Watching the Warmakers is based in Brighton, England.
Our aim is to support activists in educating themselves in the issues
which confront those struggling for peace and justice.

News archives for the week ending 11th September 2009

Afghanistan: 'People are arming themselves'

The reliable measure of stability in many countries is the value of the currency or the price of equities, bread or fuel — but not in Afghanistan: here the key indicator that nearly every Afghan keeps tabs on is the price of a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle. And the bad news is that the market is bullish. The stepped-up Taliban offensive and mounting discord over the outcome of last month's election have seen the price of a Chinese-made AK smuggled in from Pakistan rise to $400 from $150 in just three months.

"People are arming themselves," a Western official in Kabul noted with alarm.

The surge in the Kalashnikov Index is likely to be sustained by the results of the Aug. 20 elections, widely perceived by Afghans, diplomats and foreign observers as marred by fraud. Fictitious polling booths were set up, and in some places, vote riggers were so brazen they did not even bother to remove the individual ballots from the booklets in which they were printed before marking them.

Most of the rigging favored the incumbent, President Hamid Karzai, and political uncertainty is rising over how the opposition — notably his leading rival, former Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, and the powerful coterie of Tajik warlords he represents — will react to Karzai's flawed victory.

Time, 10/9/09

Ministers approved fatal commando raid

The foreign and defence secretaries approved the rescue of a kidnapped Western journalist from Taliban territory which resulted in four people being killed, Downing Street confirmed Thursday.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown's official spokesman said Foreign Secretary David Miliband and Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth took the final decision to approve the use of force to free reporter Stephen Farrell.

"The prime minister was consulted, the final decision whether to go or not would have been made by the two Cabinet ministers," the spokesman said.

Farrell, who has dual British-Irish nationality, walked free but his Afghan colleague Sultan Munadi, a British soldier, an Afghan woman and an Afghan child were killed in the operation.

Criticism mounted Thursday over the dramatic airborne rescue, which was ordered despite negotiations apparently progressing well before British commandos intervened.

In Afghanistan, local journalists expressed anger over the death of Munadi, whose bullet-riddled body they said was abandoned at the scene for his parents to collect and take home for burial.

AFP, 10/9/09

Congress may resist escalating war

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she sees little support for sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, forecasting a potential showdown with the Obama administration over how to win the war.

Pelosi's comments put President Barack Obama in an uneasy position as he considers whether to side with his top commander in Afghanistan, who is expected in coming weeks to ask for more troops and other resources. She is the highest-ranking Democrat to signal that any White House or Pentagon push for more troops will be resisted in Congress.

"I don't think there's a great deal of support for sending more troops to Afghanistan in the country or in the Congress," Pelosi told reporters.

Associated Press, 10/9/09

Taliban have presence in almost all of Afghanistan

The Taliban have a significant presence in almost every corner of Afghanistan, data from a policy think tank showed on Thursday, as the country lurches into political uncertainty after a disputed presidential election.

A security map by policy research group the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) showed a deepening security crisis with substantial Taliban activity in at least 97 percent of the country. The ICOS data, obtained by Reuters before its release on Thursday, painted an even darker picture than an Afghan government map last month that showed almost half of Afghanistan at either a high risk of attack or under "enemy control".

Based on reports of an average of one or more insurgent attacks a week since January 2009, it showed heavy Taliban activity across 80 percent of Afghanistan. A substantial Taliban presence -- one or more attacks per month -- was seen in another 17 percent of the country.

In the most significant difference to previous security assessments, the latest ICOS map shows a heavy increase in areas of the north previously regarded as relatively safe such as Balkh and Kunduz provinces.

Reuters, 10/9/09

Europeans hostile to war in Afghanistan

Sixty per cent of Britons want the UK military to withdraw from or reduce its presence in Afghanistan, according to an international poll released today which showed that the British are the most hostile in western Europe to their troops' presence in Afghanistan.

A separate British survey showed that a similar figure believed UK troops should never have been deployed in Afghanistan or Iraq. The survey of opinion in 13 countries conducted annually by the German Marshall Fund of the United States found that 41% of Britons wanted troops pulled out of Afghanistan while a further 19% wanted a reduction in troop numbers. All 13 countries polled, including the US, have troops in Afghanistan.

