STRANDED NATO VEHICLES CLOG UP PORTS

KARACHI: The decision to block supplies for Nato forces has brought a knotty problem for an unlikely quarter the country’s two sea ports since supplies ordered before the Mohmand air strikes have been reaching the Karachi and Bin Qasim ports anyway. Four container ships and two vehicle carriers have unloaded around 2,000 boxes and 1,200 military vehicles since late last month, clogging the container terminals. Already over 600 trucks loaded with containers and oil tankers which were on way to Afghanistan through Torkham and Chaman before the imposition of the embargo are stranded there because they were not allowed by security forces to cross the border.

Port users told that if the large number of Nato containers were not removed from the two ports soon, there will hardly be any space left for movement of commercial cargo, badly affecting the country’s imports and exports. Terminal operators wondered who would pay the demurrage, plugging and other charges in case of any change in the government’s blockade decision. According to official documents, three container carriers belonging to American President

 Line (APL), an official carrier of US military hardware and equipment, called at country’s ports during the past 15 days. Another container carrier was expected to call any time and may be given berth at the Karachi port. Shipping sources said a large number of reefer containers (meant to keep perishable goods fresh) are also clogging the terminals and clocking phenomenal plugging charges. “Since ports are transit points, and not meant for storage, the government should immediately arrange the removal of these containers from ports so that the movement of commercial cargo does not suffer,” a terminal operator told.

According to shipping sources, one day before the transit facility for US-led forces was withdrawn by the government after the November 26 attacks, a vehicle carrier, Alliance Charston, unloaded 400 military vehicles belonging to the US army. On a second trip the same carrier brought 800 military vehicles. The other container carriers which reported during this period are Liberty Promise and President Jackson, which called on Nov 29, and President Truman (Dec 7). According to the manifest, these ships mostly carried military hardware, spares, vehicles and foodstuffs.

Shipping sources told that altogether, containers worth 950 TEUs (twenty feet equivalents) and around 500 boxes are occupying a substantial space in the two ports. On an average the allied forces stationed in Afghanistan import around 150,000TEUs per annum of goods. The cargo includes military hardware, spares, vehicles, food and perishable consumer goods.

PENTAGON SAYS PAKISTAN NOT JOINING BOMBING PROBE

WASHINGTON: Pakistan is refusing to participate in the US investigation of last week’s Nato bombing along the Afghanistan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

At a Pentagon briefing Friday, Defence Department press secretary George Little said the US asked Pakistan to be part of the investigation, but the Pakistanis have ”elected to date” not to participate. That decision is just one in a series of actions Islamabad has taken in retribution for the incident, including a move to shut down supply lines that the United States uses to get food, fuel and other equipment from ships at Pakistani ports on the Arabian Sea to troops in Afghanistan. At the same time, however, US military officials said Friday that Pakistan has continued to have representatives at the border coordination centres working with Afghan and coalition forces.

So far, the US has sufficient supplies on hand and has been able to find other ways to get shipments through to Afghanistan, including alternate routes through Uzbekistan. ”Logistics is about alternatives; it’s about options, and we’re certainly working through what sort of options we may need to pursue,” said Navy Capt. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman. Asked why the US has chosen to express its regrets for the incident but has not explicitly apologised to the Pakistanis, Kirby said that ”in this case, this was clearly a military engagement…that cross-border fire resulted in the deaths of some two dozen Pakistani soldiers, not innocent villagers or civilians.”

Kirby added that it is too early to assign blame for the deaths because the investigation is not yet completed. Other defence officials have told The Associated Press that when US and Afghan forces came under fire, the US checked with the Pakistan military to see if there were friendly troops in the area and were told there were none. Pakistani officials have said that the US gave them the wrong location when asking clearance to return fire. Defence officials deny that, and say the investigation is likely to point substantial blame at the Pakistanis. The US officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is not complete.

German Brig. General  Carsten Jacobson, a spokesman for the Nato coalition in Afghanistan, said it will take much of December to complete the investigation. ”We need Pakistan to join this process so that we have a rounded picture,” he said, adding, however, that, ”we have to understand that emotions obviously are very high on the Pakistani side.” The incident has deteriorated the already shaky US relationship with Pakistan, endangering the war in Afghanistan, including reconciliation efforts with members of the Afghan Taliban who often seek sanctuary in Pakistan. But defence officials said that so far the retribution from Pakistan, including the shutdown of supply lines, has had negligible effect on the war effort, including operations to go after insurgents. ”I don’t think, if I was a member of the Haqqani network or the Taliban, that I’d be lollygagging around that area,” said Kirby.

