Obama's troop withdrawl plan

Last week I returned from Afghanistan after spending five weeks with the U.S. Marines in Helmand Province. It was my sixth visit since April 2007; I embed with and write on Marine-Army-National Guard operations. And unlike most journalists (and 99% of America) my son serves; he's a U.S. Marine, and last year I was able to spend a few days with him in Afghanistan when he was out on his most recent deployment. So, I look at President Barack Obama's troop-withdrawal decision from both a personal and professional basis.

Let me begin with the caveat that my comments cover Marine Corps operations and efforts in RC Southwest (Helmand and Nimroz provinces), in which they've been in charge since last year. The Marines took over from the British forces, who now fight (as Task Force Helmand) under Marine control.

In short, it's going very well, so well that Marine Col. Norman Cooling (2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Fwd) Operations Officer) told me last week, "We're winning."

By every metric, he's correct. Firefights are few, job creation is up, and schools that had two students in March now have 50. Farmers are growing wheat instead of poppy, and in the few areas where there is still fighting (Musa Qala and Sangin), the Taliban is using IEDs instead of trying to combat the Marines in firefights.

In the Garmsir area, the locals contacted the local Afghan army and helped them seize 350 pounds of explosives and IED-making equipment when I was there. Further, as opposed to the several-a-day firefights we had last year in Marja, in my recent five weeks, I only heard three (just three!) rounds fired. In short, the locals like the security, jobs, and governance we bring, and co-operate by turning in Taliban at every opportunity. I've been there. I've seen it.

So why do I feel President Obama is making a mistake?

It's because the Marines are spread too thin, and to pull any of them out now will disrupt their training the Afghan Army. It will also embolden the Taliban to attack again.

A major part of U.S. policy is training the Afghan army and Afghan police to fight, and while Afghan army training and recruiting is going well, they need another year or two of intensive training before they can operate independently. They can fight (and fight well), but we're teaching literacy, leadership, logistics, and other important concepts as they fight, and that takes time. If we pull out and leave an un-prepared Afghan National Army, then the people lose heart as the Taliban surges (as they did in 2002 when Bush pulled the troops out for his war in Iraq), and then we need to return -- again -- and do the job correctly.

Taking 33,000 troops out in the next year is purely a domestic political decision; I was on little patrol bases where seven Marines and four Afghan soldiers were responsible for a several-mile area; for the U.S. to withdraw fully 35 percent of current forces in Afghanistan will lead to yet another Taliban resurgence, and subsequent Pakistani-ISI meddling.

And on a personal level, I've proudly watched my son leave for war five times since 2003 -- but a major part of my ability to not worry (much) is because of the intensive training and preparation all Marine receive before they deploy, as well as the thorough thought and planning the Marine generals, colonels, and senior leaders give each mission. For once, I'd like to see the same preparation, effort and attention to detail from our Congress and president in planning a war -- as much as our young men and women give in fighting it. Clearly Pres Obama made a political decision, and not a military one, and I can only hope he's correct.

MajGen Richard Mills talks about USMC-ANA-ANP success in Helmand

http://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck/audio/leathernecks-andrew-lubin-interviews-majgen-richard-mills

ANP & Marines at Kajaki Dam

FORWARD OPERATING BASE ZEEBRUGGE, Afghanistan – U.S. Marines have been defending the area around the Kajaki Dam near here for more than a year, but they are not the only force fighting to protect this key terrain.

Many of the nearly 130 Afghan Uniformed Police officers stationed at Kajaki can literally call the area home, and the Marines based here say their Afghan counterparts have proven themselves in action against the insurgency.

“They go out and find IEDs for us,” said Cpl. Anthony Chavez, a provisional rifleman with Bravo Battery, 1st Battalion, 10th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 8. “We take them out with us on pushes … they’ve contributed to us in helping push the insurgents back.”

The AUP is a national security force intended to provide community policing services and rule of law.

“The AUP are important because, other than the provincial governor, they’re the only government influence in these rural areas,” said 1st Lt. Aiden Katz, the officer in charge of the Police Advisory Team from 1st Bn., 5th Marines, RCT-8.

The Kajaki AUP outfit is notable for its organization and patrolling ability, qualities that stem from the fact that most of the unit’s original officers were recruited out of local families displaced by the insurgency, said Katz.

“From my experience the AUP do tend to be local, but not specifically from [the area they patrol],” he explained. “The majority of these AUP are originally from here.”

Kajaki’s defining features are the hydroelectric dam on the Helmand River and the fertile green zone that winds along it into Sangin District to the south. Coalition security in the area centers around the dam, and the AUP station is adjacent to it.

Much of the population that had lived in the villages near the dam and the nearby green zone fled about five years ago after fighting in the area intensified. The local bazaar closed and most of the locals went with it.

“Five years ago the bazaar was busy and crowded,” said Haji Faziullah Ahakizad, who has been district chief of police for several years. “After the Taliban came all the people left.”

Many of Kajaki’s displaced families settled near the provincial capital at Lashkar Gah. Much of the local AUP force was recruited from there, said Faziullah.

Faziullah and his men have established several posts in the lowlands around the dam. At night, lights from their trucks and checkpoints can be seen from the hillside forward operating base here, patrolling and interdicting suspicious activity.

Marine Police Advisory Teams with 1st and 3rd Battalions, 5th Marines, have been working with the Kajaki AUP for more than a year. The PATs teach the AUP patrolling and rule of law tactics, and serve as an operational liaison between the Afghan forces and the Marines.

Cpl. Brock Bigej, a police trainer with 1st Bn., 5th Marines’ advisory team, knows about working with Afghan police. In 2009 and 2010 he spent several months training Afghan Border Police officers in southern Helmand province. By the end of that deployment the ABP had made significant strides under their Marine mentors, he said.

“It was very gratifying to see the progress they had made by the end of seven months,” he said.

The experiences from his previous advisory deployment lead Bigej to volunteer for his current mission. As good as the unit he helped mentor last year were, the police at Kajaki are better, he said.

“This unit is much more organized than the unit I worked with last time,” he said. “They’re moving around at night and during the day providing security. They’re much more independent than the last group.”

The AUP are designed to serve more as a traditional police force than a full-fledged fighting force, but the reduced population around the dam has the Kajaki AUP working the other way around, said Katz. They are operating much more akin to how the Afghan National Army would be,” he explained.

