Painstaking Intel Led U.S. Forces to Bin Laden Compound

U.S. special forces killed Osama bin Laden toward the end of a 40-minute firefight on one of the top two floors of the main building inside the al-Qaida leader's Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound, senior defense officials confirmed May 2.

Pakistani soldiers and police officials keep vigil near the hideout of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden after U.S. Special Forces killed bin Laden in a ground operation in Abbottabad on May 2. (AAMIR QURESHI / AFP via Getty Images)

An initial DNA analysis done on bin Laden's body resulted in a "virtually 100 percent DNA match of the body against several bin Laden family members," a senior intelligence official said. Bin Laden's body was also visually identified by a woman at the compound who is assessed to be one of his wives.

Bin Laden's body was flown to the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier stationed in the north Arabian Sea where service members prepared his body under traditional Islamic procedures. He was buried at 2 a.m. May 2 at sea after U.S. diplomats could not find a nearby country willing to accept the body, a senior defense official said.
U.S. personnel onboard washed bin Laden's body, placed it under a white sheet and then inside a weighted bag. A military officer read prepared religious remarks, which a native Arabic speaker then translated, before tipping the body into the sea.
"There was no available alternative in terms of a country that was willing to accept the body and we took pains to ensure we were compliant with Muslim tradition involved and sought to dispose of the body with proper procedures," a senior defense official said.
Senior defense and intelligence officials briefed reporters May 2 at the Pentagon on the intelligence work leading to the raid, how bin Laden died and the cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistan's government.
Bin Laden died along with three other "military-aged" males and one female used as a human shield. Bin Laden lived with his family in the second and third floor of the larger of the two buildings at the million dollar compound, a senior intelligence official said. Bin Laden put up a fight but the officials who spoke to reporters wouldn't say if he was holding a weapon.
Satellite imagery released by the Pentagon showed the compound did not exist in 2004. Walls 12-to-18 feet high surrounded the compound's two main buildings. The compound is eight times the size of any other in Abbottabad, a town about 60 miles from Pakistan's capital Islamabad.
U.S. special operators did not take any detainees, leaving the other women and children judged to be non-combatants inside the compound, a senior intelligence official said.
U.S. special operators moved the women and children away from the one helicopter that broke down before using explosives to destroy it.
The U.S. did not contact Pakistan leaders before the special operations team had left bin Laden's compound with the body. A senior intelligence official said the U.S. had no "indication that the Pakistanis were aware that Osama bin Laden was at the compound."
When asked if military leaders were worried that Pakistani soldiers might respond to the compound and fire upon the U.S. special operations team, the senior defense official said the "focus was on operational security and ensuring this could be done with success and without interruption."
"This was a unilateral U.S. operation because of its importance to the mission and our concern about operational security. We did not notify any of our counterterrorism partners in advance. Once the raid was successfully completed and U.S. personnel were safe, we did immediately phone our Pakistani counterparts at multiple levels," a senior defense official said.
The defense official described "some areas" of Pakistan as a "steadfast partner in counterterrorism" but "in other areas that cooperation has not been what we'd like it to be."
"We continue to have very candid conversations with the Pakistanis about what more we should be doing together," the senior defense official said.
U.S. special operators collected "quite a bit" of intelligence at the compound before leaving, a senior intelligence official said. The CIA will stand up a task force to sift through the "volume of materials collected at the raid site," the senior intelligence official said.
Intelligence and defense agencies have spent years collecting intelligence to eventually build the case pinpointing Bin Laden's whereabouts to the Abbottabad compound. The senior intelligence official said no single detainee led U.S. forces to the compound, but it was accomplished through a host of interviews along with other intelligence trade craft.
A senior White House official said U.S. intelligence agencies had focused on the compound since August as a potential hideout.
"We did collect information over time that helped form a picture that once we came across this compound allowed us to move swiftly on the intelligence case," a senior intelligence official said.
The senior defense and intelligence officials did not give special operations details and would not confirm if U.S. Navy Seals was the special operations team tasked for the raid.
The officials would not say what helicopters were flown on the raid, or how many, however Abbottabad residents have reported seeing four helicopters execute the raid.

NATO Vows To Stay In Afghanistan

BRUSSELS, Belgium - NATO warned Monday that its mission in Afghanistan was far from over despite the death of Osama bin Laden as war-weary Europeans pile pressure on governments to bring troops home quickly.
World leaders hailed bin Laden's killing Sunday by U.S. commandos inside Pakistan as a victory against al-Qaida, but they also warned that the battle against terrorism was far from over.