The British hostility to the presence there was almost matched by Germany and exceeded in the EU only by Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, according to the Transatlantic Trends survey.

In a week that has seen the Afghan war intrude for the first time into Germany's election campaign because of the civilian casualties from a German-ordered air strike, three out of four Germans did not believe the western effort would stabilise Afghanistan. Four out of five polled across Europe rejected Barack Obama's pleas for greater troop contributions from Nato allies in Europe for Afghanistan.

Guardian, 10/9/09

Israel's military rabbis

Israel's army is changing. Once proudly secular, its combat units are now filling with those who believe Israel's wars are "God's wars". Military rabbis are becoming more powerful. Trained in warfare as well as religion, new army regulations mean they are now part of a military elite.

Military rabbis, like Lieutenant Shmuel Kaufman, welcome the changes. "Our job was to boost the fighting spirit of the soldiers. The eternal Jewish spirit from Bible times to the coming of the Messiah."

Before his unit went into Gaza, Rabbi Kaufman said their commander told him to blow the ram's horn: "Like (biblical) Joshua when he conquered the land of Israel. It makes the war holier."

Rabbis handed out hundreds of religious pamphlets during the Gaza war. When this came to light, it caused huge controversy in Israel. Some leaflets called Israeli soldiers the "sons of light" and Palestinians the "sons of darkness".

BBC News, 7/9/09

Pentagon proposes military equipment for Pakistan

The Pentagon has proposed transferring U.S. military equipment from Iraq to Pakistani security forces to help Islamabad step up its offensive against the Taliban, according to officials and government documents.

The Pentagon request for the authority to "transfer articles no longer needed in Iraq" to the army of Pakistan received a cool reception in the U.S. Congress, where some questioned what safeguards would ensure the arms would not end up being diverted to Pakistan's border with India, a nuclear-armed power like Pakistan.

The inclusion of Pakistan in the request, along with Iraq and Afghanistan, underscored the high priority the Pentagon places on freeing up equipment the Pakistani army says it needs to mount ground operations in South Waziristan and other Taliban strongholds bordering Afghanistan.

Reuters, 9/9/09

Germany considering prosecution over missile strike

German lawmakers demanded explanations Monday for how and why their soldiers in Afghanistan, normally restricted to peacekeeping duties, triggered a NATO airstrike that killed approximately 100 people. Political fallout from the attack jolted Germany's election campaign just weeks before the vote and threatened to sour relations with the United States.

Prosecutors in Potsdam said Monday that they were considering whether to open a homicide investigation into the decision by a German military commander to order the airstrike by a U.S. fighter jet, which blew up two hijacked fuel trucks and a crowd of bystanders early Friday in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz.

Pressure was mounting on defense minister Franz Josef Jung, who at first insisted that the attack killed only Taliban forces but later acknowledged that civilians were among the dead.

Washington Post, 8/9/09

Karzai says US is undermining him

Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has accused the United States of denouncing his friends and family in an effort to undermine his own position and make him more malleable.

Karzai, who is closing in on a first-round victory in last month's presidential election, revealed strained relations with the United States and said U.S. criticism of his running mate, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, was actually aimed at him.

"The Americans attack Karzai in an underhand fashion because they want him to be more tractable. They are wrong. It is in their interest ... that Afghanistan's people respect their president," he said, referring to himself in the third person.

"It is in no-one's interest to have an Afghan president who has become an American puppet," he added.

Reuters, 7/9/09

Germany: killing of civilians makes war an election issue

Germany defended itself Monday against growing international criticism of a devastating NATO airstrike that German forces in Afghanistan requested on Friday, laying out a detailed version of events leading up to the attack.

The airstrike, directed at two tanker trucks carrying NATO fuel that were hijacked by the Taliban near the northern city of Kunduz, killed scores of people, burning many beyond recognition.

The episode has brought to the surface long-simmering tensions between NATO allies. The United States and Britain, for example, have griped that Germany was shirking its share of the fighting.

German leaders, for their part, believe that their efforts have been considerable in light of the widespread pacifism among Germans after World War II and the opposition of the German public to a continued military presence in Afghanistan. Germany has about 4,200 troops in the country.

