The Karen DeYoung AfPak Reader

Below, you will find a year’s worth of articles by Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post centered on the AfPak conflict.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/27/AR2008082703628_pf.html
Only a Two-Page ‘Note’ Governs U.S. Military in Afghanistan

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 28, 2008; A07

For the past six years, military relations between the United States and Afghanistan have been governed by a two-page “diplomatic note” giving U.S. forces virtual carte blanche to conduct operations as they see fit.

Although President Bush pledged in a 2005 declaration signed with Afghan President Hamid Karzai to “develop appropriate arrangements and agreements” formally spelling out the terms of the U.S. troop presence and other bilateral ties, no such agreements were drawn up.

But after a U.S.-led airstrike last week that United Nations and Afghan officials have said killed up to 90 civilians — most of them children — Karzai has publicly called for a review of all foreign forces in Afghanistan and a formal “status of forces agreement,” along the lines of an accord being negotiated between the United States and Iraq.

The prospect of codifying the ad hoc rules under which U.S. forces have operated in Afghanistan since late 2001 sends shudders through the Bush administration, which has struggled to finalize its agreement with Baghdad. “It’s never been done because the issues have been too big to surmount,” said one U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the subject on the record. “The most diplomatic way of saying it is that there are just a lot of moving parts,” the official said.

The Afghan government “is not the most streamlined and efficient system,” he said. “So you’d have a multiplicity of players on that side.” Less diplomatic U.S. officials frequently describe elements of Karzai’s government as deeply corrupt and incompetent. Although most civilian war deaths in Afghanistan are caused by Taliban forces, those resulting from the highly visible airstrikes are a particular cause of public outrage that neither Karzai nor the administration can afford to ignore.

The other side of the equation is even more complicated. Of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, 19,000 operate under U.S. Central Command, while 14,000 form the largest single component of a 40-nation force led by NATO under a U.N. resolution.

The disparate command structures have frustrated every government involved in the effort, but according to Afghan officials, they have also allowed diffused responsibility for civilian casualties, such as those of last week in the western part of the country. U.S. forces operate up to 90 percent of all strike aircraft in the country, and it is rarely clear whether an individual strike has been conducted as part of a NATO or U.S. operation.

FP 2009 Update – Week 31 – The Cable

Week 31 at Laura Rozen’s blog at Foreign Policy witnessed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton heading to Africa for an 11 day romp around the volatile continent, while her husband, President Bill Clinton ate up the Cameras, assisting in helping to free the two journalists from Al Gore’s Current TV who were captured for espionage and sentenced to hard labor by the North Korean judiciary.  Similarly, 3 more American journalists go hiking in Northern Iraq only to wind up missing and captured on the Iranian side of the border.  Hillary Clinton puts Iran hands into motion on the final round of preparation before the Afghanistan elections, making sure everything is in place to work on denuclearizing the regime through engagement – somehow – even though the Ayatollah’s responses to Obama’s private correspondence have been anything but confidence inspiring for the young administration.  Apparently everyone patted themselves on the back for how smoothly Obama’s team handled the tumult in the Iranian post-election street clashes between Moussavi opposition supporters and Ayatollah loyalists, striking the right tone somehow amid the violence by brooking no condemnations and focusing instead on raising international opprobrium over the activity of the Islamic Establishment in the oppression of the opposition voices and freedom of speech.  After a month of chilling reaction from the American people over healthcare reform, the Senate junkets are set for the recess, with John Kerry, who leads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, jetting to Jordan and Pakistan to observe the realities on the ground in the Central Region for himself.  Dennis Ross’ crew was rather quiet this week, heeding Trita Parsi’s advice of a strategic pause in activity on the Iranian front.  Daniel Feltman was finally confirmed…and Carlos Pascual is now officially the Ambassador to Mexico.  More or less, week 31 at the Cable was a lead up to,  the counterterrorism czar, John Brennan’s CSIS speech, announcing a new approach to safeguarding America…   But more importantly, Foreign Policy Magazine launched what it is referring to as  ”The AfPak Channel” in which guest bloggers are tearing into the situation in the regional fiasco that is known as “the right war”.

-Gary H. Johnson, Jr. 8/13/09, 10:20pmEST)

 

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com

Clinton hosts video conference with State Iran hands worldwide
Mon, 08/03/2009 – 1:36pm
This morning, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hosted a secure video conference with 20 State Department officials worldwide, at about a half dozen locations.

Much of the substance of the 45-minute video conference is classified, but broad strokes were provided to Foreign Policy. Though the locations of the State Department officials participating in the call from abroad weren’t disclosed, the United States has in recent years opened Iran “watching” stations at U.S. embassies in Dubai, Azerbaijan, Berlin, Turkey, and London, among key foreign locations with large Iranian expatriate populations and traffic.