"As terrorism continues to pose a direct threat to our security and international stability, international cooperation remains key and NATO is at the heart of that cooperation," said NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
"NATO allies and partners will continue their mission to ensure that Afghanistan never again becomes a safe haven for extremism, but develops in peace and security," he said.
Some 140,000 NATO-led troops are in Afghanistan amid growing fatigue in Europe over the war, launched by the United States to hunt down al-Qaida and its Taliban hosts in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
NATO has decided to begin handing over security responsibility to Afghan forces this year, with the aim of ending the combat mission by 2014, although the alliance insists that it will stand by Kabul's side for the long haul.
Francois Heisbourg, special adviser at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, said calls in Europe for troop withdrawals will only grow after bin Laden's death.
"If we are looking for an exit door, it is now or never," Heisbourg said. "Politically and strategically, the intervention in Afghanistan was at the start about bin Laden. With him gone, it becomes harder to justify this military presence, regardless of the situation on the ground," he said.
NATO officials insisted that the war is about bringing stability to Afghanistan, not just about al-Qaida.
"NATO's mission in Afghanistan is not linked to one enemy. It is linked to stability and bin Laden was not the only obstacle," said an alliance official. "His death will not suddenly resolve everything."
A NATO military official acknowledged that there could be some "temptations" to pull troops out, but that European nations still face the threat of extremists entering their countries.
Britain, the second-largest contributor to the mission after the United States with 9,500 troops, warned that al-Qaida was still "in business" and that its chief's death would not mean an end to the campaign.
"The work in Afghanistan will continue to be phenomenally difficult and must go on. So it would be wrong to draw the conclusion that suddenly we have solved a mass of the world's problems," said Foreign Secretary William Hague.
NATO allies, however, are keeping an eye on the exit sign in Afghanistan.
The Netherlands withdrew its combat troops last year and decided to send police trainers this year. Canada plans to switch to a training mission this year while Poland has said it wants to do the same in 2012.
Lawmakers in Germany, the third-largest contingent with 5,000 troops, agreed in January to extend the mission by 12 months but with a clause calling for them to begin coming home at the end of the year, if conditions permit.
With 100,000 American troops in Afghanistan, U.S. President Obama hopes conditions allow him to begin drawing down troops in July, while British Prime Minister David Cameron says London may also begin a withdrawal this year.
Constanze Stelzenmueller, an expert at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, said bin Laden's death will not have an impact on the debate over troop withdrawals since al-Qaida was no longer a central player there.
"Afghanistan is now about stabilizing the country so that it doesn't become another failed state," she said. "There is by now a pretty general interest in Afghanistan not imploding and I think that's the case that ought to be made to the larger public."

Location of bin Laden Hideout Puzzles Experts

ISLAMABAD - Quiet amazement greeted the news of Osama bin Laden's death in the garrison town of Abbottabad close to the Pakistan Army's Kakul military academy.

The hideout of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is pictured after his death by U.S. Special Forces in a ground operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on May 2. (Farooq Naeem / AFP via Getty Images)

How could bin Laden have hidden himself in such a heavily militarized and security-aware environment?

"Abbottabad was probably the best place, as it was least expected, and Abbottabad is a city of settlers, where every other house is of nonresidents," said military spokesman Brig. Azmat Ali.
South Asia analyst Brian Cloughley called it "absolutely amazing" that bin Laden was located "but a stone's throw from the [Pakistan Military Academy] and the Baloch Regimental Centre."
Cloughley declared himself "quite sure" that "no military person in Abbottabad knew he was there, if only because the word would have got out."
Zafar Nawaz Jaspal, an assistant international relations professor at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University, said one could well question just how bin Laden had managed to hide there, but also noted that terrorists had been apprehended in Rawalpindi, an even larger garrison town that is home to the Army's General Headquarters. Abbottabad is relatively close to the tribal areas, he said, and has a major regional transportation artery running through it - and terrorists have been apprehended there in the past.
Bin Laden's death has domestic, regional and international implications for Pakistan, Jaspal said, which explains "very much why the government of Pakistan has been slow in acknowledging its coordination and cooperation with the United States" in the matter.
The primary consequences, he said, would be at home, where local terror groups affiliated with al-Qaida have already shown that Pakistan's cities and law enforcement agencies are a soft target.
Regionally, Jaspal said, India will try to use the circumstances of bin Laden's death in its "full-fledged campaign" to portray Pakistan as a "failed and terrorist state."
There would be more U.S. pressure now for Pakistan to deliver as an ally, he said, and the international community may question Pakistan's past assertions that terrorists were not hiding on Pakistani soil, but "the professionals" and intelligence communities understand that terrorist suspects are always mobile and hard to locate.
Pakistan's past record in apprehending chief terrorists such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Rawalpindi showed its cooperation with the West in hunting down al-Qaida terrorists, Jaspal said, even those supported by "the anti-American lobby" or al-Qaida sympathizers.
He said he now expects the "Americans will ask the government of Pakistan to intensify" operations against the so-called Quetta Shura, the Taliban leadership in Pakistan. Jaspal said Washington also would try to force Pakistan to move against the Haqqani group in Pakistan's North Waziristan province.
Cloughley said he doubts that bin Laden's death will have a "negative impact" on any terrorist group, "simply because he did not have any planning or command function."

