Photo Credit: Xinhua/Landov/Barcroft MediaAn Afghan man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot at US soldiers in south-eastern Afghanistan, killing at least one serviceman on Sunday, local officials and the Nato-led coalition said.
The so-called “insider attack” in Paktika province is the fourth in less than a month and is likely to strain already tense ties between coalition troops and their allies, with most foreign troops scheduled to withdraw by the end of next year. A Reuters tally shows Sunday’s incident was the tenth this year, and took the death toll of foreign personnel to 15.
“A man wearing an Afghan army uniform shot at Americans in Sharana city [the provincial capital] near the governor’s office,” said an Afghan official, adding that two soldiers had been hit by the gunfire.
The Nato-led coalition confirmed one soldier had been shot by a man in security forces uniform, but did not comment on his nationality or whether the Afghan was wearing a army uniform.
Insider attacks threaten to further undermine waning support for the war among Western nations sending troops to Afghanistan. A similar flurry of attacks last year prompted the Nato-led force to briefly suspend all joint activities and take steps to curb interaction between foreign and Afghan troops.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-10-14 00:30:062016-04-11 11:16:29US Soldier Shot Dead in ‘Insider Attack’ in South-Eastern Afghanistan
Twelve years ago today, nineteen al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four U.S. commercial airliners and flew them into the World Trade Towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
In the war that Congress authorized against al Qaeda only three days after that attack, the vast majority of the U.S. casualties have occurred in the last four and a half years during the presidency of Barack Obama.
In fact, according to the CNSNews.com database of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan, 73 percent of all U.S. Afghan War casualties have occurred since Jan. 20, 2009 when Obama was inaugurated.
The 91 U.S. casualties in Afghanistan so far in 2013 are more than those that occurred in the first two full calendar years of the war (2002 and 2003) combined, when 30 and 31 U.S. troops were killed there.
On Sept. 14, 2001, Congress approved a resolution authorizing the president “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-09-14 01:44:312013-09-14 01:44:31The 12-Year War: 73% of U.S. Casualties in Afghanistan on Obama’s Watch
At least three people were killed when insurgents attacked the U.S. consulate in western Afghanistan’s main city on Friday, detonating a powerful truck bomb outside the front gates and launching a gunbattle with security forces, officials said.
The bold attack in Herat, claimed by the Taliban, once again underscored a worrying security picture as Afghanistan prepares to take over from foreign combat troops after 12 years of war and stage crucial presidential elections next year.
While the circumstances of the attack were initially unclear, a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in the Afghan capital of Kabul said all U.S. personnel in the consulate in Herat were safe and had been accounted for.
He described the incident as a “complex” attack that included a car bomb. A U.S. State Department statement later said the attack was over.
Herat police chief General Rahmatullah Safi said a police officer and a translator had been killed and two Afghan staff working in the consulate had been wounded.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-09-13 01:26:542013-09-13 01:26:54At Least Three Killed as Insurgents Attack U.S. Consulate in Afghan West
Photo Credit: Corbis U.S. soldiers deployed to Afghanistan are using Craigslist to meet and have sex with each other on bases across the war-torn country, leading to concerns about a breakdown in discipline overseas.
Military commanders have forbade any service members who are not married to each other from having sex while deployed to the combat zone. As a result, each of the covert meetings is a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The vast majority of the posts on Craigslist involve male soldiers seeking sex with other men – a practice that could have resulted in the discharge of both parities from the military under Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, which barred gays in the armed forces.
After the policy was repealed by Congress and President Barack Obama in 2010, the penalties for a gay rendezvous aren’t as steep.
A U.S. Marine lance corporal who was caught and arrested after making an illicit meeting with a male undercover Naval Criminal Investigation Service officer, told the Marine Corps Times that he was busted down to private first class, gave up $1,600 in pay and got 45 days of extra duties and 45 days of restrictions.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-31 04:24:322016-04-11 11:18:02Male Soldiers in Afghanistan Using Craigslist to Have Sex With Each Other on Base
Congress has launched an investigation of the helicopter crash that killed 30 Americans in Afghanistan, including members of the Navy’s elite SEAL Team 6 unit, The Hill has learned.
The victims’ families say the Pentagon hasn’t provided answers to their many questions about the deadly attack, which took place on Aug. 6, 2011, three months after Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by Team 6 forces.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on National Security, told The Hill, “We’re going to dive into this.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00newseditorhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngnewseditor2013-07-25 01:07:252016-04-11 11:18:24Congress to Probe Lethal Crash that Killed SEAL Team 6 Members
Photo Credit: SPECIAL IG FOR AFGHANISTAN RECONSTRUCTIONA program designed to protect U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan by covering roadside drains with thick metal to prevent insurgents from planting bombs was plagued by shoddy and incomplete workmanship — and may have actually contributed to the deaths of American Marines, according to an internal report.
Millions of U.S. dollars have been spent on thousands of so-called “culvert denial systems” since 2009, but a scathing report released Tuesday by the Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction says hundreds of the devices were never installed or installed improperly. The report said an investigation has been launched “into whether this apparent failure to perform may have been a factor in the death or injury of several U.S. soldiers.”
The investigation has led to two arrests so far — an Afghan contractor and a sub-contractor. The men, who were paid $1 million by the U.S. government to install 250 culvert denial systems, didn’t install the devices as promised. The ones they did install were installed incorrectly, according to the report.
