The Missing Women of Afghanistan

Ann Jones | TomDispatch | Reader Supported News | November 1, 2014

n September 29th, power in Afghanistan changed hands for the first time in 13 years. At the Arg, the presidential palace in Kabul, Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as president, while the outgoing Hamid Karzai watched calmly from a front-row seat.  Washington, congratulating itself on this “peaceful transition,” quickly collected the new president’s autograph on a bilateral security agreement that assures the presence of American forces in Afghanistan for at least another decade. The big news of the day: the U.S. got what it wanted.  (Precisely why Americans should rejoice that our soldiers will stay in Afghanistan for another 10 years is never explained.)

The big news of the day for Afghans was quite different — not the long expected continuation of the American occupation but what the new president had to say in his inaugural speech about his wife, Rula Ghani. Gazing at her as she sat in the audience, he called her by name, praised her work with refugees, and announced that she would continue that work during his presidency.

Those brief comments sent progressive Afghan women over the moon. They had waited 13 years to hear such words — words that might have changed the course of the American occupation and the future of Afghanistan had they been spoken in 2001 by Hamid Karzai.

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Karzai faces growing pressure in Afghanistan to sign deal to maintain U.S. troop presence

Tim Craig | The Washington Post | Social Reader | November 28, 2013

KABUL — President Hamid Karzai is facing a growing backlash from Afghan political leaders over his reluctance to sign a long-term security agreement with the United States.

Karzai had appeared to reach an agreement last week that would permit up to 15,000 foreign troops to remain in Afghanistan after the formal end of U.S. combat operations in 2014. But Karzai has since refused to sign the accord until the U.S. government agrees to a series of escalating demands.

With the Obama administration insisting that it will prepare for a full withdrawal if the agreement is not signed by year’s end, Afghan political leaders are increasingly nervous that the country’s fledgling armed forces could be on their own after 2014. If the agreement is not concluded, Afghanistan could also lose $4 billion in annual aid for its military.

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Afghanistan: The Occupation, Part II

Afghan Interim Chairman Hamid Karzai in 2002 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bob Dreyfuss | The Nation | Reader Supported News | November 23, 2013

eet the new occupation: same as the old occupation! Or pretty much: not as many troops, not as many dead and wounded every week, but still. In the new US-Afghanistan accord – which may or may not be ratified early next week by President Hamid Karzai’s Loya Jirga, and which may or may not be signed until some in mid-2014 – the United States will be able to maintain as many as nine military bases in Afghanistan. In addition, American troops and US contractors can go in and out of Afghanistan without visas. And neither the troops nor the contractors will be subject to Afghan law.

In a hilarious statement of his priorities, Karzai said: “We want the Americans to respect our sovereignty and laws and be an honest partner. And bring a lot of money.” The delegates to the Loya Jirga laughed, said The New York Times.

The Afghan foreign ministry released draft text of the accord, which (among other things) codifies that the United States must continue to finance Afghanistan’s ragtag security forces indefinitely, or at least through 2024, saying “the United States shall have an obligation to seek funds on a yearly basis to support the training, equipping, advising and sustaining of” the Afghan forces.

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Afghan Pact Would Keep US Troops Until 2024

45th Munich Security Conference 2009: Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Repubic of Afghanistan, during his speech on Sunday morning. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Thom Shanker and Rod Nordland | The New York Times | November 21, 2013

Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday that the United States and Afghanistan had finalized the wording of a bilateral security agreement that would allow for a lasting American troop presence through 2024 and set the stage for billions of dollars of international assistance to keep flowing to the government in Kabul.

The deal, which will now be presented for approval by an Afghan grand council of elders starting on Thursday, came after days of brinkmanship by Afghan officials and two direct calls from Mr. Kerry to President Hamid Karzai, including one on Wednesday before the announcement.

Just the day before, a senior aide to Mr. Karzai had said the Afghan leader would not approve an agreement unless President Obama sent a letter acknowledging American military mistakes during the 12-year war. But on Wednesday, Mr. Kerry emphatically insisted that a deal was reached with no American apology forthcoming.

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Pact May Extend U.S. Troops’ Stay in Afghanistan

Massoud Hossaini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In Kabul,  an Afghan police officer stood guard near the site where thousands of elders and leadership figures are  convening this week to consider the language in a bilateral security agreement with the United States.

THOM SHANKER and ROD NORDLAND | New York Times | November 20, 2013

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Wednesday that the United States and Afghanistan had finalized the wording of a bilateral security agreement that would allow for a lasting American troop presence through 2024 and set the stage for billions of dollars of international assistance to keep flowing to the government in Kabul.

