The Struggle for Influence in Afghan

Afghanistan Sun (ANI) | Thursday 1st August, 2013 | The deadline for the withdrawal of most, if not all U.S. and other NATO troops from Afghanistan, is only 18 months off, but much of what will happen after that, is still up in the air.

The world closely watches as the U.S., the Afghan Government led by President Hamid Karzai, the Northern Alliance and Afghanistan's neighbours are searching for a solution to the Afghan conflict that is in their best interest, though not necessarily in the interest of the country.

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Taliban Rejects Talks as Britain's Cameron Tours Region

VoANews via Afghanistan Sun | Sunday 30th June, 2013 | ISLAMABAD  - International-backed efforts to seek a negotiated end to the 12 years of grinding war in Afghanistan have suffered another blow after Taliban rebels apparently rejected conditions for proposed peace talks. The development comes as British Prime Minister David Cameron concluded a trip to Afghanistan and Pakistan as part of efforts to revive the stalled peace process. In its first formal reaction following the opening of the controversial Taliban political office nearly two weeks ago in Qatar, the Afghan insurgent group has harshly criticized the United States and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai for allegedly "wasting time" and making "false commitments" regarding proposed peace talks. READ MORE

Karzai Would be ‘Wise to Leave With US Forces’ Before Taliban Retakes Afghanistan

Hamid Karzai is unlikely to remain president of Afghanistan after US troops leave the country, defense consultant Moeen Raoof told RT.  The Taliban, a longtime enemy of the US-backed Karzai administration, is expected to regain control after 11 years. 

Russia Today | RT: The US State Department is hesitating to define the Taliban’s current status - whether it is a terrorist group, a political force, or both. Why is it so reticent?

Moeen Raoof: I don’t think they are dealing with the actual Taliban, because Mullah Omar has not endorsed the starting up of the office in Doha. So the Americans are not sure who they are dealing with, and if they are dealing with the Taliban, it’s probably Taliban light. Mullah Omar is a very powerful person, and he has to sign off on these kinds of peace talks. And Secretary Kerry seems to be stumbling all the time. He is stumbling with the peace talks in Syria, and all of a sudden there is confusion about the peace talks in Doha, Qatar. So I’m not sure that they are really talking to the Taliban directly.

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Obama, Karzai 'Reaffirm' Afghan-led Peace Process with Taliban: White House

Roberta Rampton | Reuters | U.S. President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Tuesday discussed stalled peace talks with the Taliban and "reaffirmed" their support for the process, the White House said.

"The leaders reaffirmed that an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process is the surest way to end violence and ensure lasting stability in Afghanistan and the region, and they reiterated their support for an office in Doha for the purpose of negotiations between the High Peace Council and authorized representatives of the Taliban," White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement.  READ MORE

Nowhere Is Safe: Taliban Launch Strike on President Karzai's Presidential Palace

Militants say targeting of Presidential Palace would not affect reconciliation process

Kim Sengupta | The Independent | Tuesday 25 June 2013 | Taliban fighters carried out an audacious suicide attack in the heavily fortified heart of Kabul, with the Presidential Palace and the headquarters of the CIA as apparent targets.

The gunmen had been dressed in military uniform and fake badges and passes for Land Cruisers of the type used by security forces to get into the diplomatic enclave in Afghanistan's capital before opening fire in a gun battle which lasted for 90 minute and left four of the attackers and three guards dead.

Among those caught up in the fighting were a group of journalists who had been waiting for an interview with Hamid Karzai about talks organised by the Americans with the Taliban in Qatar. The US administration had maintained that recent statements made by senior members of the insurgency showed that they were seeking a peaceful end to the conflict.

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Taliban Attack CIA Compound in Latest Afghanistan Violence

Rezwan Natiq and Jay Price | McClatchy Foreign Staff | KABUL, Afghanistan — Insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades opened fire on the Kabul offices of the CIA early Tuesday in a coordinated attack in one of the capital’s most heavily fortified neighborhoods, which is also home to Afghanistan’s presidential place and the main headquarters for the U.S.-led international military coalition.

