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The news on Monday February 8, 2010

Afghan civilians flee NATO offensive

NATO commanders in Afghanistan say a planned military offensive in a southern Taliban stronghold is meant to defeat the militants and win the support of the population.

U.S and British troops are set to launch what has been described as one of the biggest anti-Taliban offensives of the eight-year-old war.

The assault will target the Afghan town of Marjah in southern Helmand province. Hundreds of civilians have fled the town to safer areas in anticipation of the planned offensive, which will include Afghan and NATO troops.

The U.S commander of the international force in Afghanistan, General Stanley McCrystal, says the offensive is meant to send a strong signal to the local population that the Afghan government is expanding its security control.

Voice of America. 8/2/10

Pakistanis and US at odds over Taliban bases

If Afghan Taliban fighters and their top leaders are roaming around this remote part of Pakistan as the U.S. alleges, the police chief here says he hasn't seen them.

"Point them out to me," Abid Hussain Notkani says. "I will arrest them."

Interviews with residents and officials in and around Quetta, a dusty frontier city of 1.2 million, reveal widespread skepticism that Pakistan's vast Baluchistan province harbors Afghan Taliban commander Mullah Omar, his aides or their foot soldiers.

Washington is so convinced that Afghan Taliban traverse this province that it has debated firing missiles in the area, a move that would certainly infuriate residents.

The U.S. hasn't helped its case, offering virtually no public proof to back its allegations that Omar and his aides operate here.

Washington Post, 7/2/10

US spreads missile shield to Romania...

Romania’s supreme defence council has agreed to the country taking part in US president Barack Obama’s revised plan for a missile defence shield system, president Traian Basescu said in Bucharest on February 4.

US vice president Joe Biden scored a hat trick at the close of his European tour in October 2009 when the Czech Republic joined Poland and Romania in expressing approval of the Obama administration’s new anti-missile shield plan.

In September 2009, US president Obama scrapped a Bush-era missile shield plan for Europe in favour of a revised scheme presented as mobile, flexible and intended as a defence against Iranian missiles. The Bush-era scheme was seen by Moscow as directed against Russia.

Sofia Echo, 4/2/10

...and puts Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty at risk

Russian officials reacted coolly on Friday to the news that Romania had agreed to host American missile interceptors starting in 2015, with a top envoy saying that the announcement could directly affect Moscow’s position as negotiations to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or Start, reach their conclusion.

Dmitri O. Rogozin, Russia’s permanent representative to NATO, said the United States had not fulfilled its promise to consult Russia on developments in the missile defense system. He suggested that the interceptors could pose a threat to Russia’s security.

With the Start renegotiation, a central project in the “reset” between the countries, in its final stages, Russian leaders have repeatedly said missile defense remains a stumbling block.

NewYork Times, 5/2/10

Obama steps up cash for Pakistan and Yemen

The Obama administration is seeking billions in budget increases to target terror threats from abroad, especially Pakistan and Yemen, with boosts for surveillance and attack drones, special operations forces and a new military cyber command.

The focus is on regions that have served as insurgent sanctuaries, where U.S. counterterror officials say the next attack against America is likely being planned. Pentagon aid to Pakistan would balloon to $1.2 billion in 2011, aimed at bolstering its war on internal militants.

And military funding to target al-Qaida could double in Yemen, where the U.S. spent more than $6 million last year just on aerial surveillance provided by drones.

Washington Post, 4/1/10

Maliki challenges overturning of election ban

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday she is "heartened" by an Iraqi decision to reinstate Sunni candidates and urged all parties to do nothing to undermine the legitimacy of elections.

An appeals panel ruled Wednesday in Baghdad that more than 500 candidates barred from Iraq's March 7 general election could stand after all. They were allegedly linked to former dictator Saddam Hussein.

But Iraq's premier Nuri al-Maliki convened parliament for Sunday to debate what his government branded an "illegal" decision to reinstate candidates with alleged links to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

AFP, 5/2/10

Anger in Pakistan over doctor's conviction

There has been an angry reaction in Pakistan to the conviction in a US court of a Pakistani doctor for the attempted killing of US agents. Aafia Siddiqui tried to carry out the shootings while in detention in Afghanistan in 2008.

Pakistan's media has closely followed every twist and turn of her case. Most people here firmly believe that she is innocent, that she is the victim of torture and that she has been unfairly treated by the US courts.

