Afghanistan Will Combat Taliban Scare Tactics To Ensure Secure Elections, Says Afghan Media Figure

By Mariko Lamb-Talk Radio News Service

Radio Free Afghanistan Director Akbar Ayazi, who will moderate Afghanistan’s presidential debate Sunday, said Friday that the Country intends to follow through with its presidential elections despite harsh security threats from Taliban forces.

According to Ayazi, Taliban forces have attempted to use scare tactics to prevent Afghan citizens from voting in the presidential elections next Thursday. “I even heard one Taliban threat that said ‘we will cut your finger off if you go to vote’,” Ayazi said. “These kinds of intimidations and the violence...really affect the elections and its results.”

Afghan police, the national army of Afghanistan, and the international community have committed up to 20,000 troops, mostly Americans, to help secure Afghanistan’s 27,000 polling stations.

“The Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Defense, and the International Security Forces have...taken every possible measure that they have there. They have a plan they say they will be able to secure it,” he said.

Despite augmented security during the elections “I have doubts that every single poll will be secure and people will go with very free will and without fear,” Ayazi said.

“We will see what the outcome will be despite all these security problems,” he added. “I’m hoping that the security will be good,” he said, noting that regardless of his fears, he is confident that the combined Afghan and international forces will give "100% to secure the elections.”

White House Gaggle With Robert Gibbs

At 9.40 am the President signed into law the extension of the Cash for Clunkers legislation that the Senate approved yesterday.

Jobs Numbers
Gibbs said the numbers are more evidence that we have pulled back from the edge and brink of a depression. If you look at the averaging of the numbers over a period of time, the pace of job loss is declining, which is positive. However, last month, a quarter of a million people lost their jobs. The President is very focused on putting the economy back on track. It is still expected that the unemployment rate will reach 10% this year.

There will be good days and bad days. There is a long way to go. The Recovery Act has made a difference. Two thirds of the benefit has yet to make a difference. The focus is on implementing the recovery plan. Without seeing genuine, positive, sustained job growth, we will see the rate continue to 10%. We are pleased, though not satisfied, that the rate of that job loss is declining. Before recovery, there has to be stabilization.

Gibbs stated that he was informed of the jobs numbers at the same time as the markets. He said it is unclear if the numbers today are a trend. Asked if the numbers would go back up again, he said it was in all likelihood very possible. However, the rate of job loss has declined.

Death of Taliban Leader
Gibbs was asked if the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud, has been killed. Gibbs said they cannot confirm it, though there is a growing consensus among credible observers. Mehsud is a murderous thug. He has planned and helped carry out some of the most heinous acts of terrorism and violence in Pakistan. He has killed scores of innocent men, women and children, and is supposed to have plotted the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. If he is dead, the people of Pakistan will be safer as a result.

The US is working very closely with the government of Pakistan to prevent the Taliban, al Qaeda and other affiliated terrorist organizations from killing innocent people. The US is very pleased with the level of cooperation and working together, and want to do everything to help Pakistan defeat terrorism. The President is regularly updated on this situation.

Closing of Guantanamo
Gibbs was asked whether there would be a delay in the closure of Guantanamo, based on something an administration official said yesterday. He said, no, he had looked at the transcript. He quoted the transcript which appeared to state that Guantanamo would close on time.

Violence at Town Halls
Gibbs was asked whether, with the increase of violence at town halls and a death threat, he would recommend that members of Congress do not hold town halls. He said no, that people that go to have their voices heard, that they have some respect for everybody else’s ability to be heard and participate in a town hall.

Al-Qaida/Taliban Terrorist List Gains In Numbers According To UN Sanctions Team

Richard Barrett, the UN's coordinator for the al-Qaida/Taliban sanctions monitoring team for Afghanistan said maintaining the rule of law is the UN's key objective in the coming months.  He discussed the ongoing consolidation of the suspected terrorist list being drawn together with cooperation from member states at the United Nations.

UN Resolution 1822, adopted by the Security Council in June 2008, cites "terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to peace and security" and seeks to improve transparency among countries and bring suspected terrorists forward.

