Pentagon restricts release of Afghanistan war data Tuesday 30 January 2018
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1235861/world
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has ordered an independent federal auditor to stop providing the public with key information about US war efforts in Afghanistan, accelerating a clampdown on data, such as the size of the Afghan military and police forces, that indicate how the 16-year-old stalemated war is going.
The crackdown on information comes just months after President Donald Trump announced a new Afghanistan strategy aimed at breaking a battlefield stalemate by accelerating Afghan-led operations against the Taliban and other insurgent groups in the country.
Trump on Monday railed against the recent string of attacks in Afghanistan, and ruled out any US discussions with the Taliban as part of the effort to seek peace talks between the Afghan government and the insurgents.
The auditing agency, established by Congress and known as the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, revealed the new gag order in its latest three-month assessment of conditions in Afghanistan. The restrictions fly in the face of Pentagon assertions over the past year that it was striving to be more transparent about the US war campaigns across Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan.
Over the years, the SIGAR auditing effort has revealed many dubious practices by the US, including instances of contractor fraud. Since January 2016 it had published data on the number of governing districts controlled by Kabul, the number controlled by the Taliban, and the number that are contested.
John F. Sopko, head of the auditing organization, expressed disappointment that the Pentagon had forbidden release of the data on relative control of the governing districts.
“This development is troubling for a number of reasons, not least of which is that this is the first time SIGAR has been specifically instructed not to release information marked ‘unclassified’ to the American taxpayer,” Sopko wrote.
“Aside from that, the number of districts controlled or influenced by the Afghan government had been one of the last remaining publicly available indicators for members of Congress — many of whose staff do not have access to the classified annexes to SIGAR reports_and for the American public of how the 16-year-long US effort to secure Afghanistan is faring,” he added.
In response,
the Pentagon said the US-led coalition of NATO and allied nations in Afghanistan made the decision to restrict the public release of the information. The Defense Department told SIGAR this month that it doesn’t “have the authority to overrule the classification determination made by NATO Resolute Support,” said Lt. Col. Michael Andrews. He said that similar information was included in the department’s December 2017 semi-annual report to Congress, and the Pentagon encouraged SIGAR to use that data.
The Defense Department report said the Afghan government has control or influence over 60 percent of the population, while insurgents had control or influence over approximately 10 percent of the population, with the remainder contested.
In November, Gen. John Nicholson described the Afghan government control during remarks to reporters at the Pentagon. He said it remained “roughly the same” as in 2016. “About 64 percent of the population is controlled by the government, about 24 percent live in contested areas, and the Taliban control the remaining 12 percent,” he said. He did not reveal the number of districts held by each side.
Sopko wrote that historically, the number of districts controlled or influenced by the government has been falling since his office began reporting on it, while the number controlled or influenced by the insurgents has been rising — “a fact that should cause even more concern about its disappearance from public disclosure and discussion.” The war effort has sometimes faded from US public attention, even though the US has invested about $120 billion in reconstructing Afghanistan since 2002.
Sopko said in his report that the Pentagon also classified or otherwise restricted information that his organization had previously reported publicly, including such “fundamental metrics” of the Afghan military and police performance as Afghan casualty figures and most measurements of the battlefield capabilities of the Afghans military.
Pentagon Restricts Release of Afghanistan War Data
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13961110001472
Afghanistan said on Tuesday the Taliban would have to be defeated on the battlefield after US President Donald Trump rejected the idea of talks with the militants following a series of deadly attacks.
Afghanistan says Taliban must be defeated after Trump rejects talks
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1235911/world
The Taliban reacted to Trump’s announcement by saying they never wanted to talk to the US anyway, but one senior member of the group said he suspected efforts would still be made to get negotiations going.
Talking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Trump condemned the militant group for recent carnage in Kabul and said the US was not prepared to talk now. He pledged to “finish what we have to finish.”
His comments suggested he sees a military victory over the Taliban, an outcome that US military and diplomatic officials say cannot be achieved with the resources and manpower he has authorized.
A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said while the government had encouraged the Taliban to talk, the attacks in Kabul, including a suicide bomb attack on Saturday that killed more than 100 people, was a “red line.” “The Taliban have crossed a red line and lost the chance for peace,” said the spokesman, Shah Hussain Murtazawi. “We have to look for peace on the battlefield. They have to be marginalized.” He declined to comment directly on Trump’s announcement.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said they never wanted to hold peace talks with the US anyway.
