimated 60,000 veterans are waiting for money under an older version of the G.I. Bill, Wilson says.

"We realize we're not meeting everybody's expectations," he says.

"If you served your country, they (the U.S. government) promised to pay," says Jeff Kohler, 23, a Navy veteran of the Iraq war who now attends Ohio State University. However, he says, the $4,300 in initial tuition fees, housing and expenses promised under the new G.I. Bill have not arrived.

"They sort of dangle your education in front of you and then right when you're going to get it, they say, 'Oops, sorry,' " says Kohler

_{** Iraq's PM says efforts to resolve Syria dispute 'nearly hopeless'

** Explosion north of Baghdad kills 11 Iraqi soldiers

** 16 prisoners escape in northern Iraq

** Leading Egyptian Daily 'Al-Ahram' Reports: Coins from Era of Biblical Joseph Found in Egypt}

Iraq & Afghanistan Update/ Sept 20

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 06:19:56 -0700

Sept 20

CIA expanding presence in Afghanistan

The CIA is deploying teams of spies, analysts and paramilitary operatives to Afghanistan, part of a broad intelligence "surge" that will make its station there among the largest in the agency's history, U.S. officials say.

When complete, the CIA's presence in the country is expected to rival the size of its massive stations in Iraq and Vietnam at the height of those wars. Precise numbers are classified, but one U.S. official said the agency already has nearly 700 employees in Afghanistan.

The influx parallels the U.S. military expansion and comes as the nation's spy services are under pressure from Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal to improve intelligence on the Taliban and find ways to reverse a series of unsettling trends.

_{Silly me, I thought the civilian surge meant more PRT's etc,.... ~ tina}

Iraq helicopter crash kills U.S. soldier

A U.S. soldier was killed and twelve others wounded when their helicopter crashed in the U.S. military's main airbase in Iraq, the military said in a statement on Sunday.

The helicopter went down over joint base Balad, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Baghdad, at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Saturday, the statement said. U.S. officials were not immediately available to comment on the suspected cause of the crash.

How Islamist gangs use internet to track, torture and kill Iraqi gays

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:28:41 -0700

Afif Sarhan & Jason Burke | Baghdad | September 13

The Observer - Sitting on the floor, wearing traditional Islamic clothes and holding an old notebook, Abu Hamizi, 22, spends at least six hours a day searching internet chatrooms linked to gay websites. He is not looking for new friends, but for victims.

"It is the easiest way to find those people who are destroying Islam and who want to dirty the reputation we took centuries to build up," he said. When he finds them, Hamizi arranges for them to be attacked and sometimes killed.

Hamizi, a computer science graduate, is at the cutting edge of a new wave of violence against gay men in Iraq. Made up of hardline extremists, Hamizi's group and others like it are believed to be responsible for the deaths of more than 130 gay Iraqi men since the beginning of the year alone.

The deputy leader of the group, which is based in Baghdad, explained its campaign using a stream of homophobic invective. "Animals deserve more pity than the dirty people who practise such sexual depraved acts," he told the Observer. "We make sure they know why they are being held and give them the chance to ask God's forgiveness before they are killed."

The violence against Iraqi gays is a key test of the government's ability to protect vulnerable minority groups after the Americans have gone.

Dr Toby Dodge, of London University's Queen Mary College, believes that the violence may be a consequence of the success of the government of Nouri al-Maliki. "Militia groups whose raison d'être was security in their communities are seeing that function now fulfilled by the police. So their focus has shifted to the moral and cultural sphere, reverting to classic Islamist tactics of policing moral boundaries," Dodge said.

Iraq and Afghanistan Update/Sept 8

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:26:54 -0700

Sept 8

Partial results show Karzai winning in 1st round

Partial results issued on Tuesday for last month's Afghan presidential election gave incumbent Hamid Karzai 54.1 percent of the vote, the first time he has had enough votes to win in a single round without a run-off.

The results, announced by the Independent Election Commission with 91.6 percent of polling stations tallied, gave Karzai's main rival Abdullah Abdullah 28.3 percent of the vote. The commission said it had set aside results from 600 polling stations where it suspects irregularities.

Last orders for troops arriving for daily duty with hangovers

After a Nato airstrike killed as many as 125 people last week, General Stanley McChrystal was keen to get the situation under control — fast.

When he tried to contact his underlings to find out what had happened, however, he found, to his fury, that many of them were either drunk or too hungover to respond.

Complaining in his daily Commander’s Update that too many people had been “partying it up”, General McChrystal, head of International Forces in Afghanistan (Isaf), banned alcohol at his headquarters yesterday, admonishing staff for not having “their heads in the right place” on Friday morning — a few hours after the deadly attack.

** UN-backed electoral commission finds 'clear and convincing' evidence of fraud at polling stations
** Citing Fraud, Panel Orders Partial Afghan Vote Recount
** German Lawmakers Question Involvement in Afghan Airstrike
** NGO alleges US "occupation" of Helmand clinics
** Raid on Hospital Violates International Agreements, Endangering Aid Workers, Patients and Troops ~ Derrick Crowe

US troops killed in Iraq bombings

Four US soldiers have been killed in roadside bombings in Iraq, three of them in an attack in northern Iraq and another in the capital Baghdad.

