AF/PAK SWEEP W 1.20.2010

PAKISTAN

1. A roadside bomb on Wednesday injured a Pakistani provincial lawmaker and four others in the northwest city of Peshawar, a frequent target of attacks by Taliban militants, officials said. Aurangzeb Khan, a local legislator with the secular Awami National Party (ANP), saw his politician brother Alam Zeb Khan killed in a similar bombing last year, but escaped life-threatening injury in Wednesday's attack. DAWN

2. Al Qaeda is seeking to de-stabilise the entire South Asia region and could trigger a war between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates told reporters on Wednesday. Groups under al Qaeda's “syndicate” in Afghanistan and Pakistan are trying “to destabilise not just Afghanistan, not just Pakistan, but potentially the whole region by provoking a conflict perhaps between India and Pakistan through some provocative act,” Gates said during a visit to New Delhi. DAWN

3. Five terrorists including a key militant commander were killed in Mohmand Agency during the last 24 hours while 30 suspects were arrested from Kurram Agency and Dir. According to Frontier Corps Media Cell, peace committee of Mohamand Agency killed 2 militants and apprehended 2 others in an action in Khewazai area. Militant commander Ghulam is among the killed. GEO TV

4. An explosive-laden vehicle have been recovered from two saboteurs nabbed by Hub police, Geo News reported Wednesday. ASP Hub Muhammed Usman Ghani Siddiqui told Geo News that two extremists have been arrested from an area near Hubco Power Plant and recovered from their possession a car packed with explosives. GEO TV

5. Pakistan’s government reached an agreement to hand back responsibility for maintaining order in the longtime Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan to tribal leaders after a three-month military offensive. Elders from the Mehsud tribe, which dominates the area, endorsed a government proposal with a unanimous show of hands at a gathering in Tank, the tribal agency’s winter capital. The two sides plan to sign the agreement on Feb. 10. Business Week

6. Nine years after their mysterious disappearance following the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the US still believes the two top al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are in hiding in northwestern Pakistan. According to the latest report on al Qaeda and its expanding network by a powerful Congressional committee, the two leaders are in hiding in tribal areas on the Pakistan-Afghan border. The Senate Committee's views are in variance with those of Pakistani leaders, who believe Osama might well be dead. In a major observation, the report said al Qaeda appears to have increased its influence among the myriad Islamist militant groups operating along the Af-Pak border. The 21-page report by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations examines the role of al Qaeda in international terrorism and its expansion in new areas - Yemen and Somalia - beyond its nerve-centre in Afghanistan and Pakistan. ZeeNews

AFGHANISTAN

7. Two US soldiers were killed by a bomb blast in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force announced. The statement by the headquarters of the international force in Afghanistan did not say exactly where the soldiers were killed, but the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar are the focus of the Taliban insurgency. Thirty foreign soldiers, 18 of them American, have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, after last year saw record losses totalling 520 foreign soldiers. US military deaths in Afghanistan doubled in 2009 to 317, compared to 155 the previous year. ZeeNews

8. Taliban militants ambushed a police convoy in Ghazni province of southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding a police commander and his two sons, provincial police chief Khayalbaz Shirzai said. Xinhua

9. Air raids against militants' hideouts in Badghis province, in northwest Afghanistan, left more than a dozen insurgents dead early Wednesday, senior police commander in the region Ikramudin Yawar said. Considered as a hotbed of Taliban militants in Badghis province, Balamirghab has been the scene of Taliban activities since early 2009. Xinhua

10. A former top diplomat for the Taliban said a new government plan to persuade insurgents to lay down their arms in exchange for jobs or money was corrupt and would

only hinder efforts to reach a peace deal. Abdul Salam Zaeef, who served as ambassador to Pakistan when the Taliban governed Afghanistan, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that the movement was also suspicious about foreign countries' and the Afghan government's motives in proposing peace talks at a time when they are beefing up military strength. Afghanistan's government will soon announce details of the plan for getting Taliban fighters to lay down their arms. It will be a focus of a London conference on the country, where President Hamid Karzai is expected to seek funding for it. Diplomats say the project includes jobs, training and economic incentives to lure militants away from the Taliban, who have intensified their insurgency in recent years despite tens of thousands of Afghan and international troops on the ground. REUTERS

