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News archives for the week ending 15th January 2010

Iraq bars 500 election candidates

Iraq's electoral commission on Thursday barred 500 candidates from running in March's parliamentary election, including a prominent Sunni lawmaker, in a decision that is sure to deepen Iraq's sectarian divides.

Hamdia al-Hussaini, a commissioner on the Independent High Electoral Commission, said the commission made the decision after receiving the list from a parliament committee that vets candidates for ties to Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party.

The decision to bar the candidates - most of whom are believed to be Sunni - potentially threatens the country's fragile security because it risks leaving Sunni voters feeling targeted and disenfranchised.

The Sunni boycott in a January 2005 election is considered one of the key factors that deepened the insurgency.

Washington Post, 15/1/10

Cost of wars tops $1 trillion

The cost to U.S. taxpayers of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 has topped $1 trillion, and President Barack Obama is expected to request another $33 billion to fund more troops this year.

The lion's share of the spending -- $747.3 billion -- has been allocated to the war in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion there in 2003. The other $299 billion has been for Afghanistan, where the United States invaded to fight al Qaeda and topple the Taliban after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

War funding for fiscal 2010, which ends Sept. 30, included $72.3 billion for Afghanistan and $64.5 billion for Iraq, making this the first year that Afghanistan was more expensive, the National Priorities Project said.

Reuters, 14/1/10

Record number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan

A U.N. report says the number of civilians killed in Afghanistan last year was higher than in any year since the U.S.-led coalition dislodged the Taliban in 2001.

The chief human-rights officer at the United Nations mission in Kabul, Norah Niland, released the annual findings to reporters in Kabul. She says non-combatant casualties went up 14 percent in 2009, describing it as the most deadly year for Afghan civilians since the conflict began.

While blaming Taliban insurgents for causing two-thirds of the civilian deaths, the U.N. officer says foreign and local forces were still responsible for a quarter of the non-combatant deaths during in anti-insurgency operations.

Voice of America, 13/1/10

Pakistan says drone attacks endanger relations with US

Intensified U.S. drone aircraft attacks or ground operations against Islamist militants in Pakistan could endanger relations between the two allies, Pakistan's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Tension over pilot less drone aircraft attacks will likely deepen as the CIA hunts down enemies along the border after a suicide bomber crossed over Pakistan's border and killed seven of its employees in Afghanistan.

Pakistan officially objects to the strikes against suspected al Qaeda and Taliban militants along its northwest, saying they violate its sovereignty.

The attacks have also created fierce anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, a key ally Washington sees as a front-line state in its war on militancy.

Reuters, 14/1/10

Anti-US protestors killed in Afghanistan

A volatile town in southern Afghanistan erupted Tuesday as rumors spread that American servicemen had desecrated a Koran and defiled local women in a nearby village.

When the riot was over, at least eight protesters were dead and about a dozen wounded, shot by Afghan intelligence officers. Much of the town of Garmsir blamed the Americans.

The episode, which American officers said they were investigating, highlighted how easily suspicions and resentment can flare out of control in an area as contested as the Helmand River Valley.

New York Times, 13/1/10

Corruption in Afghanistan not limited to Afghans

About three-fourths of the ongoing corruption investigations led by U.S. oversight officials in Afghanistan are targeting suspects who aren't Afghan nationals, the top U.S. investigator in Afghanistan said Tuesday in Kabul.

While he wouldn't identify officials or companies under investigation, the figures seem to support Afghan government contentions that corruption is every bit as widespread among Western officials as it is in their own ranks.

"About 40 percent of our investigations involve procurement fraud," said Raymond J. DiNunzio, the assistant inspector general for the U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction.

U.S. and Western governments frequently issue large contracts to support military and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, for labor, security guards and building materials, for example.

Miami Herald, 12/1/10

China shows displeasre at US support to Taiwan

China said late Monday that it had successfully tested the nation’s first land-based missile defense system, announcing the news in a brief dispatch by Xinhua, the official news agency. “The test is defensive in nature and is not targeted at any country,” the item said.

Chinese and Western analysts say there is no mistaking that the timing of the test, coming amid Beijing’s fury over American arms sales to Taiwan, was largely aimed at the White House. In recent days, state media have been producing a torrent of articles condemning the sale of Patriot air defense equipment to Taiwan.

China views the self-ruled island as a breakaway province, separated since the civil war of the 1940s, and sees arms sales as interference in an internal matter.

New York Times, 12/1/10

Dutch inquiry finds Iraq war illegal

A Dutch inquiry has found that the Iraq invasion was illegitimate under international law and that Dutch leaders had misinterpreted a UN resolution as authorizing countries to take military action against Iraq.

The six-member commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Willibrord Davids, released its 551-page report on the invasion of Iraq on Tuesday. The report found that the wording of United Nations resolution 1441 on Iraq "cannot reasonably be interpreted (as the Dutch government did) as authorizing individual member states to use military force to compel Iraq to comply with the Security Council's Resolutions."

The committee also found that the government ignored intelligence questioning the US claim that then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, and that the full contents of a 2002 US request for support were not made available to the parliamentarians deciding on the issue.

