British PM to Drawdown Troops from Afghanistan: Reports

LONDON - British Prime Minister David Cameron is to announce the withdrawal of at least 500 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2012 following a similar drawdown by the United States, reports said July 3.

The move would take the number of British troops in Afghanistan below the key figure of 9,000 and mark a major step towards Cameron's stated aim of having all British soldiers out of the country by 2015.

Cameron would announce on July 6 plans to withdraw up to 800 troops by the end of next year, the Sunday Times reported. The Sunday Telegraph put the figure at 500 and said they would leave in mid-2012.

Britain's Ministry of Defence said that some troops would be brought home early but refused to confirm details.

"U.K. force levels in Afghanistan are kept under constant review," a Ministry of Defence spokesman said.

"The Prime Minister has been clear that there will be no U.K. troops in combat roles in Afghanistan by 2015 and it is right that we bring troops home sooner where progress allows and taking account of military advice."

The withdrawal is in addition to the pull-out of 400 British support staff by February 2012 announced by Cameron in May, 200 of which have already left Afghanistan.

Britain currently has 9,500 troops based in Afghanistan's troubled southern province of Helmand, making it the second largest contributor of foreign forces in Afghanistan after the United States.

U.S. President Barack Obama last month ordered all 33,000 U.S. surge troops home from Afghanistan by mid-2012. France quickly followed suit, saying several hundred French troops would leave by the end of this year.

Western nations have set a deadline of the end of 2014 to hand over control of security to Afghan forces despite fears that they are not ready to protect the country from Taliban militants.

U.S. Shifts Supply Routes to Central Asia: Report

WASHINGTON - The U.S. military is expanding its Central Asian supply routes to the war in Afghanistan, fearing that the routes going through Pakistan could be endangered by deteriorating U.S.-Pakistani relations, The Washington Post reported late on July 2.

Citing unnamed Pentagon officials, the newspaper said that in 2009, the United States moved 90 percent of its military surface cargo through the Pakistani port of Karachi and then through mountain passes into Afghanistan.

Now almost 40 percent of surface cargo arrives in Afghanistan from the north, along a patchwork of Central Asian rail and road routes that the Pentagon calls the Northern Distribution Network, the report said.

The military is pushing to raise the northern network's share to as much as 75 percent by the end of this year, the paper said.

In addition, the U.S. government is negotiating expanded agreements with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other countries that would allow for delivery of additional supplies to the Afghan war zone, The Post said.

The United States also wants permission to withdraw vehicles and other equipment from Afghanistan as the U.S. military prepares to pull out one-third of its forces by September 2012, the paper noted.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced last month that 10,000 troops would leave this year and all 33,000 personnel sent as part of a surge ordered in late 2009 would be home by next summer, leaving a U.S. force of some 65,000.

There are currently up to 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, including about 99,000 from the United States. Obama has indicated a series of drawdowns until Afghan forces assume security responsibility in 2014.

U.S. Army Defends Boeing on Overcharges

U.S. Army officials prefer to focus on the decreased repair turnaround times at a maintenance depot where Pentagon investigators found Boeing overcharged the Army $13 million on spare helicopter parts, not on the $10 roller assemblies that cost the Army more than $1,600.

A U.S. Apache helicopter fires rockets during a joint gunnery exercise. Pentagon investigators found Boeing overcharged the U.S. Army $13 million on spare helicopter parts. (Jung Yeon-Je / AFP via Getty Images)

The Army's Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command bought the 18 parts highlighted in a recent Defense Department Inspector General's report, which made up the $13 million in overcharges. Soldiers and civilians used the parts at Corpus Christi Army Depot, Texas.