11. The 68-nation London conference at the end of this month will focus on the future of Afghanistan, against the backdrop of major new military commitments by the United States and NATO, promises from the international community of increased civilian assistance, and pledges of new anti-corruption measures from President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. (NYT Op-Ed)

12. Stanley McChrystal, the American Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, is calling for calling for an intensification and fundamental strategic shift in the deployment of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, in the country. Spiegel

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PAKISTAN

1.)

MPA Aurangzeb Khan injured in Peshawar blast

January 20, 2010

PESHAWAR: A roadside bomb on Wednesday injured a Pakistani provincial lawmaker and four others in the northwest city of Peshawar, a frequent target of attacks by Taliban militants, officials said.

Aurangzeb Khan, a local legislator with the secular Awami National Party (ANP), saw his politician brother Alam Zeb Khan killed in a similar bombing last year, but escaped life-

threatening injury in Wednesday's attack.

Local television stations showed footage of a blackened car, rubble and a small crater in the centre of the capital of the North West Frontier Province, which is governed by a coalition led by the Pashtun nationalist ANP.

“It was a remote-controlled bomb buried in the road,” Kiramat Khan, a police official on the scene, told reporters.

The explosives detonated near Khan's home as the politician passed by in a car, Peshawar's top administrative official Sahibzada Mohammad Anis told AFP, while the main hospital treated five people with blast wounds.

“We have received a total of five injured... Aurangzeb has wounds on his forehead, chest and one arm but he is out of danger,” said Abdul Hameed Afridi, chief executive of the city's Lady Reading Hospital.

Aurangzeb Khan won his brother's provincial seat after Alam Zeb Khan was killed by a bomb planted in a bicycle in Peshawar in February 2009.

Last month, another ANP northwest provincial assembly member, Shamsher Ali Khan, was killed when a suicide bomber walked onto the grounds of his home in Swat valley and blew himself up.

Peshawar, on the edge of Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, has seen the worst of the Taliban insurgency. Last October, about 125 people were killed in the city when a suicide car bomb ripped through a busy market.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/metropolitan/03-explosion-near-mpas-house-in-peshawar-ss-01

2.)

Al Qaeda could provoke new India-Pakistan war: Gates

January 20, 2010

NEW DELHI: Al Qaeda is seeking to de-stabilise the entire South Asia region and could trigger a war between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates told reporters on Wednesday.

Groups under al Qaeda's “syndicate” in Afghanistan and Pakistan are trying “to destabilise

not just Afghanistan, not just Pakistan, but potentially the whole region by provoking a conflict perhaps between India and Pakistan through some provocative act,” Gates said during a visit to New Delhi.

“It's important to recognise the magnitude of the threat that the entire region faces,” he said following talks with his Indian counterpart, A.K. Antony.

Gates cited three main groups operating under Al-Qaeda's “umbrella,” the Taliban forces fighting in Afghanistan, Taliban elements targeting Pakistan's government and the Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in Pakistan focused on India.

Although he praised India for exercising restraint after the 2008 Mumbai attacks - which Delhi blamed on LeT - Gates suggested India could not be expected to remain restrained if it was attacked again.

“I think it's not unreasonable to assume India patience would be limited were there to be further attacks,” he said.

Gates described India as a vital partner in the struggle against extremist threats, expressed appreciation for its economic aid to Afghanistan and said that he discussed how to bolster US-India military cooperation.

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/03-al-qaeda-could-provoke-new-india-pakistan-war-gates-ss-02

3.)

Key commander among 5 killed in Mohmand

January 20, 2010

PESHAWAR: Five terrorists including a key militant commander were killed in Mohmand Agency during the last 24 hours while 30 suspects were arrested from Kurram Agency and Dir.

