Afghan War Blog

Friday, March 13, 2015

AWN Snippets (March 13, 2015)

A female Afghan lawmaker who ran for President is found dead. Shahla Atta was found dead in her home on March 12, 2015. She was 52 years old and ran for president in 2009 - she was also an independent lawmaker in parliament. (Gandhar Blog, March 12, 2015).

More on Peace Talks. A recent news article suggests that a rift between two top leaders of the Taliban is preventing forward progress in the Afghan peace talks. One leader favors negotiations with the Afghan government while another wants to continue the fight unless the United States conducts direct talks with the Taliban. This news article explains some of the background to the current attempt to get peace talk negotiations started. Read more in "Secret meetings in Pakistan expose obstacles to Afghan peace talks", by Jibran Ahmad and Mehreen Zahra-Malik - Reuters, March 12, 2015.

The U.S. Army has released an updated publication about engineering. ATP 3-34.40, General Engineering, February 2015 can be read online or downloaded at the link below.
http://armypubs.army.mil/doctrine/DR_pubs/dr_a/pdf/atp3_34x40.pdf

The Department of Defense has issued a new instruction on the withholding or distribution of unclassified GEOINT produced by the NGA or derived from NGA materials. A GEOINT product that is unclassified may not be suitable to be released to the general public as it may contain some info that shouldn't be "Cleared for Public Release". This could be a method of releasing info (Google Earth products produced by NGA?) to the ANSF that controls distribution yet avoids the Foreign Disclosure Officer rules and regulations that restrict the ability of RS advisors to share information with their counterparts. You can read or download DoDI 5030.59 (Mar 10, 2015) at the link below.
http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/503059p.pdf

Exchange Officers (USA and UK). In an opinion piece a writer, Scott Smitson, states that the U.S. and the UK should exchange military officers at the strategic level (DoD and MoD). He believes that there is great interoperability at the tactical and operational level as the result of the Afghan War but we miss opportunities to continue the 'special relationship' at the higher level. Read "An American in Her Majesty's Ministry of Defence", War on the Rocks Blog, March 12, 2015.

Delayed Deployment Uniforms for AF in Afghanistan. Airmen who are heading to Afghanistan (and the Middle East and Africa) will not receive their new combat uniform (fielded by the Army) until later this year. Read more in a news article by Air Force Times (March 12, 2015).

ALP. Pajhwok Afghan News reports that two Afghan Local Police (ALP) members who were kidnapped by militants have been killed in Shah Joi district of Zabul province. Pajhwok Afghan News news article (March 12, 2015).

Bombings. A series of bombings across Afghanistan killed at least 13 people. (The Washington Post, March 10, 2015).

Biometrics on the Afghan battlefield played an important role (supporters of biometrics will say). Detractors say that the compulsory recording of fingerprints, facial images, and iris scans went a long way to alienate the Afghan population - especially when conducted by American troops. However, those involved in the attacking of the IED networks found the biometric database very helpful. However, it appears that the biometric technology of the private commercial sector is far ahead of that of the DoD. Read more in "Can the Pentagon keep pace on biometrics?", FCW.com, March 11, 2015.

The Human Terrain Teams (HTTs) deployed to Afghanistan were a tremendous asset to the infantry units spread out across Afghanistan. I worked with several of them during my time in-country and I found the vast majority of the personnel very smart and knowledgeable. I do think they were underutilized by battalion and brigade commanders and staffs. The debate on the HTTs will go on forever - with supporters and detractors commenting for the next twenty years. Here is a link to one commentator's thoughts on the use of social scientists in a counterinsurgency. Read "We weaponized anthropology. Why didn't it work?", Fabius Maximus, March 11, 2015.

Guest Bloggers Welcomed

The Afghan War News Blog and the Afghan War News website are constantly striving to keep its blog, daily newsletter, and website factual, current, and relevant. If you have a link to a website or document you feel should be shared with the greater community then please send it to us. In addition, we are looking for individuals with some knowledge, experience, and expertise in Afghanistan on a wide range of topics to contribute blog posts and articles to our blog and add content to our website. And naturally, if you see errors, outdated information, or broken links please let us know.

staff@afghanwarnews.info

Afghan News w/ Your Morning Coffee

You can receive the Afghan War News Daily Newsletter each day. It should arrive in your e-mail inbox at 5:00 am Eastern Standard Time. It is easy to subscribe. Go to www.afghanwarnews.blogspot.com and submit your subscription request in the "Follow by Email" dialogue box at the top of the right hand column. The only info needed is your email. No personal data, forms to fill out, or passwords needed. It is also easy to unsubscribe. At the bottom of the newsletter click "unsubscribe" and you will be automatically unsubscribed.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

