We are blogging the latest news about America's war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Email us at AfPak [at] huffingtonpost.com. Follow Nico on Twitter; follow Nicholas on Twitter. See archives of 'At War' here.
With reporting by Faiz Lalani.
Why Karzai spurned the U.S Why did Karzai invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to visit Kabul? According to the New York Times it was done as retaliation for the White House revoking Karzai's invitation to visit Washington, a move which reportedly left the Afghan leader "enraged." The reason for the rescinding, according to the Times, was Karzai's weakening of the independent panel that called attention to last year's widespread election fraud.
From the Times:
The red carpet treatment of Mr. Ahmadinejad is just one example of how Mr. Karzai is putting distance between himself and his American sponsors, prominent Afghans and American officials here said. Even as Mr. Obama pours tens of thousands of additional American troops into the country to help defend Mr. Karzai's government, Mr. Karzai now often voices the view that his interests and the United States' no longer coincide.
The U.S. is thus left facing the question -- or, as the Times puts it, the 'central dilemma' for the Obama administration -- of how to deal with increasingly unreliable partner in a way that won't ultimately prove self-defeating.
The Times piece has some great details on the tension between Kabul and Washington that are definitely worth reading.
Bin Laden doing just fine, suspect says. Osama Bin Laden is alive and well and still actively in control, according to an alleged Al Qaeda operative, Raja Lharsib Khan, who was arrested by federal authorities in Chicago last week on charges that he provided support to the terror organization. As Newsweek's Michael Isikoff reported Monday, court documents made available following the arrest include revealing comments made by Khan on secret FBI recordings about the current state of the terrorist network. In the recordings Khan says that, contrary to reports in recent years that Bin Laden was ill, the Al Qaeda leader was in good health and also still "commanding everything." Yet as Isikoff notes, Khan's credibility is hard to assess, and he never actually met Bin Laden when visiting Pakistan. "Still," Isikoff writes, "it is rare for the bureau to obtain and make public even secondhand comments about bin Laden's activities in its investigations." Read the entire piece, which provides a thorough analysis of the tapes, here.
5:40 PM ET -- Obama doesn't press Sarkozy for more troops. Despite speculation earlier today that President Obama would ask French President Nicolas Sarkozy for more troop help in Afghanistan when they met this afternoon, there was in the end there was "no specific 'ask' on the table," according to White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Instead of asking for troops, Obama was going to seek more police and military trainers from France, Gibbs said.
5:00 PM ET -- U.N. report paints grim picture of poverty and corruption in Afghanistan. A new U.N. report published by the office of the U.N. human rights commissioner says that corruption in Afghanistan is exacerbating poverty, reports the BBC. It specifically chastises Afghan officials, blaming them for the "widespread corruption [that] further limits access to services for a large proportion of the population." The report also says that the international community, including the U.S. and its NATO partners, is too focused on short-term security needs and is neglecting long-term development goals. It warns of growing disillusionment among Afghans about the future of their country. A spokesman for the U.N. human rights commissioner highlighted the fact that "[o]nly 23% of the population have access to safe drinking water and only 24% above the age of 15 can read and write."
3:30 PM ET -- Canadian Foreign Minister snubs Clinton over Afghanistan. After Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appealed to Canadians during an interview with the CTV to continue their involvement in Afghanistan beyond 2011, Canada's Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon snubbed Clinton, saying "[w]hen we say there is no combat role for Canada post-2011 there is no combat role post 2011." The opposition is angry that it only learned of Clinton's request to Canada after she mentioned it on air and is demanding a debate in parliament over extending Canada's mission to Afghanistan. Canada currently has around 2,000 troops in Kandahar and expects to fully withdraw in 2011.
2:55 PM ET -- Police brutality against children rampant in Afghan prisons. Gareth Porter of the Inter Press Service notes that a study carried out by a children's rights organization, Terre des Hommes, found that nearly two-thirds of boys in Afghan jails are beaten. The study was conducted by American Kimberly Motley, the only practicing Western defense attorney in Afghanistan. Motley described Afghanistan's justice system as an "injustice system," where the police beat minors to extract confessions and the courts turn a blind eye to police and prison abuses.
From IPS:
Virtually all the male juveniles said the police beatings were aimed at forcing them to sign a confession. They said they had signed either while being beaten or threatened with being beaten, and that the confessions were then used to convict them.
The testimony of the juveniles themselves on brutalisation by police was consistent with Motley's interviews with juvenile court judges. Forty-four percent of the judges interviewed indicated that juveniles complained routinely about torture and physical abuse by police officers. Another 33 percent refused to answer when asked whether they had heard such complaints.