According to Frontier Corps Media Cell, peace committee of Mohamand Agency killed 2 militants and apprehended 2 others in an action in Khewazai area. Militant commander Ghulam is among the killed.

A suspected women belonging to Azad Kashmir area of Mandi Bazar has also been nabbed.

http://www.geo.tv/1-20-2010/57415.htm

4.)

Explosive laden car recovered from Hub

January 20, 2010

HUB: An explosive-laden vehicle have been recovered from two saboteurs nabbed by Hub police, Geo News reported Wednesday.

ASP Hub Muhammed Usman Ghani Siddiqui told Geo News that two extremists have been arrested from an area near Hubco Power Plant and recovered from their possession a car packed with explosives.

The Bomb Disposal Squad has been called on the spot to neutralize the explosives.

The terrorist Habibulla and Safdar—aged between 40 and 42-- are said to belong to outlawed militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangavi.

http://www.geo.tv/1-20-2010/57406.htm

5.)

Pakistan, Tribesmen reach security accord in Taliban war zone

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s government reached an agreement to hand back responsibility for maintaining order in the longtime Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan to tribal leaders after a three-month military offensive.

Elders from the Mehsud tribe, which dominates the area, endorsed a government proposal with a unanimous show of hands at a gathering in Tank, the tribal agency’s winter capital. The two sides plan to sign the agreement on Feb. 10.

Mehsud leaders failed to prevent the rise of militancy since the U.S. invaded neighboring Afghanistan in 2001 and removed the Taliban in that country from power. Thousands of Mehsud men joined the Taliban to form the biggest terrorist threat in Pakistan, killing scores of pro-government elders.

Pakistan hopes that cooperation from the tribes will help quell violence that claimed more than 600 lives in nationwide suicide bombings and gun battles since 28,000 troops launched

an offensive in South Waziristan in October. It would also pave the way for an eventual military withdrawal.

“First the government has to completely wipe out the terrorists from the area,” said Syed Alam Mehsud, an independent analyst in Peshawar, northwest Pakistan. “Then the tribes will be willing and able to implement the government’s demands.”

Pakistan has said 80 percent of attacks in its cities were planned by Mehsud Taliban. More than 3,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks in the country last year, according to the Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies in Islamabad.

Dispute Resolution

Syed Shahab Ali Shah, the government’s chief representative for South Waziristan who attended the meeting, has held eight gatherings, known as jirgas, on a security deal since Dec. 15. About 550 leaders from the Mehsud tribe, the main clan in the northern half of South Waziristan, were present today.

Jirgas, which take place in the north and west of Pakistan and in Afghanistan, are the traditional Pashtun form of consensus building and dispute resolution. Participants wearing traditional turbans sat in a circle on the ground as a speaker announced the agenda and sought a show of hands to proceed. The end of the jirga was signaled by a prayer by the most senior tribal elder.

In today’s gathering in Tank, the government reiterated that the Mehsuds must hand over 382 wanted militants and agree not to facilitate terrorism. Shah told the gathering that they must not allow foreigners or Pakistanis from outside South Waziristan to enter the tribal agency.

‘Civil War’

“Why can’t the government get the wanted persons themselves,” said Zubair Khan, a professor of international relations at Peshawar University. “Making demands like this will lead to a civil war between factions of the Mehsud tribe.”

The tribes will need to raise an army of fighters to resist militants, Shah said in an interview. The army and paramilitary troops will stay in South Waziristan “to protect the tribes and help reconstruct” the region, army spokesman Athar Abbas said earlier. “We will facilitate the tribal army when needed.”

The central bank said this month the nation may miss its fiscal deficit target of 4.9 percent of

gross domestic product this year because of war expenses. Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said the cost of battling militants in northwest tribal areas bordering Afghanistan is rising.

The Mehsuds will be responsible for any militant activities in South Waziristan under a special law governing the region that dates back more than 100 years, Shah said. They will also be required to hand over all heavy weapons including rocket launchers and anti-aircraft guns.

