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Obama, Cameron to hold talks clouded by BP concerns

July 21, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron will hold talks on Tuesday overshadowed by controversy over BP Plc (BP.L)(BP.N) that could test the vaunted “special relationship” between their countries.

They are expected to discuss BP’s role in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and whether the British energy giant had influence in the release of the Lockerbie bomber from a Scottish prison last year — issues that have complicated transatlantic ties. [ID:nN19218995]

Cameron’s first visit to Washington as British prime minister comes amid a U.S. backlash against BP. With an eye to British pensioners and other investors at home, he has pledged to stand up for the embattled company.

Aides to both leaders insist the talks aim to build on a personal rapport they struck up at last month’s Group of 20 summit in Canada and that the agenda will focus more on the war in Afghanistan, the global economy and the Middle East.

But BP and its role in the worst oil spill in U.S. history loom large. Differences over BP’s treatment and over approaches to economic recovery raise fresh questions about a historic Anglo-American alliance already past its heyday.

Scoffing at “endless British preoccupation with the health of the special relationship,” Cameron wrote in the Wall Street Journal that he would be “hard-headed and realistic” about U.S. ties and said both countries must also strengthen bonds with rising powers like China and India. [ID:nLDE66I0I8]

DEMANDS FOR INQUIRY

Under heavy criticism over the Gulf disaster, BP faces demands from U.S. lawmakers for an official inquiry into whether it had a hand in the release of the Libyan convicted in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie, Scotland.

BP has confirmed it lobbied the British government in 2007 over a prisoner transfer deal because it was concerned a slow resolution would hurt an offshore drilling deal with Libya.

But the company said it was not involved in talks on the release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, sentenced to life for the deaths of 270 people, including 189 Americans.

On the eve of Cameron’s visit, the British government reiterated that BP had no role in the decision to free Megrahi and said it had no plans to re-examine the release, which took place despite fierce U.S. objections.

Scottish authorities said they freed the intelligence officer because he was terminally ill and they believed he had only three months to live. He is still alive in Libya.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told senators she was urging Scottish and British authorities to review the case.

Cameron’s aides have sought to play down the issue. He stressed in a BBC interview that, as opposition leader at the time, he thought the release was “utterly wrong.”

His visit also comes as U.S. lawmakers consider a range of rules that could require tougher safety standards on offshore drilling or bar companies like BP from new offshore leases.

Cameron has made clear he will defend BP, saying it must remain “strong and stable” to make good on its promise to compensate oil spill victims and for the sake of employees and people with pension funds invested in the company in both countries.

Obama, whose approval ratings have been undercut by public anger over the disaster, has taken a hard line with BP, although his rhetoric has softened recently amid criticism his administration had gone too in bashing the company.

Obama and Cameron will meet amid hopes a capping test on the blown-out well, which has largely choked off the undersea flow of oil, will pave the way for a permanent fix. [ID:nLDE66I13M]

UNITED FRONT, DIFFERENCES

Against this backdrop, they will present a united front on issues like sanctions against Iran and try to strike a balance between keeping up the fight in Afghanistan while signaling to skeptical voters they are progressing on exit strategies.

Obama and Cameron are sure to pay homage to their countries’ special relationship — in keeping with predecessors since Winston Churchill coined the phrase in 1946 — when they hold a joint news conference after they meet and have lunch.

But Cameron has indicated his new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition will work together pragmatically without being too slavish to U.S. interests.

Obama has also demonstrated a desire to see relations evolve, although he has been careful to avoid offending British sensibilities as he did earlier when he returned a loaned bust of Churchill on display in the Oval Office.

Cameron has led European attempts to cut budget deficits that have ballooned in the wake of the global financial crisis, while the United States has urged caution, arguing that reducing borrowing too fast could hinder the fragile recovery.

Both sides have agreed to disagree for now.

Cameron seems unwilling to be cast as America’s “poodle” — as British media dubbed former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair to former President George W. Bush. But he has acknowledged that Britain is the “junior partner” of the United States.

With more to gain from their encounter, Cameron is also looking to benefit from sharing a stage with Obama, who is more popular in Britain and much of Europe than he is at home. (Additional reporting by Matt Falloon; Editing by John O’Callaghan)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: American Alliance, Barack Obama, Bp Plc, British Energy, British Pensioners, british prime minister, David Cameron, Energy Giant, global economy, Gulf Of Mexico Oil, Gulf Of Mexico Oil Spill, Lockerbie Scotland, minister david, Official Inquiry, Offshore Drilling, Personal Rapport, prisoner transfer, special relationship, wall street journal, war in afghanistan

Clinton offers aid, seeks stronger Pakistan ties

July 20, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

ISLAMABAD, July 19 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced more than $500 million in new aid projects for Pakistan on Monday, which Washington hopes will help win over a sceptical public in an ally vital to winning the war in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Clinton was in Islamabad for two days as part of the U.S.-Pakistan strategic dialogue, a series of talks aimed at strengthening the relationship between the wary allies in the struggle against al Qaeda and the Taliban.

“The United States does not only want a dialogue between governments, we also want a dialogue between peoples,” she said ahead of the second “strategic dialogue” meeting between the countries in Islamabad on Tuesday.

Clinton will later fly on to Kabul for an international conference as the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan runs into mounting doubt in the U.S. Congress. [ID:nKABCON]

She announced a string of new projects — including dams, power generation, agricultural development and hospital construction — funded under U.S. legislation passed last year that tripled civilian aid to Pakistan to $7.5 billion over the next five years.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ For more Pakistan stories click [ID:nAFPAK]

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The projects, the first to be launched under a new aid plan, are seen as crucial to shoring up support for the U.S.-led struggle against militant extremists in a country where opinion polls show under one in five view the United States favourably.

“These aren’t one-time expenditures; they are long-term investments in Pakistan’s future,” she said.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi echoed Clinton’s optimism.

“This is a transformational phase in our bilateral relations,” he said.

Pakistan also wants enhanced market access, strengthening of its resources to take up the anti-terror fight and “non-discriminatory access” to energy and other technology.

The latter two requests are long-standing Pakistani desires for more military equipment and a civilian nuclear deal such as the one between India and the United States.