With U.S. Forces in Iraq Beginning to Leave, Need for Private Guards Grows

As the United States withdraws its combat forces from Iraq, the government is hiring more private guards to protect U.S. installations at a cost that could near $1 billion, according to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

Chalabi aide: I went from White House to secret U.S. prisoner

Sat, 05 Sep 2009 03:28:02 -0700

Hannah Allam | Sept 5

McClatchy Newspapers - Add to the strange saga of the Bush administration's love-hate relationship with Iraq's Ahmad Chalabi the tale pf Ali Feisal al Lami, who once met with U.S. officials in the White House, then spent nearly a year in secret U.S. detention, accused of helping Iranian-backed militants kidnap and kill American and British soldiers and contractors. During his captivity, Lami claims to have been quizzed by Army Gen. David Petraeus, then the top U.S. commander in Iraq.

Iraq and Afghanistan Update

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 09:13:50 -0700

Sept 4

Taliban's bombs came from US, not Iran

The roadside bombs killing and maiming Western soldiers in Afghanistan are not Iranian, as a top United States intelligence agency has claimed. The devices are crude but devastating re-adaptations of Italian anti-tank mines given to the anti-Soviet mujahideen in the 1980s by the US Central Intelligence Agency. - Gareth Porter

_{** Civilian deaths reported after NATO airstrikes kill up to 90 in Afghanistan

** Germany Says No Civilians Died in NATO Afghanistan Air Strike

** U.S. regrets civilian deaths in Afghanistan}

Security walls return to Baghdad after series of bombings

For nine months the walls that divided Baghdad had been slowly disappearing. Neighbourhoods estranged by rows of drab concrete throughout three years of civil war had been getting to know each other, while the government boasted it had reclaimed the capital's streets.

Two weeks ago a series of devastating bombs changed everything.

This week walls were again being erected across the capital in areas where they had only just been removed. The symbolism was unmistakable: foreboding landmarks of Iraq's descent into chaos were once again necessary. The security gains of the past year are starting to look like a false dawn.

US 'needs fresh Afghan strategy'

A top US general in Afghanistan has called for a revised military strategy, suggesting the current one is failing.

In a strategic assessment, Gen Stanley McChrystal said that, while the Afghan situation was serious, success was still achievable.

The report has not yet been published, but sources say Gen McChrystal sees protecting the Afghan people against the Taliban as the top priority.

The report does not carry a direct call for increasing troop numbers.

"The situation in Afghanistan is serious, but success is achievable and demands a revised implementation strategy, commitment and resolve, and increased unity of effort," Gen McChrystal said in the assessment.

** Anti-Taliban ops claim high toll in Afghanistan
** Pentagon Cancels Media Analysis Contract With The Rendon Group ~ yay!

(Japan's likely next prime minister)Hatoyama has been vocal about distancing Japan from Washington and forging closer ties with its Asian neighbors. He has said he will end a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan, and wants to review the role of the 50,000 U.S. troops stationed across Japan under a post-World War II mutual security treaty. NPR

Remnants of Iraq Air Force Are Found

Iraqi officials have discovered that they may have a real air force, after all.

The Defense Ministry revealed Sunday that it had recently learned that Iraq owns 19 MIG-21 and MIG-23 jet fighters, which are in storage in Serbia. Ministry officials are negotiating with the Serbs to restore and return the aircraft.

The Serbian government has tentatively promised to make two of the aircraft available “for immediate use,” according to a news release from the ministry. The rest would be restored on a rush basis, the ministry said.

** Syria's Assad slams Iraq over "immoral" charges
** Security developments in Iraq, August 31

Iraq and Afghanistan Update/ Aug 24

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:01:29 -0700

Aug 17

Aug 24

U.S. Military Says Its Force in Afghanistan Is Insufficient

American military commanders with the NATO mission in Afghanistan told President Obama’s chief envoy to the region this weekend that they did not have enough troops to do their job, pushed past their limit by Taliban rebels who operate across borders.

The commanders emphasized problems in southern Afghanistan, where Taliban insurgents continue to bombard towns and villages with rockets despite a new influx of American troops, and in eastern Afghanistan, where the father-and-son-led Haqqani network of militants has become the main source of attacks against American troops and their Afghan allies.

** We Must Stop Not Talking About Afghanistan ~ Meteor Blades

Maliki breaks ranks with Shiite bloc ahead of election

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Monday broke ranks with his ruling Shiite parliamentary bloc ahead of January's general election, paving the way for a new chapter in the country's politics.

Maliki instead aims to establish a multi-confessional coalition including tribal Sunni leaders as well as Shiite candidates to run in the nationwide poll, one of his closest aides said.

