Sen. Carl Levin is asking the Pentagon to carefully consider whether it wants to do more business with Blackwater, the controversial military contractor firm out of North Carolina that is reportedly bidding on a $1 billion Afghan police training contract.
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Levin Takes Aim at Blackwater Contracts
Army Staff Sgt. Tracy Dice was a 12-year law-enforcement veteran when she decided to become an explosive ordnance disposal technician in the North Carolina National Guard.
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Face of Defense: EOD Experience Benefits Guard Soldier
Naval Air Forces announced the squadrons that won Battle Efficiency Awards for 2009 in an internal message dated Feb. 10. Winning squadrons, by aircraft: • F/A-18 Hornet: Strike Fighter Squadron 83, Rampagers, Naval Air Station Oceana, Va.; VFA-192, Golden Dragons, NAS Lemoore, Calif. • F/A-18 Super Hornet: VFA-31, Tomcatters from NAS Oceana; VFA-102, Diamondbacks, Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan. • EA-6B Prowler: Electronic Attack Squadron 140, Patriots, NAS Whidbey Island, Wash. (Atlantic deployment); VAQ-136, Gauntlets, NAF Atsugi.; VAQ-133, Wizards, NAS Whidbey Island. • E-2C Hawkeye: Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 124, Bullseye Hummers, NAS Norfolk, Va.; VAW-113, Black Eagles, NAS Point Mugu, Calif. • H-60 Seahawk: Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron 15, Red Lions, NAS Jacksonville, Fla.; HS-8, Eightballers, NAS North Island, Calif.; Helicopter Anti-Submarine Light 46, Grandmasters, Naval Station Mayport, Fla.; HSL-51, Warlords, NAF Atsugi; Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 26, Chargers, NS Norfolk; HSC-25, Island Knights, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam; Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 71, Raptors, NAS North Island. • P-3 Orion/EP-3 Aries: Patrol Squadron 10, Red Lancers, NAS Jacksonville; VP-40, Fighting Marlins, NAS Whidbey Island; Special Projects Patrol Squadron 2, Wizards, Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii; Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 1, World Watchers, NAS Whidbey Island. • H-53 Sea Dragon: Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 15, Blackhawks, NS Norfolk. • E-6B Mercury: Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 3, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. • C-2A Greyhound: Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 40, Rawhides, NS Norfolk. The winning carriers and warships ran in the Feb. 22 and March 1 issues, respectively.
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Battle ‘E’ squadrons named
MARJAH, Afghanistan — The Afghan government took official control of the southern Taliban stronghold of Marjah on Thursday, installing an administrator and raising the national flag while U.S.-led troops worked to root out final pockets of militants. The ceremony was held in a central market as Marines and Afghan troops slogged through bomb-laden fields in the north of the town. The Marines and their Afghan partners are trying to secure a 28-square mile area believed to be the last significant pocket of Taliban insurgents in Marjah. Militants and allied troops are still getting caught up in gunfights in some areas, NATO said. But the number of residents returning has increased in recent days, shops have opened to sell telephones and computers alongside fresh fruits and vegetables, and officials hailed the installation of Abdul Zahir Aryan as the town’s administrator as a key sign of progress. Some 700 residents gathered to see Aryan formally appointed as the top government official in Marjah, along with government officials and Brig. Gen. Larry Nicholson, commander of U.S. Marines in Marjah, according to officials at the event. Aryan and a team of advisers held their first meeting in the town Monday and have been staying overnight in a building there since Tuesday, said Marlin Harbinger, the senior U.S. government representative for Helmand province, which contains Marjah. “Today’s event was the civilian Afghan government re-establishing itself officially in front of the local residents,” Harbinger said. The Afghan army had previously raised the country’s green-and-red flag nearby, but that was only a claim of military control over that neighborhood, he said. The ceremony opened with a reading from the Quran, and then Aryan and the Helmand governor pledged to those gathered that they were ready to listen to their needs and eager to provide them with basic services that they didn’t have under the Taliban. After the ceremony, the generals and high-level officials departed in helicopters, but Aryan remained. The mass assault in southern Helmand province, with 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops, is the largest military operation in Afghanistan since the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001. NATO’s strategy is to drive Taliban militants from the town, which had served as a logistical base and drug trafficking hub, restore the Afghan government’s presence, and rush in public services in a bid to win over the confidence of local communities. In the north Thursday, the Marines’ progress was slowed by difficult terrain with no roads, few tracks and many hidden mines, but there was no gunfire by midmorning. Several armored vehicles fell into irrigation canals while others were damaged by roadside bombs. About 100 fighters are believed to have regrouped into the area known as Kareze, according to commanders with the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines Regiment. In a sign that NATO’s push to win over the population may be gaining traction, bomb tips from residents have increased by nearly 50 percent, the alliance said. As the offensive closes in on its second week, 13 NATO troops and three Afghan soldiers have been killed, according to military officials. Eighty NATO troops have been wounded, along with eight Afghans. At least 28 civilians have been killed, including 13 children, according to the Afghan human rights commission. The civilian toll has raised fears that NATO may lose the support of the population even as it drives out the Taliban. The deaths come although NATO has said its priority is protecting the civilian population and has adopted strict rules to prevent casualties. A spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry said both the Afghan government and NATO troops realized they had to be realistic and accept that there would be civilian deaths. “Preventing civilian casualties is our biggest challenge,” Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi told reporters in Kabul. “You should not expect zero casualties, either from our side or from the international forces. That will only happen when the fighting is over. And we are all trying to make that happen.” NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay, speaking alongside Azimi, urged Afghans to recognize that international troops are putting themselves in greater danger in order to try to protect civilians. “We are going beyond the laws of armed conflict by increasing our risk,” Tremblay said. ——— Associated Press writers Heidi Vogt and Amir Shah contributed to this report from Kabul. Related reading: Snipers are top threat in Marjah, Conway says