The AUP here have been involved in numerous actions against local insurgents since the Marines took over security of the area. There is plenty of insurgent activity in the area just outside the security bubble near the dam, and improvised explosive devices are a serious threat to locals and coalition forces.

“The insurgents in this area are not from here,” said Faziullah. “They want to fight; we will fight them.”

The result of the AUP aggressively policing in the area has been to create an extra layer of security that benefits coalition units and locals in the area, said Katz.

The police advisors are not the only Marines to note the effectiveness of the Kajaki AUP. Primary security for the area falls to 1st Bn., 10th Marines, and certain AUP officers have achieved quasi-folklore status with the unit.

The Marines talk of an officer nicknamed “IED Dundee,” whom they say has unearthed and disarmed dozens of improvised explosive devices in the area. Other officers are known for their lethal accuracy with rocket propelled grenades and PKM machine guns.

Although most of the local populace may have fled, the AUP are involved in the lives of those locals who elected to stay. In January, a local man stepped on an IED likely meant for coalition forces. Two AUP officers rushed to his aid before hitting a second device. One officer lost his legs, the other lost a foot, said Katz.

“Being from here they have a notable amount of bravery to protect the people and fight the enemy,” he said.

For now the coalition and AUP forces in the area are in a holding pattern in the area around the dam, although Faziullah has plans for the future of his home district that go beyond the current situation.

"My plan is to expand my posts,” he said. “The Marines will help me, and the Afghan Army will help me, and we will bring peace to Kajaki.”

Boehner: Afghanistan now more important

Boehner: Afghanistan now more important
From NBC's Shawna Thomas

House Speaker John Boehner sees the death of Osama bin Laden as proof that U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan is a necessity for the country’s safety. "It's important that we remain vigilant in our efforts to defeat terrorist enemies and protect the American people,” he said during a late afternoon press conference at the Capitol. “This makes our engagement in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan more important not less.”

Surrounded by most of the Republican leadership in the House, Boehner began with talk of unity. “The tragic events of 9/11 10 years ago remind us that we’re all Americans and that what unites us as Americans is far greater than what divides us.” He honored the troops and the intelligence community, as well as those who died on September 11, but he and three other members who spoke -- Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy and GOP Conference Chair Jeb Hensarling -- all seemed to express a renewed commitment to American armed forces. Their choice of words was striking in the context of the continued spending debate. (Remember, the Defense Department was appropriated billions more than what it got last in fiscal year 2010 in last month’s compromise, but is a huge piece of the spending pie that will have to be dealt with.)

Hensarling, who was last to speak, congratulated President Obama, while reminding everyone that the war isn’t over. “One thing that has not changed after today is that the price of liberty remains eternal vigilance,” he said.
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The War Continues...Outside of Kandahar

Current Ops outside of Kandahar; an Army unit's fight to control their area:
The war hasn't let up much for the Wolfpack this winter. They've taken three casualties the last couple weeks. A platoon commander, a 19-year old single father,
and a PFC from another company. Spc Adam been out on two air assault missions
in CH-47s and a whole bunch of village sweeps lately.

Two weeks ago, they swept a village. After clearing it, they left via an open field, with Adam covering the rear with his SAW. Suddenly they started taking fire from the village they'd just left.

Adam hit the dirt and was the first to return fire. He laid down suppressing fire while the rest of his squad ran to a ditch on the far side of the field. AK and MG fire landed all around him, so close, he said later, that it kicked dirt into his ears. More than a dozen RPGs fired at or over him. When his squad reached the ditch, they covered him to run the gauntlet to join them. They then outflanked the village and drove the Talibs away. Of course, the Talibs had managed to booby-trap the village again, but knowing that they would, the squad carefully swept it again. In all, Spc Adam squeezed off some 600 rounds in this short, nasty firefight.

A few nights later, his squad was QRF when a drone's night-vision saw four Talibs planting IEDs about six clicks away from the COP. Off they marched, and nabbed the suckers, who were brought back for detainment and given to the ANA/ANP for processing.

A replacement unit is due in soon, but the RTB date to return to KAF keeps getting pushed back. It's been delayed 3 weeks now, and the incoming commander wants the Wolfpack to take his boys out in the field and do some side-by-sides and teach the incoming soldiers how to fight.
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Wounded Warriors Need VA To Step Up

Wounded Warrior Project calls on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the White House to make good on promised benefits.Caregivers of veterans recovering from Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) at risk for being left out of Congressionally mandated benefits by VA

Jacksonville, FL (March 7, 2011) As we enter Brain Injury Awareness Month, the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) is committed to ensuring that veterans injured during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom and their caregivers receive the benefits included in the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act signed into law last year by President Obama.

“In 2010, Congress put assistance in place to ensure that the caregivers of these brave men and women are able to continue providing the necessary support for their recovery,” said Steve Nardizzi, Executive Director of WWP. “Nearly a year later and ironically coinciding with Brain Injury Awareness Month, family caregivers of as many as 2,500 severely brain-injured warriors may now be ineligible to receive benefits promised under a plan the VA continues to defend.”

“Last month, the VA submitted a plan that would shrink the number of families qualifying for benefits by more than three-quarters, hitting those with cognitive and related brain-injury impairments hardest,” Nardizzi continued. “It is unacceptable for the Administration to deviate so dramatically from the clear direction Congress set, and jeopardize the care of these service members to meet a new agenda.”

TBI has emerged as one of the signature wounds of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, amazing strides have been made in the medical intervention and treatment of TBI. But with that comes a long road of treatment and care for these veterans when they return home. It’s a labor of love for the family caregivers of these severely wounded warriors, but also an all-consuming one in which many families have had to commit all of their resources to their loved one’s recovery process.

In providing for caregiver assistance, Congress clearly specified that the law covers caregivers of veterans who sustained traumatic brain injury in the line of duty and who were “in need of personal care services because of…a need for supervision or protection based on symptoms or residuals of neurological or other impairment or injury.” It is apparent when reviewing the Act as a whole, that the rehabilitation of veterans with traumatic brain injury was an intended goal with respect to each of these provisions.

WWP is calling on the Administration and the VA to recognize the severity and complexity of these injuries and guarantee that these American heroes and their families are provided the best support and care possible.