There was no word on damages to the CIA offices or casualties to its guard force, and it was uncertain whether the CIA had been the main target of the attack. The Taliban, claiming responsibility for the attack, said in a statement that the CIA building had been one of its primary objectives, but the presidential palace is also nearby. Three presidential guards died in the attack.

Reporters who were waiting to enter the presidential palace when the attack took place at 6:30 a.m. said the attackers fired at the CIA offices, and smoke could be seen rising from the building, a former hotel, from miles away.

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A Reporter's Eyewitness Account of Taliban Attack

RAHIM FAIEZ | Associated Press | KABUL, Afghanistan — One moment I was standing in a quiet, secure and heavily guarded area and the next it had turned into a battlefield. It was 6:30 a.m., and I waiting with about 20 other journalists for an escort into the palace for a speech by President Hamid Karzai. It was a routine assignment for Kabul journalists, and the presidential compound is a scenic and peaceful oasis lined with pine trees in my chaotic hometown.

Suddenly I saw the four armed men jump out of their vehicle. They kneeled [sic] down and started shooting. Two of them fired at presidential palace security guards stationed at a checkpoint. The two others aimed their weapons at the Ariana Hotel, where the CIA is known to have an office.  READ MORE

The Reality Of Afghanistan

Forbes | Tuesday 25th June, 2013 | The United States made a decision to withdraw from Afghanistan several years ago. That decision carried with it an inevitable logic. Once the United States resolved itself to leave at any cost, its failures up to that point were laid bare, as were the vulnerabilities of the government it had spent more than a decade building. The door was opened for the enemies of the regime of President Hamid Karzai -- the man who has been synonymous with the post-Taliban government. All that was left to do was wait for the American pullback. READ MORE

Afghan Taliban Assault in Kabul Secure Zone

| Prison Planet |Tuesday 25th June, 2013 | Afghan security forces have put down a militant gun and bomb attack near the presidential palace, in one of the most secure areas of Kabul. Officials say four insurgents and three security guards died. The Taliban say they carried out the attack. President Hamid Karzai was in the palace, but the target appears to have been the nearby Ariana hotel, which houses a CIA station. This is the latest in a string of attacks on Kabul in recent months.
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Taliban Political Office Raises Alarm Bells In Kabul

Frud Bezhan | Radio Free Europe | It was heralded as a significant step toward reaching a negotiated peace with the Taliban, so why has the opening of a modest political office in Qatar been met with such fierce opposition by the Afghan government?

For Afghan President Hamid Karzai, it's because the Taliban's Doha office stands as a threat to unravel everything his government has worked for over the past 12 years. "[Afghan officials in Kabul] will see the Americans negotiating with the Taliban, while they're left on the sidelines with no central role," says Anatol Lieven, a professor and Afghanistan expert at King's College London.
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The Real Road to an Afghan Peace

AMIR TAHERI | New York Post | 04/02/2013 | With snow starting to melt in the mountains of the Hindu Hush, Afghans are preparing for another season of fighting in the 34-year-long war that has ravaged their country. And, like every year this time, there is much talk about “peace talks” between the government of President Hamid Karzai and the Taliban. This year’s talk about talks is hotter than previous seasons, for two reasons. First, the Obama administration, preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan next year, has asked Qatar (now Washington’s closest Arab ally in the Middle East) to open a dialogue with the Taliban. The oil-rich state has obliged by contacting Taliban figures and promising to let the group open an “information office” in Doha. Last week, Qatar also hosted Karzai to discuss possible “peace talks” with Sheik Hamad, the emir. (READ MORE)

Afghan-US Deal on Table in Key Region

Global Times | Agencies | Afghan and US officials are working on a compromise deal to allow US special forces to stay in a strategically key province near the capital in return for full Afghan control of a controversial jail, a top Kabul official said. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's previous decision to expel special forces from Wardak province has angered US defense officials who worry their exit could allow insurgents to strengthen their presence in the area and use it as a base to attack Kabul, only 25 kilometers away. (READ MORE)