Read this article: New government takes official control of Marjah
ISLAMABAD — The recent arrests of Afghan Taliban leaders in Pakistan were the result of intelligence breakthroughs and none was involved in reconciliation talks with the Afghan government, the U.S. general who oversees the war in Afghanistan said Tuesday. The arrests of Mullah Baradar, the No. 2. Taliban commander, and at least two other insurgent leaders in recent weeks have been hailed as major developments in the eight-year-old Afghan war and a possible strategic shift for Pakistan. But questions have swirled over why the Pakistanis were acting now against insurgents who many analysts say have long enjoyed a haven in the country. Gen. David Petraeus dismissed the idea that Pakistan always knew where the leaders were hiding out. “I wouldn’t share your characterizations that, in a sense, they have always had this intelligence,” he told a small group of foreign correspondents in the Pakistani capital. “What has happened is that there has been some important breakthroughs.” Over the past 18 months, Pakistan has undertaken several army offensives in the northwest region bordering Afghanistan against Islamic militants who have enjoyed relative safety there. Those operations have mostly targeted militants attacking the Pakistani state, not militants crossing the border and fighting U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan. Petraeus said Pakistan still made distinctions between groups in the border region, but said there appeared to be “evolution” in how it regards the threats coming from the area, seeing them now as increasingly entwined. He also rejected speculation that Pakistan acted against Baradar and the others because they may have been involved in talks with the Afghan government and it wanted to get a seat at the table by arresting them. “Any time that important leaders are killed or captured … is a positive development,” he said. “I am not aware of any of these individuals were involved in any reconciliation talks.” Petraeus was full of praise for the Pakistani army, saying the offensives in the northwest were “classic counterinsurgency operations” that would one day be studied by students of war. He also accepted its reasons for not moving immediately into North Waziristan, a tribal region where militants are believed to sheltering and where so far Pakistan has resisted launching a full-scale military operation. Pakistani troops last year fought offensives in neighboring South Waziristan and earlier in the Swat Valley farther north to oust Taliban fighters. “You can only take on so many bad guys at one time. You have to consolidate gains,” he said. “I think there is a very thoughtful and appropriate way ahead.” The Obama administration says getting Pakistan to crack down on militants is key to winning the war in Afghanistan. It is ramping up its support for the civilian government here as well support for the Pakistani army, which has been criticized by some for not doing enough to help and being an unworthy ally. Most visiting U.S. officials offer public praise for the way it is conducting the war, likely because they cannot afford to antagonize such a critical partner.
More here: Petraeus hails Taliban arrests in Pakistan
KABUL — The commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan took his apology for a weekend airstrike that killed civilians directly to the Afghan people Tuesday, with a nationally televised video in which he pledged to work to regain their trust as NATO continues a mass offensive against the Taliban in the south. Two Marine battalions, accompanied by Afghan troops, pushing from the north and south of the insurgent stronghold of Marjah finally linked up after more than a week, creating a direct route across the town that allows convoys to supply ammunition and reinforcements. In the video, translated into the Afghan languages of Dari and Pashto on a NATO Web site, a stern Gen. Stanley McChrystal apologizes for the strike in central Uruzgan province that Afghan officials say killed at least 21 people. The video was broadcast nationally on Afghan television Tuesday. Sunday’s attack by NATO jets on a convoy of cars was the deadliest attack on civilians in six months and prompted a sharp rebuke from the Afghan government. It comes as NATO is struggling to win public backing for a major military offensive against the Taliban in the south with a strategy that involves taking all precautions possible to protect civilians. The civilian deaths occurred as 15,000 NATO, U.S. and Afghan soldiers were in their 10th day of fighting insurgents in the southern town of Marjah in Helmand province. The mission is to rout the Taliban, set up a local government and rush in aid to win public support. A Tuesday morning explosion in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, left eight people dead and at least 16 others wounded, according to an Interior Ministry statement. Police chief Gen. Asadullah Sherzad said explosives in a parked motorbike were detonated by remote control in front of the traffic department. The alliance said its planes fired on what was thought to be a group of insurgents in Uruzgan province on their way to attack NATO and Afghan forces. Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said the airstrike hit three minibuses, which were traveling on a major road near Uruzgan’s border with Day Kundi province. “I pledge to strengthen our efforts to regain your trust to build a brighter future for all Afghans,” McChrystal said in the video. “I have instituted a thorough investigation to prevent this from happening again,” he added. McChrystal apologized directly to President Hamid Karzai on Sunday shortly after the incident and the video is another sign of the military coalition’s intense public relations campaign. Although the airstrike was not related to the Marjah offensive, civilian casualties undermine NATO’s goal of turning back the Taliban and winning the confidence of the Afghan people — one of the main objectives of the southern operation. In Marjah on Tuesday, Marines from the 1st and 3rd Battalions, 6th Marines Regiment finally managed to link up after more than a week of hard marches through insurgent fire and mined poppy fields. “This is a very important step,” said Lt. Col. Brian Christmas, commander of 3rd Battalion, explaining that the linkup gives NATO forces control of a continuous north-to-south route through town and also hinders insurgents’ ability to move freely. Sporadic fighting continued Tuesday as strongly entrenched Taliban units appeared to have regrouped in a heavily defended stronghold to the north. On Monday, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters at the Pentagon that the efforts against the Taliban were “messy” and “incredibly wasteful,” as was war in general. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth the cost.” The incident in Uruzgan “reminds us of just how fragile and how tragic any move we can make, any move we make can ultimately be,” he said. “These are split-second decisions that commanders in combat on the ground have to make,” he added. Mullen said the troops in Marjah are making “steady, if perhaps a bit slower than anticipated, progress.” He cited the prevalence of planted bombs and the care taken to avoid civilian casualties for the slow pace. Karzai has repeatedly called on NATO to do more to protect civilians during stepped-up military operations, and the Afghan Cabinet strongly condemned the airstrike. In recent months, NATO has limited airstrikes and tightened rules of engagement on the battlefield to try to protect the Afghan people and win their loyalty from the Taliban. It was the second time in nine days that NATO has apologized for killing civilians. On Feb. 14, two U.S. rockets slammed into a home outside Marjah, killing 12 people, including six children. According to NATO, at least 16 civilians have been killed so far during the offensive; human rights groups say the figure is at least 19. Bashary said investigators had recovered 21 bodies from the Uruzgan airstrike and that two other people were missing. The Afghan Cabinet reported a higher death toll, saying 27 civilians were killed, including four women and a child, and 12 other people were injured. The ministers urged NATO to “closely coordinate and exercise maximum care before conducting any military operation” to avoid further civilian casualties. The toll was the highest involving civilians since last September, when U.S. pilots bombed two hijacked fuel tankers in a German-ordered airstrike near the northern town of Kunduz. Up to 142 people are believed to have died or been injured, German officials said. Afghan leaders estimated that 30 to 40 civilians were killed. The controversy about the Uruzgan strike came as a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a community meeting Monday in eastern Afghanistan, killing 15 civilians including a prominent tribal leader widely criticized for failing to prevent Osama bin Laden’s escape at Tora Bora after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Monday’s suicide bombing occurred outside Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. Police Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi said a militant attacked tribal elders and government workers who were meeting with a few hundred Afghan refugees to discuss the distribution of land. Among those killed was Mohammad Zaman Ghamsharik, better known as Haji Zaman, one of the two principal Afghan warlords who went after bin Laden after the Taliban fled Kabul in 2001. On Tuesday, a second bombing targeting a police convoy near Jalalabad left two civilians dead and two others injured, the Interior Ministry said. No police were injured in the incident. A Senate Foreign Relations Committee report released in November 2009 said U.S. special operations forces relied on Zaman, described as a “wealthy drug smuggler” whom the U.S. had coaxed back from France, and fellow warlord Hazrat Ali. On Dec. 11, 2001, Zaman told the senior U.S. military officer at Tora Bora that al-Qaida fighters wanted to surrender, but needed a cease-fire to allow them to get down from the mountains, the report said. That turned out to be a ruse, and bin Laden and hundreds of his followers escaped. In Zabul province, a Romanian soldier died Tuesday and another was injured when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, Romania’s Defense Ministry said. Romania has 1,035 troops in Afghanistan as part of NATO forces. In western Herat province, gunbattles between a joint patrol of police and international forces and insurgents on Monday evening in Kushk district left one policeman and five insurgents dead, police spokesman Raouf Ahmadi said. ——— Associated Press Writers Rahim Faiez and Tini Tran in Kabul and Noor Khan in Kandahar contributed to this report.
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McChrystal takes apology directly to Afghans
SAN DIEGO — Navy officials are investigating the apparent electrocution death of a chief petty officer while he was working aboard the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan. Chief Electrician’s Mate (SS/DV) John G. Conyers, 36, died Friday after he suffered “severe electrical shock while conducting routine electrical work,” Naval Air Forces officials in Coronado said in a statement. Medical personnel aboard Reagan tried to revive Conyers, who was taken by ambulance to a Coronado hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 2:32 p.m. Friday, officials said. Conyers, who was married and had a daughter, lived in San Diego and had served 11 years in the Navy. Reagan is undergoing a planned incremental maintenance period at its homeport at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado.
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Chief electrocuted aboard Ronald Reagan
