War Chief: Afghans Will Take Combat Lead Next Year

Gen. John Allen, right, meets with Afghan officials in Helmand Province, 2011. Photo: ISAF

The Afghanistan war might look like it’s jumped the rails. But its commander says that by the fall of next year, one major development will break in the U.S.’ favor: Afghan troops will take the lead for fighting the insurgency. Just don’t think most U.S. troops will come home then.

When NATO decided in 2010 to turn the war over to the Afghans in 2014, it broke down that transition into five sequential “tranches.” Four out of those five installments will be complete by “the latter part of the summer of 2013,” said Gen. John Allen, NATO’s commander in Afghanistan, who will start the final phase of transition in the early fall.

“And with that, technically, the ANSF [Afghan National Security Forces] moves into security lead, with that fifth tranche, across the entire country,” Allen told reporters at the Pentagon on Monday. “But that process will continue until we reach the end of 2014, where technically the ANSF is fully in the lead across the country.”

In other words, late summer 2013 marks the beginning of the end of U.S. combat in Afghanistan. The end won’t fully arrive until 2014. After that, the U.S. will probably mentor Afghan soldiers and cops through 2017; and the U.S. also wants a residual force in the country for years to come. And this is if things go well.

Continue Reading “War Chief: Afghans Will Take Combat Lead Next Year” »

Tags: , ,
Back to top

Bombs Away: How the Air Force Sold Its Risky New $55 Billion Plane

B-2

Maintainers and crew chiefs prepare B-2 stealth bombers for Operation Odyssey Dawn on March 19, 2011. Photo: USAF

In an instant, four tons of steel and explosives slammed into the 522-foot-long warship Schenectady, blowing it apart in a cataclysm of smoke, dust and sound. Overhead, a pair of U.S. Air Force Boeing B-52 bombers orbited, one of them having just released four laser-guided bombs. The huge, eight-engine warplanes had flown directly from Louisiana to attack the decommissioned Navy landing ship as part of an exercise near Hawaii on Nov. 23, 2004.

Schenectady’s dramatic destruction marked a turning point in the Pentagon’s approach to aerial warfare, and led directly to one of the flying branch’s riskiest-ever investments. The sinking of the Schenectady by the Air Force was meant to prove to the flying branch’s reluctant Pentagon masters that bombers could play an important role in a major ocean battle against China and its gigantic navy. In underscoring bombers’ usefulness, the Hawaii demonstration was also part of the Air Force’s efforts to get the Defense Department to sign off on a new bomber program. Two years later, the Air Force got its wish when the Pentagon finally gave the go-ahead for the so-called “Next-Generation Bomber.”

But that program foundered and was cancelled three years later. After a change in leadership in the Defense Department, the Air Force once more pushed for a new bomber initiative  — and, again, got it. This year the Pentagon launched a potentially $55-billion effort to build a better bomber, one capable of replacing the venerable B-52 and preserving the long-range, heavy strike prowess the Air Force demonstrated that day off Hawaii eight years ago.

The “Long-Range Strike Bomber” program is a subject of great concern inside the Pentagon, and the topic of my latest investigative feature for the Center for Public Integrity. (The Atlantic also has a version of my story.) Even more than the Air Force’s notoriously expensive stealth fighters, bombers are susceptible to program delays, budget overruns, cutbacks and skyrocketing costs. For half a century, bombers have been a symbol of the Air Force’s overwhelming firepower … and a poster child for Pentagon waste.

Continue Reading “Bombs Away: How the Air Force Sold Its Risky New $55 Billion Plane” »

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Back to top

Blackwater’s Afghan HQ Is Really Called ‘Camp Integrity’

The giant Kabul base of the security firm once known as Blackwater has its own swag. Photo: Academi

Updated 1:23 p.m.

By September, the U.S. troop presence in Afghanistan will be down to its pre-surge level of 68,000. For the next year after that, politicians and generals will debate how rapidly to bring additional troops home. And while all that happens, the world’s most infamous security company will retain its big compound in the capital city of Kabul.

Academi, once known as Blackwater, operates a 435,600 square-foot “forward operating base” — which is what the U.S. military calls its warzone outposts — called Camp Integrity. Among other things, it’s a hub for information about the sprawling campaign against Afghan narcotics. And it even has its own t-shirt for sale, shown above, on Academi’s online swag store.

The little-known facility, located near Kabul International Airport, has been home to Blackwater/Academi’s Afghanistan operations since 2009. The base features a “24/7 operations center, fueling stations, vehicle maintenance facility, lodging, office and conference space and a fortified armory,” says John Procter, a spokesman for the company. Some online descriptions of Camp Integrity describe it as a hub for security contractors from different companies as well.

Camp Integrity is unlikely to close any time soon. “Camp Integrity plays a valuable role in serving as a forward operating base for Academi’s employees and customers and will continue to do so as long as there is an operational need,” Procter tells Danger Room, though he declined to discuss “personnel or specific clients” in Afghanistan.

Continue Reading “Blackwater’s Afghan HQ Is Really Called ‘Camp Integrity’” »

Tags: , , ,
Back to top

Sergeant Will Be Charged With 17 Murders in Afghan Massacre

Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales will be charged with the murder of 17 Afghans. Photo: Wikimedia

Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales will be formally charged with the murder of 17 Afghans on Friday, the worst single U.S. atrocity in the decade-long war. This is not Bales’ first time before a judge.

The March 11 massacre in Panjwei was originally thought to have killed 16 Afghan civilians — mostly women and children. Another appears to have died from injuries he or she sustained in the assault.

Bales was taken from Afghanistan over a week ago despite loud calls from Afghan politicians to prosecute him in accordance with local law. That was never going to happen. But Bales’ departure from Afghan justice is likely to hang over the U.S.-Afghan negotiations for long-term basing rights, which will determine the legal vulnerabilities for a residual U.S. force.

Continue Reading “Sergeant Will Be Charged With 17 Murders in Afghan Massacre” »

Tags: , ,
Back to top

Idiotic Idea of the Day: Jailing Lurkers of Terror Websites

A screencap from the extremist al-Shmukh online forum.

French President Nicholas Sarkozy means well. In the wake of horrific antisemitic murders reportedly pulled off by a Qaida-trained killer, Sarkozy is proposing to lock up frequent visitors to pro-terrorist websites. However understandable, the move would cripple open source attempts at understanding terrorism trends without stopping terrorists.

“Anyone who regularly consults internet sites which promote terror or hatred or violence will be sentenced to prison,” Sarkozy argued to a political rally in France on Thursday. “What is possible for pedophiles should be possible for trainee terrorists and their supporters, too.”

But terror porn doesn’t work like kiddie porn. For one thing, visitors to jihadist websites like the al-Shmukh forum aren’t just terrorist wannabees. They’re also lurking terrorism researchers or, um, journalists like us. And there’s law enforcement and intelligence officers monitoring them to discern the next moves of potentially dangerous people.

Let’s say Sarkozy carves out an exception for security officials. Immediately, the public would lose access to any academic or journalistic descriptions of just what online jihadi life is like. Law enforcement, like the rest of us, uses media reports to supplement their own analysis in order to make sure a big trend isn’t going unnoticed. Bye bye, SITE Institute. Nice knowing you, Jihadica. Meanwhile, the jihadis would just route around, probably bouncing to newer forums or adding deeper layers of encryption.

Continue Reading “Idiotic Idea of the Day: Jailing Lurkers of Terror Websites” »

Tags: , , ,
Back to top
« OLDER POSTS