GCOM Summary (only) 2010 Sep 09

[Felix The Assassin]

GCOM Summary 2010 Sep 09
U.S. Joint Forces Command
Global Current Operations Media Summary
Operations Enduring Freedom/New Dawn/Noble Eagle
Current as of September 9, 2010

Ø New Developments
•Surge Is Fully Deployed To Afghanistan. The final U.S. brigade sent to Afghanistan as part of President Barack Obama's surge strategy assumed authority for a swath of the country's eastern territory Wednesday. The 4th Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division has only a short time to make an impact before the harsh winter of eastern Afghanistan, due to set in by November, makes travel and combat difficult. Commanders are also under pressure to show progress ahead of a NATO meeting in November and the Obama administration's next strategy review, in December. "The task is great and time is of the essence, as we face parliamentary elections and the future decisions of nations around the world and our own this fall," said Col. Sean Jenkins, at a ceremony in which his task force took charge of Paktika province. The Taliban has threatened to attack polling stations during the Sept. 18 parliamentary elections. (Wall Street Journal – see attached)
•Karzai Seeks To Limit Role Of U.S. Corruption Investigators. Afghan President Hamid Karzai intends to impose rules restricting international involvement in anti-corruption investigations, a move that U.S. officials fear will hobble efforts to address the endemic graft that threatens support for his administration in Afghanistan and the United States. Karzai wants to circumscribe the role of American and other foreign law enforcement specialists in two key anti-corruption organizations in the Interior Ministry by not allowing them to have direct involvement in investigations. "The management will be Afghan, and the decision-makers will be Afghan, and the investigators will be Afghan," Mohammad Umer Daudzai, Karzai's chief of staff, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. Foreign advisers, most of whom work for the U.S. Justice Department, will be limited to "training and coaching, but not decision-making," he said. (Washington Post – see attached)
•U.S. Says Killings Won’t Affect Iraq Mission. The killing of two American soldiers by an Iraqi soldier at a military base north of Baghdad was a “deliberate act” but would not undermine the new American mission to advise Iraq’s security forces, the American military said in a statement on Wednesday. The deaths – the first American casualties here since President Obama declared the official end to American combat in Iraq last week – appeared to have stemmed from an argument that escalated into gunfire, according to Iraqi officials and a relative of the Iraqi soldier involved. The Iraqi soldier, identified as Soran Rahman Falih Wali, was killed in the firefight that erupted Tuesday afternoon at a small base described as a commando compound near the city of Tuz Khurmato, in Salahuddin Province. Nine American soldiers were wounded. (New York Times – see attached)
•Iraqi Official Foresees A U.S. Military Presence Until 2016. Some form of U.S. military presence will be needed in Iraq at least until 2016 to provide training, support and maintenance for the vast quantity of military equipment and weaponry that Iraq is buying from America, Iraqi Defense Minister Abdul Qader Obeidi said. In addition, Iraq will continue to need help with intelligence gathering after 2011, and the fledgling Iraqi air force will require U.S. assistance at least until 2020, the date by which Iraq aims to achieve the capability to defend its airspace, Obeidi said. The comments were made a week after President Obama declared the end of U.S. combat operations and reaffirmed America's commitment to pull out all its troops by the end of 2011, under the terms of a security agreement reached by the Bush administration and the Iraqi government in 2008. (Los Angeles Times – see attached)
•Bomb Blast Kills 10 In Pakistan's Kurram Region. A roadside bomb killed 10 people and wounded four in Pakistan's Kurram tribal region on the Afghan border Thursday, a government official told Reuters. The explosion happened in Palaseen village, about 65 km (40 miles) northeast of the region's main town, Parachinar. "It was a remote-controlled bomb, which was detonated as soon as a passenger van got there," said Hamid Khan, deputy administrator of the region. Those killed were all civilians. Militants linked to al Qaeda have recently stepped up bomb and suicide attacks in Pakistan after a brief lull amid the worst flooding in the country's history. About 150 people have been killed in the renewed violence in the last week. The Pakistani Taliban have threatened to carry out more suicide attacks on government targets in response to U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan's lawless regions in the northwest. In the last 24 hours, four drone attacks have killed 19 militants. (Reuters)