1/2 of Afghan Customs Revenue is Stolen

One of the drawbacks to a reduced U.S./NATO presence in Afghanistan is that progress is slowed in many areas to include security, development, and governance. Advancement in these three areas are a key factor in the fight against insurgents. However, with the 'thinning up' of the advisory effort - pulling advisory teams (SFAATs) off the lower levels of the ANA, ANP, Afghan Border Police, customs border control points, and other government organizations we see corruption starting to become a larger problem. This is evident in the customs service of Afghanistan. Our advisors (from the military and the Department of Homeland Security's Border Management Task Force) are no longer looking over the shoulder of customs officials of the eleven border control points such as Torkham Gate and Spin Boldac. Customs revenue accounts for over 1/3 of the Afghan government's domestic revenue; however, half the customs proceeds never reach Kabul. With the departure of U.S. forces from the border posts the customs revenue collection has reached its lowest point in over four years. Read more in "U.S. Still Giving a Corrupt Afghanistan a Blank Check", The Fiscal Times, March 11, 2015. Read another article on the same topic in "Afghanistan Can't Manage Billions in Aid, U.S. Inspector Finds", Bloomberg News, March 10, 2015. Read a letter sent to General Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command, by the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) that provides more information of the rampart corruption within the Afghan customs service.

USAF JTAC Shortage

Air Force Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) Shortage. In a news report (that really isn't breaking news) the U.S. Air Force says it has a shortage of JTACs. Ummm, yes, that is something that has been painfully obvious to the U.S. Army. Years ago the Air Force (AF) decided that they would pick up the mission of providing personnel who would call in airstrikes and help coordinate close air support missions (CAS). The AF pressed to ensure that the Army's ability to call in CAS was limited; stating that the Air Force could handle the mission. But the AF never provided sufficient JTACs. This was painfully evident during the long years of the Afghan and Iraq conflicts when Special Forces teams would be stationed in remote hostile combat areas. The SF teams could not schedule air cover for operations or call in pre-planned air strikes (only emergency CAS or E-CAS); that is unless they had a USAF JTAC. But not all teams got the JTACs due to the shortage. This caused a significant amount of heartburn among SF teams that had the skills to call in airstrikes but who were ignored by the AF because they didn't have a JTAC with them. Read more on the JTAC shortage in "Air Force Sees Rising Demand for Joint Terminal Attack Controllers", Military.com, March 10, 2015.

Video - 2/10th BCT Heading Back to Afghanistan

2nd Brigade 10th Mountain Division of Fort Drum will return to Afghanistan later in 2015. There will be about 1,660 troops of the BCT conducting the Security Force Assistance mission. The brigade commander and deputy commander are interviewed about the upcoming mission. Watch the six minute long video on 7 News (WWNY TV) published on March 11, 2015.

AWN Daily Snippets (Mar 12, 2015)

Pashtun Poet. A very famous Pashtun poet, Abdul Ghani Khan (1914-1996), has had many of his poems translated into other languages - including English. Read more in "The Pilgrim of Beauty: A Pashtun Poet's Continuing Appeal", Gandhara Blog, March 11, 2015.

ANSF Operations. Tolo News reports that the ANSF are conducting clearing operations in the provinces of Farah, Zabul, Kandahar, Helmand, and Paktika to prepare for operations against the insurgents once the spring fighting season begins (Mar 11, 2015).

Afghanistan is the source of 80% of the worlds opium. Most of it goes through Iran and Central Asia to Europe; however, it appears that a 'southern route' is steadily being used - transiting the drugs through East Africa and then into Europe. (Business Insider, Mar 7, 2015).

China is paying a lot more attention to Afghanistan and folks are noticing. Some believe that China will play a helpful role in Afghanistan's future economic and security prospects. (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, March 8, 2015).

Humanitarian organizations are having a recruitment problem in Afghanistan. Development recruiters find that it is difficult to hire local and international aid workers for Afghanistan due to the security concerns. (DEVEX.com, Mar 10, 2015).

The Dutch Foreign Minister and Defense Minister visited Afghanistan recently. One of their stops was Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan. (NL Times, Mar 10, 2015).

Peter Bergen, CNN's national security analyst, has penned a report entitled "A gripping glimpse into bin Laden's decline and fall", CNN News, March 11, 2015. It also provides information on just how devastating the CIA's drone war in the skies of Pakistan has been on al Qaeda.

General John Campbell regularly posts warnings on Facebook the fact that he is happily married. It seems there are over 700 fake profiles on the Internet claiming to be him. (The Washington Post, March 10, 2015.

