Critical Observer

TALIBAN GAINING CONTROL OVER PARTS OF AFGHANISTAN

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<i style="line-height: 1.1;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Taliban has more reach in Afghanistan than it has maintained since American forces facilitated the group’s ouster in 2001, according to data from the United Nations gathered in early September.</span></i></h5>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18.2px;">CNBC reported that, according to the not publicly released information, U.N. security officials rated the threat level as “high” or “extreme” in approximately half of Afghanistan’s districts. As of September, 186 of Afghanistan’s 376 districts had been given these classifications, a larger figure than ever recorded in 2001.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18.2px;">An extreme threat level rating indicates that the particular district has no presence of Afghan government forces or one reduced to its capital. Thirty-eight of the districts were given extreme threat ratings, representing more than 10 percent of all districts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18.2px;">Moreover, the data suggested that the pace at which the Taliban has expanded its reach has quickened in many areas that previously had witnessed no Taliban presence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18.2px;">The revelations come as President Obama is considering leaving up to 5,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan through 2016 despite his initial plan to drastically scale back American presence there by the time he leaves office.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18.2px;">Moreover, since the data was compiled, the U.N. Assistance Mission in the country has evacuated four of 13 provincial offices amid threats of Taliban attacks, local officials said. The U.N. mission refused to confirm or deny the evacuations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18.2px;">However, Gen. John F. Campbell, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, appeared to diverge from the U.N. assessments last week.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18.2px;">“The Afghan security forces have displayed courage and resilience,” Campbell told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “They’re still holding. The Afghan government retains control of Kabul, of Highway One, its provincial capitals and nearly all of the district centers.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18.2px;">Campbell in his testimony to Congress said that Obama’s plan to significantly scale back the force should be traded with one that would keep more troops in the country. The commander has developed multiple options for a larger force, one of which would keep the number of troops at its current level of about 10,000.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 18.2px;">Nearly two dozen Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee penned a letter to the president last week demanding he maintain the current number of American forces in Afghanistan through 2016.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">by MORGAN CHALFANT | DAILY SIGNAL</span></span></div>

TALIBAN GAINING CONTROL OVER PARTS OF AFGHANISTAN

The Taliban has more reach in Afghanistan than it has maintained since American forces facilitated the group’s ouster in 2001, according ...

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TALIBAN OFFENSIVE CLAIMS MAJOR AFGHAN CITY

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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The U.S. military launched airstrikes against targets in Kunduz, Afghanistan on Tuesday, just a day after Taliban fighters caught the U.S. Army, the Afghan National Security Forces, and local security forces off guard by staging a massive military offensive to capture the key northern city.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">According to the ToloNews, a privately-run Afghan 24/7 news agency, local reports from the city “indicate that there are civilian casualties because of Afghan and foreign troops airstrikes.” On Monday, a Doctors Without Borders team working in a Kunduz hospital reported numerous casualties from the initial Taliban offensive.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Guardian</em> reports:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Kunduz is the first provincial capital in 14 years to effectively fall to the Taliban, and is possibly the militants’ biggest victory since they were ousted from power in 2001.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">By Tuesday morning, roads were blocked and some government buildings set on fire, several residents told the Associated Press.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">“From this morning, the Taliban have been setting up checkpoints in and around the city, looking for the government employees,” one resident said. “Yesterday it was possible for people to get out of the city, but today it is too late because all roads are under the Taliban control.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">On Tuesday morning the Afghan Ministry of Defense confirmed that the Army, along with other security personnel, had commenced a ground-level counter-offensive just after 8 am local time. Speaking from Kabul, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani later gave a televised address in which he vowed to retake the city. Ghani claimed the “enemy has sustained heavy casualties” and said government forces were “retaking government buildings … and that reinforcements, including special forces and commandos are either there or on their way there.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wall Street Journal</em> reports:</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 25px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">According to Jason Ditz, writing at Anti-War.com, “The loss of Kunduz is a huge blow to the Afghan government, because it had never really been under control of the Taliban even when the Taliban were in power. Kunduz was the center of the Northern Alliance rebellion against the Taliban, which eventually took over the key government positions during the U.S. occupation, and holds them to this day.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 25px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal, argues that the fall of the city speaks to a more robust failure of the Obama administration’s strategy in Afghanistan, which has allowed the war to drag on—”token” draw downs aside—with nearly no progress towards a negotiated settlement, despite nearly 14 years of continuous fighting.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 25px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“The fall of Kunduz,” wrote Roggio on Monday, “would invalidate the entire U.S. ‘surge’ strategy from 2009 to 2012. The U.S. military focused its efforts on the southern Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar, claiming that these provinces were the key to breaking the Taliban. Little attention was given to other areas of Afghanistan, including the northern provinces, where the Taliban have expended considerable effort in fighting the military and government. Today, the Taliban are gaining ground in northern, central, eastern and southern Afghanistan, with dozens of districts falling under Taliban control over the past year.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 25px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Regarding additional updates on the fighting on Tuesday, Al Jazeera correspondent Qais Azimy, reporting from Baghlan, just south of Kunduz, said government troops attempted to reenter the city but were turned back due to intense fighting.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 25px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The fall of Kunduz, reported Azimy, “sends a message to the international community and Kabul, that the Taliban fighters are now capable of taking control of a provincial capital after 14 years.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 25px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This article originally appeared on Common Dreams.</span></span></div>

TALIBAN OFFENSIVE CLAIMS MAJOR AFGHAN CITY

The U.S. military launched airstrikes against targets in Kunduz, Afghanistan on Tuesday, just a day after Taliban fighters caught the U.S...