The deal, which will now be presented for approval by an Afghan grand council of elders starting on Thursday, came after days of brinkmanship by Afghan officials and two direct calls from Mr. Kerry to President Hamid Karzai, including one on Wednesday before the announcement.

Just the day before, a senior aide to Mr. Karzai had said the Afghan leader would not approve an agreement unless President Obama sent a letter acknowledging American military mistakes during the 12-year war. But on Wednesday, Mr. Kerry emphatically insisted that a deal was reached with no American apology forthcoming.

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Hamid Karzai Reveals US Will Retain Nine Bases in Afghanistan

Emma Graham-Harrison | Guardian UK | Reader Supported News | May 10, 2013

President strikes conciliatory tone about larger-than-expected continuing deployment, despite frequent criticism of US forces

The United States wants to keep troops at nine bases across Afghanistan, the country’s president, Hamid Karzai, said on Thursday – a larger number than expected given Washington’s scaled-back ambitions for shaping the country’s future.

Karzai, who has often been a fierce critic of the foreign forces that have dominated his country for years, was surprisingly conciliatory about the prospect of a long-term US presence. Keeping American soldiers on the ground was in Afghan interests, he said, as long as the soldiers came with support for the Afghan government and economy.

“We can agree to give them the bases – them staying on after 2014 is for the good of Afghanistan,” Karzai said in a speech at Kabul University. “The condition is that they bring peace and security and take action quickly … on the basic strengthening of Afghanistan, helping the economy of Afghanistan.”

The uneasy allies are currently thrashing out a bilateral security agreement (BSA) to define the terms for their future co-operation, and Karzai’s comments were the first real insight into the slow and difficult negotiations.

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Hamid Karzai Seeks to Curb CIA Operations in Afghanistan

Emma Graham-Harrison | Guardian UK | Reader Supported News | April 20, 2013

President believes battle in which 10 children and a US agent died was fought by illegal militia working for spy agency.

resident Hamid Karzai is determined to curb CIA operations in Afghanistan after the death of a US agent and 10 Afghan children in a battle he believes was fought by an illegal militia working for the US spy agency.

The campaign sets the Afghan leader up for another heated showdown with the US government, and will reignite questions about the CIA’s extensive but highly secretive operations in the country.

Karzai’s spokesman Aimal Faizi said the CIA controlled large commando-like units, some of whom operated under the nominal stamp of the Afghan government’s intelligence agency, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), but were not actually under its control.

“Some of them are said to be working with the NDS, but they are not armed by the NDS, not paid by the NDS, and not sent to operations by the NDS. Sometimes they only inform the NDS minutes before the operation,” Faizi said. “They are conducting operations without informing local authorities and when something goes wrong it is called a joint operation.”

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US and Afghanistan Reach Deal on Pullout of American Special Forces

Associated Press | Reader Supported News | March 21, 2013

he US military and the Afghan government have reached a deal on the pullout of American special operations forces and their Afghan counterparts from a strategic eastern province after complaints that they were involved in human rights abuses.

American military officials have steadfastly denied the Afghan abuse allegations, which led the president, Hamid Karzai, to demand the withdrawal of the US commandos from Wardak province despite fears the decision could leave the area and the neighbouring capital of Kabul more vulnerable to al-Qaida and other insurgents.

The agreement calls for the US-led coalition to withdraw the special operations forces from Wardak’s Nirkh district, the area where the abuses allegedly occurred, along with the Afghan forces who work with them, as they are replaced by the Afghan army or national police. The rest of the province would “transition over time,” according to a statement.

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Karzai bans NATO airstrikes in Afghanistan

Obama, Karzai announce reduced role for US military in Afghanistan

Jonathan Easley | The Hill | January 11, 2013

President Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday announced that the  U.S. military would begin a scaled-back role in Afghanistan in mid-2013, sooner  than initially projected.

“Starting this spring our troops will have a different mission — training,  advising and assisting Afghan forces,” Obama said in a joint press conference  with Karzai in the East Room of the White House.

 

“By the end of next year — 2014 — the transition will be complete,” he  continued. “This war will come to a responsible end.”

Obama said he’d be taking recommendations from commanders on the ground to  determine how many — or if any — troops would stay in the country after 2014. In a statement released just moments before  the press conference, the White House said the two governments hoped to soon  finalize an agreement on residual U.S. troops.

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