Ø Military Coverage
•Gates, Mullen Quietly Make Known Their Stand On Quran Burning. Top Pentagon leaders are letting it be known they do not plan to publicly condemn the potential burning of the Quran by a small church group in Florida, but they are now endorsing criticism leveled by Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has told top aides he "endorses" Petraeus' concerns about the repercussions if a Florida pastor goes through with plans to burn copies of the Quran, but according to aides neither Gates nor Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will make public statements on the matter. Gates "strongly endorses what General Petraeus says," Marine Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters. Gates made the comments in a staff meeting, Lapan said. Similarly, Mullen "shares the concerns" of Petraeus, according to his spokesman, Navy Capt. John Kirby. But Mullen "has nothing to add to what General Petraeus has said." (CNN)

Ø Homeland Security
•U.S. Appeals Court Dismisses Suit Against Firm In 'Extraordinary Rendition' Case. A closely divided federal appeals court in San Francisco has dismissed a lawsuit seeking damages from a private company that worked with the CIA as part of its "extraordinary rendition" program. The court ruled Wednesday that the government's decision to invoke the "state secrets" privilege means that the case cannot go forward. Five foreign plaintiffs who were allegedly transported by the CIA to countries such as Egypt and Morocco for interrogation had sued Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing subsidiary, which provided flight planning and logistical support services. The five men said that they were tortured by foreign intelligence services working with the CIA and that Jeppesen was a critical player in the agency's rendition program. (Washington Post – see attached)
•Pakistan To Charge Three Men In Times Square Plot. Pakistan will soon charge three men with terrorism in connection with the failed attempt to bomb New York's Times Square, a police official said on Wednesday. They have been held since May but until now Pakistani authorities had not formally announced their arrest. The men will be charged with providing would-be Times Square car bomber Faisal Shahzad with money and helping him meet Taliban leaders in Pakistani tribal areas close to the Afghan border. "They have confessed in a statement that they provided finances and other assistance to Faisal Shahzad," deputy Islamabad police chief Bin Yameen told Reuters. Shahzad, an American of Pakistani origin held in the United States, has admitted all charges against him in connection with the plot, in which he is accused of trying to detonate a crude bomb in a car on May 1. Times Square was evacuated when the vehicle was discovered. (Reuters)

Ø World Developments
•Clinton Says Mexico Drug Wars Starting To Look Like Insurgency. Mexico's violent drug cartels increasingly resemble an insurgency with the power to challenge the government's control of wide swaths of its own soil, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday. Clinton's comments reflected a striking shift in the public comments of the Obama administration about the bloodshed that has cost 28,000 lives in Mexico since December 2006. They come as U.S. officials weigh a large increase in aid to the southern neighbor to help fight the cartels. Clinton compared the conflict in Mexico to Colombia's recent struggle against a drug-financed leftist insurgency that, at its peak, controlled up to 40% of that country. (Los Angeles Times – see attached)
•Three Unexploded Bombs Found In Bangkok. Police in Thailand defused three unexploded bombs discovered in Bangkok and surrounding suburbs over a matter of hours, one of them in front of a school and one in a shopping mall, they said Thursday. The first device was found under a footbridge outside a school in central Bangkok on Wednesday morning, Major General Prawut Thavornsiri, the national police spokesman, told AFP. On Wednesday night, two more, each weighing around five kilograms (11 pounds) were found at a shopping mall and in the public health ministry car park in nearby Nonthaburi province, he added. The finds follow a series of grenade blasts in recent weeks across the Thai capital, which remains under emergency rule following deadly street clashes in April and May during anti-government protests. On Friday Thailand put over 460 locations across Bangkok on high alert, sending thousands of police, soldiers and city officials onto the streets in a bid to increase the security presence around the clock. (Google/AFP)

Ø Public Opinion
•Optimism Holds In Afghanistan; Support Grows For Talks With Taliban. Just-released polling data finds that optimism among Afghans remained surprisingly durable in the first half of 2010, but with significant changes in attitudes on two fronts: Greater support for negotiations with the Taliban, and a drop in already tepid public preference for a democratic form of government. Overall 63% of Afghans interviewed in May said their country was going in the right direction, 66% expected improvements in their own lives a year off and 61% expected better lives for their children than for themselves. 74% of Afghans favored negotiations in which the Taliban would be allowed to hold political offices if it agrees to stop fighting, up 9 points from December to May. There is a hitch, though: Among those who favored negotiations, three-quarters (76%) said talks should occur only if the Taliban first stops fighting – about the same as previously. (ABC News)