The DoD Inspector General's report highlighted extreme overcharges in comparing Boeing prices to those that would have been charged by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). In one case, Boeing charged the Army $71 for a straight pin that would have cost the service 4 cents from DLA. Boeing also charged $381.78 for a bolt retainer; DLA charges $6.77.
In all, the Army paid $23 million for the 18 sets of parts that should have cost the service $10 million, a 131 percent price hike, according to the full IG report, which was first released by the Project on Government Oversight.
However, the 18 parts highlighted in the report make up a small sliver of the 8,000 parts included in Boeing's contract with the Army, according to Dan O'Boyle, an Army spokesman. The price increase paid by the Army for the entirety of the contract is 17 percent, which was acceptable to service officials in order to cut down on back orders and keep up with increased maintenance needs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
"It was recognized that using a material integrator would drive an estimated average material price increase of about 25 percent, based on lower parts quantities and immediate parts availability, but would be offset by the increase in parts availability and increased readiness," O'Boyle said in a statement.
Army officials credited Boeing with reducing back-ordered parts from 292 in 2004 down to 22, which led to an overall increase of readiness rates by 10 percent. Upon further inspection, O'Boyle said, the Army found that about 2,000 parts included in the contract are priced less than Army and DLA inventory prices.
The Corpus Christi Army Depot is a maintenance center used mainly for Army helicopters. Boeing builds the Army's AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and the CH-47 Chinook twin-rotor utility helicopter.
A previous Army audit of the initial contract could have caught the overcharges of the 18 parts, but the Army audit only covered "80 percent of the total dollars associated with the bill of material for this contract because of the magnitude of the parts involved," O'Boyle said.
A similar audit by the Defense Department Inspector General is taking place concerning purchases made for the same depot from Sikorsky Aircraft, according to the report.
The Defense Contract Audit Agency also is doing a full audit of actual costs expended on the contract, whereas the Defense Department IG "only sampled a portion of the contractor's expenditures," O'Boyle said in a statement.
"Given the wartime environment for Army aviation, more rotary aircraft today and flying six times above the peacetime flying hours, the critical support to these platforms could not have been achieved without this agreement," O'Boyle said in a statement.
After the Defense Department IG released its report, Boeing issued the Army a voluntary refund of $1.6 million for five types of parts, an Army official said.
"The handful of errors cited by the IG's initial report represents an extremely small part of our outstanding support to our U.S. Army customer," said Bob Algarotti, a Boeing spokesman. "Boeing voluntarily reimbursed the government for the items cited and already improved our process, which will prevent reoccurrence of these errors."
In the same Defense Department IG inspection that cited the 18 overcharged parts, inspectors found the Army had not used $339.7 million of inventory before buying the same parts from Boeing. The Army disputes that figure, saying $48.1 million is "actually excess at this point," O'Boyle said.
In response, the Army will use the Enterprise Resource Planning system to ensure that inventory is more visible. Army Materiel Command has "implemented a policy requiring the use of all on-hand inventory before the purchase of any additional material on performance-based contracts," O'Boyle said.

Iran Denies Smuggling Weapons to Iraq, Afghanistan

TEHRAN - Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi dismissed as "ridiculous lies" U.S. claims that Tehran smuggled weapons to Iraq and Afghanistan, the semi-official Fars news agency reported July 2.
"The ridiculous and repeated lies of the Americans are aimed at justifying their own errors," Gen. Vahidi was quoted as saying.

The Wall Street Journal on July 1 quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps supplied allies in Iraq and Afghanistan with rocket-assisted exploding projectiles.
These weapons have already killed American troops, said the officials quoted by the newspaper.
Iran has also given long-range rockets to the Taliban in Afghanistan, increasing the insurgents' ability to hit U.S. and other coalition positions from a safer distance, the report said.

Kuwait Ends Bahrain Naval Mission: State Media

KUWAIT CITY - Kuwaiti naval forces on July 2 ended a mission to secure Bahrain's maritime border they began in March amid a crackdown on Shiite protesters, the official KUNA news agency reported.
"The Kuwaiti naval task force in the Kingdom of Bahrain ended today (July 1) its mission to contribute to the protection of the maritime border of Bahrain and securing it in cooperation with the Bahraini navy, which began in March," KUNA said.

The announcement came the same day that Bahrain opened a national dialogue said to be aimed at relaunching political reforms.
Saudi Arabia deployed about a thousand troops to Bahrain in March while the United Arab Emirates sent some 500 police - deployments that freed up Bahraini security forces to crush a month-long Shiite-led protest movement calling for reforms in the Sunni-ruled, Shiite-majority kingdom.
A Saudi official said on June 28 that the Peninsula Shield force of Gulf troops sent to Bahrain were to be "redeployed" but will not withdraw completely.
Kuwaiti Sunni Islamist MPs had announced before the naval deployment that they would move to question the prime minister in parliament for not sending troops to Bahrain.