Afghanistan’s Narco War: Senate Report Notes

http://www.foreign.senate.gov/afghan.pdf

The above report notes how 50 “Nexus Targets” have been placed on the “capture or kill” list by the Pentagon.  It does not list the targets; however, it indicates a huge shift away from business as usual and a ramped up understanding of the narco-war of Afghanistan in the eyes of our top representatives on the Hill.   Interestingly, the report downgrades the amount of money supporting Taliban and Al Qaeda in the AfPak region.  UN reports estimated 400 million dollars…Gretchen Peters estimates in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars, and the report here is closer to a $100 million.  Faced with the uptick in violence in Afghanistan, and the “triage” mentality of the coalition aiming to turn the momentum away from the Taliban with a successful August 20th election, Obama’s team scrapped the Bush Era poppy eradication policies for a more nuanced approach.  With a focus on blending counternarcotic intelligence and counterinsurgency efforts, the Obama Administration aims to take out the traffickers and powerbrokers tied to the Opium trade in Afghanistan… 

Below, I have placed a brace of articles surrounding the report…

GHJJ (8/13/09, 2:27pmEST) 

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/us-drug-agency-spies-on-afghan-kingpins-20090812-eief.html
US drug agency spies on Afghan kingpinsGreg Miller in Washington
August 13, 2009
THE CIA and the US Defence Intelligence Agency have concluded that the amount of drug money flowing to the Taliban in Afghanistan is far lower than widely estimated but remains critical to the insurgents’ ability to survive, according to a Senate report.

FP 2009 Update – Week 30 – The Cable

Week 30 at The Cable was wild.  Hillary Clinton and Tim Geithner start off out the shoot on the U.S.-China Economic future in what can be considered an unprecedented Wall Street Journal oped piece focusing on bilateral relations and a new strategy forward in a multipronged approach to stabilizing world markets, with three main areas of concern for dialogue: maintaining economic relations, climate change issues, and complementary security issues.   Secretary Clinton then hits Meet the Press to discuss the North Korea slight on her person and she discusses Iran and Afghanistan frankly…not two days later Secretary Clinton hit Thailand and raised the possibility of a “nuclear umbrella” for the Sunni World to defend against a nuclear Iran, which led Israelis to worry over whether the U.S. was conceding the nuclear weapons issue to the Iranian Establishment.   Gates heads to Israel to let everyone in the world know that the military option remains on the table on the Iranian Nuclear issue, to do top-brass damage control for Mitchell’s focus on halting Israeli settlements to achieve a two-state solution.  More or less, Gates’ announcement made clear that Iran’s window for establishing diplomatic talks with the United States is shrinking and has time limits.  Secretary Clinton’s team announces its Africa trip starting on the 5th of August, designed to increase trade relations; while the nominees for Latin American Ambassadorships, Valenzuela and Shannon are pushed through to the Senate.  Obama’s meeting with the progressive American Jewish groups like J Street, whose anti-Zionist focus has led them to announce that three quarters of American Jews favor a two-state solution for the future of a Palestinian resolution.   Judah Grunstein of WPR notes the engagement policy espoused by Clinton on Iran seeks an Iran who respects its “right to nuclear energy” but not a nuclear bomb, and Trita Parsi makes the case for a diplomatic pause with the Iranian regime out of a “wait and see” attitude over the Iranian Islamic Establishment’s resolution of its opposition anger boiling over onto its streets since the June 12th election results.    By far, the highlight of Week 30 at Laura Rozen’s Foreign Policy blog is found in the activity of Holbrooke and McChrystal in the AfPak theatre.  Holbrooke, who is in charge of the AfPak at the Obama Administration,  announces that he is tearing up the Bush policy of poppy eradication in the AfPak.  It was important to note that David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary for Britain, made the D.C. rounds and discussed the upcoming elections in Afghanistan in a State Department speakeasy with Hillary Clinton.   And McChrystal, who just assumed overall command in early June, discussed the US strategy to win the hearts and minds of the Afghani people, with a new focus on protecting civilians from harm, which is being put together in a Strategic Assessment group.  Laura Rozen immediately pounces and names the team of McChrystal’s advisors, which of course includes blogger Andrew Exum, who just happens to be a fellow over at the Center for New American Security (CNAS).   Holbrooke follows up his D.C. rounds with a Fort McNair policy shuffle for top insiders.   The week ends with more controversy on the settlement issue as the international community is angered by Israel’s eviction of 56 Palestinians from their East Jerusalem homes in preparation for demolition to increase settlement construction.

-Gary H. Johnson, Jr. (8/4/09, 8:57pmEST)

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com

U.S.-China dialogue gets underway
Mon, 07/27/2009 – 12:05am
Tomorrow kicks off the first meeting of the U.S. China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, the Obama administration’s twist on a process started under former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. That process, known as the Strategic Economic Dialogue (no “and”), was primarily intended to address bilateral economic issues such as the dollar-renminbi exchange rate.