Clinton’s two-day visit includes talks with top military and civilian leaders.

The Pakistan and Afghan commerce ministers signed a trade deal during her visit that the United States also hopes will help boost cooperation between the countries. [ID:nN18171993]

HISTORY OF MISTRUST

The Obama administration sees nuclear-armed Pakistan as a pivotal player in the struggle against militant Islamist groups in both countries. But the two sides are divided by a history of mistrust and sometimes diverging goals over a war that is increasingly unpopular.

Opinion polls have shown many Pakistanis doubtful about long-term U.S. intentions, citing examples of abandonment, particularly after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan.

U.S. officials, meanwhile, are wary of the role Pakistan is playing in Afghanistan and believe it needs to do more to fight its own homegrown Taliban militants, which Washington blames for the attempted bombing in New York’s Times Square on May 1.

Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said there was a “dramatic acceleration” in cooperation between Washington and Islamabad, but conceded Pakistani public opinion was lagging. (Editing by Chris Allbritton)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Agricultural Development, Aid Projects, bilateral relations, favourably, Hillary Clinton, Hospital Construction, market access, mehmood, Military Equipment, neighbouring afghanistan, new projects, next five years, nuclear deal, Opinion Polls, qureshi, Sceptical Public, Term Investments, Time Expenditures, war in afghanistan, winning the war

Biden says no hard feelings toward McChrystal

July 19, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

July 18 (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Sunday it was too soon to judge if a surge of U.S. troops into Afghanistan was winning the war and insisted he bore no ill will toward General Stanley McChrystal.

President Barack Obama fired McChrystal last month after a magazine interview in which members of a team led by the top U.S. general in Afghanistan belittled Biden and called Obama’s national security adviser a “clown.”

“I wasn’t the clown. I was the guy who, in fact, was their problem, they thought. I’m not their problem,” Biden told ABC News’ “This Week” program.

McChrystal’s interview with Rolling Stone magazine exposed divisions between the White House and the military on how to conduct the Afghan war.

A member of his team joked about the vice president. “Biden?” the aide was quoted as saying. “Did you say: ‘Bite me?’” Another aide called national security adviser Jim Jones a clown who was “stuck in 1985.”

“I didn’t take it personally at all. I really, honest to God, didn’t. Compared to what happens in politics, this is — that was a piece of cake,” Biden said.

But Biden said the situation left McChrystal in an untenable position and that six four-star generals had advised the vice president that he must go.

“I met with McChrystal. The president met with McChrystal. He was — he was really apologetic. He knew they had gone way beyond. But we also knew that if a sergeant did that, if a lieutenant did that — I mean no one could stay,” Biden said.

Obama replaced McChrystal by putting General David Petraeus in charge of the war in Afghanistan.

U.S. troops are encountering stiff resistance and mounting casualties from a resurgent Taliban, despite a six-month buildup in U.S. forces. But Biden said it was too early to say if the strategy was working or not.

“We knew it was going to be a tough slog. But I think it’s much too premature to make a judgment until the military said we should look at it, which is in December,” Biden said, adding that it would take until August to complete the troop surge.

(Reporting by Alister Bull; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Abc News, afghan war, Barack Obama, david petraeus, Four Star Generals, general david petraeus, General Stanley Mcchrystal, God Didn, Honest To God, jim jones, Joe Biden, magazine interview, national security adviser, no hard feelings, president joe, rolling stone magazine, stiff resistance, Stuck In 1985, Untenable Position, war in afghanistan

Spanish and Dutch take time from Afghan war for Cup

July 13, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Afghanistan (Reuters) – In possibly the most formidable location to watch a World Cup, Dutch and Spanish soldiers took time out from the war in Afghanistan on Sunday to watch their countries fight for football’s biggest prize.

Spanish soldiers roared with joy and jumped on each other’s backs, waving national flags, as Andres Iniesta hammered home an extra time goal to secure victory for Spain.

“We suffer a lot here, but now it’s all worth it,” master sergeant Manuel Gallardo told Reuters.

At a dusty airbase on Kabul’s outskirts, dozens of troops gathered near midnight before flatscreen televisions hung in mess tents and huts decked with orange bunting, balloons and Spanish flags to watch the game unfold.

“They’re having fun, but the beer ran out only a few minutes into the game,” a corporal and stand-in barmaid said inside a Dutch hut beside lines of cannon-topped armored vehicles parked outside.

To make matters worse for soldiers from both countries, beer was zero-alcohol and quickly ran out with several thousand NATO and U.S. personnel staying up to watch the match, leaving only pallets of water.

“No Dutch soldier should have to endure it,” one Netherlands soldier joked.

The base is a hub for NATO operations in the country and is protected from insurgents by high concrete walls topped with razor wire and multiple guard towers.

Some soldiers wore Netherlands football jerseys and supporter hats, while most wore camouflage, some with rifles slung casually over their shoulders or pistols strapped to their legs.

In another tent holding a u-shaped bar, the shouting and stamping Spanish soldiers sat on couches supported by Polish and German troops, one wearing a Spanish flag over his shoulders as the game went into extra time.

(Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: afghan war, airbase, Andres Iniesta, armored vehicles, Concrete Walls, dutch soldier, extra time, Flatscreen Televisions, Football Jerseys, German Troops, Guard Towers, Master Sergeant, National Flags, nato operations, razor wire, Spanish Flag, Spanish Flags, Spanish Soldiers, Time Goal, war in afghanistan

U.S. and Russia to swap spies after 10 plead guilty

July 10, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Ten people pleaded guilty on Thursday to being agents for Russia while living undercover in the United States as part of a spy swap between the U.S. and Russian governments that revived Cold War-era intrigue.

The suspects agreed in court to be deported to Russia. In turn, Russia agreed to release four people imprisoned for suspected contact with Western intelligence agencies, the U.S. Justice Department said.

The swap helped resolve a scandal that threatened to strain U.S.-Russian relations and revealed shocking details about 10 people living double lives as ordinary citizens while trying to infiltrate U.S. policymaking circles.

Such swaps are not unprecedented but were more a fixture of the Cold War, when the United States and the former Soviet Union were sworn enemies competing for world domination.