Americans Left Behind Hitler, Hilaku and Genghis Khan...

The member of KILL TEAM, Sergeant Kalvin Gas, posing with the corpse of underage Afghan in a victorious way, while the finger of the Afghan has been already removed.

In today’s civilized which country has such laws allowing massacre of persons, group or tribe merely under the doubt that they may be planning to attack that country. They are attacking thousands of miles away from one’s boundaries. In the way USA is using drone technology in massacre of innocent Pakistanis, has USA any ground to justify these murders? Where are the human rights activists of Europe? Why UNO and its influential members do not take any notice of such murders of innocent women, children, and innocent tribal people who are even ignorant of conspiracies and interests of international imperialistic forces?

                According to the news published on Saturday 16 April, 2011, USA has rejected protest of Pakistani people and concerns of Pakistani govt. over drone attacks. Not only this USA has repeated that she will not stop these attacks and end CIA operations within Pakistan as well. In order to justify these murders she harped on the same string which were used in Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq and Afghanistan, “it is the duty of US govt. and CIA to protect Americans in the whole world”.

                Now the question is that how undeveloped tribal people can be threat to America thousands of miles away? The answer we get from Americans is that the US forces in Afghanistan are at stake. Would the western media and civilized world like to clarify that why US forces and their western allies are present in Afghanistan? Moreover, what these wild beasts are doing for welfare of humanity in Afghanistan? Americans are of the view that they are here to free afghan people from Taliban and give them their basic human rights, than Afghan are protesting against these bastards. Leaving others aside now even American puppet and slave Afghan President Hamid Qarzai is also protesting against war crimes of US forces in Afghanistan.

Afghan killed by Kill Team near Kandahar...

                You might have seen the videos by ROLLING STONE.COM, these videos were uploaded three weeks ago show that how American soldiers are murdering innocent Afghans as a game just for entertainment. They are made to run for their lives, than bullets are fired around them. Afghan youth try to take shelter behind trees or rocks but at last are killed by American terrorists.

                Afghan youth are made to run for their life in open fields/plans, during this a US helicopter shows its skills to target these innocent people by firing rockets. As soon as the rocket hits the running poor soul his/her body is torn apart into pieces. Such scenes are recorded to commemorate the violations of human rights by Hilaku and Changez Khan. When alive humans were targeted by arrows in the big gatherings, as the arrow hit the running man and he fall down, spectators used to clap and raised slogans for the arrow man. These movies were published under the title of

                THEY KILLED FOR ENTERTAINMENT

by rolling stone.com.

                2 days before this German weekly SPIEGEL  published 18 pictures of Afghan people corpses in a post US SOLDIERS MURDERING AFGHAN CIVILIANS FOR FUN. In these pictures it has been showed that how US soldiers thirsty of human blood enjoy slaying innocent Afghans, these American beasts have been given the name of KILL TEAM by Spiegel International. After watching the pictures Afghan President first time condemned the war crimes of US army saying, “US soldiers deployed in Afghanistan use opium and marijuana whole night and in the day when they get out of effect of drugs, they set out for hunt of innocent Afghans”. He also said, “I am shocked after watching these photos, all these scenes should awake world that what US forces are doing in Afghanistan. They killed our youth for fun”.

