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News archives for the week ending 20th March 2009

Israel troops admit Gaza abuses

An Israeli military college has printed damning soldiers' accounts of the killing of civilians and vandalism during recent operations in Gaza.

One account tells of a sniper killing a mother and children at close range whom troops had told to leave their home. Another speaker at the seminar described what he saw as the "cold blooded murder" of a Palestinian woman.

The army has defended its conduct during the Gaza offensive but said it would investigate the testimonies. The testimonies were published by the military academy at Oranim College. Graduates of the academy, who had served in Gaza, were speaking to new recruits at a seminar.

"The testimonies conveyed an atmosphere in which one feels entitled to use unrestricted force against Palestinians," academy director Dany Zamir told public radio.

The soldiers' testimonies also reportedly told of an unusually high intervention by military and non-military rabbis, who circulated pamphlets describing the war in religious terminology. "All the articles had one clear message," one soldier said. "We are the people of Israel, we arrived in the country almost by miracle, now we need to fight to uproot the gentiles who interfere with re-conquering the Holy Land." "Many soldiers' feelings were that this was a war of religion," he added.

BBC News, 19/3/09

Six years after US invasion of Iraq….

Six years after the U.S. invaded Iraq, the end of America's costly mission is in sight, but the future of this tortured country is much less clear.

With violence down sharply, most Iraqis feel more secure than at nearly any time since the war began March 20, 2003 - March 19 in the United States.

But violence still continues at levels that most other countries would find alarming. Last week, suicide bombers killed a total of 60 people in two separate attacks in the Baghdad area, and an American soldier was fatally injured Monday on a combat mission in the capital.

Fighting still rages in Mosul and other areas of the mostly Sunni north. Competition for power and resources among rival religious and ethnic groups is gearing up, even as the U.S. military's role winds down.

Both the Sunni and Shiite communities face internal power struggles that are likely to intensify ahead of national elections late this year. Sunni-Shiite slaughter has abated, but genuine reconciliation remains elusive.

Legislation to manage the giant oil industry and distribute its wealth has been deadlocked in parliament for two years.

The central government and the Kurds have made little progress in resolving claims to a 300-mile swath of disputed territory in the north, including the oil-rich area around Kirkuk.

U.S. officials privately believe there is a very real chance of armed conflict between government troops and armed forces of the self-ruled Kurdish regional administration.

Many Iraqis fear that the relative calm simply means threat groups are laying low until the Americans leave. "Iraq will face difficult economic situations for long time. ... The political process is still at a crossroads," Iraq's Shiite vice president, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, said last week. "The war is not over but it has just begun."

AFP, 19/3/09

Iraq Considers Giving Foreign Oil Investors Better Terms

To attract badly needed investments to increase its oil production, the Iraqi government is considering new incentives for foreign companies, including plans to offer majority stakes in joint ventures to develop the country’s huge oil and gas fields, senior Iraqi officials said Wednesday.

Foreign companies could own as much as 75 percent of the new ventures, the officials said. In its negotiations with dozens of international companies, including Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, Iraq had until now offered stakes of no more than 49 percent in new joint ventures to develop existing and new oil fields.

There has been stiff opposition in Parliament from many political parties to any foreign investment, much less the idea of letting foreign companies own majority stakes in joint ventures. Even a proposed contract with Shell for producing natural gas in southern Iraq, which would give Shell a 49 percent share, was condemned in Parliament.

New York Times, 19/3/09

US military may escalate 'war on terror' by striking deeper into Pakistan

Washington is considering expanding its controversial policy of missile strikes and commando raids deeper inside Pakistan, according to reports this morning.

In what would be a major escalation of the "war on terror", the New York Times reported that the US may push its firepower into Pakistan's vast, economically backward, Baluchistan province.

Washington has so far targeted militants based in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas, which run along Afghanistan's eastern border. Baluchistan, however, is a "settled" region and considered a regular part of the country. However, the province, and especially its capital, Quetta, has long been considered the home of the Afghan Taliban and an important sanctuary for al-Qaida.

