Afghanistan

Sen. Lugar: Keeping Major U.S. Presence In Afghanistan Is Not 'Rational'

Susan Crabtree | May 3, 2011, 10:21AM

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN)

Sen. Dick Lugar (R-IN), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the Obama administration to significantly scale back U.S. resources and military commitment in Afghanistan given the bleak chances for establishing a flourishing, stable democracy there any time soon.

"It's exceedingly difficult to conclude that our vast expenditures in Afghanistan represent a rational" strategy, Lugar said during opening remarks at a Tuesday hearing on the future of Afghanistan.

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Afghanistan

As Protests Continue, Petraeus Says Quran Burning Hurts War Effort

Eric Lach | April 4, 2011, 9:54AM

After a weekend of deadly riots in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus issued a statement on Sunday publicly condemning the Quran burning that sparked the unrest. And in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in the country admitted that the burning has created an "additional serious security challenge."

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Randall Terry

Reports: Afghan U.N. Office Attacked During Protest Of Pastors' Quran Burning

Eric Lach | April 1, 2011, 11:45AM

A vegetable market in Mazar-i-Sharif, in Northern Afghanistan

Several U.N. workers were killed Friday in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif. Reports indicate that a demonstration against the burning of a Quran by American pastors turned violent. There are conflicting reports about the number of people killed, and a U.N. spokesperson has issued a statement confirming the attack, while calling the incident "still confusing."

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Afghanistan

Paper Publishes Photos Of U.S. Soldiers Posing With Dead Afghan Civilian

Eric Lach | March 21, 2011, 11:46AM

Army Spc. Jeremy Morlock and Army Pvt. 1st Class Andrew Holmes

The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel has published two photographs of U.S. Army soldiers posing with the corpse of an Afghan civilian, The Washington Post reports. The photographs are included in the print issue of Der Spiegel being distributed today, but advance copies of the images were sent to subscribers in an email over the weekend.

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Kabul Embassy

Contractors Who Made Vodka Butt-Shots Famous Still Guarding Kabul Embassy

Ryan J. Reilly | February 17, 2011, 10:55AM

U.S. Embassy in Kabul

The security firm that guards the Kabul embassy and got caught up in a scandal that "introduced the world to vodka butt-shots" is still on the job and doesn't appear to have plans to leave Afghanistan anytime soon, Mother Jones reports.

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Charlie Wilson

Inside Charlie Wilson's FBI File: Sex, Drugs And Foreign Wars

Ryan J. Reilly | December 29, 2010, 11:05AM

In life, Rep. Charlie Wilson was surrounded by legends of his high living, but it was never quite clear where the reality ended and the legend began. The feds seemingly had a similar problem figuring that out, if the late congressman's recently disclosed FBI file is any indication, as it mentions a rumored photo of Wilson on a bed with a Mexican prostitute that the FBI was never able to confirm.

A rumor of a photo of Wilson with a Mexican woman of the night is just one of the tidbits revealed in the FBI file of the late Wilson, the bombastic politician who was immortalized in the 2007 film "Charlie Wilson's War." And while he was known for his wide circle of friends, his file indicates he clearly had some nasty enemies.

Wilson, the Texas Democrat known as "Good Time Charlie," served in Congress from 1973 through 1996 and died in February at the age of 76. His involvement with Operation Cyclone, a program supporting the Afghan mujahideen in their resistance of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan was portrayed by Tom Hanks in the 2007 film based on the book "Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History."

TPM just obtained a copy of Wilson's 463 page FBI from the bureau, which the Hill first reported it obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request last week.

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'Decision Points'

Bush: Waterboarding Legal 'Because The Lawyer Said It Was' (VIDEO)

Rachel Slajda | November 9, 2010, 9:01AM

President George W. Bush in an interview with Matt Lauer

Former President George W. Bush was asked during an interview last night why he believes waterboarding is legal.

"Because the lawyer said it was," Bush said. "He said it did not fall within the Anti-Torture Act. I'm not a lawyer, but you gotta trust the judgment of people around you and I do."