US Defence and State Department officials also said the US continues to reach out to Pakistan and hopes that the relationship can be mended. At the State Department, spokesman Mark Toner told reporters that efforts were continuing to persuade Pakistan to participate in next week’s conference in Bonn, Germany, on the future of Afghanistan. The Pakistanis withdrew from the event this week. ”We think it would be regrettable if Pakistan were not to attend this conference,” Toner said. ”It’s important for the region. It’s important for the neighborhood. It’s important that we all work to put Afghanistan on a square and solid footing.” Toner said that the US and Pakistan had a shared interest in combating extremist groups operating in Pakistani-Afghan border areas and that cooperation needed to be improved.

UNITED STATES WELCOMES ISTANBUL CONFERENCE ON AFGHANISTAN SECURITY

WASHINGTON: The United States on Wednesday welcomed agreement between Afghanistan,its neighbours, and the wider region on the Istanbul Process on Regional Security and Cooperation for a Secure and Stable Afghanistan.

“Afghanistan’s neighbors and near-neighbors have come together to offer support to a sovereign, independent and democratic Afghanistan,” State Department Spokesperson Victoria Nuland said in a statement. “They have endorsed Afghan priorities including Afghan-led reconciliation, transition to Afghan security leadership, and regionally integrated economic growth (e.g the New Silk Road vision),” the statement said.

The United States was pleased to participate in the Istanbul conference as a supporter of the process, and they will continue to offer our support to Afghanistan and its region as they work to follow on from the commitments in the declaration to deepen regional cooperation, starting with technical meetings in Kabul in the coming months and a foreign ministerial in Kabul next June, Nuland added. “We look forward to the Bonn Conference for Afghanistan on December 5, at which we will urge the international community to build on these regional efforts by making our long-term commitment to Afghanistan clearer and more specifi,” the spokesperson said.

JOYSTICKS TRANSFORM US WARFARE IN AFGHANISTAN

COMBAT OUTPOST MONTI: In battle they take out Taliban fighters with joystick-controlled weapons, while back at base American soldiers hook up their Xboxes and kill their way through video games.

In Afghanistan, on and off-duty activities have become strikingly similar for US troops, as 21-year-old Specialist Tyler Sandusky can attest. Out on missions in the rugged northeastern province of Kunar, Sandusky locates distant targets day or night with remarkable clarity on a video screen within a giant armoured truck. “It’s pretty fun watching people. They’re so far away and they don’t know you’re watching,” he told AFP as he demonstrated a system known as the CROWS (Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station).

“It does feel like a game when you’re driving along.”Perched atop the vehicle is a .50 calibre machine gun with a firing range of more than 6.7 kilometres (four miles), which Sandusky operates through his screen and a joystick trigger to the right of his seat. “You see a red mist and then you know they’re down,” he said. Back at Combat Outpost Monti, troops drew parallels between the CROWS system and one of their favourite pastimes.

“A lot of guys compare it to Call of Duty,” said Sergeant John Henington, referring to the graphic video game franchise set in various battle zones. “We play that game most of the day when we’re not doing anything.”Aside from weaponry, technology has changed the lives of American soldiers immeasurably since the Vietnam War. No matter how remote their deployments, troops can watch TV on laptops, shop online and message their loved ones back home through Facebook and Skype.

The changes may make life more comfortable in a war zone, but the evolution of weapons has brought with it ethical concerns. “It’s the dehumanisation of the enemy,” said Specialist Sean McCabe, 22. “We are the video game generation, so it’s easy with the CROWS system to put it in a video game.”The similarity is no coincidence, according to Deane-Peter Baker, a philosophy professor at the US Naval Academy.

“Manufacturers of systems like this have deliberately sought to make their operation user-friendly” by designing Xbox and PlayStation-like controls familiar to young soldiers, he said. CROWS, in place in a number of US army trucks, significantly boosts troops’ safety by removing the need for a gunner poking out of the vehicle. “Imagine what it must be like to have half of your body sticking out of the top of a Humvee while bullets are flying in every direction,” said Baker.

“Even the coolest head would have difficulty in being as precise and discriminating with his or her fire under those conditions.”The debate over technological advances is fiercest on the subject of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), whose use the Obama administration has escalated dramatically against Taliban and Al-Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan. While studies vary, public policy institute the New America Foundation says drones have killed between 1,667 and 2,614 people in Pakistan since 2004, 20 percent of whom were civilians.