Both the Kremlin and the administration of President Barack Obama sought to prevent the arrests from affecting relations that had been improving after hitting lows with Russia’s 2008 war against Georgia.

Obama, who hosted Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the White House last month, needs Moscow’s help for efforts to rein in Iran’s nuclear program and keep supply lines open for the war in Afghanistan. Russia wants U.S. support to gain entry to the World Trade Organization.

Obama “was fully informed” about the swap and endorsed it, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said on the “PBS NewsHour” program, stressing that the case was pursued by intelligence and law enforcement officials.

Some of the suspects were shown on NBC television boarding a Vision Airlines jet at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Thursday night, and footage from Reuters Television later showed the plane taking off.

Neither the U.S. State Department or the U.S. Department of Justice would comment on the reports.

FALSE NAMES

Five of the suspects revealed their real names for the first time publicly and all but one — Peruvian journalist Vicky Pelaez — said they were Russian citizens.

The couple known as Richard and Cynthia Murphy said their names were Vladimir and Lydia Guryev, 44 and 39 years old.

Donald Howard Heathfield was actually Andrey Bezrukov, 49, Tracey Lee Ann Foley was Elena Vavilova, 47, and Juan Lazaro was really Mikhail Anatonoljevich Vasemkov, 66.

Vladimir Guryev told the court he had been in the United States since the early 1990s.

“I resided here under an assumed name and took direction from the Russian Federation and met with Russian officials and I did not register as a diplomat or foreign agent,” he said.

Russian officials promised Pelaez she could go to any country, including her native Peru, with a monthly stipend of $2,000 for life plus visas for her children, her lawyer told the court.

The 10 suspects were sentenced to time already served — 11 days since their arrests on June 27 — and had separate charges of money-laundering dropped.

One of them, Anna Chapman, became a staple of the New York tabloid press, which splashed pictures of her across their pages and labeled her a party-hopping “sexy redhead” and a “Manhattan beauty.”

Also known as Anya Kushchenko, the 28-year-old was arrested in Manhattan, where she ran a $2 million real estate business.

WAITING FOR SUTYAGIN

In Moscow, relatives anxiously awaited word from a jailed Russian scholar they said was to be sent to Vienna on Thursday in the first stage of the swap.

It was unclear whether Igor Sutyagin, convicted in 2004 of passing secrets to the West, had arrived in Austria as part of what his lawyer said Sutyagin was told would be a exchange for Russian agents arrested in the United States.

Sutyagin, a respected nuclear expert, was convicted in 2004 of passing classified military information to a British firm that Russian prosecutors said was a front for the CIA.

He said the information was available from open sources and his conviction cast a chill on Russian scientists.

Three of the prisoners Russia agreed to release were convicted of treason and serving long prison terms, Justice Department prosecutors said. Some were in poor health, and the Russian government agreed to release them and their family members for resettlement.

U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the investigation was not done to gain a “bargaining chip” with Russia.

“With the arrests and guilty pleas in this case it would appear that the Russian Federation is unlikely to engage in this methodology in the future, and that is a good thing,” Bharara told reporters.

“These arrests and prosecution send a message to every other intelligence agency that if you come to America and spy on Americans in America, you will be exposed and arrested.”

(Additional reporting by James Vicini in Washington and Aydar Buribayev, Conor Humphries and Sergei Karpukhin in Moscow; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by John O’Callaghan)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Barack Obama, dmitry medvedev, False Names, Former Soviet Union, laguardia airport, law enforcement officials, Nbc Television, ordinary citizens, pbs newshour, rahm emanuel, reuters television, Russian Governments, russian relations, Shocking Details, Vicky Pelaez, war in afghanistan, Western Intelligence Agencies, white house chief of staff, world domination, world trade organization

Senate set to OK Petraeus as U.S. Afghan commander

June 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON, June 29 (Reuters) – U.S. General David Petraeus faces a confirmation hearing in the Senate on Tuesday expected to expose growing doubts about the U.S. effort in Afghanistan but broad support for the four-star general chosen to lead it.

One of the U.S. military’s biggest stars, Petraeus is widely credited with helping turn the tide in Iraq. President Barack Obama hopes he can do the same with the unpopular, nine-year-old war in Afghanistan.

Petraeus, 57, would replace General Stanley McChrystal, who was fired by Obama last week over comments made by him and his aides belittling the president and his aides and announced his retirement on Monday.

It was the biggest military shake-up of his presidency, and the second time the top Afghan commander was fired since Obama took office last year.

“This is Obama’s last chance,” Arturo Munoz, a security analyst at the RAND Corporation, said of Petraeus.

If the general who helped pull Iraq back from the brink and oversaw development of the book on counter-insurgency strategy cannot win the war in Afghanistan, maybe no one can, Munoz added.

Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee to which Petraeus will testify, cautioned reporters a day ahead of the confirmation hearing that support for the war among Obama’s Democrats was starting to erode.

“On the Democratic side, there’s I would say solid support but there’s also the beginnings of some fraying of that support — and that’s true in the base, as well as in the Congress,” he told reporters.

He aimed to press Petraeus to increase the number of Afghan forces who are taking part in a campaign to secure the Taliban’s spiritual home of Kandahar, an operation seen as the linchpin of Obama’s war strategy.

After a slower-than-expected roll-out, that operation is expected to get fully under way in September and its perceived success or failure could affect Obama’s Democrats at the ballot box in November congressional elections.

STRUGGLING CAMPAIGN

The Afghan job is technically a step-down for Petraeus, who used to be McChrystal’s boss.

The Army general is widely respected by Republicans and Democrats, and few expect his nomination to be held up. Obama has called for his confirmation before the July 4 holiday.

“I think the hearing is going to be warm and very positive regarding Petraeus himself … But in regard to the counter-insurgency strategy, no. That’s going to be different,” said Munoz. “There are going to be a lot of hard questions.”

Perceptions of a struggling U.S. campaign have been fueled by a stronger-than-expected Taliban resistance in the southern district of Marjah — meant to be a showcase of U.S. strategy — and the slow start to the offensive in Kandahar.