Under the 1901 Frontier Crimes Regulation, tribes are collectively responsible for any criminal acts in territory under their control. The three main factions of the Mehsud tribe dominate different areas of South Waziristan.

Return Refugees

There are an estimated 20,000 fighters in the federally administered tribal areas, of which 5,000 are in South Waziristan, according to Pakistan’s army.

“We have accepted the demands in principle,” Salahuddin Khan Mehsud, general secretary of the Mehsud Peace Committee said in an interview before the jirga. “The difficulty for us is that we are refugees right now and until we return home it’s very difficult for us to meet these conditions. We need time.”

As many as 500,000 refugees from the Mehsud area of South Waziristan are living in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, according to the government. Troops have cleared 80 percent of South Waziristan from militants and refugees will return within two months, according to the army.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-20/pakistan-tribesmen-close-to-security-pact-in-taliban-war-zone.html

6.)

Osama, Zawahiri hiding in northwestern Pak: Report Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Washington: Nine years after their mysterious disappearance following the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the US still believes the two top al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are in hiding in northwestern Pakistan.

According to the latest report on al Qaeda and its expanding network by a powerful

Congressional committee, the two leaders are in hiding in tribal areas on the Pakistan-Afghan border. The Senate Committee's views are in variance with those of Pakistani leaders, who believe Osama might well be dead.

In a major observation, the report said al Qaeda appears to have increased its influence among the myriad Islamist militant groups operating along the Af-Pak border.

The 21-page report by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations examines the role of al Qaeda in international terrorism and its expansion in new areas - Yemen and Somalia - beyond its nerve-centre in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

US officials remain concerned that al Qaeda militants maintain bases and training camps in Pakistan.

"Bin Laden and Zawahiri are believed to be hiding in northwestern Pakistan along with most other senior operatives. Al Qaeda leaders have issued statements encouraging Pakistani Muslims to 'resist' American 'occupiers' in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to fight against Pakistan's US-allied politicians and officers," the report released by Senator John Kerry, the Committee's Chairman said.

A 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on terrorist threats to the US concluded that al Qaeda "has protected or regenerated key elements of its homeland attack capability, including a safe haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, operational lieutenants and its top leadership."

The report prepared by the Majority Staff of the Senate Committee said Islamabad reportedly has remanded to US custody roughly 500 al Qaeda fighters since 2001, including several senior operatives.

US officials say that drone-launched US missile attacks and Pakistan's pressing of military offensives against extremist groups in the border areas have meaningfully disrupted al Qaeda activities there while inflicting heavy human losses.

The August death of al Qaeda-allied Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, reportedly caused by a US-launched missile, may have thrown Islamist militants in western Pakistan into disarray.

"Some analysts worry, however, that successful military operations are driving al Qaeda fighters into Pakistani cities where they will be harder to target and, fuelling already significant anti-American sentiments among the Pakistani people," it said.

"The Pakistani military has conducted successful counter-insurgency campaigns to wrest two parts of the country from Pakistani Taliban control, the Swat Valley and South Waziristan. Still militants continue to use some of the rugged tribal areas as bases of operations," the report said.

"It is clear that there is a significant al Qaeda threat in Pakistan. But there are significant al Qaeda populations in Yemen and Somalia, too," the report said.

As al Qaeda members continue to resist US and Pakistani forces along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, some of their comrades appear to be moving to Yemen and Somalia, where the political climate allows them to seek safe haven, recruit new members, and train for future operations, it said.

PTI

Washington: Nine years after their mysterious disappearance following the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the US still believes the two top al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are in hiding in northwestern Pakistan.

According to the latest report on al Qaeda and its expanding network by a powerful Congressional committee, the two leaders are in hiding in tribal areas on the Pakistan-Afghan border. The Senate Committee's views are in variance with those of Pakistani leaders, who believe Osama might well be dead.

In a major observation, the report said al Qaeda appears to have increased its influence among the myriad Islamist militant groups operating along the Af-Pak border.