Scanning birthmarks of a dead Afghan through Portable Biometric Scanner

                According to John Goetz and Marc Hujer, representatives of Spiegel, US govt. got worried after the photos were published. Because this might become another scandal like Abu Ghraib jail scandal in Iraq 6 years ago. In order to tackle this situation Vice US President Joe Biden at once visited Kabul to restrain Hamid Qarzai from a harsh reaction. But the photos are so much dreadful and heart rendering that if Hamid Qarzai had not condemned them, his govt. would have been at stake. According to the report, the kill team belongs to fifth Stryker Brigade.

                In order to suppress these reports, US govt. has sentenced one American soldier 24 years imprisonment for murdering innocent Afghans. Although he has been put behind the bars but after a plea in the civil court he will be freed. However, can this punishment redress the massacre of Afghans? Like Vietnam US soldiers are busy in raping Afghan women besides murdering them.

An ill fated Afghan who became target of a rocket fired by American Kill Team...

                On 14^th January 2011 different news websites published a reportDAUGHTER OF AN AFGHAN POLITICIAN DIED FROM RAPE INJURIES CAUSED BY US SOLDIERS. According to the report, many Afghan women and girls were kidnapped and shifted to an American army base in southwestern province FARAH of Afghanistan to fulfill sexual lust of US soldiers. Here three underage girls got critical situation and were shifted to hospital. A 14 year old girl lost her life due to over bleeding of blood.  Americans wanted to take the dead body along with them so that it can be safely disposed off. However, an employee of the hospital identified the girl as the daughter of a famous politician from the Farah province. She had disappeared a few days ago. On the interference by the hospital staff, Americans left the dead body into the hospital and took the other two girls along with them.

                 These news got published on different news websites by an Iranian news agency, in spite of all the efforts to suppress the report by Americans. After this the report about the KILL TEAM unveiled the American terrorism in Afghanistan. According to German weekly Spiegel, “Americans after murdering innocent Afghans as a game, create war like environment by throwing grenades and firing countless bullets, they try to feel like they have murdered these innocents after a fierce fighting. Afterwards in order to fulfill the legal requirements they make photos with the dead bodies as victorious. Dead bodies are ripped of the clothes and fingerprints, other birthmarks are recorded through the portable biometric scanners and this recorded information is than sent to higher command. The finger of the dead is cut and preserved so that when these soldiers return back home they can put it as a trophy in their drawing room”. These bastards in Vietnam and Iraq did same actions.

                Although Americans have assured Afghan officials that they will punish other soldiers seen in the pictures (this has been done just to avoid protests), an American envoy also visited Kabul in this regard. But will America fulfill it promises? The answer is, “the murderer of two Pakistanis Raymond Davis has been appointed as in Afghanistan to supervise anti-Pakistan activities”. According to the media reports, he is given free hand to conduct terrorist activities through his agents in Pakistan from Afghanistan.

                Keep in mind that American officials, Hilary Clinton and Senator John Kerry had assured Pakistan that a case would be filed against Davis in American court to punish Davis for murdering two Pakistanis. But alas! In spite of all their boastful and barbaric practices Hilaku and Genghis Khan always fulfilled their promises…