Pakistan has opposed the use of US missile strikes in its tribal area, which have killed some leading al-Qaida commanders but also led to the death of innocent civilians. Islamabad complains that the attacks, from unmanned "drone" aircraft operated by the CIA, are a flagrant breach of Pakistani sovereignty.

In September last year, American forces conducted their first known ground raid within Pakistan, in the tribal area, causing uproar. If Taliban and al-Qaida extremists are in Quetta itself or other urban areas, missile strikes may not be feasible, so American boots on Pakistani soil would be required.

The Pakistani authorities, already under pressure from a domestic insurgency, have been reluctant to stir up further trouble by tackling extremists in Baluchistan, which runs along Afghanistan's eastern border. According to Kabul, the Taliban founder, Mullah Omar, lives in Quetta. Northern Baluchistan is populated by Pashtuns, the same ethnicity that is the biggest group in Afghanistan and makes up most of the Taliban.

Guardian, 18/3/09

Britain closely involved with US review

Britain's defense and foreign secretaries were weighing in with U.S. counterparts Wednesday on a U.S. review of policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Ahead of a meeting with Defense Secretary Robert Gates, John Hutton said Britain was closely involved in the U.S. review and is offering expertise from its long history of interaction with the Pakistani military and operations in the region.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband was also talking to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the review, an extensive evaluation of U.S. strategy in the region ordered by President Barack Obama and nearing completion.

Hutton said that Britain was particularly focused on bolstering security on Pakistan's border with Helmand province in Afghanistan, where many of Britain's nearly 9000 forces in the country are engaged. "The U.K. and Pakistan have very close connections. Military to military, we have very close relationships," he said. "We want to help develop Pakistan's military capability to deal with the threat of al-Qaida and Taliban."

Hutton also announced a major arms purchase in the Joint Strike Fighter program. He said that Britain would buy test aircraft giving a boost to one of the U.S. Defense Department's largest weapons programs.

International Herald Tribune 18/3/09

Taliban targets Nato lorries

Taliban fighters in northwest Pakistan have destroyed 14 lorries carrying supplies for Nato forces in neighbouring Afghanistan, in the second such attack in two days.

Fighters entered a supply depot on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, overpowered guards and set fire to vehicles, police said. The vehicles were bound for US-led forces stationed in Afghanistan. Sixteen bulldozers and Humvee patrol vehicles were destroyed.

A day earlier, Taliban fighters torched eight lorries in another attack on Nato supply vehicles. A dozen more lorries and trailers were also damaged when the fighters, armed with automatic weapons and rockets, attacked a terminal on the outskirts of Peshawar city.

Nato and the US-led forces in Afghanistan are hugely dependent on Pakistan for their supplies and equipment, with an estimated 80 per cent of these transported by land from Pakistan.

But fighters in the tribal area have staged a number of attacks in recent months on Nato supply depots outside Peshawar, torching hundreds of vehicles and containers destined for foreign troops in Afghanistan.

Aljazeera, 16/3/09

Majority in UK oppose Afghan war, want Iraq inquiry

Most Britons don't buy their government's argument for keeping a military presence in Afghanistan, a poll published Monday shows.

A BBC-commissioned ComRes poll showed that 60 percent of Britons don't believe their leaders have made the case for keeping troops in the war-torn country. Just over a third of those polled said they were "fairly" or "very convinced" by their government's arguments for staying there.

The poll also showed that nearly three-quarters of Britons believe there should be an official inquiry into the decision to go to war in Iraq once Britain removes most of its remaining forces from the country there in July.

Associated Press, 17/3/09

Terror suspect claims UK colluded in torture

Further allegations of British collusion in the alleged torture of prisoners abroad have arisen after a 26-year-old British man said he was mistreated by Egyptian intelligence officers last year.

Azhar Khan said he was forced to stand on the spot for five days while enduring beatings and electric shocks. During his torture he was asked detailed questions about his associates in the UK, raising the question of his Egyptian interrogators having been given information that could only have come from the British sources.

Mr Khan, of Slough, the former brother-in-law of the convicted terrorist Omar Khyam, was detained for a week on arriving in Egypt in July last year.