The 21-page report by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations examines the role of al Qaeda in international terrorism and its expansion in new areas - Yemen and Somalia - beyond its nerve-centre in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

US officials remain concerned that al Qaeda militants maintain bases and training camps in Pakistan.

"Bin Laden and Zawahiri are believed to be hiding in northwestern Pakistan along with most other senior operatives. Al Qaeda leaders have issued statements encouraging Pakistani Muslims to 'resist' American 'occupiers' in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to fight against Pakistan's US-allied politicians and officers," the report released by Senator John Kerry, the Committee's Chairman said.

A 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on terrorist threats to the US concluded that al Qaeda

"has protected or regenerated key elements of its homeland attack capability, including a safe haven in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, operational lieutenants and its top leadership."

The report prepared by the Majority Staff of the Senate Committee said Islamabad reportedly has remanded to US custody roughly 500 al Qaeda fighters since 2001, including several senior operatives.

US officials say that drone-launched US missile attacks and Pakistan's pressing of military offensives against extremist groups in the border areas have meaningfully disrupted al Qaeda activities there while inflicting heavy human losses.

The August death of al Qaeda-allied Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, reportedly caused by a US-launched missile, may have thrown Islamist militants in western Pakistan into disarray.

"Some analysts worry, however, that successful military operations are driving al Qaeda fighters into Pakistani cities where they will be harder to target and, fuelling already significant anti-American sentiments among the Pakistani people," it said.

"The Pakistani military has conducted successful counter-insurgency campaigns to wrest two parts of the country from Pakistani Taliban control, the Swat Valley and South Waziristan. Still militants continue to use some of the rugged tribal areas as bases of operations," the report said.

"It is clear that there is a significant al Qaeda threat in Pakistan. But there are significant al Qaeda populations in Yemen and Somalia, too," the report said.

As al Qaeda members continue to resist US and Pakistani forces along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, some of their comrades appear to be moving to Yemen and Somalia, where the political climate allows them to seek safe haven, recruit new members, and train for future operations, it said.

http://www.zeenews.com/news597419.html

AFGHANISTAN

7.)

Bomb kills two US soldiers in Afghanistan: NATO

Wednesday, January 20, 2010,

Kabul: Two US soldiers were killed by a bomb blast in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force announced.

The statement by the headquarters of the international force in Afghanistan did not say exactly where the soldiers were killed, but the provinces of Helmand and Kandahar are the focus of the Taliban insurgency.

"Two ISAF service members from the United States died of their wounds after an improvised explosive device strike in southern Afghanistan today," ISAF said.

Thirty foreign soldiers, 18 of them American, have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year, after last year saw record losses totalling 520 foreign soldiers.

US military deaths in Afghanistan doubled in 2009 to 317, compared to 155 the previous year.

The majority of foreign troop deaths are caused by improvised roadside bombs.

http://www.zeenews.com/news597407.html

8.)

Taliban ambush wounds 3, kills police commander in S Afghanistan

GHAZNI, Afghanistan, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Taliban militants ambushed a police convoy in Ghazni province of southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding a police commander and his two sons, provincial police chief Khayalbaz Shirzai said.

"Armed militants ambushed motorcade of Rasul Khan when he was on the way to provincial capital this morning, injuring him along with his two sons who served as policemen," he told Xinhua.

A policeman and two Taliban militants were also killed in the firefighting lasting for a while, he added.

Taliban militants, whose regime was toppled by the U.S.-led forces in late 2001, have vowed to intensify their activities this year, while U.S. President Barak Obama has ordered

deploying an additional 30,000 troops in Afghanistan to curb Taliban-led insurgency.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-01/20/c_13144391.htm

9.)

Air strike kills 15 insurgents in NW Afghanistan: official

KABUL, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Air raids against militants' hideouts in Badghis province, in northwest Afghanistan, left more than a dozen insurgents dead early Wednesday, senior police commander in the region Ikramudin Yawar said.