Join the effort to secure what has been promised to the caregivers of our nation’s heroes:

Visit us on Facebook at http://on.fb.me/caregiversNOW Learn more at www.woundedwarriorproject.org ==========
About Wounded Warrior Project

The mission of the Wounded Warrior Project® (WWP) is to honor and empower wounded warriors. WWP’s purpose is to raise awareness and to enlist the public’s aid for the needs of injured service members, to help injured servicemen and women aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and service to meet their needs. WWP is a national, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Jacksonville, FL. To get involved and learn more, visit woundedwarriorproject.org.

Pakistan - No Longer Our Ally

Behind The Raymond Davis Fiasco
By Ali K. Chisti
www.military.com
7 March 2011

Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor, was in Lahore on his way back from a routine reconnaissance mission when he was intercepted by ISI operatives. Davis has said that he thought he was being robbed and he shot the gun-toting operatives in self-defense. The issue, which could have been one of simple diplomatic immunity has escalated to the point that Senator John Kerry had to come to Pakistan to in an attempt to rescue Davis.

But all efforts seemed to have gone in vain where; Raymond Davis is still in Pakistan's custody and faces a possible death sentence. Things shifted for the worse as a CIA Station Chief in Islamabad was forced to leave Pakistan for security reasons after the country's foreign office deliberately leaked his name in an unprecedented show of animosity towards the US. And another American security official was recently arrested in Peshawar for visa violations and is awaiting trial.
So why is Pakistan, supposedly one of America's biggest allies in the region, turning against the U.S.?

The increase in drone attacks by the CIA has the biggest turn off for the Pakistani military, which is also aggressively pushing for cooperation with the al Qaeda linked Haqqani network as part of their plan of Strategic Depth in Afghanistan. In Oman, where both nations' military chiefs met last week, the Pakistanis asked for drone technology and the list of all CIA staffers in Pakistan in return for seeing to the release of Davis, which shows the widening trust deficit between the two "allies."

Unfortunately the issue cannot easily be resolved. The underlying fact is that Pakistan and the United States have interests in the region that collide. Pakistan, in many ways a proxy of China, is concerned with India more than anything else, while the U.S. is increasingly stepping up against China (the biggest investors in Pakistan's defense industry) by opting to support India.

Al Qaeda may be history in terms of logistical and operational clout, however there are emerging terror threats. Tahreek-e-Taliban-e-Pakistani are growing along with the Pakistani Taliban, which orchestrated the recent CIA forward base suicide bombing. While the war might be in Afghanistan the war rooms are in sovereign and nuclear Pakistan where anti-Americanism stands at 70-80 percent.

In the meantime the U.S. has to deal with the blackmailing Pakistani security establishment while trying to support whatever stabilizing force in the country that can be packaged as "democracy."

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Will Middle Eastern Democracies be Friends or Foes?

Will Middle Eastern Democracies be Friends or Foes?

Citing the Reichstag fire just one month after to solidify his grip on power, Hitler shredded the constitution and outlawed all other political parties. Six years later WWII began, costing some 60 million lives

The Americano
By J.D. Gordon
25 Feb 2011

Many in the West have cheered the prospect of Western-style democracies taking hold in the Mid-East, siding with protest movements that have toppled autocratic regimes in Egypt and Tunisia while spreading like dominoes to Yemen, Bahrain, Jordan, Libya and Algeria.

That’s a natural reaction, given the fact that democracies have yielded successful outcomes in Western societies and embodied the concepts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

However, a closer look at existing social conditions in the Middle East and North Africa, combined with a quick glance at some past “democracies” ought to give one pause.

In condemning violent crackdowns, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay cited the root of anger as, “decades of neglect of people’s aspirations to realize not only civil and political rights, but also economic, social and cultural rights.”

While true, it doesn’t address why there has been so much neglect of people’s aspirations. As if a sudden switch to democracy might fix everything?

Realistically speaking, most Middle Eastern and North African countries don’t enjoy the social conditions that would fulfill such needs – regardless of the type government.

There religious leaders wield the type of power and influence over daily lives in ways we haven’t seen in America for centuries. And their standard fare is preaching intolerance, demanding subservience of women, and blaming the West and Israel for all their problems. In a society of devout followers, most people naturally become conditioned to view the West unfavorably, just as public polls show. Truly representative democracies under these circumstances would likely be deeply hostile to U.S. interests.

Those still pushing democracy for the sake of an egalitarian “power to the people” should at least take a look at some case studies. History is full of notionally democratic, yet also deeply troubled societies that do not have happy endings.

For instance:

Germany, 1933 – As the elected leader of the Weimar Republic’s Majority Nazi Party, Adolph Hitler was appointed as Chancellor by octogenarian President Paul von Hindenburg to form a coalition government that would pull Germany out of the Great Depression. Citing the Reichstag fire just one month after to solidify his grip on power, Hitler shredded the constitution and outlawed all other political parties. Six years later WWII began, costing some 60 million lives.

Iran, 1979 – After a pro-democracy movement toppled the U.S.-backed Shah, the Mullahs quickly instituted Sharia Law — legitimized through a national referendum. Declaring that protests against the Ayatollah were the same as protests against God, Iran has ruthlessly suppressed any form of dissent ever since. Dedicated to its nuclear program in pursuit of regional dominance, Iran is just years away from producing the bomb.

Algeria, 1991 – In reaction to centuries of colonization and a few decades of secular yet incompetent autocratic leaders, Algerians elected the Islamic Salvation Front which promised to enact Sharia Law. Seeing the nightmare that unfolded in Iran, Algeria’s Army launched a coup and removed the Islamists from their elected posts. The result? A decade long civil war that killed over 150,000 people.

Venezuela, 1999 – Failing to take power in a coup, Hugo Chavez was elected by a populist movement fed up with poverty and a lack of social mobility. Since then, the murder rate has quadrupled, foreign investment has all but dried up, and chronic food shortages plague the nation.

Gaza, 2006 – Once Palestinians finally had the chance to pick their elected leaders, they chose Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization. Cut off from Western aid, Hamas wasted little time before firing rockets into Israel.

So what can we learn from all this?

First, though democracy may represent the ideal form of government, successful ones must be accompanied by the social conditions that can lead to positive results for its people.