The timing could not be worse for German politicians like Mrs. Merkel who support the troop deployments, with voters soon heading to the polls to elect a new Parliament. Mrs. Merkel announced that she would address Parliament on Tuesday about the matter, reflecting growing concern by her conservative bloc that the war in Afghanistan could become a major campaign issue.

New York Times, 7/9/09

Mercenaries on rise in Iraq

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.

The need for contract guards began growing this year. The Central Command's June quarterly report on contracting showed a 19 percent increase from the three previous months in the number of security guards in Iraq hired by the Defense Department.

The Central Command attributed the increase, from 10,743 at the end of March to 13,232 at the end of June, mainly to "an increased need for PSCs [private security companies] to provide security as the military begins to draw down forces."

The Central Command study found that of the armed private security personnel working in June, 623 were Americans, 1,029 were Iraqis and 11,580 were third-country nationals. Most of that group "were from countries such as Uganda and Kenya," according to the inspector general's report.

Washington ost, 8/9/09

Pakistanis see US as enemy

Pakistanis are reacting to what many here see as an "imperial" American presence, echoing Iraq and Afghanistan, with Washington dictating to the Pakistani military and the government. Polls show that Pakistanis regard the U.S., formally a close ally and the country's biggest donor, as a hostile power.

Much of the hysteria was based on a near $1 billion plan, revealed by McClatchy Newspapers in May and confirmed by U.S. officials, to massively increase the size of the American embassy in Islamabad, which brought home to Pakistanis that the United States plans an extensive and long-term presence in the country.

A survey last month for international broadcaster Al-Jazeera by Gallup Pakistan found that 59 percent of Pakistanis felt the greatest threat to the country was the United States.

A separate survey in August by the Pew Research Center, an independent pollster based in Washington, recorded that 64 percent of the Pakistani public regards the U.S. "as an enemy" and only 9 percent believe it to be a partner.

Miami Herald, 7/9/09

US troops in hospital raid

A Swedish charity accused American troops Monday of searching a hospital in central Afghanistan, tying up security guards and breaking into female wards, which is offensive to local Islamic customs.

Anders Fange, the country director of the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, accused troops of breaking down doors, searching patients' relatives and entering the ultrasound room.

Fange, who called the incident "simply not acceptable," said hospitals are seen as a neutral zone.

"If the international military forces are not respecting the sanctity of health facilities, then there is no reason for the Taliban to do it either," he said. "Then these clinics and hospitals would become military targets."

U.S. military spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker confirmed that the hospital was searched last week but had no other details.

Fox News, 7/9/09

US increases share of global arms sales

Despite a recession that knocked down global arms sales last year, the United States expanded its role as the world’s leading weapons supplier, increasing its share to more than two-thirds of all foreign armaments deals, according to a new Congressional study.

The United States signed weapons agreements valued at $37.8 billion in 2008, or 68.4 percent of all business in the global arms bazaar, up significantly from American sales of $25.4 billion the year before.

The United States was the leader not only in arms sales worldwide, but also in sales to nations in the developing world, signing $29.6 billion in weapons agreements with these nations, or 70.1 percent of all such deals.

The study found that the larger arms deals concluded by the United States with developing nations last year included a $6.5 billion air defense system for the United Arab Emirates, a $2.1 billion jet fighter deal with Morocco and a $2 billion attack helicopter agreement with Taiwan. Other large weapons agreements were reached between the United States and India, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, South Korea and Brazil.

New York Times, 6/9/09

Afghan voter turn out higher than 100% in some areas

Detailed polling records released by an Afghan election commission revealed numerous polling places in Kandahar province where all the votes were delivered to a single candidate — President Hamid Karzai.

The records appear to bolster fraud allegations surrounding the Aug. 20 presidential election — which has become ever more critical to the U.S. and its allies in the face of Afghanistan’s increasingly powerful Taliban insurgency. In Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, the results from 66 polling sites have been released. In nine of them, 100 percent of the votes went to Karzai.

Also in Kandahar province, an area that was a target of insurgent attacks to try to suppress the vote, there were six polling places that had more than 100 percent of the estimated registered voters reportedly turn out. At one location, the turnout was nearly a third higher than the number of voters registered.

“It is state-organized fraud,” Karzai’s main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, a former minister in Karzai’s government, said Saturday.