"We got information through intelligence report about Taliban meeting in Khatawaran village of Balamirghab district and passed it on to international troops. NATO-led forces carried out air raids and killed 15 rebels," Yawar told Xinhua.

He added that some important Taliban commanders are also among those killed in the air strike.

There were no casualties on the troops, he said.

Taliban militants have yet to make any comment.

Considered as a hotbed of Taliban militants in Badghis province, Balamirghab has been the scene of Taliban activities since early 2009.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-01/20/c_13144467.htm

10.)

Afghan Taliban skeptical of peace talks: Ex-envoy

January 20, 2010

9:22am EST

KABUL (Reuters) - A former top diplomat for the Taliban said a new government plan to persuade insurgents to lay down their arms in exchange for jobs or money was corrupt and would only hinder efforts to reach a peace deal.

Abdul Salam Zaeef, who served as ambassador to Pakistan when the Taliban governed

Afghanistan, told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday that the movement was also suspicious about foreign countries' and the Afghan government's motives in proposing peace talks at a time when they are beefing up military strength.

Afghanistan's government will soon announce details of the plan for getting Taliban fighters to lay down their arms. It will be a focus of a London conference on the country, where President Hamid Karzai is expected to seek funding for it.

Diplomats say the project includes jobs, training and economic incentives to lure militants away from the Taliban, who have intensified their insurgency in recent years despite tens of thousands of Afghan and international troops on the ground.

"I think the reintegration plan in itself is a blockade (to peace talks). Buying some of them with money itself is a corruption," Zaeef told Reuters.

Corruption is one of the biggest problems in Afghanistan at the moment -- a new United Nations survey showed ordinary Afghans rated it a bigger concern than security.

A ready supply of arms and chronic joblessness in parts of Afghanistan where the insurgency is strongest raise questions about how the reintegration scheme would be monitored.

"This reintegration process will further strengthen the Taliban," Zaeef said in the Kabul house where he lives with his family under the watch of the government.

He said the Taliban would resist the reintegration plan, as a policy that seemed designed to split the insurgency by sapping its fighting strength while the government sets up peace negotiations with its leaders.

The goal of the scheme is to try and reward whole communities rather than just fighters who put down their arms. The government hopes if enough men leave the insurgency, it will put pressure on the leadership to enter into reconciliation talks.

But the new plan comes when the insurgency is at its strongest since the Taliban were ousted in 2001, and fighters who think victory is in sight may be less interested in any offer.

The former diplomat said the time was not right for a peace plan, because of deep mistrust on both sides.

Asked if Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar -- the former boss he says he still respects -- might one day take part in talks Zaeef said: "Anything is possible."

He added that "sincerity" was the key to peace.

CONFUSED U.S. SIGNALS

Zaeef, who spent several years in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay after the fall of the Taliban, also condemned the United States for pursuing a contradictory strategy in Afghanistan and said the Taliban shared his mistrust of Washington.

"While America is talking about peace talks, on the one hand it wants to divide the Taliban and buy some of them with money, and on the other hand it sends more troops for the war."

"These are all contradictory issues and no one can make decisions in such a situation. The Taliban say these are all a conspiracy against them and this will harden their position."

Zaeef is among a group of former Taliban officials living in Kabul and was among those approached by the Saudi government two years ago for advice on peace talks with the Taliban.

He also said he was recently offered a post in government, which he had turned down, although he had not met Karzai since after the presidential election last August.

He occasionally meets Western diplomats in Kabul, but says he has angered U.S. officials by taking calls from Taliban members leading the insurgency against foreign forces.

"I told them, 'I am not calling them. They are calling me'."

He confirmed Omar was still running the insurgent group.

"I do not know his whereabouts and how he is, but his commands are accepted. People respect him and I also respect him," Zaeef said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60J3CF20100120

11.)

Afghanistan Needs a Surge of Diplomacy

January 21, 2010

The 68-nation London conference at the end of this month will focus on the future of

Afghanistan, against the backdrop of major new military commitments by the United States and NATO, promises from the international community of increased civilian assistance, and pledges of new anti-corruption measures from President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.