Italy Wants IED Inhibitor on All Afghan Vehicles

ROME - The Italian Army intends to mount IED-inhibiting technology on every Italian vehicle in Afghanistan by 2012 to fulfill the service's top priority - troop safety."All our attention is on Afghanistan, where individual safety is fundamental," said Gen. Giuseppe Valotto, who was appointed Italy's top Army official in 2009.
Last year in Afghanistan, the Army started mounting the Guardian IED jamming system on its LMV Lince vehicles, which have been likened to up-armored Humvees. Now the system is being placed on Italy's larger Freccia vehicles. Seventeen of the eight-wheeled, 26-ton armored vehicles were dispatched to Afghanistan last year and are based in Shindad.
The Guardian, built in the U.K. by Finmeccanica unit Selex Communications for use in vehicles and by foot soldiers, jams signals used to detonate IEDs and can be programmed to operate on various bandwidths and levels of intensity.
"We have nearly 200 and are buying more to put one on every vehicle," said Valotto. "We hope to conclude the purchase this year or during 2012, the resources are there."
Valotto said the system in use offered a "bubble" of protection 60-70 meters across, allowing one in every two convoy vehicles to be kitted out. The system, he added, works at the low frequencies used by garage door remote controls, as well as the high frequencies used to send cellphone text messages.
"The British collaborated at the start, supplying the threat library," he said. "Each system consists of a vehicle-borne element and a man-portable element used by soldiers who need to dismount to remove IEDs."
Industry officials integrating the system in Afghanistan have shifted antennae for greater effectiveness and are tackling overheating issues, Valotto said.
Italy is meanwhile planning to buy an upgraded version of the LMV, known as version 1A, which will provide greater electrical power for systems, including jammers.
"At the start, with other U.S. and British systems we used, the signal would be interrupted when we turned on the radio, but not with this system," Valotto said.
Valotto, who ran Italy's military interforce command in Rome for a year before his appointment to lead the Army, said the purchase of Guardian systems was part of his drive to increase troop safety in Afghanistan, where Italy has suffered losses from IEDs.
"We are looking to new sensors, UAVs and protected vehicles to carry out the mission, but above all, safeguard the soldier," he said.
After the deaths of soldiers traveling in Lince vehicles, Italy last year dispatched 17 Freccias to Afghanistan, just months after they were delivered by joint manufacturers Italian firms Oto Melara and Iveco.
The vehicles have been involved in firefights with insurgents but have not been hit by an IED explosion, "possibly because they have served as a deterrent so far," said one Army source.
With industry officials on hand at a dedicated hangar in Shindand, the Freccias have been operated by three different regimental companies rotated in to gain experience, while upgrades have also been made.
"There have been small changes," said Valotto. "We have increased the cooling for the Guardian, which was built to handle a maximum temperature of 40 centigrade, but out there we get up to 45-50 centigrade."
Sending the closed-hull Freccia out to patrol alongside the Lince has coincided with the installing of remote gun turrets on the roofs of the Linces, replacing the gunner who stood in a hatch and was vulnerable if the vehicle overturned. Both measures risk distancing Italian troops from the local residents they are seeking to build trust with, but Valotto said the soldiers would have plenty of other occasions to push dialogue.
The so-called Italian way of peacekeeping in Afghanistan is based on "the capability to dialogue with local populations," he said. "Our soldiers respect customs, traditions and religions and talk to people," he said, "it is an incredible resource that helps achieve the mission."
Separately, Italy's Mangusta attack helicopters, which form a purely offensive part of the Italian mission in Afghanistan, are soon to be equipped with the Spike missile, which is also being purchased for mounting on Lince and Freccia vehicles.
Also being integrated on the Mangustas is the Rafael Toplite targeting system, which will provide targeting information to the missile. But a defense source said that recent flight trials in Italy had paved the way for further uses of the Toplite.
"Italy requested that the Toplite also provide laser targeting for other aircraft, as well as registering laser targets painted by other aircraft. In the recent tests, an Italian AMX fighter bomber dropped a GBU munition on a target designated by a Mangusta," he said.