Trump last year ordered an increase in US troops, air strikes and other assistance to Afghan forces.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said this month the strategy was working and pushing the insurgents closer to talks. That was before a suicide bomber penetrated the highly guarded center of Kabul on Saturday and detonated an ambulance laden with explosives, killing more than 100 people and wounding at least 235. That attack followed a brazen Taliban assault on the city’s Intercontinental Hotel on January 20, in which more than 20 people, including four Americans, were killed.
The Taliban said the attacks were a message to Trump that his policy of aggression would not work.
Another Taliban member said the US had been approaching states that have relations with the Taliban to try to get them to push the insurgents to the negotiating table. “President Trump is saying this for public consumption,” the Taliban member, who declined to be identified, said of Trump’s rejection of talks. “He and his team are making every effort to bring us to the negotiating table.
“Actually, the latest attack in Kabul awakened President Trump and his puppets in Afghanistan about the capability of the Taliban and their ability to mount big attacks anywhere.”
The Taliban, fighting to oust foreign forces and impose their version of Islamic rule, refer to the Afghan government as US “puppets.”
The US believes the Haqqani network, a faction within the Taliban, was behind Saturday’s bomb blast in Kabul.
It and Afghanistan have long accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban, and the Haqqani network in particular, as assets to be used in its bid to limit the influence of old rival India in Afghanistan.
This month, Trump ordered big cuts in security aid to Pakistan over its failure to crack down on militants.
Pakistan denies accusations it fosters the Afghan war, and condemned the recent attacks in Afghanistan.
US military and coalition advisers operating at tactical levels in Afghanistan are more likely to come under attack and suffer casualties, Pentagon spokesman Michael Andrews told Sputnik.
Pentagon: New 'Tactical' Status Puts US Military Advisers at Risk in Afghanistan
https://sputniknews.com/military/201801301061176585-usa-pentagon-afghanistan-advisers-casualties/
"Shifting our advisers to the tactical level is obviously going to put more US service members in harm’s way," Andrews said Monday confirming accuracy of the report. "Any time you are in an operational environment, unfortunately, more US service, coalition members will come under attack."
On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that 14 US service members were killed in action and 127 wounded in Afghanistan over 12 months, which amounts to a 35 percent increase in US military casualties.
Andrews said 14,000 US troops are now operating in Afghanistan.
The move to place military advisers at the tactical level is one element of the Pentagon's effort to support the Trump administration's South Asia Strategy.
Afghanistan, torn apart by conflict for nearly two decades is now facing insurgence from both Daesh and the Taliban. Sputnik spoke with Habib Wardak, Programme officer of the Business Integrity Network Afghanistan to get his view on the conflict.
'Afghanistan's Future Seems Very Dark at the Moment' - Activist 29.01.2018
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201801291061168362-afghanistan-daesh-taliban/
Sputnik: Has western intervention in Afghanistan been successful?
Habib Wardak: We have had a lot of gains on one side and there have been a lot of failures on the other. There are things that we call a job not well done, that's for sure.
Overall I think the intention to ensure that you have a government in Afghanistan that is democratic and that does not give the environment and space that will cause threats not just to the Afghan people, but people beyond Afghanistan, is a success by its own nature.
Sputnik: Is the Afghan military succeeding against insurgents and how much of a threat does Daesh pose in Afghanistan?
Habib Wardak: I don't think the Afghan military is losing the war against the insurgents. It's not an easy war, it's a tough war and at the moment, one of the reasons why there is so much hype is because of the hibernation period where it's winter in rural Afghanistan, there is limited insurgent activity and their focus has been on the bigger cities, the capital. It's not an easy war. The Afghan people are paying the price primarily, and the Afghan soldiers, but that does not imply that the insurgents are winning the war in Afghanistan.
The Afghan government has done a good job in making sure that Daesh's objectives aren't achieved. Daesh in the beginning thought they would have control over the Afghan land, they had remarkable advances in Eastern Afghanistan and some areas in the north, but they couldn't take more of the land and were restricted.
They are attacking civilian populations here and there, at a higher rate nowadays, but their dream of having control of certain territories in Afghanistan; I think they have been facing challenged on that front.