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Paul Funk

Interpreter Whistleblower Hits Back At Former Employer Over Accusations

Ryan J. Reilly | September 14, 2010, 8:53AM

Former Mission Essential Personnel employee Paul Funk

The former employee of a government contractor that supplies interpreters to the U.S. Army who said that more than one quarter of the translators working in Afghanistan had failed language proficiency exams told TPM in an interview that allegations his employer made against him after his story came out last week are untrue.

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'Ground Zero Mosque'

Koran Burning Still Off, For Now, As One Dies In Afghanistan Protest

Rachel Slajda | September 10, 2010, 9:46AM

Pastor Terry Jones, of the Dove World Outreach Center, with Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida

Pastor Terry Jones, appearing on today's morning shows, says he will not be burning Korans on Saturday even though the imam of a planned Islamic center near Ground Zero did not agree to move his project further from the site.

"Right now, we have plans not to do it," Jones said on Good Morning America.

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Afghanistan

Whistleblower Says Interpreters Stationed In Afghanistan Can't Speak Local Languages

Ryan J. Reilly | September 9, 2010, 9:06AM

A U.S. Marine in the Helmand province of Afghanistan.

As if the U.S. wasn't facing enough problems in Afghanistan, a former employee of a government contractor that supplies interpreters to the U.S. Army said in an ABC News report that more than one quarter of the translators working in the country had failed language proficiency exams, but they were sent onto the battlefield anyway.

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Afghanistan

NATO Chief Condemns Koran Burning Ahead Of Meeting With Obama

Rachel Slajda | September 7, 2010, 12:28PM

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen

The chief of NATO agrees with the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan: A radical Florida church really shouldn't burn copies of the Koran.

"I strongly condemn that. I think it's a disrespectful action and in general I really urge people to respect other people's faith and behave respectfully. I think such actions are in strong contradiction with all the values we stand for and fight for," said NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, according to The Cable.

"Of course, there is a risk that it may also have a negative impact on the security for our troops," he added.

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Afghanistan

Petraeus: Koran Burning Could Endanger Troops

Rachel Slajda | September 6, 2010, 12:39PM

General David Petraeus

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander of the Afghanistan War, said today the planned burning of Korans by a Florida church could put American troops in danger.

"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort," Petraeus told the Wall Street Journal. "It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."

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Dove World Outreach Center

Afghans Protest FL Church's Koran-Burning Plans: 'Death To America'

Rachel Slajda | September 6, 2010, 10:40AM

Dr. Terry Jones, leader of the Dove World Outreach Center

Hundreds of Afghans demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy in Kabul today against a Florida church's plan to burn Korans on Sept. 11, shouting "Death to America" and "Long live Islam."

The AP reports that members of parliament and religious leaders spoke at the rally, where protesters called for the death of President Obama and burned Rev. Terry Jones in effigy.

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Afghanistan

CIA Afghanistan Station Chief 'Spider' Is Karzai's Favorite American

Ryan J. Reilly | August 24, 2010, 12:06PM

Afghan President Hamid Karzai

The head of the Central Intelligence Agency's Afghanistan Bureau has taken on a quasi-diplomatic role in U.S. relations with President Hamid Karzai in the midst of an American-backed effort to root out corruption in the fledgling democracy.

Known to some of his colleagues by the nickname "Spider," the station chief is a former Marine in his 50s, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Their relationship was cemented in December 2001, when the U.S. military accidentally ordered a bomb drop on a meeting between Karzai and other tribal leaders, and "Spider" leapt on Karzai to shield him, saving the soon-to-be Afghan president. Now, "Spider" is brought in at critical times, including in May when the White House tapped him to calm the Afghan president after he lashed out at the U.S.

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Stanley McChrystal

Army Investigating Rolling Stone Story That Led To McChrystal Ouster

Rachel Slajda | August 4, 2010, 3:32PM

General Stanley McChrystal

The Army is investigating what happened in the lead-up to Michael Hastings' article in Rolling Stone that lead to the ouster of Gen. Stanley McChrystal as the commander in Afghanistan.

"A four-star commander was relieved ultimately due to this article. We want to understand what happened here," an Army spokesman told CNN.

