The Taliban claim they released two French journalists and their Afghan translator who were held hostage for 18 months in exchange for an unspecified number of insurgents held as prisoners.
Ahmad Rashid is widely considered to be the best journalist on Afghan and related Pakistani issues. And he has a scoop over the secret U.S. negotiations with the Taliban. I respect him though I dont necessarily agree with him. And Rashids points must be integrated into the U.S. and Western debate over Afghanistan.
Heres the key section:
The talks are premised on the essential realisation that neither a successful western withdrawal from Afghanistan nor a transition to Afghan forces can take place, without an end to the civil war and a political settlement that involves the Afghan government and the Taliban, but also Pakistan, the US and the region.
Think about that, whether or not it is accurate. What Rashid is saying is that the U.S. government knows that it has to make a deal with the Taliban to withdraw from Afghanistan. And since the Obama Administration is eager to get out (for political reasons more than strategic ones), it has a strong need to reach agreement with the Taliban, which means that unilateral concessions are likely.
The International Security Assistance force confirmed today a top Haqqani Network leader suspected of providing material support to the Kabul suicide bomb attack June 28, was killed in a precision airstrike in Gardez District, Paktiya province, yesterday.
Ismail Jan was the deputy to the senior Haqqani commander inside Afghanistan, Haji Mali Khan. Jan and several Haqqani fighters were killed in strike.
The Haqqani Network, in conjunction with Taliban operatives, was responsible for the Tuesday night attack on the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel which killed 12 people, including a provincial judge.
Jan also served as an insurgent leader in the Khost-Gardez Pass area, along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, and moved into Afghanistan from Pakistan in late 2010. During this time he led approximately 25 to 35 fighters in conducting attacks against Afghan and coalition security forces.
In addition to the hotel attack, the Haqqani Network is responsible for several high-profile attacks, including the assassination of a long standing governor, Taj Mohammad Wardak. Wardak was assassinated in a massive explosive-device attack as he left his compound in September 2008.
The security force tracked his location after receiving several intelligence reports from Afghan government officials, Afghan citizens and disenfranchised insurgents. After planning to avoid civilian casualties and mitigate collateral damage, the precision airstrike was conducted, killing Jan and several other insurgents.
Afghan-led security forces have captured or killed more than 80 Haqqani leaders and facilitators since January,
Have we gotten inside their training loop? How many are left who know where the executive bathroom actually is, let alone where the key is kept?
primarily in the Paktika, Paktiya and Khost areas. Initial reports indicate no civilians were harmed in the airstrike.
International officials confirmed Wednesday that a brazen attack by suicide bombers on a popular hotel in Afghanistan that left 19 dead was the work of the Haqqani network, a Pakistan-based insurgent group that are closely allied with the Taliban. U.S. military officials have said the Haqqani network is the most dangerous militant group battling foreign forces in Afghanistan.
Eight insurgents stormed the Western-style Inter-Continental hotel in Kabul Tuesday night, setting of explosions and exchanging gunfire with authorities for hours until pressure from Afghan snipers and a NATO helicopter forced three of the remaining bombers to blow themselves up. Hours later, an injured suicide bomber holed up in one of the hotel rooms detonated his explosives, signaling an end to the fight.
Eleven Afghan civilians -- all workers at Kabul's Inter-Continental hotel -- were killed, along with two policemen. Thirteen others were wounded, but none of the hotel's guests were killed.
The attackers were heavily armed with machine guns, anti-aircraft weapons, rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and grenade launchers, the Afghan officials said.
NATO air strike killed Haqqani Number Three
ISAF identified the Haqqani network leader killed in an air strike as Ismail Jan, who it described as a deputy to the senior Haqqani commander in Afghanistan, Haji Mali Khan. It said he and "several Haqqani fighters" were killed in the air strike in the Gardez district of Paktia province south of Kabul on Wednesday.
A major problem in Afghanistan is the failure of the Afghan justice system, and Afghan insistence that foreign troops use it anyway. Currently, only about ten percent of Islamic terror suspects captured by foreign troops are prosecuted, and only half of those are convicted. Those arrested who can afford to bribe their way out, or have someone who can intimidate the right people, never get convicted. When dealing with Afghan police and troops, the terrorists can often arrange a bribe, and freedom, on the spot.
#1
This works both ways. If the judge is corrupt, pay him more than the bad guys can pay. All they can offer is likely Afghan or Pakistani money, which is worth only a fraction of USD (at least for now). So slip the judge a $20, and watch him hang bad guys like there is no tomorrow.
[Tolo News] At least five Talibs were killed in Afghan police operation in southern Helmand province on Tuesday, local officials said.
The operation was launched in Nad Ali district of Helmand province to clear it of Islamic exemplars, Helmand governor Media Office said in a statement.
During the operation Afghan police have seized many weapons, added the statement. There were no Afghan police and civilian casualties in the operation, Media Office said.
Helmand is one of the seven provinces that Afghan forces will take over from foreign forces in July this year.
Afghan and foreign forces have increased their operations to clear volatile areas of faceless myrmidons as foreign forces are to hand over security responsibilities to Afghan forces by the end of 2014.
Taliban have increased their activities recently in the country targeting government sites and Afghan and foreign forces. On Tuesday night Taliban attacked Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul in which eight civilians and one police soldier were killed and eight others including three Afghan police were maimed. The attack occurred when a group of suicide kaboomers stormed Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul on Tuesday night sparking a firefight between the raiders and Afghan cops.
Head of Kabul police Criminal Investigation Department told TOLOnews that eight suicide attackers stormed the Inter-Continental Hotel at 10:00 pm local time and opened fire. Clashes between the faceless myrmidons and Afghan cops continued for four hours.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] Governor of Afghanistan's Central Bank has accused President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... of having role in Kabul Bank crisis.
Abdul Qadir Fitrat, former governor of Afghanistan's Central Bank, told Aljazeera television from Washington that Kabul Bank shareholders covered the costs of Karzai's Presidential campaign in several occasions.
Mr Fitrat decamped the country and presented his resignation in Washington because his life was in danger in Kabul.
He told Aljazeera television that Kabul Bank shareholders bought seventy expensive vehicles using the money of the bank to provide transportation to Karzai's presidential campaign.
"Several central bank officers said that they gave money in various occasions to the presidential campaign to his closest aides. They bought seventy expensive cars for the campaign. They covered the entire media campaign of the President," Mr Fitrat told Aljazeera.
He said he stepped down because his life was in danger, especially after he disclosed names of people close to high-ranking Afghan government authorities who he says were involved in Kabul Bank crisis.
"The President's brother also took millions of money illegally under fictitious names from the bank and also relatives of other high-level authorities of Afghanistan took millions and possibly hundreds of millions of dollars from the bank," he claimed.
"Because of the way the government reacted, I now have come to a conclusion that that information was reliable that the government was part of the plot, because the government, particularly the president was aware that I knew a lot of facts about how they stole depositors'
money."
He said all documents proving his allegations are with the central bank and Kabul Bank audit team, but he said he is not sure whether the documents will be exposed because of the risky nature of the issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/30/2011 00:00 ||
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