I think they have been given a tough situation across the country by the Afghan forces.
Sputnik: How could the war be ended?
Habib Wardak: The conflict at the moment seems invincible; that's for sure. On one side you have the rising insurgency, the rise in terrorist activity and attacks, the rise in civilian causalities and Afghan military forces casualties.
At the moment, the future seems very dark. I think it's still not too late for all of the regional powers and powers beyond the region, to come together and have a consensus to fight this war where it originates from and to pressurize those countries which actively promote and support insurgent activities on Afghan soil.
If we get to do that; I think this war will end. If it continues like it has been continuing for the past 16 years where the primary focus has been Afghanistan, where they ignore countries where terrorists originate from, I think this war is not going to end very soon.
The increased US war effort against the Taliban and Daesh in Afghanistan is unlikely to bring peace to the war-torn country.
Activist: European Deportations, US War Effort Threaten Afghan Lives
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201801301061176025-european-deportations-US-war-effort-threaten-afghan-lives/
In fact, according to peace activist and coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence Brian Terrell, the US is escalating the war with no discernible military objective and Afghan refugees are forcibly being sent back to the life-threatening conditions of their home country.
Over the last two weeks, US strikes on villages, convoys, government offices and hotels have killed 128 people — mostly civilians — in Kabul, the country's capital and largest city. On Monday, Daesh militants raided an Afghan military training base, killing 11 soldiers. Around 100 people died when an ambulance filled with explosives blew up in Kabul on Saturday, and just a few days ago, the Taliban killed 22 people in an Intercontinental hotel in the country's capital.
"Back in the summer, the US military official announced that their ‘gloves were off.' In December, the US and Afghan forces conducted 455 airstrikes in Afghanistan — that's 15 a day. In December of last year, there were only 65 airstrikes a month. So, we're seeing this uptick in [Daesh] and the Taliban, but it is more than being matched by US forces attacks in Afghanistan," Terrell told Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear hosts Brian Becker and John Kiriakou.
"This is a new war. The gloves are off, if you will, and we've got these authorities we need to be able to go and target the Taliban network…
The Taliban have never had to face a sustained targeting campaign focused on disrupting their illicit revenue activities… it's not over. In fact, it's only just begun. And this will be a very long winter for the Taliban, as we will continue to disrupt their revenue sources again and again and again," said a top official with the US Central Command last month, referring to Afghanistan's massive illegal narcotics trade.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump made promises very similar to ones made by past administrations.
"We're going to finish what we have to finish," Trump told reporters Monday at the White House. "What nobody else has been able to finish, we're going to be able to do it."
Innocent people are being killed left and right, bombing in the middle of children, in the middle of families, bombing, killing all over Afghanistan. So we don't want to talk with the Taliban. There may be a time, but it's going to be a long time," Trump added.
Another horror of the situation is that European countries, Pakistan and Iran are returning Afghan refugees to Kabul — which they consider to be a safe space.
"There are Afghan deportations going on constantly from the European countries. Pakistan says they want 2.7 million refugees returned to Afghanistan next month, because the determination has been made that Kabul is now safe and there is no threat to people's safety to return to Kabul," Terrell explained. Many governments do not recognize that Daesh is not limited to Iraq and Syria, he lamented.
In fact, thousands of Afghans are being forcibly returned to a country where they are at high risk of being tortured, kidnapped or killed.
In their determination to increase the number of deportations, European governments are implementing a policy that is reckless and unlawful. Wilfully blind to the evidence that violence is at a record high and no part of Afghanistan is safe, they are putting people at risk of torture, kidnapping, death and other horrors," Anna Shea, Amnesty International's Researcher on Refugee and Migrant Rights, wrote in an October report by the organization.
"[Kabul] is a city where the resources are being stretched to the maximum. There isn't enough water. There is no sewage treatment. There is very little in the way of schools and healthcare. The air quality is considered one of the worst in the world," Terrell explained.
"Our diplomats and even the US military no longer travel on the roads in Afghanistan. We only travel from place to place by helicopter. It's not deemed safe for our diplomats and soldiers to be on the ground and this is the same with British and German diplomats," he added.
However, these are exactly the conditions that Afghans are returning to.