Not many Afghan interpreters are fortunate enough to escape the violence of Afghanistan and get to American (Visas from the State Dept are hard to get). However, the struggle does not end once in the United States; many suffer economically. Read more in "No Way to Treat an Ally", Free Beacon, March 11, 2015.

TAAC North Charity Run. The Europeans at Train, Advise, Assist Command - North located at Camp Marmal (near Mazer-e Sharif) held a charity run (called the "Wasa Run") for the families of fallen Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) personnel. The run, held on March 8, 2015 (Sunday is a "low ops" day at Camp Marmal), was initiated by soldiers of the Swedish contingent with help from other organizations on the base. Over 2,222 Euros (over $2K) was handed over to the Afghan Red Crescent Society Widow Center Maraston. There are over 21 countries working at Camp Marmal. (RS News, March 10, 2015).

Maintenance in the Afghan Air Force (AAF). While the pilots get all the glory the support personnel in the Air Forces the world over do much of the work to keep the pilots (and planes) flying. This is true of the newly-built (not quite ready) Afghan Air Force. A recent news release by U.S. Air Forces Central Command highlights the work that Afghan maintainers do to keep the Mi-17 helicopters flying. Read "Afghan Air Force runs on maintenance", CENTCOM, March 10, 2015.

Blog Contributors Wanted

Subscribe to AWN Daily Newsletter

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Pakistan and Peace in Afghanistan

Pakistan is a major contributor to the insurgent problem in Afghanistan. Pakistan's viewpoint is that it is in perpetual war with India. Pakistan is very worried about a 'second front' developing in the rear so it wants to keep Afghanistan out of India's influence orbit and keep Afghanistan destabilized with the Pakistan proxies (Haqqani Network and other insurgent groups). President Ghani is trying to reassure Pakistan that its fears of a second front are exaggerated in hopes Pakistan will cease support to the Afghan insurgents and bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. There is very little hope in defeating an insurgency with sanctuary in a neighboring country and state sponsorship; so President Ghani's move to appease Pakistan has some merit. However, this approach by Ghani to Pakistan is getting lots of attention.

Pakistan and Peace Talks. The speaker of the upper house of parliament (Afghan), Fazil Hadi Muslimyar, warned President Ghani to be careful about relying on Pakistan to help broker peace talks with the Taliban. He says that he does not ". . . have much faith in Pakistan's honesty over peace talks". Read more in "Afghan lawmaker says wary of Pakistan role in Taliban peace moves", Reuters, March 9, 2015.

"Sliding Under the Pakistan Thumb". The former President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, also has concerns about Pakistan. The former President says he is worried over Afghanistan's tilt towards Pakistan and Ashraf Ghani's gamble on brokering a peace deal with the Taliban. Read more in "Hamid Karzai: Afghanistan in danger of sliding 'under thumb' of Pakistan", The Guardian, March 9, 2015.

Pakistan: From Meddling to Making Peace. All eyes seem to be watching Pakistan to see if they will stop supporting the Afghan Taliban and help in nudging them towards peace talks with Afghanistan. If anything can help out the beleagured Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police it would be Pakistan NOT providing sanctuary, money, intelligence, and other types of support to its "proxie" guerrillas attacking the ANSF. Read "Seize the day", The Economist, March 7, 2015.

Report - Electoral Reform in Afghanistan

The Afghan parliamentary elections are just around the corner. A recent survey shows that 92% of Afghans feel there is a need for electoral reform measures that should be implemented prior to the elections. Democracy International (DI) ". . . conducted a nationwide public opinion survey in Afghanistan on the heels of the formation of the National Unity Government (NUG) in 2014 in order to understand the Afghan public's attitudes about democracy and the elections, the impact and reach of civic education efforts, and confidence in political institutions . . . " You can read the report at the link below:

http://democracyinternational.com/publications/afghanistan-elections-and-civic-education-lessons-learned-survey

UN Report on Afghanistan

The United Nations has published a report (dated 27 Feb 2015) entitled "The Situation in Afghanistan". This report is published every three months and presented to the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly. The report provides an update on the activities of the United Nations in Afghanistan, including significant humanitarian, development and human rights efforts. It also provides a summary of key political and security developments and regional and international events related to Afghanistan.

www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/2015/151

Preserving Afghan History

Jack Detsch worries about the treasures of antiquity in Afghanistan. He believes more needs to be done to stop the looting of Afghan's historical sites. Read more in "Preserving History: Lessons from Afghanistan and Iraq", The Diplomat, March 10, 2015.