Deutsche Welle, Germany, 12/1/10

Obama wants extra $33 billion for wars

The Obama administration plans to ask Congress for an additional $33 billion to fight unpopular wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, on top of a record request for $708 billion for the Defense Department next year.

Obama's request for more war spending is likely to receive support on Capitol Hill, where Republicans will join moderate Democrats to pass the bill. But the budget debate is also likely to expose a widening rift between Obama's administration - it sees more troops and money as necessary to winning the war - and Democratic leaders, who have watched public opinion turn against the military campaign.

The Pentagon projects that overall defense spending would be $616 billion in 2012; $632 billion in 2013; $648 billion in 2014; and $666 billion in 2015. Congress sets little store by such predictions, which typically have fallen short of actual requests and spending.

Washington Post, 13/1/10

2009 was worst year for Pakistan violence

Pakistan suffered its worst year of terrorist violence last year, with more than 3,000 people killed, as Islamic insurgents, some of them allied with al-Qaida, targeted civilians and destabilized the country, according to a new report.

The tally compiled by the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies, a research organization based in Islamabad, found that terrorist attacks killed 3,021 people and injured 7,334 in 2009. There were 87 suicide bombings amid 2,586 terrorist strikes, a 45 percent increase over the previous year.

Pakistani extremists had been careful to limit their targets to the police and military but toward the end of 2009 they began to hit civilian targets, including Islamabad's International Islamic University and markets in the cities of Lahore and Peshawar.

"The most important trend to emerge was attacks on soft targets," said Abdul Basit, a researcher at PIPS. "The distinction between combatants and non-combatants is gradually disappearing."

Miami Herald, 11/1/10

Yemenis don't want intervention

On Jan. 6, NBC News correspondent Richard Engel reported from Sanaa that Yemenis welcome increased aid. But in this context, "Yemenis" does not mean the Yemeni people: It means President Ali Abdullah Saleh and a small number of his closest associates. The president came to power in a military coup and has installed cronies and family members throughout the government. In Yemen, aid means aid to Saleh.

Saleh was president of North Yemen from 1977 to 1990 and has been president of the unified country since then. Since the introduction of multiparty elections following unification, he has channeled political competition to his benefit, pitting Yemen's Islamists against its socialists to maintain power.

In the past decade, his grasp has weakened somewhat, as he has fought an armed insurgency in the northern Saada province since 2004 and a regional opposition movement in the south since 2007. Moreover, Saleh must cope with an increasingly independent media, despite his attempts to quash it. Still, pervasive corruption and the suppression of civil liberties have kept Saleh comfortably in charge.

An increase in aid and intelligence will provide him with more fungible resources to use as he sees fit. In contrast, the democrats struggling to challenge him stand to suffer irrevocable damage.

"What [Washington] doesn't understand is that Yemen doesn't need more arms or equipment to monitor the telephone lines and Internet connections," one senior official critical of Saleh explained via email. "Saleh sucked hundreds of millions of dollars from the budget to buy arms that were [only] used for internal purposes to secure his rule and his family. We need a better government and more real democracy."

Simply put, providing more aid to Yemen will make the situation worse. The war on terrorism has already provided Saleh with a pretext for the surveillance and persecution of journalists and opposition activists.

Foreign Policy, 12/1/10

Army chief sees 'tough year' ahead

The head of the Army has said he expects fewer British casualties in Afghanistan from the end of 2010, but anticipates a "tough year" ahead.

General Sir David Richards said the mission would benefit from more soldiers, mainly US forces, and a larger Afghan army and police force. He said it might be possible to reduce troop levels in about 18 months. However, he added a military presence in its present form would be required in Afghanistan for up to five years.

The number of British military personnel killed on operations in Afghanistan since 2001 stands at 246. Last year was the bloodiest for UK forces since the Falklands War in 1982, with the final death toll reaching 108.

BBC News, 10/1/10

The spreading war in Afghanistan

In the year after the Taliban fell, international forces numbered a modest 16,000. Today that number is already well over 100,000, and the insurgency has mushroomed along with it.

The war -- once mostly limited to Pakistan border -- has touched nearly ever corner of the country. It has also penetrated the frontier-like capital, where car bombings or other spectacular attacks like the October storming of a guest house filled with U.N. staff make news every couple of weeks.

New York Times, 10/1/10

Miliband: aid to Afghanistan is conditional

Britain's foreign secretary said Saturday that international financial support for Afghanistan was conditional on a better performance by Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government, which has been tainted by accusations of corruption.

"We won't pay, and others won't pay, if we're not sure where the money's going," David Miliband told Associated Press Television News in an interview in the Pakistani capital.

Miliband was in Pakistan for a two-day visit, his sixth since becoming foreign secretary. He was in the British-allied South Asian nation to promote an upcoming conference in London on Afghanistan. The conference will be co-hosted by the British and Afghan governments at the end of January and bring together more than 60 countries and international institutions.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has laid out a series of milestones for the conference, which Afghanistan's government will have to stick to. Those milestones include a timetable for reforming the country's police force and fighting corruption.