The case seems to have confirmed many Pakistanis' belief that innocent Muslims have been wrongly caught up in America's counterterrorism operations.

BBC News, 4/2/10

Iraq court overturns election ban

The Iraqi appeals court defused a political crisis yesterday by overturning the ban on 450 candidates standing in next month's election which was imposed because of their alleged links to the Baath party of Saddam Hussein.

Many Sunni Arab leaders were among those disqualified, causing a political uproar because the ban appeared aimed at the Sunni community and was likely to intensify Sunni-Shia hostility. In the last parliamentary election in 2005 the Sunnis boycotted the poll and supported the armed insurgency against the Shia-Kurdish government backed by the US.

In a compromise ruling by the court, candidates on the blacklist will take part in the poll on 7 March but will not be able to take office until they are cleared of links to the old regime. Blacklisted candidates defended themselves by saying that Baath party membership was obligatory for many jobs under Saddam Hussein.

Independent, 4/2/10

Army may patrol British streets

Britain's armed forces could be used on a regular basis on the streets of Britain to confront the threat of terrorism, under the terms of a strategic defence review announced yesterday.

Two of the six "key questions" to be considered by the SDR will focus on domestic threats which "cannot be separated from international security", according to a Green Paper setting out the grounds for a full scale review to start after the election.

Decisions need to be made on the "balance between focusing on our territory and region and engaging threats at a distance" and "what contribution the armed forces should make in ensuring security and contributing to resilience within the UK".

Independent, 4/2/10

Efforts to build Afghan police are crumbling

The attempts to build a credible Afghan police force are faltering badly even as officials acknowledge that the force will be a crucial piece of the effort to have Afghans manage their own security so American forces can begin leaving next year.

One in five recruits tests positive for drugs, while fewer than one in 10 can read and write — a rate even lower than the Afghan norm of 15 percent literacy. Many cannot even read a license plate number. Taliban infiltration is a constant worry; incompetence an even bigger one.

After eight weeks of training, an average of 5 percent of recruits cannot pass firearms tests — but are given a gun and sent out to duty.

Unsurprisingly, the Afghan National Police have the highest casualty rates of all the security forces fighting the Taliban; 646 died last year, compared with 282 Afghan Army soldiers and 388 NATO troops, according to NATO figures.

The death rate, poor pay and lack of equipment are among the reasons that a fourth of the officers quit every year, making the Afghan government’s lofty goals of substantially building up the police force even harder to achieve.

New York Times, 2/2/10

US attack on Pakistan kills at least 31...

US predator drones have killed 31 people and wounded many more in Pakistan after missiles rained down on Dattakhel village in the Degan area of North Waziristan, according to intelligence sources.

Pakistan government officials said nine spy planes fired 18 missiles causing heavy human loss. Locals were said to be digging out the dead and wounded from the debris.

It is the biggest attack so far by American unmanned aerial vehicles in the Pakistani tribal area.

Belfast Telegraph, 3/2/10

...as US steps up revenge killings

The United States has escalated its unmanned aircraft strikes at militant targets in Pakistan since seven Americans were killed in a December 30 suicide attack at a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan, statistics from two informed research outlets show. And analysts believe "revenge" could be a top motivator.

A forthcoming study from the New America Foundation, a public policy institute, said there have been 64 strikes since President Obama took office, 51 in 2009 and 13 in 2010. Fourteen of them occurred since the late December CIA suicide attack, it said.

There were 45 such attacks during the Bush administration, with most occurring since August 2008, said Peter Bergen, a fellow at the foundation and CNN terror analyst, and Katherine Tiedemann, a foundation policy analyst.

Bergen cannot say definitively why the drone attacks have increased, but he cites a revenge factor, saying that U.S. forces are upset and want retribution for the brazen bombing and have cranked up strikes on military targets in the tribal regions of Pakistan.

"The people who died in this suicide attack were involved in targeting people on the other side of the border," said Bergen.

CNN, 2/2/10

Pentagon plans future strategy

The U.S. military must prepare for a combination of humanitarian missions, untraditional threats such as cyber-attacks, environmental disasters, terrorist groups seeking weapons of mass destruction and as many as two major conflicts, the Defense Department's latest quadrennial policy review has found.

