Sep 23, 2009 15 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Pentagon said Wednesday that a request for new troops from the U.S. commander in Afghanistan may have to be revised amid growing uncertainty inside the Obama administration over whether to escalate the American commitment to the eight-year war. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said the troop request from U.S. and NATO commander ...
Continue ReadingSep 22, 2009 10 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Politico: Just when President Barack Obama has got Congress focused on health care again, Afghanistan keeps pulling him back in. With a $629.6 billion defense bill heading for the Senate floor, Washington woke up to headlines Monday warning of “mission failure†if more U.S. troops aren’t committed to battle the Taliban. Arizona Sen. John McCain, the president’s former ...
Continue ReadingSep 22, 2009 6 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
While Obama dithers... Times Online: Britain is making plans to send up to 1,000 extra troops to Afghanistan to meet the call for reinforcements made by the US commander in Kabul. The troops would be Britain’s contribution to a military surge called for by General Stanley McChrystal, who commands Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan, some ...
Continue ReadingSep 21, 2009 3 Comments ›› Erik Wong
KABUL (Reuters) - The Afghan war will be lost unless more troops are sent to pursue a radically revised strategy, the top U.S. and NATO commander said in a confidential assessment that lays out stark choices for President Barack Obama. In the assessment, sent to Washington last month and leaked on Monday, Army General Stanley McChrystal ...
Continue ReadingSep 18, 2009 10 Comments ›› Erik Wong
NY Daily News: The Afghan national at the center of a reputed Al Qaeda terror cell probe was trying to cut a deal Friday after two days of FBI grilling, sources told the Daily News. Lawyers for Najibullah Zazi, 25, were negotiating with federal officials for an agreement where he could admit receiving military training - but ...
Continue ReadingSep 18, 2009 15 Comments ›› Erik Wong
BERLIN - Al-Qaida has posted a new video threatening Germany, highlighting an increased threat level ahead of national elections and prompting authorities to step up security, the Interior Ministry said Friday. The ministry gave no details of the al-Qaida posting, but said in a brief statement it underlines the fact that the Sept. 27 elections offer ...
Continue ReadingSep 13, 2009 24 Comments ›› Erik Wong
WASHINGTON - In a tape released Sunday by al-Qaida's media wing, terrorist leader Osama bin Laden said President Barack Obama is "powerless" to stop the war in Afghanistan. SITE Intelligence Group, a terrorist-monitoring firm that translated the address, said bin Laden, whose al-Qaida organization was behind the Sept. 11 attacks, blamed the war on the "pro-Israel ...
Continue ReadingSep 13, 2009 17 Comments ›› Erik Wong
WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has begun putting into place a new program under which hundreds of prisoners being held by the military in Afghanistan will be given the right to challenge their detentions, a defense official said Sunday. Prisoners at Bagram military base are all to be given a U.S. military official to serve as their ...
Continue ReadingSep 12, 2009 13 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
This makes my f-ing stomach turn. NEW YORK (Reuters) – A museum dedicated to the September 11 attacks will display written quotations drawn from "martyrdom" videos made by the hijackers, along with witness testimonials that will be screened to prevent sympathizers from praising the perpetrators, museum officials said on Thursday. Previous attempts to put into context the ...
Continue ReadingSep 11, 2009 18 Comments ›› Erik Wong
McClatchyNewspapers: By Jonathan S. Landay | GANJGAL, Afghanistan — We walked into a trap, a killing zone of relentless gunfire and rocket barrages from Afghan insurgents hidden in the mountainsides and in a fortress-like village where women and children were replenishing their ammunition. "We will do to you what we did to the Russians," the insurgent's leader ...
Continue ReadingSep 11, 2009 3 Comments ›› Erik Wong
New York Post: Eight years ago today, our homeland was attacked by fanatical Muslims inspired by Saudi Arabian bigotry. Three thousand American citizens and residents died. We resolved that we, the People, would never forget. Then we forgot. We've learned nothing. Instead of cracking down on Islamist extremism, we've excused it. Instead of killing terrorists, we free them. Instead of relentlessly ...
Continue ReadingSep 11, 2009 6 Comments ›› Erik Wong
Facebook: It has been eight years since the United States suffered the worst attack on our soil since Pearl Harbor. As we look back, we should take stock of what has transpired since then. We have sent our nation's soldiers into battlefields far from home to defend us. These brave men and women live in treacherous ...
Continue ReadingSep 9, 2009 18 Comments ›› Erik Wong
The Guardian: Military officials tonight defended the decision to launch a dramatic raid to rescue a British journalist from the Taliban, in which his Afghan assistant and a soldier were killed, against angry criticism in Afghanistan that the operation had been ordered while talks for his release had already begun. Gordon Brown hailed the helicopter assault, carried ...
Continue ReadingSep 9, 2009 25 Comments ›› Erik Wong
AtlasShrugs: GANJGAL, Afghanistan — We walked into a trap, a killing zone of relentless gunfire and rocket barrages from Afghan insurgents hidden in the mountainsides and in a fortress-like village where women and children were replenishing their ammunition. "We will do to you what we did to the Russians," the insurgent's leader boasted over the radio, referring ...
Continue ReadingSep 7, 2009 4 Comments ›› Erik Wong
Washington Post: Just over two years ago Barack Obama triggered the first and most enduring foreign policy debate of the presidential campaign when he was asked whether he would "be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba ...
Continue ReadingSep 6, 2009 2 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Michael Yon in Big Hollywood: Helmand, Afghanistan – The West is losing this war. This has been obvious for more than three years. Less obvious is that in 2009, we are down to the wire. Gen. Stanley McChrystal and others will soon recommend to President Obama the latest treatment for a dying patient. Meanwhile, allies and Americans ...
Continue ReadingSep 4, 2009 No Comments ›› Pat Dollard
The Guardian: Britain is considering a further short-term increase in its 9,000 troop strength in Afghanistan, Gordon Brown said yesterday in a speech seeking to prop up waning public support for the war. The extra troops would help to train the Afghan security forces, a move designed to accelerate the date of a British exit from the ...
Continue ReadingSep 4, 2009 23 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
In this Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009 file photo, U.S. Marine Lt. Jake Godby pays his respects to Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard NEW YORK – (AP): Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressed disappointment Friday at news outlets that used a picture taken and distributed by The Associated Press depicting a U.S. Marine mortally wounded in combat in Afghanistan. The ...
Continue ReadingSep 3, 2009 3 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Times Online: Gordon Brown’s attempt to bolster faltering public support over Afghanistan was dramatically derailed last night by the resignation of a ministerial aide. Eric Joyce quit as Private Parliamentary Secretary to the Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth with an extraordinary attack on the Government’s handling of the conflict. The resignation came on the eve of a speech ...
Continue ReadingSep 2, 2009 1 Comment ›› Erik Wong
TimesOnLine: Philippe Naughton, and James Hider in Kabul The deputy head of Afghanistan's intelligence agency was killed today in a suicide bomb attack highlighting the continuing inability of the country's security apparatus to contain the Taleban insurgency. Officials said that Abdullah Laghmani was among at least 22 people, including a number of senior officials, killed in the attack ...
Continue ReadingAug 31, 2009 14 Comments ›› Erik Wong
MIANPOSHTEH, Afghanistan — For seven hours, the Marine sniper team waited, crouching behind a concrete block in a dusty courtyard, at the edge of an adobe compound. They were pretty sure that a group of local Taliban militants was on the other side of the compound wall. But the snipers couldn’t strike until they had ...
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