At least partly because of Pakistan’s official opposition to the attacks, the programme remains covert, and the identities of those targeted and killed are rarely revealed by American officials. Drones can also enhance intelligence-gathering by hovering over a target for up to 24 hours, said Peter Singer, author of a book on robotic weapons, “Wired for War”. Then troops use hundreds of smaller drones for tactical purposes, such as the spying battery-powered Raven, which they can throw in the air like a model airplane to see over a hill.

In February, manufacturer AeroVironment unveiled the Nano Hummingbird, a tiny remote-controlled and camera-equipped prototype that demonstrated 11 miles-per-hour flight and was able to accurately hover, rotate, perch and fly. The use of drones “is something that just a few years ago was seen as science fiction and is now the new ‘normal’ of war and counter-terrorism,” said Singer, adding that 45 countries now operated them. Drones mean there is no risk of a pilot being shot down or taken prisoner. But the United Nations has expressed concern that drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan could be breaking international laws against summary executions.

Singer says drones lower the bar in the decision to use force, but US forces insist they are operated under high-level command and are the best tool for the job. “The other option is putting soldiers out in those areas, which I guarantee will piss people off much, much more, and probably result in much unnecessary bloodshed,” said a US security officer in Kunar.

NATO CLAIMS KILLING 25 MILITANTS IN ASSAULT ON US BASES IN AFGHANISTAN

KABUL: Nato said Saturday that at least 25 insurgents were killed during the largest coordinated insurgent attack on military bases in the eastern Afghan province of Paktika since 2009.

The attacks targeted US-led troops near the border with Pakistan on Friday as Afghanistan and the United States marked the 10th anniversary of the US bombing campaign that forced the Taliban from power in late 2001. A spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) said one soldier was lightly wounded when a car bomb exploded about 300 metres from the outer wall of Combat Outpost Margah.The military said air strikes and gunfire killed at least 25 insurgents during the attacks in the Gormal, Sarobi and Barmal districts of Paktika. There was no immediate independent confirmation of the death toll. Eastern Afghanistan is one of the main flashpoints in the 10-year Taliban insurgency.

NATO INVESTIGATES DEADLY AFGHAN HELICOPTER CRASH

Rocket-propelled grenade, although the militant group often exaggerates incidents involving foreign troops or Afghan government targets. In Washington, a US official said the helicopter was believed to have been shot down. The Pentagon and the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan said overnight the cause of the crash was being investigated.

The crash and its high death toll occurred two weeks after foreign forces started a security handover to Afghan troops and police – to be completed by the end of 2014 – and at a time of growing unease about the increasingly unpopular and costly war. The Chinook crashed in central Maidan Wardak province, just west of the country’s capital Kabul, on Friday night.

“No words describe the sorrow we feel in the wake of this tragic loss,” General John Allen, who took over from General David Petraeus three weeks ago as ISAF commander, said in a statement released overnight. “All of those killed in this operation were true heroes who had already given so much in the defense of freedom.”

A US official said some of the dead Americans were members of the Navy’s special forces SEAL Team 6 – the unit that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May in Pakistan, but that none of the dead had been part of the bin Laden raid. The crash was the deadliest single incident for US troops in Afghanistan, ISAF said.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a statement on Saturday that the United States would “stay the course” to complete the mission in Afghanistan, a sentiment echoed by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The crash will likely raise more questions about the security transition and how much longer troops should stay. All foreign combat troops are due to leave by the end of 2014, but some US lawmakers question whether that is fast enough.

US and other Nato commanders have claimed success in reversing a growing insurgency in the Taliban’s southern heartland, although insurgents have demonstrated an ability to adapt their tactics and mount attacks in other areas. But violence is at its worst in Afghanistan since US-backed Afghan forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001, with high levels of foreign troop deaths, and record civilian casualties during the first six months of 2011.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai “shared his deep sorrow and sadness” with his US counterpart, Barack Obama, and the families of the victims, his palace said on Saturday. Last year was the deadliest of the war for foreign troops in Afghanistan with 711 killed.

The crash in Maidan Wardak means at least 375 foreign troops have been killed so far in 2011. More than two-thirds were American, according to independent monitor www.icasualties.com and figures kept by Reuters.

AFGHANISTAN, IRAN, PAKISTAN TO ‘JOINTLY COMBAT TERRORISM’

TEHRAN: The presidents of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan agreed on Saturday to join forces in combating militancy as they attended a counterterrorism summit in Tehran.

The joint statement by the three neighbours also came hot on the heels of an announcement by US President Barack Obama that Washington will withdraw 33,000 of its 99,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of next summer. “All sides stressed their commitment to efforts aimed at eliminating extremism, militancy, terrorism, as well as rejecting foreign interference, which is in blatant opposition to the spirit of Islam, the peaceful cultural traditions of the region and its peoples’ interests,” the statement said.