The two countries — which have become known as the “G-2″ in foreign-policy circles due to their preeminent size and geopolitical reach — will still be tackling economic issues like the global financial crisis. But this time, a State Department official tells Foreign Policy, the agenda is “much broader and more comprehensive,” encompassing global issues such as climate change, and regional ones such as North Korea, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Two top-ranking Chinese officials, Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo, will be in Washington for meetings Monday and Tuesday with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who has just returned from meetings in India and Thailand.

AfPak Notes – Week 8 – 2009

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/02/pakistan_wanted_terr.php#ixzz0JPCSikEM&D

Pakistan: Wanted terrorists Azhar, Ibrahim not in country
By Bill RoggioFebruary 19, 2009 11:39 AM
 
A wanted terrorist leader recently under house arrest and a mafia don with close ties to South Asian terror networks are not in Pakistan, according to a senior Pakistani official.

Maulana Masood Azhar, the leader of the Jaish-e-Mohammed, and South Asian crime boss Dawood Ibrahim are not in in the country, according to Rehman Malik, the Interior Advisor to Prime Minister Gilani. Malik made the comments at a meeting of the federal cabinet in Lahore, Geo News reported.

The claim that Azhar is not in Pakistan directly conflicts with claims made by Pakistani officials that he was under house arrest in Bahawalpur in early December 2008. Pakistani officials later claimed Azhar was not under house arrest and his location was unknown.

Rumors later cropped up that claimed Azhar was operating in South Waziristan. Rashid Rauf, an al Qaeda operative who is a member of Azhar’s family, is also thought to have fled to South Waziristan after his escape from custody. Rauf was reported to have been killed in a November 2008 US Predator strike in South Waziristan, but his associates claimed he is alive.

Ibrahim’s whereabouts are unknown, but he known to operate his criminal-terror empire in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi.

Losing the Buck

Since Obama took office, his policy of “Engagement” with the Muslim world has leaned toward the brink of submission through an ever widening circle of  dhimmipolitik thinkers.  The reason for this is due to his perception of the “right” war.  In the Obama frame, Iraq was the wrong war to fight and the goal is to extract American troops from the effort.  The Democrat Mantra of “no occupation” is a kneejerk position guided by far left peaceniks – the same peaceniks who were marching in the streets during the first Gulf War, chanting “No blood for Oil”.  Indeed, whenever the Iraq situation is brought up, one can’t help but note that for the entirety of the second Bush term the left wing of America and Europe published articles featuring the word “Occupation”, knowing that the Muslim World perceives any infidel presence in their lands as a crime against Allah if that infidel is not in complete submission to the aims and purposes of the Islamic Leadership.  Iraq may not have been the right war; however, it is instructive to consider the Obama line on the war being the “wrong war” in this “submission” based position.  Why is the Afghanistan campaign considered the “right” war to our young President?  It deserves analysis and consideration on the surface; however, the perception’s actual manifestations have ended in the new Iranian pickle. 

FP 2009 Update – Week 18 – The Cable

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/

Beef tenderloin and failing states: it’s what’s for dinner
Wed, 05/06/2009 – 4:25pm
Vice President Joseph Biden is hosting the presidential delegations from Afghanistan and Pakistan for dinner tonight at his Naval Observatory residence. Among the guests are several members of the Senate and House foreign affairs committees (as well as Rep. Nita Lowey, the chair of the House appropriations state foreign ops subcommittee) that hold the purse strings on bills outlining some $1.5 billion in proposed military and civilian assistance to Pakistan that the administration would like to get out the door.

Pool reporter Carol Lee of Politico tallies the full guest list:

From the Afghanistan delegation:
   •  His Excellency Hamid Karzai President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
   •  His Excellency Said Tayeb Jawad Ambassador of Afghanistan
   •  His Excellency Rangin Dadfar Spanta Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
   •  His Excellency General Abdul Rahim Wardak Minister of Defense of Afghanistan
   •  His Excellency Haneef Atmar Minister of Interior of Afghanistan
   •  His Excellency Dr. Zalmay Rassoul National Security Advisor of Afghanistan
   •  His Excellency Dr. Omar Zakhilwal Minister of Finance of Afghanistan
   •  His Excellency Wahidullah Shahrani Minister of Commerce and Industry
   •  His Excellency Asif Rahimi Minister of Agriculture
   •  His Excellency Amrullah Saleh Director General of National Directorate of Security (Director of National Intelligence)
   •  Mr. Homayun Hamidzada Spokesperson, Office of the President

From the Pakistan delegation:

   •  His Excellency Asif Ali Zardari President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
   •  His Excellency Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians
   •  His Excellency Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi Minister of Foreign Affairs
   •  His Excellency Husain Haqqani Ambassador to the United States
   •  His Excellency Nazar Muhammad Gondal Minister for Food and Agriculture
   •  Mr. A. Rehman Malik Interior Minister
   •  Mr. Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira Minister of Information
   •  Mr. Salman Faruqui Secretary General
   •  Mr. Shaukat Fayaz Ahmed Tarin Finance Advisor
   •  Lt. General Ahmed Shuja Pasha Director General
   •  Brig. Mian Muhammad Hilal Hussain Military Secretary to the President
   •  Mrs. Ispahani, Spokesperson

The Guests:

   •  The Honorable Howard L. Berman, Representative (D-CA), HFAC Chairman
   •  Mr. James A. Bever, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Asia and the Near East, United States Agency for International Development
   •  Antony Blinken, Deputy Assistant to the President and National Security Advisor to the Vice President
   •  Donald A. Camp, Senior Director for South Asia,  National Security Council
   •  The Honorable Karl Eikenberry, American Ambassador to Afghanistan
   •  The Honorable Michele Flournoy, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
   •  Mr. Alonzo L. Fulgham, Acting Administrator, United States Agency for International Development

FP 2009 Update – Week 17 – The Cable

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/

Clinton articulates policy regarding Hamas
Wed, 04/29/2009 – 11:43am
In an interview with Fox News’ James Rosen conducted in Baghdad Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated the administration’s policy regarding Hamas:

MR. ROSEN: Without getting hung up on the name that is attached to it, do you and President Obama subscribe to the Bush doctrine, by which I mean, roughly speaking, for the purpose of our conversation, the view that if you harbor, clothe, feed, or otherwise materially aid a terrorist, then you, yourself, are a terrorist? Is that a doctrine to which you and President Obama subscribe?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, as you’ve heard from us in the last nearly 100 days we will not deal with Hamas unless they renounce violence, recognize Israel, and agree to abide by prior Palestinian Authority agreements. We do not in any way support the kind of extremists that you see. What we are looking for is to separate out those who are, as we found in Iraq, part of an armed campaign for political reasons that can be reconcilable.

We began to turn Iraq around, as you remember, under President Bush, even with that doctrine, when the military began to work with groups of people, particularly the so-called Sons of Iraq, and The Awakening, who, months before, had taken up arms against Americans and other Iraqis. And the thinking was, we need to separate out those who are there for reasons having to do with their own political and cultural and historic ties, as opposed to the hard core extremists and terrorists.

AfPak Notes – Week 7 – 2009

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/02/pakistan_concedes_mu.php
Pakistan concedes Mumbai attack executed from its soil
By Bill RoggioFebruary 12, 2009 8:34 PM

After weeks of signaling the investigation of the Mumbai terror assault would not be traced back to Pakistan, the Pakistani government admitted for the first time that the operation was plotted in and executed from inside Pakistan. The government released its findings today and three Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders have been implicated.

“Some part of the conspiracy took place in Pakistan,” Rehman Malik, the adviser to Prime Minister Gilani said. “We have lodged an FIR [first information request or criminal case] against eight perpetrators, including mastermind Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi.” Pakistan has charged eight men with “abetting, directing, conspiring and facilitating a terrorist act.”

“We have gone an extra mile in conducting an investigation on the basis of information provided by India and we have proved that we are with the Indian people on the matter,” Malik said in an attempt to ease the tensions with India. Relations with India deteriorated after Pakistan’s ambassador to Britain claimed the investigation proved Pakistani territory was not used for the strike and said India’s evidence “could be fabricated.”

AfPak Notes – Week 6 – 2009

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/02/suicide_bomber_kills_6.php
Suicide bomber kills more than 30 at Shia mosque in central Pakistan
By Bill RoggioFebruary 5, 2009 2:49 PM
More than 30 Shia Pakistani worshipers were killed and more than 50 wounded in a devastating suicide attack today outside a mosque in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan in the central Pakistan province of Punjab.

The bomber detonated in the midst of a procession of Shia mourning the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed and a central figure of Shia Islam. The bomber detonated just outside of the Johar Ali Imam Bargah mosque as the procession returned. Police are certain the bombing was a suicide attack as no crater was left at the scene of the attack. Casualties may rise as officials are still assessing the attack scene and many of those wounded are in critical condition.

The attack took place in Punjab province, well outside of the Northwest Frontier Province where the Taliban is fighting government forces in Swat, Bajaur, and Mohmand. Last year, Baitullah Mehsud, the commander of the Pakistani Taliban, had threatened to wage “jihad” and turn the provinces of Sindh and Punjab “into a furnace” if the operations in northwestern Pakistan did not cease.