Second, instant democracies in the Middle East and North Africa are most likely to result in highly antagonistic nations, given the prevailing anti-Western sentiments and climate of intolerance. This is particularly true if Islamist parties like the Muslim Brotherhood come to power – either directly via general elections, or through steamrolling political opposition within their respective legislatures.

Navigating this crisis will be difficult for America, even with the wisest policy decisions from Washington. If the current administration’s waffling through the Egyptian chaos gives any indication of things to come, we may be in real trouble.

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J.D. Gordon is a communications consultant to several Washington, DC think tanks and a retired Navy Commander who served in the office of the secretary of defense from 2005 to 2009 as the Pentagon’s spokesman for the Western Hemisphere. For more info: www.jdgordoncommunications.com [1]

The intelligence and agencies of Pakistan

The intelligence and agencies of Pakistan (Part I)

By Ali K Chishti
Daily Times

Karachi: There are visible signs. What is, however, not so visible and will not be is the role that has been played by the intelligence agencies in shaping and running of the political process in Pakistan. There are more than a dozen or so intelligence agencies working in Pakistan which is commonly referred to as “agencies”. The primary objective of these intelligence agencies is to collect intelligence and pre-empt terrorist’s attacks. While an average citizen has serious doubts and apprehensions about the working style of the intelligence agencies in Pakistan - from the assassination of the country’s first prime minister, whose assassin was once on the premier intelligence agency Intelligence Bureau’s payroll to destabilise a democratically elected government with operations like Midnight Jackal to the only recent “missing persons case” – where intelligence agencies kidnap and kill fellow Pakistanis without trial.

While there are numerous smaller intelligence and investigating agencies, like Rangers Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence, Naval Intelligence, Special Branch, CID, FIA, etc –the big three, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), Military Intelligence (MI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), are at the forefront as far as “intel operations” are concerned in Pakistan and aboard. The job description of the big three intelligence organisations are pretty clear where the ISI in principle looks after the foreign threats; MI looks after the military related affairs and the IB looks after the internal affairs – but these three intelligence agencies seems to be out of control and “often cross the lines and even step on each other’s toes”, a former top intelligence official confirmed to Daily Times. In fact, according to Brigadier (r) Shaukat Qadir, former vice president and founder of the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), “the ISI, at least under Gen Mehmood in 2000-2001, completely went out of control until he was sacked. It was more of an ego problem, where Gen Mehmood, the ISI director general, considered himself unaccountable.” A trend which shows that it’s not the institution but often its personnel which goes freelance for which various intelligence agencies have made there “counter-intelligence” units more stronger for better vigilance of their own operatives.

The civilian-military distrust could also be witnessed in the intelligence community where it is part of the book by the uniformed intelligence agencies, the Military Intelligence and the ISI to seals off the K-Block or the IB’s Headquarters as a routine whenever there’s a coup which shows a thread of animosity and mistrust between the civilian and military institutions. The politicisation of the intelligence agencies could be judged with the fact that at least 4,000-5,000 sacked Intelligence Bureau officials, who were previously profiled to be “unfit for service” due to political connections, were reinstated by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government with back pays and benefits only recently. The IB often accuses other intelligence agencies of interfering in its affairs – remember only in recent years more IB operatives have gone down than anyone else. So, how do our intelligence agencies work? They send out a daily report to the president and the prime minister via COAS, titled “eyes only” mostly “googled stuff” and constantly plays up threat levels apart from nagging for more funds. While the three big intelligence agencies have received all the latest tech and surveillance equipment from the United States, including serious investments in a new field, quantum computing to break terrorist codes, it is the human intelligence which the Pakistani intelligence agencies normally rely upon but lacks training in. “They work like sub-inspectors and mostly tap phones and chase people,” confirmed a former intelligence operative. The incompetence of our intelligence agencies could be judged from the fact that they have completely failed to stop or pre-empt at least 87 percent of terrorist related crimes despite millions of dollars of funding and investment by the GoP and other allies in Pakistani intelligence network. The CIA’s former operative Jonathan Hugh confirmed to Daily Times that the CIA had only recently secured around $500 million under a covert programme to give out “carrots” to the ISI for catching top wanted terrorists. The funding, part of the intelligence agencies, is also dubious and deliberately kept murky, one example of which is how General (r) Pervez Musharraf gave out a record allocation of Rs 2.2 billion and Rs 140 million to a premier intelligence agency from the Finance Ministry funds in November 10, 2007 in an effort to manipulate the elections which were to be held in 2008. Mostly a “secret fund” is also abused for funding various operations with no records available.

There’s also a psychological warfare unit and press-handlers operated by various intelligence agencies through which they unleash targeted propaganda and plant stories through journalists on agencies’ payroll. Certain top journalists had only recently received plots and houses via the new Younas Habib of the intelligence agencies, a notorious builder and developer from Islamabad known to be close to all politicians. Only recently, news planted by an intelligence agency made sure that Qari Saifullah backed by another intelligence agency was victimised and re-arrested on the basis of the story filed. Intelligence coordination is an area which Pakistan lacks and is regarded as the prime reason why our intelligence agencies had failed. As of now, there is no practical mechanism to actually exchange information between various intelligence agencies and although the government had set up the National Counter Terrorism Authority (NCTA), now headed by Zafarullah Khan, has “fallen to the dogs” according to the sources and is practically non-functional. A top intelligence chief confirmed to Daily Times that “we need an effective and efficient institution for collection of data, assets and monitoring of activities of all national, defence and domestic intelligence organisations – right now it’s not working out well for us.”
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Petraeus Cites ‘Impressive’ Progress in Letter to Troops

Petraeus Cites ‘Impressive’ Progress in Letter to Troops

By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2011 – Continued hard work will lead to sustained progress in Afghanistan this year, the commander of the International Security Assistance Force there told his troops in a letter dated today.

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus addressed his comments to ISAF’s soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen and civilians.

They and their Afghan counterparts “did tremendous work in 2010,” Petraeus wrote, terming their progress “impressive.”

ISAF’s core objective in Afghanistan is to ensure that country never again becomes a sanctuary for al-Qaida or other transnational extremists, Petraeus wrote. Achieving that objective requires “a comprehensive civil-military campaign” aimed at helping Afghanistan develop the ability to secure and govern itself, he added.