“All sides agreed to continue meeting at foreign, interior, security and economy ministers’ level to prepare a roadmap for the next summit due to be held in Islamabad before the end of 2011,” added the statement carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Iranian and Pakistani counterparts Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Asif Ali Zardari held three-way talks on Friday ahead of a six-nation counterterrorism conference on Saturday.

The three leaders discussed “ways of battling terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking,” IRNA said. In his speech at the opening session of the two-day summit, Karzai said that despite his government’s efforts, militancy was on the rise both in his country and in the region. “Unfortunately, despite all the achievements in the fields of education, infrastructure and reconstruction, not only has Afghanistan not yet achieved peace and security, but terrorism is expanding and threatening more than ever Afghanistan and the region,” the Afghan leader said.

President Zardari said: “Terrorists violate both human and divine values by inflicting death and destruction on fellow human beings. They have no religion.” He said attacks had resulted in the deaths of 35,000 people in Pakistan, 5,000 of them law enforcement personnel, and material damage totaling $67 billion.

In his speech to the opening session, Ahmadinejad again accused the United States of using the September 11, 2001 attacks as a “pretext” for sending troops to the region. “In light of the way it was approached and exploited, September 11 is very much like the Holocaust,” the Iranian leader charged.

“The American government used the attacks as a pretext to occupy two countries, and kill, injure and displace people in the region,” he added. “If the black box of the Holocaust and September 11 is opened, many of the realities will come to light. But unfortunately despite worldwide demand, the American government has not allowed it.” Ahmadinejad has repeatedly courted controversy by questioning the accepted version of both the September 11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States, and the Holocaust.

He has dubbed 9/11 a “big lie” and a “suspect affair” similar to the Nazi Holocaust, which he dismissed as a “myth” shortly after coming to power in 2005, triggering an international outcry. In his message to the counterterrorism conference, which was also attended by the leaders of Iraq, Sudan and Tajikistan, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also spoke out against what he charged was Western abuse of the terrorist threat.

“The diabolical calculation of the dominating powers is to exploit terrorism as a tool to gain their illegitimate aims and they have used it in their plans,” he said in the message which was read out to the conference. “In their view, terrorism is whatever threatens their interests. They consider those who are fighting for their legitimate right against occupiers as terrorists but do not consider their mercenaries and malicious groups who harm innocent people as terrorists.” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the next conference of the six nations would be held in Baghdad next year, and a permanent secretariat would be opened in Tehran.

PML-N BACKS JAMAAT’S CALL FOR SNAP POLLS

ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-i-Islami on Friday called for snap elections in the country. It said the government had lost legitimacy to rule as it had failed to resolve the people’s problems.

The call for fresh elections made by Prof Khurshid Ahmed of J.I during the Senate proceedings was instantly endorsed by Mohammad Ishaq Dar, the parliamentary leader of the PML-N in the house. Analysts however believe that the call does not mean much as JI has only three members in the Senate. Moreover it boycotted the general election of 2008 and has nothing at stake.

Taking part in the discussion on presidential address to the joint sitting of the parliament, Prof Ahmed described the government as “an existential threat to the country”. “It has lost credibility, integrity and legitimacy because it has failed to resolve the crisis for which the people of the country had given it the mandate. Now the situation demands that fresh mandate be sought and fresh elections be held in the country,” he said.

He pointed out that Pakistan was facing the multiple challenges of energy crisis, poverty and inflation, lawlessness, corruption, foreign policy fiasco and bad governance but lamented that the president in his address did not give any roadmap to address the issues. He said the prime minister spent Rs1.2 billion on foreign visits while an amount of Rs400 million was incurred on President Zardari’s visits abroad.

He said the president had been behaving in a manner which brought his office into disrepute. “No one knows if he speaks in death anniversaries as president, as a leader of a particular party or as a leader from Sindh province,” the senator said, adding that Lahore High Court orders regarding restrictions on the president were also being flouted. Endorsing the views expressed by Prof Ahmed, Mr.Dar said the government had compounded the crisis facing the country during its three-year rule. Criticizing the government for pursuing what he called flawed policies, he said ministers did not resign even after their involvement in corruption was unearthed.

He said non-development expenditures continued to soar and now the figures of such expenses are being stated around Rs.2300 billion. He warned that the country would head for disaster if corrective measures were not taken. Mr.Dar said the government wanted a toothless accountability law, while the PML-N was in favour of a proper mechanism to hold the corrupt accountable. He said the government had promised that issues of energy, losses in public sector enterprises and circular debt would be addressed but the roadmap was missing from both the president’s address and the budget speech.