Calling climate change "an accelerant of instability," the review also marked the first time such a document linked environmental issues with national security.

Miami Herald, 2/2/10

War spending continues under Obama...

President Barack Obama on Monday proposed another two years of hefty spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, seeking Congress' approval for about $160 billion this year and again in fiscal 2011 to pay war costs.

The war spending proposed by Obama is only slightly less than in each of the last two years of the administration of President George Bush and carries considerable political peril for the Democratic president who took office last year.

NewYork Times, 1/2/10

...and warmakers profits rise

Shares of major U.S. defense contractors rose on Monday after the Obama administration unveiled a defense budget for fiscal 2011 that seeks a 3.4 percent increase in the Pentagon's base budget and $159 million to fund missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Standard & Poor's Aerospace & Defense Index .GSPAERO gained about 1.5 percent on Monday.

"In general it was better than we expected, across the board" in terms of the increases in the base budget as well as weapons procurement spending, said Craig Fraser, aerospace and defense analyst for debt rating service Fitch Ratings.

Reuters, 2/2/10

Highest January death toll since occupation began

The death toll of foreign soldiers fighting in Afghanistan under US and NATO command hit 44 in January -- the highest for that month since the war began more than eight years ago -- compared with 25 in January 2009.

The number of Americans who died last month in the conflict was almost double the number for January last year, at 29 compared with 15, according to the icasualties.org website, which keeps a running tally.

AFP, 2/2/10

8 out of 10 believe that Blair lied on war

Tony Blair has been dealt a devastating verdict on his appearance at the Iraq War Inquiry

According to a poll conducted by BPIX after Mr Blair’s testimony to Sir John Chilcot’s inquiry on Friday eight out of ten people believe that the former Prime Minister lied in his evidence. They feel he made a ‘blood pact’ with George Bush to invade the country as he wanted to impress him – not because he believed Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

The inquiry has spent hours examining what legal advice the Government received about taking military action, including damaging testimony from Sir Michael Wood, the former chief legal adviser to the Foreign Office, who said he had made it clear that it would be a ‘crime of aggression’. The public agree with him – 70 per cent thinking the war was illegal.

And 28 per cent feel so strongly about the issue that they think Mr Blair should be tried for ‘war crimes’.The survey makes clear Mr Blair will go down in history as the man who took us into a bloody war in Iraq –87 per cent say the conflict will ‘always overshadow’ his decade at No 10.

Worryingly for Gordon Brown, nearly one in four say it will make them less likely to vote for him.

Mail on Sunday, 31/10/01

Islamic countries urge US to stop strikes in Somalia

In a thorny demand made at a controversial venue, Islamic countries have asked the United Nations to halt unilateral interventions in Somalia dominated by military strikes by the United States.

The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) wants any intervention in Somalia to be multilateral, under the stewardship of the United Nations, and to be designed to initiate dialogue among the warring factions rather than use military might.

The Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (PUIC) suggested that America’s unilateral intervention in Somalia could ultimately limit co-operation by Muslim countries until a UN arrangement is reached.

“Terrorism has no race or religion. Everybody condemns it. Everybody should be brought on board. OIC is a member of the UN and has a lot of weight. We shall give support to all the people of Somalia. We support maintaining peace and stability in Somalia,” said Siddig Yousif Abu-Agla, Director of Cabinet for PUIC.

The East African, 31/12/01

Britain will face 'many more' casualties in Afghanistan in 2010

There will be "many more" casualties in Afghanistan in 2010 in what will be a "very challenging year" for British soldiers, a senior British diplomat said.

Nato's civilian representative in the country, Mark Sedwill, warned of an "awful lot of violence" as the coalition's military and political strategy is beefed up.

And he said soldiers would be needed in a war-fighting role for up to five more years and could be training Afghan forces for "a decade or more".

Associated Press, 31/1/10

Iraq to be top global oil producer

Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said on Saturday he expected Iraq to become the world's top oil producer in six to seven years, and that OPEC should take into account Iraq's need to rebuild its economy.

Emerging from the shadow of war and keen to generate petrodollars to rebuild, Baghdad looks set to lift capacity to 12 million barrels per day in six or seven years, strengthening its hand for future negotiations on output quotas with OPEC.