Additional ISAF forces, the growth of the Afghan army and police, an increase in the number of civilian partners, and the associated funding to enable it all contributed to 2010’s gains, Petraeus wrote. The effort received a boost, the general noted, when NATO leaders at the alliance’s November summit in Lisbon, Portugal, endorsed Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s goal of Afghan forces taking the security lead throughout his nation by the end of 2014.

Afghan and coalition forces increased security in Kabul, Helmand and Kandahar provinces over 2010, Petraeus wrote, and advanced security conditions in the east, west and north.

“The beginning of Afghan-led reintegration of reconcilable insurgents, and the relentless pace of targeted operations by ISAF and Afghan special operations forces” also aided security growth, Petraeus wrote.

“Now, in fact, the insurgents increasingly are responding to our operations, rather than vice-versa, and there are numerous reports of unprecedented discord among the Quetta Shura, the Taliban senior leadership body,” Petraeus noted.

Progress in Afghanistan over 2010 was not easy, Petraeus acknowledged.

“To the contrary, our successes entailed hard fighting, tough losses, and periodic setbacks. … You had to transition from intense combat to complex stability operations –- and back again –- on innumerable occasions, sometimes on the same day,” he wrote. “Your versatility, skill, determination and courage have truly been the stuff of history.”

Work ahead in 2011 will remain challenging, Petraeus told his troops.

Afghanistan and ISAF forces must extend the security “bubbles” around Kabul and in the east and west of the country, while halting and reversing insurgent advances in the north and northeast, the general wrote. ISAF must also support increased Afghan self-governance and anti-corruption efforts, he added. “We will need to pursue initiatives to ensure that our contracting and procurement activities are part of the solution rather than a continuing part of the problem,” he wrote.

Given the “skill and will” that coalition and Afghan troops have demonstrated over the past year, Petraeus wrote, he is confident they “will prove equal to the difficult tasks that lie ahead.”

Quetta Shura is now Karachi Shura

Quetta Shura is now Karachi Shura
By Ali K Chishti

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\01\20\story_20-1-2011_pg7_8

In the light of recent revelations published by the Washington Post about Mulla Omar, who reportedly suffered a serious cardiac problem and underwent a major operation in Karachi, Daily Times would like to reminds its readers that it was Daily Times that first published a series of reports about certain Arab diplomats and the presence of the members of the Quetta Shura in Karachi.

Karachi, Pakistan’s financial hub, which has been struck by a series of ethnic, political and sectarian killings, which claimed more than 300 lives in the last two months, also happens to be the city where more than two dozens of the top al Qaeda, Taliban and TTP leaders have been caught. The list includes Quetta Shura No. # 2 Mullah Baradar, who only recently was claimed to have been let go for negotiations with other top terrorist leaders. It should also be noted that out of nine supposedly caught Quetta Shura members, five had been caught from Karachi alone.

There had been reports that most of the Afghan Taliban frontier leadership had been sheltered in Karachi under a Pakistani security establishment’s secret programme, the ‘New Karachi Project’. The whole notion that somehow most of the leadership of the Taliban was stationed in Quetta was a “proxy”, a top NATO source told Daily Times. “In reality it's the Karachi Shura.”

Intense investigations reveal that the whole project that initially started as “India centric” has actually taken a global dimension. It was somewhere in 2003, under intense US pressure, that ‘Forward Section 23’ in Azad Kashmir was closed, which provided ‘cover and refugee to top militants’. It was only after the closure of Forward Section 23, the ISI section in Karachi became the hub for anti-India activities from where the Mumbai train bombing to 26/11 were orchestrated. It should be remember that the boat used to travel to Mumbai to carry out the terrorist attack was bought from Karachi as well.

The ‘Karachi Project’ was confirmed by recent revelations from a double agent, David Headley, who had been involved in carrying out the massacre in Mumbai. He said in a recent testimony that he works under the direct supervision of Pakistan’s top intelligence agency, the ISI, which shelters infamous Mumbai mobster Daud Ibrahim to Tiger Memon, to the top tier leadership of the Taliban, which includes Mullah Omar. This explains a top Middle Eastern intelligence official’s secret visit to Karachi, who was actively facilitating the negotiation process between Karzai, the US and the Afghan Taliban. It should be remembered that Mullah Baradar was caught from a Sunni-Deobandi-run religious seminary in Karachi. The seminary, Khudamul Quran, is located 10 to 25kms from the toll plaza on the Super Highway in the jurisdiction of the Lonikot police station in Hyderabad, which is under the influence of Jamaat-e-Islami and the JUI-F, whose leaders had previously been caught sheltering high-profile al Qaeda leaders like Sheikh Khaled Muhammad – the 9/11 mastermind. It is shelters like this particular seminary, along with many other “safe houses”, that are termed as “strategic assets” by the Pakistani security establishment.

The Taliban are known to have moved elements of their command to Karachi to avoid potential US targeting in Predator airstrikes, where Mullah Omar is thought to be in a safe house in Karachi, under the protection of the ISI. Since the beginning of February, the authorities have captured seven senior members of the Taliban Shura, including Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the deputy of Mullah Omar, and four Taliban shadow governors of Afghan provinces, which include names such as Maulvi Abdul Kabir (shadow governor of Nangarhar province), Mullah Abdul Qayyum Zakir, who used to co-supervise the military affairs of the militia, Mullah Muhammad Hassan, a former foreign minister in the Taliban regime, Mullah Abdul Rauf, the former chief operational commander of the Taliban in northeastern Afghanistan, Mullah Ahmad Jan Akhundzada, the former governor of Zabul province and Mullah Muhammad Younis, an ex-Kabul police chief.

Marine Success in Helmand Recognized

Marines Fighting Back in Helmand Province

ISW Scholar Jeffrey A. Dressler examines the heated fight for the Taliban’s financial hub, Helmand province, finding the insurgency has been driven out en masse

Washington, D.C: Helmand is Afghanistan’s largest province and the central node of the Taliban’s narcotics empire, generating substantial funds to finance a brutal insurgency. In short, success in Afghanistan requires success in Helmand province.

“Helmand province was formally the economic life-blood of the insurgency, but U.S. Marines and coalition forces have made remarkable gains there by taking back key terrain that was previously controlled by the Taliban,” explained ISW Afghanistan Scholar, Jeff Dressler. “The enemy network is fractured and it proves counterinsurgency can work in southern Afghanistan, while noting that sustainable progress is still elusive.”