Pakistan Army Employs Lessons of Taliban Conflict

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is implementing a wide-ranging modernization program in the wake of lessons learned fighting the Taliban.
The program seeks substantial training changes down to the unit level and improvements in personal protection, weaponry, surveillance capabilities, communication equipment, night vision and thermal image sensors, nonlethal weaponry, and vehicle protection.
Drawing on his experience in the British Army when it was initially deployed on counterinsurgency (COIN) duties in Northern Ireland, analyst Brian Cloughley said retraining and re-equipping soldiers schooled in conventional warfare for such duties took a year.
"This is exactly the same for the Pakistan Army's units on the eastern border," Cloughley said.
The areas he stressed the most were "fitness and, above all, training."
"The training program must include all the obvious things, which of course have not been practiced by units on the eastern border: vehicle anti-ambush drills, long-distance foot patrolling, resupply by helicopter, requiring quick pad construction," he said. "It's a long list, and of course all these things are known. They are, however, dormant. And it takes months for units to learn them." Other aspects of British COIN operations were also relevant to Pakistan efforts, Cloughley said.
For the British, an important consideration was "acquisition of radios capable of working in built-up areas, as well as the wide-open spaces," he said. This appears to have been an early lesson for the Pakistan Army.
A military spokesman said some aspects of the program, specifically communication and surveillance capabilities, have been implemented already, and were tested in last year's Azm-e-Nau/New Resolve military exercise.
Analysts were intrigued by mention of new vehicles, however, and Cloughley said there had to be "analysis of the type of enemy and what tactics are likely to be encountered."
He added, "the emphasis on [improvised explosive devices] is most important, but this has to be balanced besides mobility."
Cloughley did stress that "a balance between expense, perception of the threat and effectiveness" also had to be struck. "There isn't much point in buying multimillion-dollar mine-protected vehicles when they aren't going to see much use," he said.
Talk of new vehicles also led to some confusion. According to the military spokesman, the vehicle in question was actually the indigenous Burraq mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle manufactured by state-owned military vehicles producer Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT).
He stated the Burraq had been evaluated by potential overseas customers and that foreign vehicles had not been evaluated by Pakistan, as had been speculated. Burraq fills a long-standing operational requirement, as IEDs have taken a considerable toll. HIT refused to comment on Burraq's service status or foreign evaluation.
Another long-awaited change that predates operations against the Taliban has been the switch to a 5.56mm-caliber rifle. The current 7.62mm Heckler & Koch G3A3 battle rifle was found to be too heavy and cumbersome for the swift, mobile style of operations required.
The G3A3 also was impossible to control in full automatic fire, and there was a requirement for an under-barrel grenade launcher, the use of new holographic sights, plus affixed torches or pointing devices.
State-owned Pakistan Ordnance Factories responded with the G3S, which appears to be a carbine version of its PK8 design, itself a G3 chambered for the NATO 5.56mm round. The company exhibited a mock-up of the G3S at February's IDEX defense exhibition in Dubai but were not able to furnish additional information regarding the carbine when contacted.
More infantry support weapons have been called for, such as automatic grenade launchers. The origin or status of these is not clear and was not clarified by the military. More than one system appears to be in service.
The Detonics division of the Al-Technique Corp. of Pakistan (ATCOP) has in the past exhibited a 40mm automatic grenade launcher at Pakistani defense exhibitions, and this is thought to be in at least limited service.
However, analyst Haris Khan of the Pakistan Military Consortium think tank said foreign automatic grenade launchers have been tested, and of two designs short-listed in 2007, one was South African. This is not the only grenade launcher in service; Khan said the Chinese-built version of the Russian AGS30 was rushed into service and that the launchers have been installed or at least tested on the M113 armored personnel carrier.
These, in addition to additional helicopter-mounted 7.62mm MG3 machine guns and mini-guns, have increased fire support for ground troops, he said.
Though the military spokesman could not expand on the issue, an unusual requirement has been for modern flamethrowers. Khan compared this to the allied experience against the Japanese in World War II.
"Most of the insurgents took clever advantage of the area's terrain. They used caves and dug extensive tunnels to hide in and operate from. The Army lacked any type weapon that could effectively flush out and destroy the insurgents from their hideouts," he said.

France, U.S. Impressed by Brimstone Performance, RAF Official Says

LONDON - French and U.S. air forces are both looking at acquiring the dual-mode Brimstone missile used by the Royal Air Force, according to Britain's Assistant Chief of the Air Staff.

The Brimstone missile was developed by The Boeing Co. and MBDA. (The Boeing Co.)

Speaking April 19 at an Air Power Association dinner, Air Vice Marshall Baz North said the Boeing/MBDA-developed weapon used on RAF Tornado aircraft in Afghanistan and now Libya has caught the attention of both of Britain's premier allies.

The "dual-mode Brimstone is now being sought by the U.S. and France," North said.
The weapon was developed as an anti-armor missile, but upgrades allow it to hit fleeting targets like terrorists on motorbikes or pickup trucks.

Gates Warns Against Iraq, Afghanistan-Style Wars

WEST POINT MILITARY ACADEMY, New York - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned Feb. 25 against committing the military to big land wars in Asia or the Middle East, saying anyone proposing otherwise "should have his head examined."
Gates offered the blunt advice - hard won after a decade of bitter conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq - in what he said would be his last speech to cadets at the U.S. Army's premier school for training future officers.