The Foreign Office has confirmed that Mr Khan was detained and said it knew he had complained of being tortured. Mr Khan's testimony follows that of Binyam Mohammed, just released from Guantanamo Bay, who said that he believed his interrogators were fed information by MI5.

Independent, 16/3/09

Missile attack kills 5 in Pakistan

A suspected US missile strike killed two Arabs and three other people in northwest Pakistan late Sunday, intelligence officials said, in the latest in a barrage of American attacks on suspected militant targets in the region.

There have been about three dozen suspected U.S. attacks close to the Afghan border since last year. Pakistan's government publicly protests the raids as violations of its sovereignty and says the anger generated by them undercuts its efforts to battle extremism. Still, top civilian and military officials are widely believed to have a deal with Washington allowing them.

AFP 16/3/09

Iraqis more confident of future, wary of foreign powers

Violence and insecurity are no longer the main concern of most Iraqis, for the first time since the 2003 US-led invasion, an opinion poll suggests. It says Iraqis are much more hopeful about the future and are increasingly pre-occupied with more conventional worries like the economy and jobs.

But Iraqis remain unhappy about the role foreign powers play in their country, notably Iran, the US and UK. Overall, 59% of those questioned think Britain's role is negative, 22% positive; 64% say the US is negative, 18% positive; 68% view Iran negatively, 12% positively.

Only 30% think coalition forces are doing a good job, 69% a bad job.

BBC News, 16/3/09

Pentagon rethinking two-war strategy

The long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are forcing the Obama administration to rethink a key premise of U.S. strategy for more than two decades: that the nation need only prepare to fight two major wars at once.

The military has acknowledged that the wars have left troops and equipment severely strained, and has said that it would be difficult to carry out any kind of significant operation elsewhere.

To some extent, fears have faded that the United States might have to fight, say, Russia and North Korea, or China and Iran, at the same time. But if Iraq and Afghanistan were never formidable foes in conventional terms, they have already tied up the U.S. military for longer than World War II did.

A senior Defense Department official said the Pentagon was absorbing the lesson that the counterinsurgency campaigns likely to be part of some future wars would require more endurance than in past conflicts, like the Gulf War in 1991.

In an interview with National Public Radio last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates made it clear that the Pentagon was reconsidering whether the old two-wars assumption "makes any sense in the 21st century" as a guide to planning and budgeting.

New York Times, 15/3/09

Surge ‘no solution’ in Afghanistan

General David Petraeus, the head of US Central Command, has said that a mass influx of troops like that during the so-called "surge" in Iraq is not the answer to Afghanistan's spiralling violence.

Petraeus, who was commander of US forces in Iraq when the strategy was implemented in 2007, said that the infrastructure was not in place for a similar effort in the Central Asian nation. "You do need to tenaciously pursue the enemy and the extremists," he said. "But you also need to be building, and to develop, and to assist, and to help and to partner."

Petraeus blamed the continuing problems on a "syndicate of extremists," financing from the drug trade, safe havens in Pakistan and frustration with the slow development of the country's fledgling government.

Petraeus's remarks reflect widespread concerns that the situation in Afghanistan is worsening as anti-government fighters gain strength in many areas of the country and violence reaches its highest levels since the US-led invasion of 2001.

A United Nations report published on Friday said that security had deteriorated and could continue to worsen over the coming months. However, Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said that extra troops to help train Afghanistan's security forces and provide protection for election scheduled for August could help the situation.

The UN report also identified the rise in civilian deaths as a major problem. The number of civilians killed rose 40 per cent last year to 2,118. Most of the deaths were caused by anti-government fighters, but 39 per cent were caused by international and Afghan government forces.

Al Jazeera, 15/3/09

Civilians killed in Afghanistan

On Saturday, at least five people were killed in a military operation by US and Afghan troops in Logar province, south of the capital, Kabul.

The US military said that suspected fighters were shot after opening fire on the troops, but a spokesman for the provincial governor said a government delegation had confirmed the dead were civilians.