2:30 PM ET -- NATO fails to control the narrative. While General McChrystal's new counterinsurgency doctrine promised a new way of fighting the war in Afghanistan -- and reporting on it -- Joshua Foust thinks NATO has failed at both. Foust hoped that the new modus operandi would reduce civilian casualties and would improve NATO's public relations in the conflict. But as Jerome Starkey's piece in The London Times about the killing of an Afghan family by coalition troops revealed, NATO is failing at the two tasks, and is consequently not winning the hearts and minds of Afghans. Foust is especially critical of the "lazy journalistic culture" of Western media outlets in Afghanistan, who he says rely too much on NATO press releases. The Pentagon manages Western reporters well, he acknowledges, but "they suck at managing domestic or non-English coverage, and especially news and story narratives in the Afghan press."
12:20 PM ET -- U.S. steps up criticism of Karzai with second warning in 24 hours. The London Times reports that the Obama administration is stepping up its criticism of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, fearing that a failure to stamp out corruption in Karzai's government could undermine NATO's new strategy in the country. Admiral Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned Karzai that the U.S. "will be unable to succeed in Kandahar if we cannot eliminate a vast majority of corruption there." The warning was the second one from a senior administration official in 24 hours. The charge was apparently aimed at Karzai's younger brother, Ahmad Wali Karzai, who controls a major tribe in Kandahar province and is suspected of links to the opium trade. The Obama administration has been critical of Hamid Karzai, limiting its praise and publicly berating the Afghan government for corruption.
12:00 PM ET -- The hidden costs--and benefits--of drone strikes. Brian Downing, writing in Asia Times Online, weighs the advantages and disadvantages of relying on drone strikes in Afghanistan and Pakistan to defeat the insurgencies in the region. He notes that under the Obama administration drone strikes have increased: there will be three times as many drone strikes in 2010 as in 2008. While the strikes have done little to improve, and have even worsened, America's image in Pakistan, the Pakistani public acknowledges "grudgingly and in private" that the drone strikes have kept at bay the Pakistani Taliban, who they hold responsible for terrorist attacks across the country. And in Afghanistan, too, drone strikes have proved important in bringing the Taliban to the table for negotiations. Downing argues that the Taliban recognize that so long as the U.S. maintains the capacity to continue drone strikes, the Taliban cannot govern or administer in safety. The strikes have worn down insurgent resolve, and have become a crucial bargaining chip for the U.S. as it looks for a political settlement in the region. But the drone strikes can have the adverse effect of draining popular support for NATO in Afghanistan. The more drone strikes kill innocent civilians, the more locals resent foreign troops and refuse to cooperate with them.
11:00 AM ET -- Kandahar offensive is key strategic moment for U.S. and NATO. The planned U.S. and NATO offensive in Kandahar province is described as "a strategic moment in the history of [American] involvement" in Afghanistan by the Obama administration, according to The Associated Press. The two-month-long campaign is expected to begin June 5 in the province where the U.S. believes Al Qaeda planned the Sept. 11 attacks. In preparation for the offensive, NATO troops are working to secure transit routes and to persuade locals to cooperate with NATO. Most of the focus during the operation will be on "working with political leaders and teaming U.S. forces with Afghan police." U.S. officials do, however, "expect the fight to get tougher" and the casualties to mount.
9:30 AM ET -- Obama praises, challenges Karzai. Fresh off a trip to the region last weekend in which he held a private meeting with the Afghan president, Obama told NBC's "Today" show that Karzai, despite having made strives in cracking down on corruption, still had a "long way to go" on that front.
""I think he's listening, but I think the progress is too slow. What we are trying to emphasize is the fierce urgency of now," Obama said. He stressed that when it came to improving life in Afghanistan, we "can't dilly-dally around."
As for why he didn't travel to the region around the time that he announced the troop surge last year. Obama said he wanted to avoid appearing to be ""parachuting in and changing the outcomes there."
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9:00 AM ET -- Obama to ask Sarko for help. The AP reports that President Obama will reach out to French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is currently visiting the States, for increased help in Afghanistan. While the two leaders agree on a number of pressing international issues, the AP questions whether the partnership can actually extend to the war.
Obama and Sarkozy agree on wanting new sanctions on Iran for its nuclear activities. They both want stalled Mideast talks to resume. They both say something should be done to better regulate the financial arena to prevent future crises, though they don't always agree on how far.
"France is an invaluable partner and ally of the United States," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Monday.
But will that translate into more forces for Afghanistan?
France has about 3,750 troops and trainers in Afghanistan, but Sarkozy resisted calls by Obama last year to send many more. Some other NATO allies have also been cautious, even as the U.S. is deploying 30,000 more troops to try to reverse gains made by the Taliban.
Two Western diplomats said Obama will ask Sarkozy for more military or police trainers. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions are private.