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Robert Gates

Gates And Mullen: Wikileaks Might Already Have Blood On Their Hands

Jillian Rayfield | July 29, 2010, 3:43PM

Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen held a press conference today to address the leak of 92,000 documents about the Afghanistan War by the website Wikileaks. Gates condemned the leaks, warning "the battlefield consequences" are "potentially severe and dangerous for our troops."

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Wikileaks

Wikileaks Releases Docs Showing Pakistan-Taliban Cooperation Against U.S. In Afghanstan

Rachel Slajda | July 26, 2010, 9:50AM

Soldiers in Afghanistan

The web site Wikileaks has released 92,000 documents related to the Afghanistan War, many of them classified, that paint a bleak picture of the ongoing war.

Wikileaks released the documents, which amount to a daily war diary dating from 2004 to 2009, to the New York Times, Der Spiegel and The Guardian, in addition to publishing them online themselves.

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Fox News

Fox News: 'Big Mexican Women' Are Helping Afghan Soldiers Go AWOL In U.S.!

Eric Lach | July 23, 2010, 8:32AM

So some Afghan soldiers studying English at an Air Force Base in Texas and a "loose network" of possibly illegal and maybe overweight Mexican women walk into a bar. Stop me if you've heard this one.

(And if you have, you've been reading FoxNews.com.)

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Birthers

Birther Army Doctor Explains Himself Ahead Of Court Martial: 'Americans Deserve Answers' (VIDEO)

Jillian Rayfield | July 19, 2010, 10:22AM

Lieutenant Colonel Terry Lakin

Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin released a new video over the weekend explaining his decision to waive a preliminary hearing, likely paving the way for a General Court Martial. Lakin said in the video that his requests for evidence were refused, which "made it impossible for me to present any defense."

The army doctor had refused to deploy to Afghanistan, citing questions about Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as President.

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War In Afghanistan

McChrystal Quote Suggests Flippant View Of Civilian Casualty Policies

Justin Elliott | June 22, 2010, 3:24PM

Gen. Stanley McChrystal and a convoy in Serobi, Afghanistan

One of the hallmarks of Gen. Stanley McChrystal's as the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan are new rules of engagement that, whether or not they are effective, are designed to reduce killing of civilians by American planes and soldiers.

That's why it's surprising to see McChrystal quoted in the big Rolling Stone profile seeming to take a decidedly flippant view of those very policies. Greg Sargent and Marcy Wheeler highlighted this passage:

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Afghanistan

Gov't Geologist Spoke Of Vast Economic Benefit Of Afghan Minerals -- Over Two Years Ago

Justin Elliott | June 14, 2010, 12:38PM

The Hindu Kush mountains overlooking the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan

American geologists who assessed Afghanistan's mineral deposits realized the potentially vast economic benefits of the minerals as far back as 2007, according to U.S. Geological Survey documents from that time.

The New York Times story this morning reporting the "discovery" in Afghanistan of a $1 trillion trove of minerals like lithium has already been the focus of plenty of scrutiny from journalists questioning how new this discovery, which was presented by the Obama Administration as a potential game-changer, really is.

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Terrence Lakin

Attorney For Birther Army Doc Hints At Using Discovery To Further Birther Cause

Justin Elliott | April 20, 2010, 10:56AM

G. Gordon Liddy and Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin

Appearing on the G. Gordon Liddy radio show today, the attorney for Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, the Birther Army doctor who is said to be facing a court martial for refusing orders, suggested that if his client is court-martialled, he will use discovery to try to further the Birther crusade.

One week ago, the military announced that Lakin is under investigation after he refused to report for a second tour in Afghanistan. Lakin believes that President Obama may not be a natural-born citizen, and therefore that military orders are invalid.

Today, Lakin appeared on Liddy's show with his attorney, identified as Paul Jensen.

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Terrence Lakin

Military: Birther Lieutenant Colonel Under Investigation After Refusing Orders (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | April 13, 2010, 5:06PM

Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin (left) and an unidentified Afghan man

A decorated Army doctor who publicly announced last month that he is refusing to follow orders because he believes Barack Obama may be ineligible to be president is now under investigation after failing to report for duty at Fort Campbell in Kentucky, a military spokesman tells TPMmuckraker.