In a sign of growing tensions, a key Democratic lawmaker in the House of Representatives said she was cutting billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan from spending legislation because of reports of corruption and donor aid being flown out of the country.

Representative Nita Lowey, who heads the House appropriations subcommittee on foreign aid, vowed not to spend “one more dime” on aid to Afghanistan until she can be sure it is not being abused.

Petraeus, who briefly fainted the last time he appeared before the Senate committee — he blamed dehydration — is also expected to face tough questions from opposition Republicans critical of Obama’s plan to start withdrawing U.S. troops in July 2011.

Senator John McCain, the ranking Republican on the committee, has criticized the timeline and said it sent a signal to Afghans that the United States and its allies were preparing to wrap up the war regardless of the outcome.

Levin said the July 2011 date was crucial to Americans wary of making an open-ended commitment to the Afghan conflict.

“That date being set I think was critically important in terms of maintaining support of the American people (for) a war that has gone on so long,” Levin said.

Ramping up Afghan security forces is a precondition for any eventual pullout by American forces. But a report on Monday by the U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction underscored the difficulty of training Afghan troops to take over the country’s security. [ID:nN2890507]

“We don’t really know at this point in time what the capability of the Afghanistan security forces really is,” chief inspector Arnold Fields told reporters, highlighting problems of drug abuse and corruption.

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; editing by David Alexander and Mohammad Zargham)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: afghan commander, armed services committee, Barack Obama, broad support, carl levin, Chairman Of The Senate Armed Services Committee, confirmation hearing, congressional elections, counter-insurgency, david petraeus, Democratic Side, general david petraeus, General Stanley Mcchrystal, rand corporation, security analyst, senate armed services, senate armed services committee, Star General, war in afghanistan, war strategy

PRESS DIGEST – Wall Street Journal – June 14

June 15, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – The following were the top stories in The Wall Street Journal on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

Stocks | Global Markets

* Ethnic violence flared out of control in Kyrgyzstan, threatening to destabilize what has been a conduit for troops and supplies for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

* The race to profit from Asia’s growing appetite for corn, soybeans and other crops is resurrecting once-dormant disputes between two mainstays of the nation’s economy: Farmers and railroads.

* Economic woes in Europe and the accompanying decline in the euro are already digging into the profits of Asia’s manufacturers. The worry is that the pain will spread more broadly if European demand for Asian exports falters.

* Settlement talks between Dell Inc (DELL.O), its CEO and the SEC may help illuminate what role rebates from Intel Corp (INTC.O) played in the computer maker’s finances.

* AT&T Inc (T.N), reaching out to iPad users Sunday to explain why their email addresses were released last week, blamed the incident on “computer hackers” who “maliciously exploited” an attempt by the carrier to speed the process of logging in to its website.

* French and German banks continued to hold the greatest exposure to euro-zone countries facing market pressures at the end of last year, underscoring their interest in restoring investor confidence in the region.

* Investors are ignoring warning signs in the $2.8 trillion municipal-bond market, raising the risk of a reckoning, according to some market specialists.

* Some workers at a Honda Motor Co (7267.T) plant in southern China pressed ahead with a strike Sunday as part of a wave of labor unrest that poses a political challenge for the Communist Party, whose authority in the workplace is being undermined by independent labor activists.

* European Central Bank governor Athanasios Orphanides indicated in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires that interest rates in the euro zone will remain on hold for many months, urging European politicians to tackle yawning inefficiencies in fiscal governance.

* Chinese wind-turbine maker Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co has decided to shelve its $1.2 billion Hong Kong initial public offering because of volatile market conditions, a person familiar with the situation said Sunday.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Central Bank Governor, computer hackers, Corn Soybeans, Dell Inc, Dow Jones Newswires, economic woes, ethnic violence, German Banks, Honda Motor, Honda Motor Co., Independent Labor, Intel Corp, Investor Confidence, Labor Activists, Labor Unrest, Market Specialists, Municipal Bond Market, orphanides, wall street journal, war in afghanistan

RPT-Report slams Pakistan for meddling in Afghanistan

June 14, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

KABUL, June 13 (Reuters) – Pakistani military intelligence not only funds and trains Taliban fighters in Afghanistan but is officially represented on the movement’s leadership council, giving it significant influence over operations, a report said.

The report, published by the London School of Economics, a leading British institution, on Sunday, said research strongly suggested support for the Taliban was the “official policy” of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI).

Although links between the ISI and Islamist militants have been widely suspected for a long time, the report’s findings, which it said were corroborated by two senior Western security officials, could raise more concerns in the West over Pakistan’s commitment to help end the war in Afghanistan.

The report also said Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was reported to have visited senior Taliban prisoners in Pakistan earlier this year, where he is believed to have promised their release and help for militant operations, suggesting support for the Taliban “is approved at the highest level of Pakistan’s civilian government”.

A Pakistani diplomatic source described that report as “naive”, and also said any talks with the Taliban were up to the Afghan government.

“Pakistan appears to be playing a double-game of astonishing magnitude,” said the report, based on interviews with Taliban commanders and former senior Taliban ministers as well as Western and Afghan security officials.

“DUPLICITY”

In March 2009, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, said they had indications elements in the ISI supported the Taliban and al Qaeda and said the agency must end such activities.

Nevertheless, senior Western officials have been reluctant to talk publicly on the subject for fear of damaging possible cooperation from Pakistan, a nuclear-armed state Washington has propped up with billions of dollars in military and economic aid.

“The Pakistan government’s apparent duplicity — and awareness of it among the American public and political establishment — could have enormous geo-political implications,” said the report’s author, Matt Waldman, a fellow at Harvard University.

“Without a change in Pakistani behaviour it will be difficult if not impossible for international forces and the Afghan government to make progress against the insurgency,” Waldman said in the report.

The report comes at the end of one of the bloodiest weeks for foreign troops in Afghanistan — more than 21 have been killed this week — and at a time when the insurgency is at its most violent.

More than 1,800 foreign troops, including some 1,100 Americans, have died in Afghanistan since U.S.-backed Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001. The war has already cost the United States around $300 billion and now costs more than $70 billion a year, the report said, citing 2009 U.S. Congressional research figures.