Avalanches in Afghanistan

Afghanistan had a winter with little snowfall - which is a concern for the farmers that rely on the snow melts of the mountains to feed the streams and rivers that irrigate the crops in spring. However, a lot of snow has recently showed up - causing floods, avalanches, deaths, road blockages, and energy shortages. One geologist, Ikramuddin Bahram, feels that the Afghan government and international community could do much more to minimize the damage these natural disasters cause. He provides and explanation of avalanches in Afghanistan and he recommends a series of measures that should be taken before next winter's snowfalls. Read "A Perfect (Snow) Storm: What can be done against avalanche damage in Afghanistan", Afghanistan Analysts Network (AAN), March 10, 2015.

USSOCOM Cdr: Get Counseling

USSOCOM Cdr Tells Troops to get Counseling. Suicides by special operators have fallen for two straight years but rates are still too high. The commander of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) has received counseling and wants his men to do so as well. "The high rate of special operations suicides as compared to the other services reflects the strain of more than a decade of deployments since the attacks . . . " of 9/11. This trend continues for special operators (who continue to deploy at a steady pace) as the deployments of conventional forces wind down. Read more in "Top U.S. Commando Tells Troops: Get Counseling, I Did", by Kimberly Dozier, The Daily Beast, March 10, 2015.

Afghan Drawdown Needs Modification

A commentator, Thomas F. Lynch III, has called for a modified drawdown plan for Afghanistan. Lynch, a research fellow at the National Defense University (NDU) and someone with significant Afghan experience, states that the need for ". . . a comprehensive policy and strategy review for post-2014 military-intelligence support to Afghanistan needs to be conducted in early 2015". Read his analysis and recommendations in "There is Still Time to Keep Afghanistan from Going the Way of Iraq - If Drawdown Plans are Significantly Modified", Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI), March 2015.

Book Review - Code Black

George Vlachonikolis reviews a newly published book entitled "Code Black" by Mark Evans. It is the story of a British Army Officer, Captain Mark Evans, and his deployment to Afghanistan in 2008. The book is about a two month long period where Evans, a small British unit, and an Afghan National Army (ANA) kandak were in intensive fighting in Nad Ali. The book reviewer - Vlachnonikolis - finds that the relationship between Evans and the ANA kandak commander reveals much about how the Afghan War was fought in general. Read the book review below published on March 10, 2105 - "The Trouble With Our Afghan "Led" Campaign".

http://warontherocks.com/2015/03/the-trouble-with-our-afghan-led-campaign/

Daily News Snippets (Mar 11, 2015)

Pajihwok Afghan News reports that 27 people were killed or wounded in a car bomb suicide attack in Lashkergah.

Afghanistan for many years was at the forefront of the "Global War on Terror" (GWOT). However, once President Obama took office, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq turned into "Overseas Contingency Operations" (OCO). This was an attempt by the administration to 'rebrand' the conflicts, move away from the 'terrorism' narrative, and pave the way for a withdrawal from both Iraq and Afghanistan. Well, the global war on terror is still with us, if under a different name. We are still in Afghanistan and are about to pass the AUMF that authorizes combat operations in Iraq (once again). In recent testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, James Clapper - the director of national intelligence - says that the terrorism threat is as bad as it ever has been. Read more in "In campaign against terrorism, U.S. enters period of pessimism and gloom", The Washington Post, March 7, 2015.

Cricket. In a sport that most Americans know little about, Afghanistan seems to be doing well. One commentator feels that the bowlers and batsmen from Kabul have become the world's favorite underdogs. Read more in "Afghanistan's Little Cricket Team That Could", Foreign Policy, March 9, 2015.

The ICRC has been active in Afghanistan for many years. One of the services the ICRC provides is ". . .artificial limbs and physical rehabilitation for people disabled by the war in Afghanistan . . . ".There are seven ICRC centers and the largest is located in Kabul. Take a guided, interactive tour of the Kabul center at the link below:

www.icrcproject.org/interactive/2013-07-orthocenter-kabul.html

Matthew Dearing, an assistant professor at the National Defense University, questions the U.S. implementation of the Leahy Law in regards to Afghanistan. The law prohibits U.S. funds being sent to foreign security forces implicated in human rights violations. A recent report by the Human Rights Watch (HRW) suggests the Leahy Law is applicable. But wouldn't that set back all the advances recently made over the past decade? Read more in "Nation Building is Dirty Business", Foreign Policy, March 10, 2015.

Some security analysts are predicting the defeat of the Haqqani Network - saying that the latest offensive by the Pakistani military in North Waziristan dislodged them from their support base and the groups terrorist activities has caused diminished popular support. Hmmm, we shall see. Read more in "Haqqani Network on verge of collapse, analysts say", Central Asia Online, March 9, 2015.