Washington Post, 9/1/10

US has structure for global intervention

Each of six world regions now has a separate U.S. commander with his staff and intelligence, planning and potential operational capabilities. Central Command, based in Florida, currently is responsible for America's Middle Eastern and Central Asian wars.

The other five commands -- Atlantic, Pacific, Southern (for Latin America), Africa and Europe -- oversee in detail what goes on in their assigned portions of the world, generating analyses, appreciations, and scenarios of possible reactions to a myriad of perceived or possible threats to the United States.

Each commander also makes contact with regional government military forces, so far as possible, cultivating good relations, professional exchanges and training. Each promotes training missions to the U.S. and military aid, and supports equipment purchases.

Each regional commander controls "main operating bases" abroad, which in turn support fully manned "forward operating sites," usually including permanently stationed American forces and an air base. Beyond them, "cooperative security locations" are established, shared with the forces of allies or clients.

The hegemonic implications and intention of all this, which provides the military structure from which to conduct global interventions (or indeed a third world war), are readily acknowledged in Washington, and motivated by what Washington considers internationally valid and constructive reasons.

Chicago Tribune, 8/1/10

US protests at Pakistan harrassment

The U.S. Embassy complained Thursday that its staff members are being harassed and detained as they travel around Pakistan, a rare public protest that illustrated the tensions between the allies as America expands its presence here. The press statement issued Thursday reflects the rising frustration American officials feel over alleged Pakistani efforts to stymie Washington's move to add hundreds more staff and more space to its embassy in Islamabad.

U.S. officials say they need more room and people to help disburse a $7.5 billion humanitarian aid package to Pakistan, whose cooperation Washington needs to fight Al Qaeda-allied militants along the Pakistan-Afghan border. But suspicion of U.S. motives abounds among Pakistanis. Many believe the U.S. is flooding the country with more spies whose ultimate aim is destabilizing Pakistan and taking over its nuclear program.

Toronto Star, 8/1/10

US ignores Pakistan on drone attacks

Members of a U.S. congressional delegation visiting Pakistan say the use of drone missile strikes against suspected al-Qaida and Taliban extremists in the country's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan is proving to be an effective weapon in the anti-terror war. The U.S. lawmakers, however, have ruled out the possibility of giving the technology to Pakistan.

Pakistani leaders have repeatedly demanded the United States give drone technology to Islamabad so its own forces can use them against militants instead of foreign troops.

But the leader of the delegation, Republican Senator John McCain, said there are differences between the two countries over the issue of transferring the drone technology. "We don't agree on every issue," he said.

Last year, U.S. spy planes carried out more than 50 missile strikes against militants in Pakistani tribal areas. The attacks are reported to have killed hundreds of people, including civilians.

Voice of America, 8/1/10

US arms sales to Taiwan create tensions with China

China has complained to the United States about the sale of advanced Patriot air defense missiles to Taiwan, which Beijing does not consider an independent legitimate state.

The sale of the missiles by Lockheed Martin, announced Wednesday in Washington, will undermine Sino-U.S. cooperation and will have severe consequences, China said. Jin Canrong, deputy dean of the International Studies School at Renmin University of China, told China Daily that Beijing is nearly certain to retaliate against the United States if the deal is consummated.

"It is likely to freeze military exchanges. It will make the U.S. very uncomfortable because of all the world's strategic military powers, the U.S. is most eager to learn about the [People's Liberation Army]," Jin is quoted as saying.

CNN, 8/1/10

Clinton outlines US thinking on Palestine

The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Palestinians and Israelis to resume peace talks as soon as possible and without preconditions.

Following a series of meetings, she gave some details about how the US administration views a peace agreement. She called for a viable Palestinian state based on the 1967 lines, the year Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. This is a crucial starting point for the Palestinians.

She said Israel should have a secure Jewish state that reflects subsequent developments. In other words, some Israeli settlements on occupied land will remain, a key Israeli demand.

BBC News, 9/1/10

Iraq blocks 15 parties from standing in elections

At least 15 parties will be banned from upcoming parliamentary elections because they have been linked to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party or have promoted Baathist ideals, Iraqi officials said Thursday.

The decision by the Justice and Accountability Commission, in charge of cleansing high-level Baathists from the ranks of the government and security forces, seemed to be an attempt to purge candidates with links to the old political order, many of whom are popular among secular nationalist voters.

The move is a blow to hopes of bringing opposition figures -- who turned to violent resistance over the past seven years -- into the political fold, part of the U.S. strategy to bolster the government.

Washington Post, 8/1/10

Zardari: drone attacks raise question of sovereignty

US drone strikes on Pakistani territory undermine national consensus against the war on terror, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Thursday. Zardari made the comments at a meeting with a US congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain that had called on him.

The president called on the delegation to persuade US policymakers to give Pakistan drone technology and enable national security forces, instead of foreign troops, to target terrorists. He said US drone strikes on Pakistani territory raised questions of sovereignty.

Daily Times, Pakistan, 8/1/10