But assuring Afghanistan’s future will require more than a military and civilian surge and better Afghan governance. A diplomacy surge is also required. Specifically, in the words of a recent statement signed by 20 former foreign ministers led by Madeleine K. Albright, “there needs to be a regional solution to Afghanistan’s problems.”

To reach the goal of a stable and peaceful Afghanistan, the country must have better relations with its powerful neighbors, including Pakistan, Iran, China, India and Russia.

Afghanistan’s neighbors have reached the conclusion (some grudgingly) that support for a stable, independent, economically viable Afghan state is preferable to the past three decades of chaos in that country and its spillover effects of extremism and terrorism.

Despite this, the region’s opportunistic states will revive their interference in Afghanistan in the event of a failing Kabul government or an international community that reneges on its commitments to help secure and rebuild the country.

While dealing with the Taliban insurgency must be the first order of business, the best way out of this morass is to return Afghanistan to its traditional policy of neutrality — of noninterference by others in its internal affairs and by it in other countries — and to take Afghanistan “off the board” for future “Great Game” rivalries.

For much of the 20th century, the rulers of Afghanistan highlighted this approach, as expressed by King Nadir Shah in 1931: “The best and most fruitful policy that one can imagine for Afghanistan is a policy of neutrality. Afghanistan must give its neighbors assurances of its friendly attitudes while safeguarding the right of reciprocity.”

The 2001 Bonn Agreement that re-established Afghan state institutions also provides a basis for this approach. It contains a request from the conference participants to the United Nations “to take necessary measures to guarantee national sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity of Afghanistan as well as the noninterference by countries in Afghanistan’s internal affairs.”

This charge has yet to be acted upon, despite the fact that the Security Council has adopted numerous resolutions on Afghanistan since the signing of the Bonn Agreement.

A number of neutrality models for Afghanistan can be considered, such as the International Agreement on the Neutrality of Laos, signed in Geneva in 1962 by 14 states, including the

five permanent members of the Security Council, regional neighbors, India and Canada. The agreement spelled out reciprocal commitments, including pledges to respect Laotian neutrality, to refrain from forging military alliances with the country, establishing bases on its territory or interfering in its internal affairs.

This format suitably adapted for Afghanistan could include a formal Afghan proclamation of neutrality, its endorsement by the Security Council, and the acceptance of reciprocal obligations by the Afghan state and relevant countries.

In addition, these elements could provide the framework for a comprehensive package that would include a settlement acceptable to both parties of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and a commitment on the eventual elimination of foreign forces now in Afghanistan.

Other issues would also need to be addressed: What kind of mechanism should be established to monitor compliance? Should there be peacekeeping of some sort? Who would deal with complaints of violations?

Almost two years ago the Atlantic Council of the United States issued a report that said: “Unless those parties interested in saving Afghanistan understand that a regional approach is essential, the stalemate will continue.”

The London conference provides an opportunity to launch this regional effort and should call for the formation of an international contact group, under the auspices of the U.N. secretary general, to lead a surge of diplomacy for Afghanistan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/opinion/21iht-edinderfurth.html?pagewanted=print

12.)

ISAF Chief Calls for New German Strategy

01/20/2010

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of all foreign troops in Afghanistan, wants to see more engagement and a greater willingness to take risks from NATO states fighting in the country. He would also like to see German soldiers establish better contact with locals.

Stanley McChrystal, the American Commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, is calling for calling for an intensification and fundamental strategic shift in the deployment of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, in the country.

In an interview with the mass-circulation Bild newspaper, Gen. McChrystal said he would announce a new US strategy for Afghanistan at the prestigious Munich Security Conference in February, which draws political leaders and military experts from around the world. McChrystal said he would also appear before Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, to promote the new strategy. Currently, the Bundestag -- which controls the German mandate in Afghanistan -- places the highest priority on the protection of the civilian population.