Key findings and recommendations:

Helmand is the first province in Afghanistan to receive sufficient force to engage in comprehensive, population-centric counterinsurgency operations. Requisite troop numbers did not arrive in Helmand until the summer of 2009, a full three years after the U.K. arrived in 2006.

The insurgency in Helmand has been significantly degraded over the past eighteen months. Coalition and Afghan forces have removed nearly all insurgent safe havens and are killing, capturing, and denying insurgent’s access to key terrain and population centers in and around the Helmand River Valley.

According to recent polling by the Washington Post, ABC and the BBC, the number of people in Helmand describing their security as "good" increased from 14 percent in December 2009 poll to 67 percent as of December 2010.

Although there have been tremendous strides made in provincial and district governance over the past several years, some critical challenges remain, including identifying and attracting capable civil servants.

In Helmand, insurgent weapons caches and bomb making materials are seized alongside narcotics, highlighting the increasingly cooperative relationship between the insurgency and the drug trade.

Gate's Troop Cut ideas

This is what Sect Gates proposes:

Navy end strength 324K cuts 0K 0% cut
USAF end strength 331K cuts 0K 0% cut
Army Guard end strength 358K cuts 0K 0% cut
USAF Guard end strength 106K cuts 0K 0% cut
Army Civ's end strength 250K cuts 0K 0% cut
Navy Civ's end strength 199K cuts 0K 0% cut
USAF Civ's end strength 177K cuts 0K 0% cut
DoD Civ's end strength 126K cuts 0K 0% cut

Army end strength 562K cuts 49K - 8.7% cut
USMC end strength 203K cuts 49K - 9.8% cut

Yet who's putting Boots-on-the-ground...?

Marine to recieve Bronze Star w/combat "V"

22nd MEU Marine to receive Bronze Star

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE – A Marine from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit is scheduled to receive high honors during a ceremony Friday, Jan. 14, for his actions while deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Lance Cpl. Sean A. Warren, a machine gunner with Battalion Landing Team, 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 22nd MEU, is scheduled to receive a Bronze Star with a Combat Distinguishing Device, which is added for acts of valor.

Warren will receive the award for his actions while deployed with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 7, 1st Marine Division(Fwd) in March 2010.

During combat action, according to his award, “in order to retrieve a wounded Marine and gain fire superiority, Warren led his squad of Marines through flooded fields and chest deep canals while aggressively pursuing the enemy. Without hesitation and in total disregard for his own safety, Warren ran into the middle of a road exposing him to enemy fire impacting within inches of his position and concentrated his fire towards the enemy. Over the course of a 6-hour firefight, Warren led his squad for more than 15 km distance and evacuating two urgent casualties while suppressing Taliban fighters.”

The award goes on to say, “Warren displayed complete control over a tremendously stressful situation and conducted himself in a highly professional manner displaying an impressive ability to lead and inspire in a combat environment. He kept his Marines focused on their mission and ultimately prevented further casualties.”

When given for valor, the Bronze Star Medal is the fourth-highest combat award of the U.S. Military.

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Raunchy Navy Videos & PC

Fire Capt. Honors? Not So Fast
By J.D. Gordon
January 4, 2011
AOL News

As the mainstream media passes the megaphone to those calling for the ouster of Navy Capt. Owen Honors for his lewd videos shown years ago on board the USS Enterprise while serving as the ship's second-in-command, let's hope Navy leadership takes a hard look at his case before simply caving into political pressure and ending Honors' career prematurely.

Now the carrier's commanding officer, and just weeks away from leading the "Big E" on a six-month deployment to support combat operations in Afghanistan, Honors has been put on report by at least one sailor, who leaked the videos to The Virginian-Pilot, the ship's home port newspaper in Norfolk, Va., thus generating the current buzz.

While Honors' "Saturday Night Live"-style video clips, designed to introduce movie nights on the carrier, were patently raunchy, they should also be viewed in the proper context.

Though clearly inappropriate, as the Navy acknowledged in a statement over the weekend while announcing an investigation, the videos were taped during deployments supporting Iraq and Afghanistan combat operations, and were intended as a stress relief for some 6,000 sailors who were at work 24x7 over a six-month stretch at sea with only a few weeks in port.

Movie nights at sea have been around since World War II and provide sailors a chance to relax, even if for a couple of hours. As a recently retired Navy public affairs officer, I have helped produce my share of movie night clips on deployment, though they were admittedly tame by comparison.

The Tailhook scandal and resulting trial that sunk Adm. Frank Kelso, the chief of naval operations and the careers of dozens of other top naval officers in the early 1990s shook up the Navy's culture, making it considerably more politically correct. However, the salty talk and lewd behavior featured in the Enterprise videos is still not uncommon in the Navy, especially after long periods at sea.

One anonymous sailor, a videographer who helped make the videos, had it about right, as reported by The Virginian-Pilot, "In his defense, I'll say that sometimes, when you've been out to sea for a while, cut off from everything, you start to think things that you would never normally do are actually a good idea," he said. "You do stupid stuff to stay sane."

As Navy leaders conduct the investigation, they should consider the overall crew reaction and Honors' reputation with the men and women he served alongside. According to a Time magazine report, it seems the Enterprise's crew has overwhelmingly expressed support for the embattled skipper, with 1,200 clicking "like" on his Facebook page, along with ringing endorsements in the comments section.

Whatever one thinks of the videos, it does appear that Honors is guilty of poor taste and failure to keep up with the times, which have become more politically correct even since the Tailhook scandal's aftermath.

News reports late Monday suggested that the Navy will probably relieve Honors of his command. But while doing so might solve a short-term PR problem for the Navy, it would be counterproductive in the long term and unfair to Honors' distinguished military career, and would likely drive down morale.

=============
J.D. Gordon is a communications consultant to four Washington, D.C.,
think tanks and a retired Navy commander who served in the office of
the secretary of defense as the Pentagon spokesman for the Western
Hemisphere. For more info, visit www.jdgordoncommunications.com.