Angry villagers held a protest near a government compound later in the day and police opened fire on them to prevent them from storming the building,

The US military said that the raid had targeted the leader of a group making roadside bombs. "They were five armed militants that fired on a joint force ... when they went in to get a targeted individual,'' Colonel Greg Julian, a US military spokesman, said.

After angry condemnations by Hamid Karzai, the president, following civilian deaths in US and Nato-led operations, Washington recently agreed to put Afghan forces on all of its missions.

Al Jazeera 15/3/09

Political turmoil in Pakistan

Pakistani authorities today placed opposition leader Nawaz Sharif under house arrest, a day after putting the armed forces on alert amid an escalating power struggle with former allies.

U.S. diplomatic efforts to defuse the political crisis intensified as the Pakistani government pledged anew to block a massive opposition rally in the capital on Monday. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton separately telephoned President Asif Ali Zardari and Sharif on Saturday, urging both sides to show restraint. Zardari's office said Clinton promised U.S. support for democracy in Pakistan.

Pakistan returned to full civilian rule a year ago after nearly nine years under President Pervez Musharraf. But the victorious civilian opposition was quickly beset by infighting, which sharpened last month when the Supreme Court banned the Sharif brothers from elective office.

The renewed tumult has raised concern in Washington that Pakistan's already fitful efforts to confront Islamic militants will be sidelined by the power struggle. The Obama administration is also keeping a wary eye on the seeming ascendancy of Sharif, who has less of a pro-Western bent than Zardari, as well as tighter links with Islamist parties.

Zardari has also delayed giving up extraordinary powers that Musharraf accorded himself as president, including the ability to dissolve parliament.

Los Angeles Times, 15/3/09

Naval standoff threatens US-China military relations

A potential conflict was brewing last night in the South China Sea after President Obama dispatched heavily armed American destroyers to the scene of a naval standoff between the US and China at the weekend.

Mr Obama’s decision to send an armed escort for US surveillance ships in the area follows the aggressive and co-ordinated manoeuvres of five Chinese boats on Sunday. They harassed and nearly collided with an unarmed American vessel. China’s military chiefs accused the unarmed US Navy ship of being on a spying mission.

The US keeps a close eye on China’s arsenal, including its expanding fleet of submarines in the area. Washington says that the confrontation occurred in international waters, but Beijing claims nearly all the South China Sea as its own, putting it in conflict with five other nations that have claims over different parts of the waters.

The episode complicated fragile military relations between the US and China, which appeared to have improved after the two held defence talks in Beijing last month.

Beijing has rejected the US account and demanded that the United States cease what it calls illegal activities in the South China Sea. The Chinese maintain the area is part of the country’s exclusive economic zone.

Washington insists that the area is part of international waters and that US ships have a legal right to operate there.

Times 13/3/09

Binyam blames MI5 for torture

Binyamin Mohamed, the former Guantanamo Bay detainee, claimed yesterday he would not have faced rendition and torture if it was not for the involvement of the Security Service, MI5.

Mr Mohamed, a UK resident who was released last week after seven years in captivity, said MI5 officers helped US agents interrogate him following his arrest in Pakistan in 2002. He believed it was their involvement that led to him being transferred to Morocco, where he says that he was tortured.

He said after his removal by the United States to a secret site in Morocco, he was interrogated by local officers, who asked questions supplied by British intelligence and showed him hundreds of photographs of Muslim men living in the UK. "Most of the questions could not have come from anywhere else but British intelligence," he said.

A Home Office spokesman said: "The government unreservedly condemns the use of torture as a matter of fundamental principle and works hard with its international partners to eradicate this abhorrent practice worldwide. "The security and intelligence agencies do not participate in, solicit, encourage or condone the use of torture or inhumane or degrading treatment."

Scotsman 14/3/09

US looking to retool Pakistan relationship

Former president George W. Bush recast the US relationship with India, forging closer ties. Could President Barack Obama do the same for US policy towards its nuclear-armed rival Pakistan?