In the Bild interview, McChrystal said that during his Munich visit he would request more troops and that he would call on all members of the alliance to "provide additional teachers to help run the training bases" where Afghan security forces are trained.

In the run-up to next week's Afghanistan conference in London, he asked NATO member states "to look and see what they can provide so that we can get the right level of force to partner with the Afghans in each area."

At NATO headquarters in Kabul, serious resentment is simmering over Germany's unclear position on stocking up its troops. Officers said that the US government requested a bolstering of troops from Berlin last summer. NATO officials have been waiting for a response for months, and their patience has since evaporated.

German Troops Must Take Greater Risks

The main hurdle in Berlin is that the government has been unable to agree on the right response. In several meetings of top government officials, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has scuppered any suggestions that Berlin might make an offer of extra troops in London. Westerwelle, who heads the business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP), would prefer to wait and see what kind of offers other NATO members make in the British capital. Westerwelle will be Germany's lone representative at the London conference.

Here in Germany, McChrystal's words could spark a debate about the Bundeswehr's strategy. That's because McChrystal isn't just regurgitating previous US requests for more troops. He is asking for a fundamentally different approach -- namely, that the Germans be prepared to take greater risks in Afghanistan. "Success in the north, particularly in the Kunduz and Baghlan areas, is essential to achieving stability there," he told the paper.

Under the new strategy, McChrystal said that every force on the ground in Afghanistan must be prepared to accept some short-term risks, including Germany. "They might have to change the way they operated in the past," he added. He warned that the "goal of the insurgents is to separate the counterinsurgency forces from the people … by making it dangerous enough that the security forces stay in their bases, stay in their armoured vehicles and don't interact with the people." If the insurgents can do that, he said, then they

"have accomplished their mission." In McChrystal's view, the Bundeswehr's current overly cautious approach has created a situation in which troops are too distant from the Afghan people.

The tone of McChystal's interview may be very diplomatic, but his message to German politicians and military officials is clear. With his new strategy, McChrystal has defined closer contact with the people and efforts to protect them from the Taliban as the preconditions for success in Afghanistan.

And it is precisely this contact that the Bundeswehr has lost in recent years. In many areas, especially Taliban strongholds, German commanders only dispatch troops in large convoys of armored vehicles. This does more to frighten people than to help build their trust, and McChrystal would like to see that change.

Is the New US Strategy Closer to Germany's?

The general's words may dampen the long-cherished hopes of some German politicians. Up until now, members of all the political parties in Berlin have been persuading themselves that the new US strategy in many respects converges with the Germany approach to Afghanistan. But McChrystal has now made very clear that the desire to protect the civilian population cannot function from the safety of fortress-like military bases.

The recent decision by the US to massively increase the number of American troops in northern Afghanistan has already placed additional pressure on the Germans. The US Army is planning to send the first units to Kunduz and Mazar-e-Sharif next week. By summer, around 2,500 US soldiers, including a helicopter battalion, are expected to be ready for deployment.

"It will complement rather than replace what the current German forces are doing," McChrystal told the paper. "It's a recognition of how important we think the north is." The primary responsibility for the new units is to help make better progress in building up the Afghan police and Army. But they will also fight Taliban. Indeed, US Army Special Forces are already stationed in Kunduz.

Praise for German Defense Minister

But differences are already emerging in the way the Bundeswehr and the US Army train local security forces. The Germans take a less hands-on approach, providing so-called mentoring teams, whereas the Americans provide practical training for small teams in real combat situations.

The US strategy, fraught with risk as it is, has been taboo for the Germans. The Americans' so-called partnering may hold more promise for success, but the Germans consider it to be too dangerous. Last summer, during a visit to Kunduz, McChrystal called on the Germans to adopt the US training methods, saying they were the only way to achieve the targets for the ANA, Afghanistan's army.

Despite his criticism of the German military, McChrystal did have a few friendly words left for Germany's new defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. He described the young minister as "very forthcoming." "I think we are going to have a very great working relationship and I am excited about that."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,672982,00.html