"What we are looking for is a credible list in the fight against terrorism" H.E. Mr. Thomas Mayr-Harting, Permanent Representative of Austria and Chairman of the al Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee said. ""There is a whole technique in this process, we write to the countries involved, and we wait for their responses. The team also has to provide narrative summaries for why suspected terrorists are initially put on the list."

The 1267 Committee or Sanctions Committee), which is tasked with consolidating the list of the over 500 suspected terrorists, has a mandate to:

* freeze without delay the funds and other financial assets or economic resources of designated individuals and entities [assets freeze],
* prevent the entry into or transit through their territories by designated individuals
[travel ban], and
* prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale and transfer from their territories or by their nationals outside their territories, or using their flag vessels or aircraft, of arms and related materiel of all types, spare parts, and technical advice, assistance, or training related to military activities, to designated individuals and entities [arms embargo].

Additionally, UN Resolution 1822 welcomes continued cooperation with INTERPOL, in particular on the "development of Special Notices, which assists Member States in their implementation of the measures, and recognizing the role of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Implementation Monitoring Team (“the Monitoring Team”) in this regard".  The Sanction Committee therefore has the right to authorize, enact and implement sanctions in suspected terrorist countries through border patrols and policing systems.

Mr. Barrett, who heads the monitoring team, explained that most of these suspected terrorist names on the list are focused on the Pakistan/Afghan border and in North Africa, where Algeria is listed as the main threat in the region. "There are also increases in recruits further South, namely Mauritania and Niger." Somalia was also highlighted on the watch list. Barrett added the Afghan border with Iran was recently being examined in regards to drug smuggling.

(video on website)

Adm. Mullen Discusses Threats Facing Troops In Afghanistan

By Sam Wechsler - Talk Radio News Service

Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke Wednesday about the need for the U.S. to better protect its troops from being harmed in the war in Afghanistan.

Mullen stated that “the center of gravity is really the protection of the [Afghan] people.” He added that civilian casualties are not conducive to winning the war.

He explained that the largest threats to the U.S. military in Afghanistan are attacks from IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) employed by the Taliban, and post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by American soldiers.

“We’ve come a long way with respect to [IEDs], but this is an enemy that is very adaptive and very capable...and as they adapt, we adapt, and they adapt again,” said Mullen. In order to better equalize the threat of IEDs, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is sending upwards of 2,000 armored all-terrain vehicles that provide better protection from the explosives.

“When I visit troops there is also a great skip in their step because they know they’ve made a difference, they’ve turned it around in a place like Iraq, and they’re very confident that they can get the job done in Afghanistan,” said Mullen.

As for a timetable, Mullen said that military must “turn the tide” against the Taliban within the next twelve to eighteen months.

The Senate Rebuilds Pakistan

By Michael Ruhl, University of New Mexico - Talk Radio News Service

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.)
Photo by Michael Ruhl

In the next 5 years, the Pakistani infrastructure will be fortified by almost $10 billion American dollars, if Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) have anything to say about it. The aptly titled Kerry-Lugar Bill will provided money for rebuilding the lives of civilians in war torn Pakistan.

Both Kerry and Lugar said that most of the money that has been funneled into Pakistan in the past few years has gone towards security. The aim of this bill is to shift the balance, to place more of an emphasis on infrastructure.

The Senators want to use the money for building schools, improving health care, building bridges, water projects, and other elements of infrastructure. Kerry said that the target projects are “things that would improve life and give people a sense of progress” to civilians.

The money would also be used for ensuring an independent media, expanding human rights and the rule of law, expanding transparency in government, rooting out political corruption and countering the drug trade.

Additionally military funding would be conditioned upon several things, including Pakistani security forces preventing al Qaeda and Taliban forces from operating in Pakistan. The military forces would not be able to interfere in politics or in the judicial process, according to the provisions of the bill.

The legislation bill would give $1.5 billion each year from FY 2009-2013, and would recommend similar amounts of money over the subsequent five years. There would be required benchmarks to measuring how effective the funding is, and the President will have to submit semi-annual reports to Congress about progress made.