Upon taking office January 20, Obama ordered a sweeping review of the US strategy for fighting the war in Afghanistan, and US military and diplomatic officials say the road to victory there runs through neighbor Pakistan.

Obama is set to unveil his new approach before a major international summit on Afghanistan on March 31 in The Hague - but already the US Congress is looking to shape US military and development aid to steady Pakistan's democracy and bolster its fight against Islamist extremists.

The result is an approach likely to vastly expand US economic aid, while tying military help to pledges from the country's armed forces to do more against extremists as well as promises to stay out of the country's political and judicial life, lawmakers and aides say.

A centerpiece of the new approach is likely to be legislation that would triple non-military US assistance to Pakistan to 7.5 billion dollars over the next five years, congressional and administration aides say.

To qualify for US military aid, Pakistan would have to show it is doing enough to prevent Al-Qaeda and Taliban Islamist fighters from using its territory as a base and that Pakistan's military is not "materially interfering" in the country's domestic political or judicial processes.

This would build on another Obama-backed approach: legislation that aims to use trade-spurred job growth as an antidote to the poverty that fuels Islamist extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The bill would give goods from certain restive parts of those countries duty-free access to the US market in a bid to promote legitimate economic activity where poverty fuels terrorist recruitment and the illegal drug trade.

AFP, 14/3/09

'alienation' from US drone strikes

Pakistani foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi complained of "alienation" resulting from US drone strikes on his country, after a suspected US strike killed 24 people there.

"There is collateral damage that accompanies these attacks, and it leads to alienation," he said after meeting European Union officials in Prague. "If we want a success in this fight against extremism and terrorism, we have to carry the people along," added Qureshi, whose country is a key regional ally of the US.

Qureshi praised unmanned drones whose missiles destroyed a Taliban training camp in northwest Pakistan on Thursday as "superior technology" that can "take out high-value targets," but he also warned the US to weigh the pros and cons of its tactics.

"The US government should weigh the advantages with the disadvantages. If these disadvantages outweigh the advantages, we feel there is a case to review the strategy," Qureshi said.

More than 30 such strikes have killed over 330 people since August 2008, shortly before key Washington ally President Asif Ali Zardari was elected.

AFP 14/3/09

Deaths in Pakistan drone strike

Missiles fired by an unmanned US drone have killed at least 24 people in Pakistan's Kurram tribal region near the Afghan border, officials have said.

Local officials said the dead were local Taleban and that the toll may rise. Thirty others were injured.

Correspondents say this is the fifth drone attack on Pakistani territory since Barack Obama became US president. Pakistan is critical of the tactic because, it says, civilians are often killed, fuelling support for militants.

The target of the missile attack on Thursday night was a training camp run by a local Taleban commander. The camp in the Brijo area is located some 20km from Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

Taleban guards said that some of those in the camp were hostages the Taleban were holding. Witnesses said people living in the area turned off their lights following the blasts to avoid being targeted by missiles.

The US does not confirm drone attacks but no other countries have the power to deploy such weapons in the region.

BBC news 13/3/09

US reassures Chinese creditors

The Obama administration sought to ease Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s concern about the security of his country’s investments in U.S. government debt, reiterating pledges to cut the budget deficit in half in four years.

“There’s no safer investment in the world than in the United States,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today.

Wen earlier said that China, the U.S. government’s largest creditor, is “worried” about its holdings of Treasuries and wants assurances that the investment is safe.

“I request the U.S. to maintain its good credit, to honor its promises and to guarantee the safety of China’s assets,” he said at a press briefing in Beijing.

President Barack Obama is relying on China to sustain buying of Treasuries amid record amounts of U.S. debt sales to fund a $787 billion stimulus package and a deficit this year forecast to reach $1.5 trillion. Investors abroad own almost half of all U.S. debt outstanding, and China last year overtook Japan as the biggest foreign buyer.

Bloomberg, 13/3/09

Obama extends Iran sanctions

US President Barack Obama has extended sanctions against Iran for one year, saying it continues to pose a threat to US national security.

In a message to the US Congress, Mr Obama said Iran was acting contrary to US interests in the region.

BBC News, 13/3/09