"The odds of repeating another Afghanistan or Iraq - invading, pacifying, and administering a large third world country - may be low," Gates said.
"In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as General MacArthur so delicately put it," Gates said.
Douglas MacArthur, the World War II hero of the Pacific campaign, made the comment at a meeting with then-president John F. Kennedy in 1961 regarding U.S. military intervention in mainland Asia.
Gates, a former CIA director, replaced Donald Rumsfeld in the defense job in 2006 as Iraq was spiraling into civil war and the U.S. military appeared to be facing a historic failure.
The change in leadership and a new strategy executed by Gen. David Petraeus helped salvage the situation, and U.S. forces now appear on schedule to leave the country at the end of this year.
But nearly 100,000 U.S. troops are still deeply engaged in another difficult conflict in Afghanistan, once again under Petraeus' command, with no exit seen before 2014.
Gates said he was not suggesting that the U.S. Army "will - or should - turn into a Victorian nation-building constabulary designed to chase guerrillas, build schools or sip tea.
"But as the prospects for another head-on clash of large mechanized land armies seem less likely, the Army will be increasingly challenged to justify the number, size, and cost of its heavy formations," he said.
Future U.S. military interventions abroad will likely take the form of "swift-moving expeditionary forces, be they Army or Marines, airborne infantry or special operations," which Gates said "is self-evident given the likelihood of counterterrorism, rapid reaction, disaster response, or stability or security force assistance missions."
Gates is set to leave his job this year, and his presentation was a farewell speech to the West Point students.
"We can't know with absolute certainty what the future of warfare will hold," Gates said, "but we do know it will be exceedingly complex, unpredictable, and - as they say in the staff colleges - unstructured."
The United States also has a poor track record at predicting the next conflict, Gates said.
"We have never once gotten it right, from the Mayaguez to Grenada, Panama, Somalia, the Balkans, Haiti, Kuwait, Iraq, and more - we had no idea a year before any of these missions that we would be so engaged," he said.
Gates praised the Army's "ability to learn and adapt," which in recent years "allowed us to pull Iraq back from the brink of chaos in 2007 and, over the past year, to roll back the Taliban from their strongholds in Afghanistan."

U.S. Military Pulls Out of Eastern Afghan Valley

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military has begun pulling soldiers out of the Pech valley in eastern Afghanistan, a location once said to be vital to the war effort in the region, the Pentagon said Friday.
The commander of U.S.-led forces in eastern Afghanistan, Major Gen. John Campbell, is "repositioning" forces "within the province to achieve greater effect and allow for more flexibility," said Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins, a Pentagon spokesperson.

Campbell, "is moving forces around within his area of responsibility away from isolated static security outposts and more toward protecting the population in Kunar [province]," said Robbins.
"There are dozens of mountain passes and we cannot be in all of them," Robbins said, confirming the news first reported in the New York Times and the Washington Post.
The Post said that a battalion of some 800 U.S. troops have been deployed to the valley since 2006.
"If your forces are static, it takes away your opportunities and flexibility," Campbell told the Post.
The Times reported that U.S. soldiers began withdrawing from the valley starting on Febr.15 in a two-month-long operation. Afghan army units will remain in the valley.
However the Afghan army many not be up to the task.
"It will be difficult for Afghans to hold these areas on their own. The terrain there is very tough," Afghan Defense Minister Rahim Wardak told the Post.
"I personally fought against the Soviets in that area," he said.
During the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Pech valley, located near the border with Pakistan, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting between the Afghan resistance and Soviet soldiers.
The Soviets pulled out of the valley in 1988, and many Afghans saw it as a key turning moment in the war, the Times said. Within six months the mujahedeen resistance groups had taken the valley from the Soviet-supported Afghan army.
Nearly 1,500 U.S. troops have died in Afghanistan in the longest U.S. war, launched in 2001 to root out Al-Qaeda extremists responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
President Barack Obama ordered a 30,000-strong surge under a last-ditch war strategy in late 2009, ahead of handing security to Afghan forces in 2014.

Afghanistan Seeks U.S. Help Post-2014

WASHINGTON - Afghanistan on Feb. 23 appealed for the United States to provide security assistance beyond 2014, the date by which President Barack Obama wants to withdraw U.S. combat troops.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, right, and Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne, left, listen Feb. 23 as they meet with Defense Minister of Afghanistan Abdul Rahim Wardak at the Pentagon. (Alex Wong / Getty Images)

Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak was holding talks at the Pentagon to look at future relations, despite recent tensions between the two governments over civilian deaths in the NATO-led campaign against the Taliban.

"We do strongly believe that for Afghanistan to be able to survive in that very volatile region, it will need your help beyond 2014," Wardak said at the start of a meeting with U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Wardak saluted the nearly 1,500 U.S. troops who have died in America's longest war, which was launched in 2001 to root out al-Qaeda extremists responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
"We should be extremely grateful for all the sacrifices which your sons and daughters have given," Wardak said.
Gates said that such meetings on future security relations would take place twice annually between the two countries, with one session each year involving the U.S. defense secretary.
Gates hoped that the forum would lay "an enduring foundation for our partnership well beyond 2014."
The meetings should "demonstrate to others in the region and to our own people, in concrete terms, that together we are putting Afghanistan on a path towards stability and security," Gates said.
Opinion polls show dwindling U.S. public support for the war in Afghanistan, with many in the public questioning the continued human and financial toll nearly a decade after troops were first deployed.
Obama has poured more troops into Afghanistan but said that he will start pulling them out in July this year. However, the administration has recently shifted focus and emphasized 2014 as the date by which U.S. troops will leave.
The Obama administration has repeatedly said that the United States will remain committed to assisting Afghanistan in 2014, even if the military component winds down.