U.S. Wars Leave 225,000 Dead, Cost $4.4 Trillion: Study

WASHINGTON - U.S. wars launched since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have left 225,000 dead and cost up to $4.4 trillion, according to a new study by university researchers.
The study published by Brown University this week focused on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and counter-terrorism campaigns in Pakistan and Yemen, which came in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

The authors argued that governments almost always go to war underestimating the potential duration and costs of a conflict while overestimating "the political objectives that can be accomplished by the use of brute force."
The study said "an extremely conservative estimate" of the casualty toll was about 225,000 people killed and 365,000 wounded in the wars so far.
The number of soldiers killed comes to 31,741, including about 6,000 Americans, 1,200 allied troops, 9,900 Iraqis, 8,800 Afghans, 3,500 Pakistanis as well as 2,300 U.S. private security contractors, it said.
The civilian toll was much higher, with an estimated 172,000 dead, including about 125,000 Iraqis, 35,000 Pakistanis and 12,000 Afghans, it said.
The study acknowledged that estimating the number of dead was difficult, particularly the toll for insurgents, putting the number at between 20,000 to 51,000 insurgents killed.
The report found that 168 reporters and 266 humanitarian workers were among the dead since the United States launched its "war on terror" after 9/11.
The wars also have triggered a massive flow of refugees and displaced persons, with more than 7.8 million displaced, mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan, it said.
The study estimated the financial cost of the wars at a minimum of $3.7 trillion and up to $4.4 trillion, which represents about a quarter of the country's current debt.
The researchers arrived at a much larger figure than the Pentagon's previous estimates, as they included spending by the Department of Homeland Security to counter terrorist threats, government projections for spending on wounded veterans through 2051 and war-related funds from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The U.S. government has previously cited the price tag for the wars at about one trillion dollars.
"Our estimate is larger because we include more than the direct Pentagon appropriation for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the larger global war on terror," said the study.
"Wars always cost more than what the Pentagon spends for the duration of the combat operation."

Panetta Takes Reins as Pentagon Chief

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Leon Panetta vowed July 1 to keep the U.S. military the "best" in the world despite mounting budget pressures, after being sworn in as the new Pentagon chief.
"As your leader, I will ensure that our nation continues to have the best-trained, best-equipped, and strongest military in the world - a force prepared to confront the challenges that face us," Panetta wrote in his first message to troops after taking the oath of office at the Defense Department. "Even as the United States addresses fiscal challenges at home, there will be no hollow force on my watch."

Panetta succeeds Robert Gates, who won praise from Republicans and Democrats during his 4½ years on the job.
Panetta assumes office amid growing calls to rein in government spending, with an increasing number of lawmakers saying the massive defense budget can no longer be excluded from cutbacks.
Acknowledging "tough budget choices" on the horizon, Panetta said: "We must preserve the excellence and superiority of our military while looking for ways to identify savings."
The proposed defense budget for 2012 is about $671 billion, including $118 billion for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
With a gradual transfer to Afghan forces due to begin this year, Panetta said the U.S. "must remain committed to working closely with our Afghan and international partners to ensure that it never again becomes a safe haven for al-Qaida and its militant allies."
On Iraq, he said the U.S. will need "to reinforce that responsibility, for the future security of Iraq must belong to the Iraqis themselves."
Panetta, however, made no mention of NATO-led air operations in Libya launched in March.
Some lawmakers have accused President Barack Obama of overstepping his legal authority in the Libya conflict, which has proved unpopular with Americans. But the Obama administration has argued the U.S. is playing a limited, supporting role in the operation.
At his swearing-in ceremony, Panetta also pledged to "protect" U.S. troops, according to military spokesman Marine Col. Dave Lapan.
Panetta was quoted as saying there was "no higher responsibility for a secretary of defense than to protect those who are protecting America."
Panetta, 73, is the oldest incoming U.S. secretary of defense and the first Democrat to hold the job since William Perry in 1997. He stepped down as head of the CIA to take the Pentagon job