Iraq has signed a series of oilfield development deals with global oil firms -- which bid on prime fields at two energy auctions last year -- in a nation with the world's third largest crude reserves, emerging from years of conflict and sanctions.

Unlike OPEC's 11 other members, Baghdad is not subject to the output targets the group uses to set supply levels. OPEC exempted Iraq in the 1990s, when it was under sanctions.

Reuters, 30/1/10

Blair's fortune to treble to £45 million

Tony Blair’s fortune is set to treble to £45million next year as he returns to his lucrative career after appearing at the Iraq war inquiry.

The former PM and wife Cherie are building up a property empire and Mr Blair now plans to maximise his earnings over the next two years.

Friends of the pair have told the Sunday Mirror Mr Blair – who will be 57 on the expected General Election date of May 6 – wants to build up a “substantial” retirement nest egg before he hits 60.

Sunday Mirror, 31/1/10

Sheik threatens boycott over ballot purge

A prominent sheik and U.S. ally is weighing whether to urge fellow Sunnis to boycott upcoming elections in protest of the government's ballot purge of hundreds of candidates suspected of links to Saddam Hussein's regime.

Such a call by Ahmed Abu Risha risks derailing Obama administration hopes that the March 7 parliamentary elections will bring stronger reconciliation between Iraq's majority Shiites and minority Sunnis who want to reclaim more political power.

It would also set back the clock on Iraqi politics - using the same protest tactic that Sunnis used in 2005 parliament voting that left them with only a few lawmakers and a weakened voice in key debates.

Washington Post, 30/1/10

NATO cannot prevent attacks on main base in southern Afghanistan

Rocket attacks onto Kandahar Air Field rarely cause significant damage, although NATO said eight service members, four Romanians and four Bulgarians, were wounded here last Sunday.

Nonetheless, the rockets are an annoyance, serving as a reminder that nine years into the war, NATO cannot prevent attacks on its main military base in southern Afghanistan.

Washington Post, 29/1/10

Clinton pushes China on Iran...

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned China on Friday that it faced international pressure and increasing isolation unless it joined other world powers in sanctioning Iran to try to halt Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The admonishment from Clinton came on the same day the Pentagon announced more than $6 billion in arms sales to Taiwan, a move certain to infuriate Beijing and add a new complication to the U.S.-Chinese relationship.

Los Angeles Times, 30/1/10

...and China responds to US arms sales

China has announced a series of moves against the US in retaliation for a proposed weapons sale to Taiwan worth $6.4bn (£4bn).

Beijing said it would suspend military exchanges with the US, impose sanctions on companies selling arms, and review co-operation on major issues.

Ties are already strained by rows over trade and internet censorship.

BBC, 30/1/10

Western troops kill Islamic cleric in Kabul

Western troops traveling through the capital of Afghanistan in a military convoy Thursday shot dead an Islamic cleric, apparently mistaking him for a would-be suicide bomber, officials and witnesses said.

NATO acknowledged that its forces had fired on what appeared to be a "threatening vehicle," and expressed regret for the death. Afghan police said two of the cleric's children were in the car with him but were not hurt.

After the shooting, protesters staged a small but angry demonstration near the gates of the base, blocking traffic and shouting anti-American slogans.

Sayed Abdul Saebzada, chief of the criminal investigations department of the Kabul police, described the incident as a "misunderstanding."

Los Angeles Times, 29/1/10

US supports 'reintegration' but is cool on 'reconciliation'

Afghan President Hamid Karzai told world leaders Thursday that he intends to reach out to the top echelons of the Taliban within a few weeks, accelerating a peace initiative that has troubled U.S. and many other Western leaders.

Karzai told officials of nearly 70 countries and of international aid groups at a gathering in London that he is seeking the mediation of Saudi Arabia and the blessing of Pakistan to try to negotiate peace with the leaders of the militant movement that was driven from power a little more than eight years ago.

The initiative is delicate for the Obama administration, which wants peace in Afghanistan but is sensitive to concerns about making peace with an opponent that has killed well over 1,000 Western troops and been blamed for aiding in the 9/11 attacks.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a presentation to the gathering, said the United States supports efforts for "reintegration" -- winning over foot soldiers through incentives. But she pointedly said nothing about "reconciliation" -- peace talks with the insurgent leadership.

Los Angeles Times, 29/1/10

For stories before this date see our archive page