"The Karachi Project" ISI and AQ look to control Karachi

"The Karachi Project"

By Ali K. Chisti
Foreignpolicy.com

In a dramatic series of raids in February, Pakistani authorities captured more than two dozen top al Qaeda, Afghan Taliban, and Pakistani Taliban leaders, mostly in Pashtun areas on the outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan's largest city. The list included Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar's top deputy, Mullah Baradar, whose capture raised hopes that the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan was finally gaining momentum.

The arrests also sparked a debate in Kabul and Washington over the seeming policy shift on the part of Pakistan, which for years had resisted cracking down on top insurgent leaders despite repeated entreaties from the United States. Some accounts suggested that Pakistan had nabbed Baradar to prevent him from cutting a separate peace deal with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was reportedly angered by his arrest.

In fact, NATO sources say, most of the Afghan Taliban frontier leadership -- known as the Quetta Shura -- had for at least three years been sheltered in Karachi under an ultra-secret program run by the Pakistani security establishment and known as the "Karachi Project." The idea that most of the leadership of Taliban's was stationed in Quetta was a "smoke screen," a top NATO source told me. "In reality, it's Karachi Shura," confirmed a top NATO commander.

The origins of the Karachi Project reportedly date back to 2003, when, under intense U.S. pressure, then Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf closed "Forward Section 23," a combo of safe houses and camps in Indian-occupied Kashmir that had provided cover and refuge to top militants. The Karachi branch of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate then became the hub for anti-India activities, the Asia Times has reported, led by a coalition of militant groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba and Harukat ul-Jihad al-Islami, as well as elements of the Karachi criminal underworld. According to a recent account in the Guardian, citing "classified Indian government documents," at least two serving ISI officers played a role in the Nov. 26, 2008, attacks in Mumbai, which were launched from Karachi.

While analysts have for years accused Pakistan's security establishment of playing a double game with militant groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba -- disavowing responsibility for their actions while retaining them as "strategic assets" to be deployed against India -- recent revelations emerging from the interrogation of David Headley, a Pakistani-American accused of complicity in the Mumbai attacks, threaten to blow the game wide open.

In Headley's telling, Pakistan is finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between "good" jihadi groups -- those that launch attacks in India or Afghanistan -- and "bad" ones that wage against the Pakistani state. Indeed, that may have been the motive for the Mumbai assault.

According to the Guardian, Headley "told the investigators that the ISI hoped the Mumbai attack would slow or stop growing ‘integration' between groups active in Kashmir, with whom the agency had maintained a long relationship, and ‘Taliban-based outfits' in Pakistan and Afghanistan which were a threat to the Pakistani state."
The Karachi Project works under the direct supervision of the ISI, according to accounts in the Indian press confirmed by multiple sources, and also shelters Daud Ibrahim and Tiger Memon, infamous Indian gangsters accused of orchestrating in the 1993 attacks in Mumbai, as well as the Bhaktbal brothers, cofounders of the Indian Mujahideen, the largest Indian jihadi group.

Whether or not one believes such accounts, it is worth noting that Mullah Baradar was reportedly caught at Khudamul Qurun, a hard-line religious seminary located in an area of Karachi that is under the sway of a major Islamist political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, whose leaders were previously accused of sheltering high-profile al Qaeda leaders like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, and other top al Qaeda leaders. Safe houses like this particular seminary are placed and well protected by the Pakistan security establishment.

A former intelligence chief who is actively monitoring the situation noted, "Over the years, it's Karachi which has seen more al Qaeda and Taliban activity than anywhere else."

Corporate America suppoting the troops - Crown Royal Steps Up

Iconic Crown Royal Bags Being Shipped to Troops Overseas

It’s still purple! The iconic Crown Royal purple bag is heading to Afghanistan, but in camouflage

ATLANTA (Sept. 16, 2010) – On their most important mission to date, camouflage-designed Crown Royal purple bags will be packed with gift items for America’s bravest, just in time for the holidays. Crown Royal, teaming up with non-profit Operation Troop Aid, is dispatching 10,000 of the specially designed bags to legal-drinking age troops on overseas deployment, including Afghanistan and Iraq. Volunteers in select events across the country will stuff the bags with personal care items, snacks and phone cards. “I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for troops to be away from their family and friends, especially during the holidays,” said Yvonne Briese, Crown Royal Brand Director. “We hope they like the CAMObags
and that this small gesture shows we are thinking about them back home and wishing them a safe return.”

Included in the bag, service members will receive well-wishes in the form of a hand-written message from each member of the Crown Royal team, including NASCAR driver Matt Kenseth, legendary football coach Jimmy Johnson, along with thousands of Diageo employees and partners.

To kickoff the program, a special event was held earlier today in Atlanta at Piedmont Park. During the event, hosted by legendary football coach and Crown Royal spokesperson Jimmy Johnson, the first Operation CAMO Care Packages were filled, and the parties unveiled a special mural that represents the program’s mission to ensure that soldiers serving abroad are reminded that those at home truly admire
and acknowledge their on-going commitment to protecting this country.

“After traveling to Afghanistan last year, I witnessed first-hand the daily struggles experienced by our troops to keep this great country of ours safe, and it had a profound affect on me,” Johnson said. “When one of the troops opens a Crown Royal CAMO bag, I hope they crack a smile and are reassured that home is not that far away.”

Operation CAMO Care Package kits include personal care items such as a toothbrush, toothpaste,comb, soap, shampoo, body wash, shaving cream, disposable razor and sunscreen. Soldiers will also find snacks such as trail mix, peanuts, cookies and candies. Select units will also receive 120-minute international phone cards to call their loved ones.

For more information on Operation CAMO Care Package and Crown Royal’s commitment to supporting the military, visit www.crownroyal.com/military. Crown Royal reminds adult consumers to always please drink responsibly.

"Brigade 313" prepares plan to attack Commonwealth Games

"Brigade 313" prepares plan to attack Commonwealth Games

By Ali K Chishti

Daily Times: http://tinyurl.com/32yd4se
Karachi, Sept 30, 2010

It can be confirmed that al Qaeda and a group based in North Waziristan calling itself “Brigade 313”, which is made up of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan and allied extremist group members, including Lashkar-e-Tayyaba and Karachi-based Jandullah, has prepared a plan to attack the 19th Commonwealth Games, which are due to be held in News Delhi from October 3 to October 14, Daily Times has learnt.