Some members of the house expressed concern over wheat export to Afghanistan and Russia and warned that the government would have to import the commodity from other countries, if a limit on export was not fixed.

PAKISTANI SUPPORT FOR MILITARY ACTION AGAINST MILITANTS DROPS.

ISLAMABAD: Domestic support for the Pakistani military’s campaign against militant groups has waned in recent years, a poll by a US group has found, showing deep-rooted opposition among the Pakistani public to the United States.

The findings of two Pew Research Center surveys will be disappointing for the United States, which wants its ally to deal forcefully with militants, particularly those fighting US-led foreign forces across the border in Afghanistan and take refuge in northwestern Pakistani border enclaves.

The survey of 3,221 Pakistanis found that just 37 per cent of them supported using the army to fight militants, which was 16 per cent lower than two years ago, according to Pew. The surveys also showed that most Pakistanis 63 per cent disapproved of the secret US raid in May that killed Osama bin Laden, with 55 per cent describing it as a “bad thing”. It was not clear if the respondents disapproved of the killing of the al Qaeda leader, who has not been popular in the country in recent years, or the secret US raid which many people saw as a violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty.Only 12 per cent of respondents had a positive view of the United States and only eight per cent had confidence in President Barack Obama “to do the right thing in world affairs”, Pew said.

“Most Pakistanis see the United States as an enemy, consider it a potential military threat and oppose American-led anti-terrorism efforts,” Pew said.The overwhelming rejection of US goals in the region puts Pakistan’s US-allied government and military in a difficult position in trying to please its people while working with the United States.

Although Pakistan said the death of bin Laden was a positive step in the battle against militancy, his killing by US Navy SEALs in his Pakistani hideout seriously damaged already strained ties between the uneasy allies. After the raid, the Pakistan army cut back the number of US troops stationed in the country and ended their role in training Pakistani soldiers involved in fighting militants. The Pakistan military also faced rare criticism at home for its failure to discover that the al Qaeda chief had been living in the country, apparently undetected, for years.

“Overwhelmingly popular”

But Pew said despite criticism after the bin Laden raid, the military remained “overwhelmingly popular”, with 79 per cent of respondents saying it had a good influence on the country. The ratings for military chief General Ashfaq Kayani saw a slight decrease after the bin Laden raid with 52 per cent of people favorable and 21 per cent unfavorable. Previously, Kayani was viewed positively by 57 per cent, with 18 per cent seeing him in a negative light. Militants have stepped up attacks in recent weeks to avenge bin Laden’s killing.

Pew said 55 per cent of people surveyed were “very or somewhat worried” that the militants might take over Pakistan, though that fear was down from 69 per cent two years ago.Still, 63 per cent considered Islamic extremism a problem although that was a decline from two years ago, when 79 per cent said they were worried. Views of al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban as threats have fluctuated over the years. In 2009, 61 per cent of Pakistanis viewed al Qaeda as a threat, dropping to 38 per cent in 2010 and rising to 49 per cent after bin Laden’s death.

The Taliban were seen as a very serious threat by 73 per cent in 2009, but that had dropped to 54 per cent. Worryingly for the United States, 26 per cent of respondents saw the Taliban regaining control in Afghanistan as good for Pakistan while 21 per cent said it would be bad. In 2010, 18 per cent believed it would be good for Pakistan.

ONE DEAD AS NATO OIL TANKER TORCHED IN PAKISTAN.

QUETTA: Gunmen torched an oil tanker carrying fuel for Nato troops in Afghanistan after killing its driver in the southwestern province of Balochistan on Sunday, police said.

Four people riding on two motorbikes shot dead the driver and then set fire to the vehicle in Mian Ghundai suburb of the provincial capital Quetta, local police officer Fareed Waraich told AFP.

The driver’s helper jumped out of the vehicle which was totally gutted, he said adding that the body of the driver was charred beyond recognition.

“The driver apparently received fatal injuries and could not escape,” the official said adding that the attackers fled on their motorcycles.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast but the Taliban has in the past said it carried out similar attacks to disrupt supplies to the more than 130,000 US-led international troops fighting in Afghanistan.

Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants frequently launch attacks on Nato supply vehicles in the northwest and southwest Pakistan bordering landlocked Afghanistan.

Most supplies and equipment required by foreign forces in Afghanistan are shipped through Pakistan, although US troops increasingly use alternative routes through Central Asia.