VIOLENT REGIONS

The report said interviews with Taliban commanders in some of the most violent regions in Afghanistan “suggest that Pakistan continues to give extensive support to the insurgency in terms of funding, munitions and supplies”.

“These accounts were corroborated by former Taliban ministers, a Western analyst and a senior U.N. official based in Kabul, who said the Taliban largely depend on funding from the ISI and groups in Gulf countries,” the report said.

Almost all of the Taliban commanders interviewed in the report also believed the ISI was represented on the Quetta Shura, the Taliban’s supreme leadership council based in Pakistan.

“Interviews strongly suggest that the ISI has representatives on the (Quetta) Shura, either as participants or observers, and the agency is thus involved at the highest level of the movement,” the report said.

The report also stated that Pakistani President Zardari, along with a senior ISI official, allegedly visited some 50 senior Taliban prisoners at a secret location in Pakistan where he told them they had been arrested only because he was under pressure from the United States.

“(This) suggests that the policy is approved at the highest level of Pakistan’s civilian government,” the report said.

Afghanistan has also been highly critical of Pakistan’s ISI involvement in the conflict in Afghanistan. Last week, the former director of Afghanistan’s intelligence service, Amrullah Saleh, resigned saying he had become an obstacle to President Hamid Karzai’s plans to negotiate with the insurgents. [ID:SGE6560IX]

In an exclusive interview with Reuters at his home a day after he resigned, Saleh said the ISI was “part of the landscape of destruction in this country”.

“It will be a waste of time to provide evidence of ISI involvement. They are a part of it. The Pakistani army of which ISI is a part, they know where the Taliban leaders are — in their safe houses,” he told Reuters. (Editing by David Fox and Alex Richardson) (For more Reuters coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan, see: here)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: admiral mike mullen, Afghan government, Afghanistan kabul, Asif Ali Zardari, British Institution, chiefs of staff, civilian government, david petraeus, Diplomatic Source, double game, general david petraeus, intelligence agency, inter-services, joint chiefs of staff, london school of economics, military intelligence, Taliban Afghanistan, taliban prisoners, war in afghanistan, western officials

Analysis: Slow Afghan gains weigh on Obama strategy

June 12, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – The slower pace of U.S. military advances in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar may weigh heavily on President Barack Obama’s efforts to sustain public support for the war in Afghanistan.

World

Obama has ordered a review of U.S. strategy in December and had been counting on progress in Kandahar, the Taliban’s birthplace, to show momentum is shifting and troops can start to pull out in July 2011 as planned.

But the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, said on Thursday that after lessons learned in neighboring Helmand province, he wanted more time to shore up Afghan support for the Kandahar operation and to build up local governance and capacity to get the job done.

McChrystal said he expected there would be progress by year-end but warned of “very, very difficult days” ahead and that the pace would be slower in Kandahar than expected.

The balance between military priorities and political agenda will become harder to manage as pressure mounts on the U.S. government to stick to its July 2011 pullout deadline.

Obama needs to show progress by December to bolster his case for a continued U.S. commitment and ask for more time to consolidate gains, said Lisa Curtis, an expert on Afghanistan at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative thinktank.

“But if the situation seems unchanged and there is still a stalemate then it will be much more difficult. The withdrawal date will them loom much more heavily,” added Curtis,

Kandahar had been billed as the linchpin to turn around war in Afghanistan but U.S. officials say it has been tough to win local support and show the public the Afghan government is not corrupt and can be trusted to deliver services.

“Ultimately the equation is not how many schools can we open by July of next year or how many miles of tarmac can we lay, but what is the governance situation and do people believe that the government that is there has their long term interests at heart,” said Alex Thier of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

“That is very much an open question,” added Thier, who is joining the Obama administration next week to work on Afghanistan and Pakistan issues.

KARZAI FACTOR

One big risk factor for Obama is how President Hamid Karzai handles Kandahar, where his half-brother is a powerful political figure. Karzai is set in the coming weeks to hold joint community meetings there with McChrystal.

Eyebrows were raised last weekend when Karzai fired his interior minister and intelligence chief, two cabinet members who were broadly respected by Washington and some in Congress are worried about that as well as the slowdown in Kandahar.

“I think there is some cause for concern there both to that (the slowdown), and with the firing,” said Democratic Senator Ted Kaufman.

Karzai has had prickly relations with the White House and before his visit to Washington last month there was a war of words between the two, particularly after the Afghan leader made a string of anti-Western statements.

But U.S. officials say they planned now to keep criticism of Karzai behind closed doors so that diplomatic spats did not sour activities on the battlefield.

Karzai said during his Washington visit that the issue of his brother had been “resolved”.

Kimberly Kagan, president of the Institute for the Study of War, said that despite these assurances, Karzai’s brother complicated the situation in Kandahar and NATO forces needed to serve as a buffer between the population and the government.

“The fundamental list of grievances of Afghans is that the government is predatory and they need a system of justice and they need to be able to have a say over how their community is organized,” said Kagan.

JULY PULL-OUT LOOMS

Another concern of the Afghan population is the July 2011 pullout date and whether the United States is committed long-term to the country’s interests.

“I think one of the biggest problems is the president’s continued statement that we’re leaving in the middle of next year. It gives a degree of uncertainty to our allies and gives encouragement to our adversaries,” said Arizona Sen. John McCain, ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee.

Another circle on Obama’s political timetable will be U.S. congressional midterm elections in November where his own Democratic Party is expected to lose some seats.

However, several experts said that could actually work in Obama’s favor as Republicans tend to be more supportive of the Afghan war effort than some Democrats are, particularly the more liberal wing of his party.

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Afghan government, Barack Obama, General Stanley Mcchrystal, heritage foundation, kandahar, linchpin, local governance, Military Priorities, momentum, nato commander, Political Agenda, pullout, reuters, stalemate, stronghold, Taliban, term interests, Thinktank, war in afghanistan, year-end

ANALYSIS-Slow Afghan gains weigh on Obama strategy

June 12, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

WASHINGTON, June 11 (Reuters) – The slower pace of U.S. military advances in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar may weigh heavily on President Barack Obama’s efforts to sustain public support for the war in Afghanistan.