Previously, those who have been described as “stateless actors” by the government, attacked various targets in India’s financial hub, Mumbai, which strained the relations between India and Pakistan and brought them on the brink of war.

The intelligence has originated from Kabul where a western military source confirmed that, “We intercepted certain conversations that gave us the impression that the attack on an important sporting event is due in India.”

It has also been confirmed that some of the information originated from a German national named, Ahmed Siddiqui, 36, who has been caught in Kabul under suspicion of carrying out a terrorist plot in the West. The intelligence about such an attack had also been passed on to the Indians.

Daily Times has been told that Ilyas Kashmiri, who heads al Qaeda’s Brigade 313 and who is a former rogue SSG commando, will be heading the whole operation to carry out this terrorist plot in New Delhi. Kashmiri had been linked to have actually orchestrated the Mumbai attacks and to have links with the Dylands-Posten plot to carry out the assassination of General Alvi, who commanded the Pakistan Army’s elite Special Services Group (SSG). Kashmiri is now based in North Waziristan and heads what is now called the Punjabi Taliban.

The Interior Ministry, along with various security establishments in Pakistan, after the news that there could have been another terrorist plot originating from Pakistan are in a ‘state of panic’, where according to one senior ministry member, “We are seriously investigating and taking all precautions that we could and have been extra-vigilant. Surely another 26/11 or a high-profile terrorist incident now in India would definitely be a major blow, something that none of us wants.”

A New Delhi based security analyst, Bharat Swami, told Daily Times, “Another attack from Pakistan would leave India no other option but to target militant camps inside Pakistan and could end all diplomatic relations with Pakistan.”

The Pakistani Foreign Office’s spokesman declined to comment on the story, but termed it ‘baseless’. Western diplomat in close contact with security officials told Daily Times that, “This is what we fear the most… we all have our fingers crossed on this one, but if such an incident does take place, we will be packing our bags.”

India only recently raised the level of security for the 19th Commonwealth Games and deputed more than 100,000 security officials, including elite commandoes, for providing security to the participants.

Obama: "The Cancer is in Pakistan"

From the Bob Woodward book "Obama's War"

President Obama dispatched his national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones, and CIA Director Leon Panetta to Pakistan for a series of urgent, secret meetings on May 19, 2010.

Less than three weeks earlier, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen born in Pakistan had tried to blow up an SUV in New York City's Times Square. The crude bomb - which a Pakistan-based terrorist group had taught him to make - smoked but did not explode. Only luck had prevented a catastrophe.

"We're living on borrowed time," Jones told Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari at their meeting in Islamabad. "We consider the Times Square attempt a successful plot because neither the American nor the Pakistani intelligence agencies could intercept or stop it."

Jones thought that Pakistan - a U.S. ally with an a la carte approach of going after some terrorist groups and supporting others - was playing Russian roulette. The chamber had turned out to be empty the past several times, but Jones thought it was only a matter of time before there was a round in it.

Fears about Pakistan had been driving President Obama's national security team for more than a year. Obama had said toward the start of his fall 2009 Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy review that the more pressing U.S. interests were really in Pakistan, a nuclear power with a fragile civilian government, a dominant military and an intelligence service that sponsored terrorist groups.

Not only did al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban operate from safe havens within Pakistan, but - as U.S. intelligence officials had repeatedly warned Obama - terrorist groups were recruiting Westerners whose passports would allow them to move freely in Europe and North America.

Safe havens would no longer be tolerated, Obama had decided. "We need to make clear to people that the cancer is in Pakistan," he declared during an Oval Office meeting on Nov. 25, 2009, near the end of the strategy review. The reason to create a secure, self-governing Afghanistan, he said, was "so the cancer doesn't spread there."

Jones and Panetta had gone to Pakistan to tell Zardari that Obama wanted four things to help prevent a terrorist attack on U.S. soil: full intelligence sharing, more reliable cooperation on counterterrorism, faster approval of visas for U.S. personnel traveling to Pakistan and, despite past refusals, access to airline passenger data.

If, God forbid, the SUV had blown up in Times Square, Jones told Zardari, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Should a future attempt be successful, Obama would be forced to do things that Pakistan would not like. "No one will be able to stop the response and consequences," the security adviser said. "This is not a threat, just a statement of political fact."

Jones did not give specifics about what he meant. The Obama administration had a "retribution" plan, one of the most sensitive and secretive of all military contingencies. The plan called for bombing about 150 identified terrorist camps in a brutal, punishing attack inside Pakistan.

US-PK-Talib peace talks? "Special" from Karachi's Daily Times

Diplomatic Efforts for Afghanistan
By Ali K Chishti
DAILY TIMES, Karachi
18 Sept 2010

Daily Times has learned of a massive diplomatic effort by the United States, Pakistan and certain Arab Governments to ‘find a solution for Afghanistan’. A western diplomat who has been at the forefront as a fixer told Daily Times that, “that, the idea is to have broad based government that includes Talibans in Afghanistan.”

Hamid Karzai the president of Afghanistan who is dubbed as ‘the mayor of Kabul’ and is criticized as enormously corrupt and incompetent by the Americans is on board to talk to the Talibans too.

Earlier as part of the diplomatic flurry, United States special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke visited Pakistan, followed by Karzai and Gen.Petraeus and met, Gen.Keyani and DG, ISI Gen.Pasha who according to a top foreign ministry’s source described, ‘came to sought Pakistan’s help to broke a deal with the Talibans and give some sort of legitimacy and power to Hamid Karzai to deal with the them (Talibans). The Americans practically accepts Pakistan’s stance that the Talibans are a reality in Afghanistan.”

Daily Times could confirm that Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz who has the confidence of both the Americans and Hamid Karzai is next in line to visit Pakistan where he will meet high-level Taliban leadership at various safe-houses.

The sources confirmed Daily Times that the Saudi intelligence chief will try to convince the Talibans to break a deal with Hamid Karzai. The UAE’s special envoy to Pakistan Ali Mohammad al-Shamsi who had previously led the negotiations will also be present in talks and would offer major concessions to the Talibans.

A Taliban spokesman while talking to Daily Times denied that negotiations are actually taking place and said, ‘that Ameer Ul Momineen Mulla Omer and Talibans will only negotiate when the US and coalition forces leave Afghanistan."