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TALIBAN ATTACK ON JAIL FREES HUNDREDS OF INSURGENTS

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Taliban insurgents stormed a prison in Afghanistan on Monday, killing police and releasing more than 350 inmates, including nearly 150 deemed a threat to national security, and then attacked troops rushing to help, officials said.<br />
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The latest Taliban prison raid, on the outskirts of the central city of Ghazni, comes after setbacks for the government in different parts of the country and deadly attacks in Kabul which have dashed hopes for peace talks.<br />
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A Reuters reporter outside the mud fort prison in Ghazni, 120 km (75 miles) southwest of the capital, Kabul, saw the bodies of two men who appeared to be suicide bombers and a blown-up car that had apparently been used to destroy the main entrance.<br />
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Clusters of bullet casings were scattered across the road.<br />
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The interior ministry said that 355 of the 436 prisoners had escaped.<br />
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Of those who got away, 148 were a "threat to national security and 207 were criminals", the ministry said in a statement.<br />
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Four Taliban and four members of the security forces were killed in the attack, the ministry said. Seven police were injured.<br />
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Mohammed Ali Ahmadi, deputy city governor, said the prison's security was well below recommended standards because it was so close to Ghazni - only seven km (4.3 miles) from the city centre - and it was believed that reinforcements would get there quickly in the event of trouble.<br />
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On Sunday, officials concerned about a breakout had transferred 18 "dangerous" Taliban to a jail operated by the Afghan intelligence agency, he said. Seventeen were left behind.<br />
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Ahmadi said he believed they helped co-ordinate the attack.<br />
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"Roads to the prison were covered with land mines in advance to avoid reinforcement," Ahmadi told reporters. "An army vehicle coming for reinforcements was blown up by a roadside bomb while trying to reach the prison."<br />
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One security official said the attackers, armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles, were wearing security force uniforms.<br />
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Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said gunmen and three suicide bombers attacked the prison at 2 a.m. Three bombers were killed, he said.<br />
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"Important military mujahideen officials have been freed," he said.<br />
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The Taliban are fighting to overthrow the foreign-backed government of President Ashraf Ghani, expel foreign forces and impose their strict interpretation of Islamic law.<br />
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The insurgents have attacked jails to free hundreds of prisoners including their comrades on several occasions, in both Afghanistan and neighbouring Pakistan.<br />
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Security at Afghan prisons is often poor, with untrained, poorly equipped police guarding crumbling facilities.<br />
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by MUSTAFA ANDALIB, REUTERS

TALIBAN ATTACK ON JAIL FREES HUNDREDS OF INSURGENTS

Taliban insurgents stormed a prison in Afghanistan on Monday, killing police and releasing more than 350 inmates, including nearly 150 de...

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U.S. PROTECTS AFGHAN OPIUM FIELDS FROM TALIBAN ATTACK

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The United States has called in air strikes to stop the Taliban from taking control of opium fields in the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province. Over the weekend the air strikes were called in after the Taliban seized weapons and vehicles from Afghan soldiers.<br />
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Helmand province is said to be one of the world’s largest opium-producing regions, larger than the whole of Burma which is the second largest producer of opium.<br />
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Production of opium reached an all-time high under the military control of the U.S. and NATO.<br />
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According to a report issued in 2013 by the Afghanistan Opium Survey of the United Nations, cultivation of poppy increased 36 per cent in 2013. Total opium production amounted to 5,500 tons, up nearly half since 2012.<br />
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“This has never been witnessed before in the history of Afghanistan,” said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, the outgoing leader of the Afghanistan office of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.<br />
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Prior to the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, the Taliban had successfully banned production of opium.<br />
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According to James P. Callahan, director of Asian affairs at the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs at the U.S. State Department, the Taliban framed the ban ”in very religious terms,” citing Islamic prohibitions against drugs, The New York Times reported on May 20, 2001.<br />
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<b>CIA and Afghan Opium</b><br />
In 2009 it was reported that the CIA controlled the opium trade in Afghanistan through Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the former president, Hamid Karzai, who began his career as a fundraiser for the CIA’s mujahideen during the 1980s.<br />
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“CIA-supported Mujahideen rebels engaged heavily in drug trafficking while fighting against the Soviet-supported government and its plans to reform the very backward Afghan society,” William Blum writes in The Real Drug Lords.<br />
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“The Golden Crescent drug trade, launched by the CIA in the early 1980s, continues to be protected by US intelligence, in liaison with NATO occupation forces and the British military. In recent developments, British occupation forces have promoted opium cultivation through paid radio advertisements,” Michel Chossudovsky wrote in 2007.<br />
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In 2010 Fox News’ Gerald Rivera talked with an occupation soldier about U.S. support of the opium trade in Afghanistan. The soldier told Rivera he did not like supporting Afghan opium production. The U.S., he insisted, has turned a blind eye to the cultivation due to cultural considerations. He said he would rather see the Afghans grow watermelons.

U.S. PROTECTS AFGHAN OPIUM FIELDS FROM TALIBAN ATTACK

The United States has called in air strikes to stop the Taliban from taking control of opium fields in the town of Musa Qala in Helmand p...

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