McChrystal said he expected there would be progress by year-end but warned of “very, very difficult days” ahead and that the pace would be slower in Kandahar than expected.

The balance between military priorities and political agenda will become harder to manage as pressure mounts on the U.S. government to stick to its July 2011 pullout deadline.

“But if the situation seems unchanged and there is still a stalemate then it will be much more difficult. The withdrawal date will them loom much more heavily,” added Curtis,

“That is very much an open question,” added Thier, who is joining the Obama administration next week to work on Afghanistan and Pakistan issues.

KARZAI FACTOR

“I think there is some cause for concern there both to that (the slowdown), and with the firing,” said Democratic Senator Ted Kaufman.

But U.S. officials say they planned now to keep criticism of Karzai behind closed doors so that diplomatic spats did not sour activities on the battlefield.

Karzai said during his Washington visit that the issue of his brother had been “resolved”.

JULY PULL-OUT LOOMS

Another concern of the Afghan population is the July 2011 pullout date and whether the United States is committed long-term to the country’s interests.

Another circle on Obama’s political timetable will be U.S. congressional midterm elections in November where his own Democratic Party is expected to lose some seats.

US to go ahead with ‘essential’ drone attacks in Pak despite UN call to stop

June 4, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, Jun.4 (ANI): Notwithstanding a report by a top UN official, which called for the discontinuation of unmanned Predator drone attacks in Pakistan’s troubled tribal areas along the Afghan border, the United States has defended the missile strikes, which many believe have killed more civilians than extremists.

Bruce Riedel, a former Central Investigation Agency (CIA) officials and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution Saban Center described the CIA operated attacks as ‘essential’, which were needed to pressurise terror groups like Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

“Drone operations are essential. The drones are part of a much broader effort to put pressure on Al-Qaida through the war in Afghanistan. They”re the cutting edge of the pressure, but they”re not the only pressure,” The Christian Science Monitor quoted Riedel, as saying.

Micah Zenko, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, also argued that the drone attacks were an “essential tool for killing terrorists even if their use should be more carefully scrutinized.”

Zenko, however, pointed out that militants were fast adopting to these strikes, and that their ‘usefulness may be waning.’

A top United Nation (UN) official had criticised the Obama administration for continuing drone attacks in the semi-autonomous tribal areas of Pakistan, as they have resulted in countless civilian deaths.

While US officials have presented an impressive figure of over 500 terrorists being killed in missile hits and only 30 civilians in the past couple of years, UN’s special rapporteur on extra judicial, summary or arbitrary executions Phillip Alston argues that drone strikes amount to a “license to kill” without being held accountable, a license the U.S. would not want any other country to have.

Alston, in his report, said that by carrying out the drone attacks, Washington is just setting a bad example.

“The rules we’re setting for ourselves now are the rules that we”re also setting for others later,” Alston’s report said.

Alston criticized the secrecy of the CIA”s drone attacks, saying they have resulted in “the creation of a major accountability vacuum.”

“Remote attacks also led to a risk of developing a ‘Playstation’ mentality to killing,” he wrote in his report. (ANI)

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Shahzad”s hatred stemmed from personal failure, war on terror

May 6, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

New York, May 6 (ANI): Confessed Times Square car bomber Faisal Shahzad”s hatred stemmed from personal failure and the US-led Allied war on terror in Afghanistan.

According to the New York Daily News, a raft of grievances that built up over time fueled his descent from a suburban Connecticut family man to a wanna-be terrorist.

It quoted law enforcement sources, as saying that “He did a slow burn.”

“[He was] slowly radicalized as events piled up – the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, Muslim brothers being killed, innocent people being hit by drones from above,” one source said.

Shahzad, the son of a wealthy Pakistani family who earned a college degree and an M.B.A. in America, offered few clues of his growing resentment toward his adopted country.

But last year, Shahzad”s fixation on U.S. policy in the Middle East was evident at a house party in leafy Shelton, Conn.

Neighbor Dennis Flanner said a brooding Shahzad was staring at the TV news in a room packed with drunken partygoers.

“They were talking about those drones blowing things up in Afghanistan,” Flanner, 18, said. “He was the only one watching it. Everybody else was just having a good time.”

At one point, Flanner said, a reveler told Shahzad to loosen up and have some fun. Shahzad wasn”t having it.

“They shouldn”t be shooting people from the sky,” Shahzad replied, according to Flanner. “You know, they should come down and fight.”

By that point, Shahzad, a financial analyst, was starting to shed his middle-class life.

In June, he quit the job he had held since 2006 at marketing firm Affinion. Banks foreclosed on the home he had owned since 2004 and where he had lived with his wife, Huma Mian, and their young son and daughter.

In the fall, Shahzad went to Pakistan, where he admits getting bomb training, according to a federal complaint. When he returned to the U.S. in February, he rented an apartment in a shabby area of Bridgeport, Conn.

“It looks like everything was tilting toward, ”I”m not succeeding in America. I”m going back to Pakistan, and I”m going to carry out an attack,”” said former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt.

Van Zandt said it was revealing that Shahzad opted not to carry out a suicide attack.

“It tells me that his dedication to whatever motivation he had to do this was not to the level of what we”ve seen of other Middle Eastern terrorists. He was not that radicalized.” (ANI)

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Captured Baradar providing clues on Taliban

May 6, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Washington, May 6 (ANI): Captured Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar is providing important information to American officials on the inner workings of the Taliban.

According to the New York Times, these pivotal insights will help the United States look for ways to end the war in Afghanistan.

Baradar, the second-ranking Taliban leader, was arrested in January outside Karachi, in a joint operation by American and Pakistani intelligence agents.

Officials, however, said that Baradar has not revealed details of Taliban combat operations, yielding little that American commanders would like to know as they prepare for a military operation around Kandahar, the Taliban’s spiritual base and Afghanistan’s second largest city.

He has provided his American interrogators with a nuanced understanding of the strategy that the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, is developing for negotiations with the government of President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, who is visiting Washington next week.

He is also offering a more detailed understanding of what prompted Mullah Omar to issue a new code of conduct for militants last year that directed fighters to avoid civilian casualties.