Afghanistan's Karzai Agrees to New Deadline for Prison Handover

CNN | There's a new one-week deadline for handing over control of a U.S.-run detention center near Bagram Air Base to Afghan authorities, Afghanistan's president said Sunday. On Sunday, Hamid Karzai's office said in a statement that he had agreed to a request from U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel for one week "to carry out the full handover the prison." (READ MORE)

Our Afghan ‘friends’ Part I: A delusional nut

Tribune-Review | Tuesday, March 12, 2013, 9:00 p.m. | Never advisable, America's reliance on Afghan President Hamid Karzai's corrupt, weak regime as an ally in the war on terrorism looks downright idiotic now that he's welcomed new Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel by absurdly accusing U.S. and Taliban forces of colluding. Just after Taliban suicide bombs outside the Afghan Ministry of Defense in Kabul and in Khost province killed 19 total, Mr. Karzai claimed in a speech “that the U.S. is holding peace talks with the radical Islamists and the bombs were in the ‘service of America,'” Bloomberg News reports. (READ MORE)

Bombings and rebuke mar Hagel's Afghanistan visit

By Jennifer Rowland | AfPak Channel |  In Kabul on Saturday, a suicide bomber detonated his vest outside the Afghan Ministry of Defense just hours after U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel arrived in the country, killing at least 10 people (NYT, NYT, AP, AJE). Shortly after that attack, another suicide bomber detonated his vest just before he reached a joint Afghan-American checkpoint in the eastern province of Khost, killing eight children and one policeman. Both attacks appeared to have been timed to coincide with Hagel's visit, his first as Secretary of Defense.
Further darkening Hagel's visit to Afghanistan, President Hamid Karzai asserted during an early-morning news conference that the United States is effectively colluding with the Taliban in order to perpetuate the conflict and justify the continued presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan (NYT, WSJ, BBC, Post, Guardian, Reuters, AP, VOA). Karzai also accused the United States of sending mixed messages by calling the Taliban the enemy, while at the same time holding negotiations with the insurgent group "every day." And he called dismal predictions about the country's future "negative propaganda" created by and dispersed through Western media outlets. (READ MORE)

Afghan, NATO Troops Killed in Insider Attack

VOA News | March 11, 2013 | Kabul | NATO officials in Afghanistan say an apparent insider attack in eastern Afghanistan has killed several Afghan and U.S.-led coalition service members.

Authorities say the shooter in Monday's incident in Wardak province was believed to be an Afghan police officer.

The shooting comes a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's first visit to Afghanistan was marred by a contentious speech by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a series of security threats Saturday that forced the cancellation of a scheduled news conference on Sunday with Karzai and Secretary Hagel. (READ MORE)

Hagel: US Not in Cahoots with Pakistan Taliban

CBNNews |Chuck Hagel's first trip to Afghanistan as defense secretary is not going smoothly. The Pentagon chief faces political tension with the Afghan president and a series of security problems.

President Hamid Karzai accused the United States on Sunday of working with the Taliban to show that violence in Afghanistan will increase if U.S. troops leave.     

Hagel disputed those claims and said he understands the Afghan president faces political pressures as the war winds down. (READ MORE)

Afghan President accuses US having secret plot with Taliban

Taiwan News | Website Editorial Staff  | The often volatile U.S. relationship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai was further strained Sunday as Karzai accused the U.S. and Taliban insurgents of having a secret understanding to foment violence as a pretext to keep foreign troops in Afghanistan.

The comments were the latest — and perhaps the most baffling — broadside by Karzai against one of his nation’s closest allies, leaving U.S. officials struggling to limit the fallout.  (READ MORE)

Afghan President Karzai accuses U.S. of colluding with Taliban

Ernesto Londono and Kevin Sieff | Denver Post | KABUL — Afghan President Hamid Karzai lashed out at the United States in strikingly acerbic terms Sunday, implying that the American military was stoking violence in collusion with the Taliban to justify a prolonged presence here and charging that foreign troops were harassing Afghan university students.

The remarks painted an embarrassing picture of discord that marred Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's first foreign trip as Pentagon chief and plunged the tenuous allies into crisis mode at a time when the United States is struggling to wind down the unpopular war in a dignified manner.  (READ MORE)