“The loss of life because individuals were not doing their job is horrific and unacceptable,” Special Inspector General John Sopko told FoxNews.com in a written statement. “This case shows so clearly that fraud can kill in Afghanistan. We will find out if contracting officers did not do their job and if that proves to be true and Americans have died, we will hold those individuals accountable.”
Both men have been charged with fraud and negligent homicide.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00newseditorhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngnewseditor2013-07-24 01:36:472016-04-11 11:18:31Botched Anti-IED System May be Linked to US Soldier Deaths in Afghanistan, Report Finds
Photo Credit: WNDThe text of the Senate’s immigration-reform bill contains a small section that increases by more than threefold the number of Afghans eligible for immigration to the U.S. under a special asylum program, WND has learned.
The legislation also further expands the previously strict qualifications for immigration from Afghanistan and allows for more family members to join admitted asylum seekers.
Page 450 of the 1,190 page immigration bill amends what is known as the 2009 Afghan Special Immigrant Visa Program. That program, set to expire this year, is now extended to 2018 by the immigration bill.
The special program previously allotted up to 1,500 visas for Afghans each year. The new immigration bill increases the visa quota to up to 5,000 Afghans per year, a difference detected by reading both the bill and the previous program.
The strict requirements of the previous program granted visas only to Afghan nationals employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government in Afghanistan on or after Oct. 7, 2001, for a period of one year or more. All applicants were required to demonstrate that they faced security threats due to their employment with the U.S.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-07-10 03:30:442016-04-11 11:19:39Amnesty Bill Opens US to Afghans
By Kathy Gannon. The Afghan Taliban is ready to free a U.S. soldier held captive since 2009 in exchange for five of their senior operatives imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay as a conciliatory gesture, a senior spokesman for the group said Thursday.
The offer follows this week’s official opening of a Taliban political office in Doha, the capital of the Gulf state of Qatar.
The only known American soldier held captive from the Afghan war is U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho. He disappeared from his base in southeastern Afghanistan on June 30, 2009, and is believed held in Pakistan.
In an exclusive telephone interview with The Associated Press from his Doha office, Taliban spokesman Shaheen Suhail said on Thursday that Bergdahl “is, as far as I know, in good condition.”
Suhail did not elaborate on Bergdahl’s current whereabouts. Among the five prisoners the Taliban have consistently requested are Khairullah Khairkhwa, a former Taliban governor of Herat, and Mullah Mohammed Fazl, a former top Taliban military commander, both of whom have been held for more than a decade. Read more from this story HERE.
By Joel B. Pollack. The decision by the Taliban to hoist their own “Islamic Emirate” flag above what was supposed to be just a “political office” in Doha, Qatar is more than just an embarrassment for President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, and more than a stumbling block in negotiations over U.S. withdrawal from the country. Rather, the provocative gesture unmasks that withdrawal for what it is: a surrender, and a betrayal of the war against terror.
As the smoke rose from Ground Zero, the U.S. and NATO made clear that unless the Taliban regime handed over Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, it would be removed. The Taliban, perhaps believing that the U.S. did not have the stomach for a fight, refused. And so they paid the price. Theirs was not to be a temporary removal, but a deterrent against any other regimes that would dare to host or assist anti-American terrorist groups.
The Taliban, along with Al Qaeda, were routed. But they sheltered in the border regions of Pakistan, regrouped and launched an insurgency against the new government of Afghanistan, NATO, and the United Nations. Then-Sen. Barack Obama blamed the Bush administration for expending military resources on Iraq that could have been used in Afghanistan and pledged that, as president, he would do the opposite. Read more from this story HERE.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-21 03:47:322013-06-21 03:47:32Taliban Propose Prisoner Swap of US Soldier for Gitmo Detainees (+video)
Photo Credit: Stephanie Sinclair/Special to The Washington Times
Afghanistan’s parliament has rejected a measure that would have barred men from marrying girls younger than 16, saying the proposal ran counter to Islamic ideology.
The measure also would have banned “baad, [the] traditional practice of buying or selling women to settle disputes,” and outlawed criminal charges being imposed on rape victims, Breitbart reported. Rape victims in Afghanistan often are charged with fornication or adultery.
President Hamid Karzai reportedly supported the measures, but opponents said they “violate[d] Islamic principles,” Breitbart reported.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-06-11 04:23:342013-06-11 04:23:34Repugnant: Afghan Parliament Upholds Right to Marry Children
Photo Credit: APFor more than a decade, wads of American dollars packed into suitcases, backpacks and, on occasion, plastic shopping bags have been dropped off every month or so at the offices of Afghanistan’s president — courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency.
All told, tens of millions of dollars have flowed from the C.I.A. to the office of President Hamid Karzai, according to current and former advisers to the Afghan leader.
“We called it ‘ghost money,’ ” said Khalil Roman, who served as Mr. Karzai’s deputy chief of staff from 2002 until 2005. “It came in secret, and it left in secret.”
The C.I.A., which declined to comment for this article, has long been known to support some relatives and close aides of Mr. Karzai. But the new accounts of off-the-books cash delivered directly to his office show payments on a vaster scale, and with a far greater impact on everyday governing.
Moreover, there is little evidence that the payments bought the influence the C.I.A. sought. Instead, some American officials said, the cash has fueled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington’s exit strategy from Afghanistan.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-04-29 03:40:072016-04-11 11:22:31Rampant American Bribery in Afghanistan: CIA Pays Bags of Cash in Failed Effort to Buy Friends