Kansas City Star, 5/9/09

Iraqis protest against use of US troops

Hundreds of Arabs demonstrated in northern Iraq on Saturday against the prospect of American soldiers teaming up with Iraqi and Kurdish troops to patrol the region's disputed zones.

In August the US military said it was discussing a possible accord with the Baghdad central government and the autonomous Kurdish region to work alongside their respective armies in disputed areas.

Any such deal would run counter to a landmark security pact signed between Baghdad and Washington last year that paved the way for a gradual drawdown of US troops and a complete withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2011.

AFP, 5/9/09

US intelligence experts come out against war on Afghanistan

President Obama has already dispatched an additional 21,000 American troops to Afghanistan and soon will decide whether to send thousands more. That would be a fateful decision for his presidency, and a group of former intelligence officials and other experts is now reluctantly going public to warn that more troops would be a historic mistake.

The group includes Howard Hart, a former Central Intelligence Agency station chief in Pakistan; David Miller, a former ambassador and National Security Council official; William J. Olson, a counterinsurgency scholar at the National Defense University; and another C.I.A. veteran who does not want his name published but who spent 12 years in the region, was station chief in Kabul at the time the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, and later headed the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorism Center.

The group’s concern is that sending more American troops into ethnic Pashtun areas in the Afghan south may only galvanize local people to back the Taliban in repelling the infidels.

“Our policy makers do not understand that the very presence of our forces in the Pashtun areas is the problem,” the group said in a statement. “The more troops we put in, the greater the opposition. We do not mitigate the opposition by increasing troop levels, but rather we increase the opposition and prove to the Pashtuns that the Taliban are correct.

New York Times, 5/9/09

An exit strategy for Afghanistan

As in Iraq, the gap between public and private discourse among those running the war in Afghanistan appears to be growing. The undeclared US exit strategy looks like this: two more years spent maximising the military pressure on the Taliban, while everything is done to build up Afghan forces and cut deals with insurgents who agree to cut ties with al-Qaida; a loya jirga will be called to rewrite the constitution, which is a way of circumventing the claim that anyone who reconciles with Kabul will have to respect the constitution; and then the international effort will be scaled back from counter-insurgency into a counter-terrorist mission. It would be a way of withdrawing with the mission of restoring the Afghan state unaccomplished, but avoiding a Soviet-style humiliation.

If this is what is in US minds, it would be as well for the process to start now rather than in two years' time. The Taliban, we are told, have to be negotiated with from a position of strength. But two more years of this disastrous fight could see them stronger still. And the strength British and US leaders need to show is the strength of mind involved in realising how many of their original ambitions were misplaced.

Guardian,5/9/09

Airstrike killed mainly civilians

In an incident that could seriously undermine the central U.S. aim in Afghanistan, dozens of civilians were killed or injured early Friday in a NATO airstrike, Afghan authorities said.

The predawn strike on a pair of hijacked fuel tankers in a remote part of northern Kunduz province killed more than 70 people, most of them civilians, according to Afghan police, provincial officials and doctors. In the initial hours after Friday's strike in Kunduz,

Western military officials expressed confidence that nearly all those killed were insurgents. But later reports trickling in from the scene painted a grim picture of impoverished villagers being engulfed by the explosion while trying to siphon fuel from the stranded tankers.

The incident could increase the strain on ties among NATO allies, further complicating the troubled war effort. The strike was called in by German troops, who make up the bulk of Western forces in Kunduz. Involvement in such a controversial act could depress already flagging domestic support in Germany for the Afghan mission.

Los Angeles Times, 5/9/09

US prepares to kerb Karzai and his cronies

Acknowledging that they are likely to be saddled with Mr Karzai again, US officials are canvassing two options that might kerb him and his cronies.

One is the appointment of former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani, a single-digit vote winner in the presidential race, as a prime minister. The other is the appointment of an international commission to investigate corruption. The latter option might prove too difficult for Mr Karzai - his running mate in the presidential race is accused of involvement in drugs, as is Mr Karzai's family.

His main rival Abdullah Abdullah's opening fraud allegations needed no theatrical flourishes. He had sheafs of clearly forged ballot papers; he had photographs of ballot papers stacked in partisan police stations, where they were not meant to be; he had video of mirthful ballot box-stuffers going about their task, all apparently in Mr Karzai's name.

The Age, Australia, 5/9/09