Crucial test looms for key Afghan battleground

This file photo taken on January 4, 2011 shows Afghan villagers waiting to check in to start their work outside the US Stout camp in Arghandab Valley, Kandahar province. Kandahar in southern Afghanistan has for the last year been the scene of a huge US push to stamp out the Taliban in its own backyard. But the key test is yet to come on whether it has worked. – AFP Photo

KANDAHAR: Kandahar in southern Afghanistan has for the last year been the scene of a huge US push to stamp out the Taliban in its own backyard. But the key test of whether it has worked is yet to come.
Control of the province, birthplace of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and the militia’s spiritual home, is seen as crucial to US-led efforts to reverse the Islamist insurgency and bring an end to America’s longest war.
The precarious security situation in Kandahar was highlighted Saturday when 19 people, including 15 police and an intelligence agent, were killed in a string of attacks claimed by the Taliban.
They were the only latest to target pro-Kabul government officials.
With support from locals ambivalent at best, the big question is whether US gains will withstand intensified violence expected in a spring counter-offensive.
Asked what will happen in May or June, US Lieutenant Colonel William Graydon, chief of operations for the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kandahar, was frank.
“I don’t know. But what I do know is that we will continue the pressure all winter so that there will not be a gap for the insurgents to come back,” he told AFP.
The situation in the province also highlights wider uncertainty over what Afghanistan will look like after 2014, when Afghan forces are scheduled to take control of security, and to what extent foreign troops will remain involved.
In Kandahar, US troops led Operation Hamkari against the Taliban from last spring after President Barack Obama ordered a 30,000-strong surge under a last-ditch war strategy in late 2009.
Nato forces claim Kandahar city and nearby districts are now safer overall following intense fighting to clear traditional Taliban strongholds, which has left at least 99 troops dead.
But over nine years after the 2001 US-led invasion toppled the Taliban, government officials are still regularly attacked in Kandahar city, the de facto capital of the south.
As well as Saturday’s police attack, the deputy provincial governor was assassinated last month.
Afghan security analyst General Helaludin Helal said the Taliban had been squeezed out of many of their heartlands but were now launching targeted attacks, particularly in and around Kandahar city, in retaliation.
“After their major defeats in Kandahar, the Taliban are now focusing on high-risk attacks to prevent people from joining the government side,” he told AFP.
Graydon said that a “security bubble” has been extended to the neighbouring districts of Arghandab, Zhari and Panjwayi, parts of which had been controlled by the Taliban since the 1990s.
Commanders are pouring money into “cash for work” schemes to try and stop locals making their living by fighting for the Taliban in poor agricultural areas which, like the militants themselves, are dominated by ethnic Pashtuns.
However, some officers acknowledge this is a stop-gap solution. Concerns also linger over corruption among Western-backed officials in Kandahar.
President Hamid Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, is a powerful figure who heads the Kandahar provincial council but has long been dogged by claims of graft and drug trafficking, which he denies.
What happens in Kandahar has wider implications for the war across Afghanistan, experts say.
“Success in southern Afghanistan is a necessary but not sufficient condition for successful counter-insurgency in Afghanistan as a whole,” said a report last month from Washington think-tanks the Institute for the Study of War and the American Enterprise Institute.
Like others of Afghanistan’s most dangerous provinces, it is unlikely Kandahar will see any of the limited foreign troop withdrawals due from July.
Officials now increasingly stress the 2014 transition date, and the US commander on the ground, General David Petraeus, last week warned of more bloodshed in the spring as the Taliban tries to retake territory.
Last year was the bloodiest yet for foreign troops in Afghanistan.
But even after 2014, it is not clear what role the West will play in Afghanistan.
Karzai this week said he is in talks with the United States about establishing permanent US military bases in the country.
Although the Pentagon insists this would not be lawful, officials say Washington will retain strong ties to Kabul after 2014.
This leaves open the possibility of US forces training Afghan forces, having access to bases or even keeping a small counter-terrorism force in Afghanistan indefinitely to protect its national security interests.