American officials say the code was meant to project a softer image to the Afghan people.

Four American military, intelligence and diplomatic officials provided details of Mullah Baradar’s cooperation, but requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the delicate intelligence interrogations. (ANI)

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Allies aim to start handover of power to Afghans

April 24, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Fearful of losing public support for the war in Afghanistan, the US and NATO agreed to start transferring control of the country back to its leaders by year’s end but acknowledged that achieving stability will take decades.

If successful, the transition plan approved by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and representatives of the 27 other NATO countries would enable President Barack Obama to meet his target date of July 2011 for starting to bring American troops home.

The stakes are high. If the plan fails, public support in Europe, the US and among Afghans themselves could further erode or even collapse.

Much depends not only on improved NATO military performance but also on political reconciliation between the Taliban and Afghan’s central government. The allies must quickly improve the training and performance of the Afghan army and police, and strengthen Afghan institutions weakened by decades of conflict.

Clinton on Friday offered an optimistic assessment of the approach, which NATO hopes Afghan President Hamid Karzai will endorse in July at an international conference in Kabul.

Once approved, NATO would officially implement the plan at a summit, possibly in conjunction with a public announcement of the first provinces to be transferred to Afghan control, said Mark Sedwill, the senior NATO civilian in Kabul.

“We believe that with sufficient attention, training and mentoring, the Afghans themselves are perfectly capable of defending themselves against insurgents,” Clinton told a news conference.

“Does that mean it will be smooth sailing? I don’t think so. Look at Iraq.” Asked whether any plan to turn power over to Afghanistan’s sometimes dysfunctional, corrupt and resource-poor government was viable, Sedwill told reporters; “It’s far from certain.”

Yet he and other NATO officials said they believe that with an infusion of new military and civilian aid – including the 30,000 US troops dispatched by the Obama administration last December – success is possible.

“Increasingly this year the momentum will be ours,” said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. He said the transition to Afghan control is important to demonstrate not only to Afghans but also to the Western countries fighting there that an end to the war is in sight.

“Our aims in 2010 are clear: to take the initiative against the insurgents, to help the Afghan government exercise its sovereignty, and to start handing over responsibility for Afghanistan to the Afghans this year,” Fogh Rasmussen said. He added, however, that even if the transition unfolds as expected it will takes decades of additional assistance for Afghanistan to stand on its own.

Sedwill said the first provinces to be transferred to government control would likely be in the north and west, where the Taliban is less active. And he said the idea is to hand over a cluster of contiguous provinces at the same time to increase the odds of their withstanding the insurgents.

Clinton warned of a hard road ahead, but said she was not discouraged by the obstacles.

NATO is about 450 trainers short of the number it says are needed to prepare security forces for transition to an Afghan-run Afghanistan. That gap apparently remained after Friday’s session, which was not designed to elicit specific pledges of troops, trainers or other military resources.

“We have a relatively small gap that we’re still working to fill. I’m very convinced we’ll get that filled,” Clinton said, adding: “For me, the glass is way more than half full.”

Rasmussen stressed the importance of providing hope to Afghan civilians and halting an erosion of public support for the war in NATO countries.

“Citizens in Afghanistan and in all troop contributing countries are demanding visible progress, and they are right to insist on that,” he added. “We should have no illusions. Making progress will not be easy and will not be quick. But based on what we see on the ground now, it is happening.”

He added that winding down the war does not mean the allies will leave before the mission is accomplished.

“It will not be a run for the exits,” he said.

To underscore NATO’s effort to coordinate of its strategy and operations with the government in Kabul, Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul attended the Tallinn meeting.

The participants were briefed via video conference by US Gen.

Stanley McChrystal, Afghanistan’s top NATO commander, and in person by Adm. James Stavridis, the top NATO commander in Europe, as well as by Sedwill and other top civilian officials.

In a speech Thursday before the two-day NATO meeting began, Fogh Rasmussen called Afghanistan the most challenging military operation in NATO’s history.

“We all want to see a stable and secure Afghanistan – an Afghanistan that is no longer a threat to its region and to the rest of the world,” he said. “We will stay in Afghanistan as long as it takes to achieve that goal. We want to continue to empower the Afghans. And gradually hand over to them greater responsibility for the security of their own country when conditions permit.”

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: afghans, american troops, Attention Training, Barack Obama, Central Government, hamid karzai, handover, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Nato Countries, Nato Officials, optimistic assessment, political reconciliation, poor government, public announcement, smooth sailing, Target Date, Transferring Control, transition plan, us secretary of state, war in afghanistan

Kyrgyz interim leader details democratic plans

April 17, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Kyrgyzstan interim leader Roza Otunbayeva said on Friday her temporary government was working on a new constitution to set up a parliamentary democracy in the central Asian country.

“We agreed on a parliamentary republic system and now we have a working group which is drafting a constitution,” Otunbayeva told reporters in Washington and other cities via teleconference from Bishkek.

Otunbayeva, who stepped in as leader this month after the uprising that ousted President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, said it was too early to say if she herself would run for president in elections expected in about six months.

“We didn’t decide yet. I don’t know so far myself,” Otunbayeva said, adding that basic questions such as how the president would be elected remained to be worked out.

Otunbayeva noted that her decision to allow Bakiyev to seek refuge in neighboring Kazakhstan this week had angered many in the country, and said her main task now was political reconciliation.

“I want to be a conciliator,” Otunbayeva said in English. “We dont have big strong parties, but these three parties which are leading forces of our interim government. If we are not together then we will lose the whole deal.”

Otunbayeva pledged to strike a fair balance between Russia, which members of her government have called a key ally, and the United States, which leases an air base in the country that is important for Washington in the war in Afghanistan.

“I want to assure you that we would make a right balance,” Otunbayeva said, adding that she also saw no problems in relations with Kyrgystan’s other powerful neighbor, China.

She repeated assurances that there were no immediate plans to change the conditions under which the United States leases the Manas air transit facility.

“So far this is not our high priority,” she said.