The split became clear when Iraq's leading Shiite alliance, the biggest group in parliament, announced its list of election candidates on Monday, which excluded Maliki and his allies.

** US now trains more drone operators than pilots

please check comments for more articles and updates

Like lambs to the slaughter....

Afghanistan's government on Wednesday called for a media blackout on reporting violence as fresh attacks threatened disruptions a day ahead of pivotal presidential elections.

The media was asked to refrain from covering any attacks on election day in an effort to "ensure the wide participation of the Afghan people."

** Alive in Afghanistan ~ h/t The Seminal
** The stories behind the Taliban story - interactive

Powers line up to stir Afghanistan's pot

If Afghan President Hamid Karzai secures a clear-cut victory in the first round on Thursday, he will bring into power a coalition that the United States will find extremely hard to control. As such, regional capitals are concerned the US might now engineer a post-election "Iran-like situation" to muddy the waters and install a surrogate power structure in Kabul. - M K Bhadrakumar ..let the twitterring begin ;-)

** The Afghan pipe dream ~ whoa Pepe
** Ballots and Bullets for Afghanistan
** Bogus ballots and Britney: fraud threatens Afghan poll
** Taliban message: Vote at your peril

Massive Explosions Kill Dozens in Baghdad

At least 45 people were killed and 300 wounded in a series of truck-bomb and other attacks on Wednesday that rocked areas around official buildings in central Baghdad, the interior ministry said.

The explosions, at least one of them close to the heavily-fortified Green Zone security area, sent plumes of dark smoke billowing over the capital as police and army units scrambled, closing two main bridges over the Tigris river.

** Series of blasts kills 75, wounds 300 in Baghdad
** Iraq’s relentless bloodshed - timeline

Aug 17

Taliban rooting for Karzai's defeat

When Afghanistan's 17 million eligible voters cast their votes on Thursday for a president and provincial councils, the Taliban will be hoping for the defeat of incumbent Hamid Karzai.

The Taliban want Karzai to lose, preferably to his main challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, who hails from the north. The Taliban believe this would heighten feelings in the Pashtun-dominated south that people there are being ruled by the north. This in turn could make ordinary folk more receptive to the Taliban.

_{** Hamid Karzai on ropes in televised election debate

** Obama's War -- Firing a General

** Helping Afghan women find a voice

** Mass rally on last Afghan campaign day

** Kim Sengupta: No quick fix when it comes to training the Afghan army

** UK Death toll of troops in Afghanistan reaches 204}

Turkmen join Arabs to stop vote on Iraq oil province

Arab and Turkmen politicians in Iraq's northern Kirkuk province have banded together to try to block an impending referendum on the future status of the disputed oil-rich region.

Kurds, reckoned to form the majority of the province's 900,000 population, are eager to press on with the vote in the hope of removing direct control of the area from Baghdad and including it in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region.

Political stalemate meant that Kirkuk took part neither in Iraqi provincial elections earlier this year nor Kurdish ones last month, but leaders of the province's minority Arab and Turkmen communities believe they may have found a way of breaking the deadlock.

They are seeking a national vote on a proposal to scrap the already-delayed Kirkuk referendum.

_{** Iraq cabinet approves vote on U.S. security pact

** Iraq indefinitely postpones national census

** Rights group reports anti-gay death squads at work in Iraq

** A slo-mo withdrawal from Iraq

** Time for Arabs to get serious about Iraq}

Previous update after the jump, please post Iraq and Afghanistan related articles in comments.

Aug 16

How did a suicide bomber get to Kabul's NATO headquarters?

Afghan authorities are trying to determine how a suicide bomber breached tight security in Kabul's diplomatic quarter on Saturday and detonated an SUV packed with explosives in front of NATO headquarters five days before the presidential election. At least seven people died and 91 others were injured by the explosion, according to a Defense Ministry statement

_{** Why Taliban leaders prefer dead diplomats

** U.S. Plans a Mission Against Taliban’s Propaganda

** The Seminal and Brave New Films Announce a New Blog Fellowship on Afghanistan

** Canada's future in Afghanistan

** America's Friends The Afghan Drug Lords}

6 years after invasion, electricity still scarce in Baghdad

Dark humor flips on when the lights go out in a city that still suffers from crippling power outages despite the billions of dollars that have been invested in its grid.

"Electricity is dead. Pray for its soul," reads graffiti scrawled along a wall in central Baghdad's Karrada neighborhood.

"I miss electricity so much I want to feel an electric shock, just so I know we have it," said Falah Hasan Ali, 23, a resident of Baghdad's Sadr City district who sleeps on his roof to escape the nighttime heat.

Electricity long has been a benchmark for reconstruction success in Iraq. But even as American troops have withdrawn from Iraqi cities and there's talk of a faster U.S. pullout from the country, electricity remains elusive for millions of Baghdad residents.

_{** G.I. Jane Breaks the Combat Barrier as War Evolves

** Iraqi worries grow as blast walls vanish

** Iraqi PM to visit Syria for security talks

** Iraq's coalition of one changes its name}