(Reporting by Andrew Quinn; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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President Bakiyev hints could leave Kyrgyzstan

April 15, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

TEYYIT, Kyrgyzstan, April 14 (Reuters) – Ousted Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Wednesday hinted he could leave the country if the interim government which came to power in an uprising last week guaranteed his safety and that of his family.

Bakiyev’s first public admission that he may have to leave the impoverished Central Asian country comes after the provisional government stripped him of his immunity and threatened to send special forces to arrest him.

Kyrgyzstan’s new rulers have been ratcheting up the pressure on Bakiyev since he fled an uprising in Bishkek to rally thousands of supporters in his stronghold in the south.

“I am not clutching at my armchair and I have not said that I am not going to step down under any circumstances,” Bakiyev told reporters in his village.

“What I said is, that if the issues of my personal safety and the safety of my family members are resolved … and if there is stability in Kyrgyzstan, then I am ready to consider this question,” he said.

“To argue that the president of Kyrgyzstan would not under any circumstances step down and that he would not leave the country is not the way the question should be posed,” he said.

Bakiyev’s sharp change of tone — after days of defiance and veiled threats of conflict — could open up a path out of the turmoil which has disrupted flights out of a U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan that is central for fighting the war in Afghanistan.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake visited Bishkek on Wednesday to meet the new leaders of the interim government after a U.S. official said Manas would not be used for sending troops to Afghanistan in the near term.

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EXILE?

The turmoil in Kyrgyzstan has raised fears of ethnic strife between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz, who clashed in the ethnically mixed region of Osh as the Soviet Union crumbled, killing at least 300 people and wounding thousands more before Moscow sent in troops to impose order.

At least 2,000 ethnic Uzbeks attended a rally on the central square in Jalalabad on Wednesday to protest against Bakiyev. Later, about 1,000 Kyrgyz Bakiyev supporters rallied at the same square.

Bakiyev’s tentative offer of resignation and exile was conditional on guarantees of safety for himself and his family, something the government may find hard to do since one of Bakiyev’s brothers has admitted to giving the order to fire into crowds of protesters on April 7.

At least 82 people were killed in those clashes, the deadliest in Central Asia for five years. Bakiyev’s brother, presidential bodyguard chief Dzhanibek Bakiyev, has admitted to giving the order to shoot into the crowds during the uprising.

Bakiyev said his two sons, Marat and Maxim, were abroad and would not return.

“The interim government is not likely to grant immunity to all of Bakiyev’s family members,” Eurasia Group analyst Ana Jelenkovic said in a research note. “Bakiyev may not accept immunity for only himself at this time.

“His presence in the country will hinder the interim government from establishing control in that particular region and tension could easily spike again,” she said. (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: April 14, armchair, assistant secretary, Bishkek, Central Asian Country, Ethnic Strife, Interim Government, Manas, new leaders, OSH, personal safety, Provisional Government, public admission, Rall, Robert Blake, stronghold, u s air, uzbeks, veiled threats, war in afghanistan

Pentagon boosting Afghanistan “eyes in the sky”

April 3, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – The Pentagon is intensely focused on getting more trucks, surveillance equipment and other military equipment into Afghanistan to prepare for what will be a critical summer in the war, Defense Undersecretary Ashton Carter said on Friday.

World | Barack Obama

Carter, head of Pentagon acquisition, technology and logistics, said the success of the U.S. war in Afghanistan would depend largely on being able to get weapons and support services to the U.S. troops headed to the land-locked country, which he described as “the last place where you would like to be fighting a war.”

“This summer is going to be very critical. If we don’t get ourselves in there and get set … we can’t have success,” he told a conference hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies,

As part of that effort, Carter said he was increasing 20-fold the number of airships hovering over Afghanistan, providing “eyes in the sky” to troops on the ground.

Equipped with sophisticated cameras and the ability to stream images to U.S. bases on the ground, the airships would help track any activity that could jeopardize the troops, including the burying of roadside bombs.

At the same time, the very visible presence of the airships would keep potential attackers on their guard, Carter said, calling the airships a more affordable way to maintain surveillance than more expensive unmanned airplanes, which are also being deployed in Afghanistan in large numbers.

Carter did not name the airship maker, and Pentagon officials were not immediately available for comment.

South Dakota-based Raven Industries Inc last month said it had a tethered airship backlog of more than $10 million. It said the airships would be paired with surveillance equipment and deployed in Afghanistan.

Aria International, based in Virginia, also makes a helium-filled blimp equipped with infrared thermal cameras, and Lockheed Martin Corp has a larger version that it has been promoting to the military for years.

The unmanned airships will cut the need for risky on-foot missions by staying in the air much longer and feeding data to commanders through on-board cameras and sensors.

These sensors could also “rewind” after an explosion to find who planted the bomb and where they went.

Carter said the airships would be under the control of local forward operating bases, not commanders far away, making them a good tool on a fairly localized basis.

He said the Pentagon was also accelerating delivery of hand-held metal detectors and ground-penetrating radars, as part of an urgent drive to reduce the number of casualties from road-side bombs or improvised explosive devices (IEDs).

The military was also deploying about 1,000 new armored trucks built by Oshkosh Corp per month, double the initial rate, Carter said.

He said Defense Secretary Robert Gates had told him to “make sure that we are doing all we can do” to prevent the large number of IED-related troop deaths and injuries that marked the early years of the Iraq war.

The Pentagon was also examining several models of unmanned helicopters that could be used to get supplies to troops without using dangerous convoys on the road, he said.

At the same time the military is dramatically increasing its presence in Afghanistan, it was also dealing with the drawdown in Iraq, a major logistical challenge, Carter said.

He said the military had already removed 2.2 million pieces of military equipment from more than 350 forward operating bases in Iraq but needed to deal with 1.2 million more pieces by August, deciding if they should return to the United States, stay in Iraq or go elsewhere for use in future conflicts.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Acquisition Technology, Airships, Ashton Carter, Barack Obama, Carter Head, center for strategic and international studies, Eyes In The Sky, Helium Filled Blimp, lockheed martin, Lockheed Martin Corp, milita, pentagon officials, raven industries inc, roadside bombs, Sophisticated Cameras, surveillance equipment, Thermal Cameras, unmanned airplanes, Visible Presence, war in afghanistan