NBC is reporting, citing unnamed military officials, that the Army will court martial Lt. Col Terrence Lakin.

Lakin's case has become an instant cause célèbre for Birthers since he declared in a YouTube video and press release late last month that he would refuse orders to deploy for a second tour in Afghanistan until Obama produces his birth certificate.

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War In Afghanistan

Gen. McChrystal: We've Shot 'An Amazing Number Of People' Who Were Not Threats

Justin Elliott | April 2, 2010, 3:09PM

Gen. Stanley McChrystal and a convoy in Serobi, Afghanistan

In a stark assessment of shootings of locals by US troops at checkpoints in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal said in little-noticed comments last month that during his time as commander there, "We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."

The comments came during a virtual town hall with troops in Afghanistan after one asked McChrystal to comment on the "escalation of force" problem. The general responded that, in the nine months he had been in charge, none of the cases in which "we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it."

In many cases, he added, families were in the vehicles that were fired on.

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Blackwater

Lawsuit: Blackwater Put Filipino Prostitute On Government Tab

Zachary Roth | February 11, 2010, 9:23AM

private contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A lawsuit filed by two former employees of Blackwater charges that the controversial security contractor defrauded the U.S. government, including charging it for strippers and prostitutes, the New York Times reports.

Perhaps the most explosive charge in the lawsuit -- filed by a married couple, Brad and Melan Davis, is that the company put a Filipino prostitute in Afghanistan on its payroll under the "Morale Welfare Recreation" category, then billed the government for her salary and plane tickets.

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Kabul Shooting

Contractors' Attorney: Blackwater Is Scapegoating My Clients In Kabul Murder Case

Justin Elliott | January 14, 2010, 8:45AM

SUV involved in May 2009 traffic incident

A lawyer for the Blackwater contractors charged last week with killing two men in Kabul says his clients were thrown under the bus by a company desperate to preserve its standing with the Afghan government, after another shooting case in Iraq led to a crackdown on its operations in that country.

Directly after the Kabul shooting last May, Blackwater went into crisis mode, Attorney Daniel Callahan tells TPMmuckraker. That same month, the company fired the two contractors who were charged last week, as well as two others who were involved in the incident, for violating the company's drinking policy.

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War In Afghanistan

Blackwater, Already On The Ground In Afghanistan, Now Gunning For More Contracts

Justin Elliott | December 21, 2009, 12:23PM

A Blackwater Aviation crew member prepares to drop supplies to an outpost in Bandar, Afghanistan, in 2007.

It looks like the Obama Administration just can't quit the company formerly known as Blackwater.

A Xe official told the Commission on Wartime Contracting Friday that the company has contracts for security as well as for training Afghan police and a "drug interdiction unit." Xe is also in the running for more work in Afghanistan. The comments of Xe Vice President Fred Roitz were first reported by the Virginia Pilot.

It's been a difficult year for Xe, with several former guards facing manslaughter charges over the shootings in Baghdad's Nisour Square that left 17 civilians dead, and company founder Erik Prince declaring he plans to leave the business.

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War In Afghanistan

Dem Rep Launches Probe Of Alleged Contractor Payments To Taliban

Justin Elliott | December 17, 2009, 9:04AM

A convoy of trucks leave Kandahar Air Field.

Private security contractors in Afghanistan are being accused of paying protection money to warlords and the Taliban along convoy routes, prompting an investigation by a House oversight committee.

Walter Pincus at the Washington Post has the story this morning. The staff of Rep. John Tierney (D-MA) has begun an investigation of eight trucking companies that hold a combined $2.2 billion in DOD contracts in Afghanistan.

Tierney, chairman of the House oversight subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs, said in a statement:

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Military Contractors

McCaskill On Afghan War Contractors: 'We're Competing Against Ourselves'

Justin Elliott | December 16, 2009, 5:40PM

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) said today that the military may be paying Afghan contractors so much that they are dissuaded from joining the country's army or police force, dealing a blow to the American strategy of building up local forces.

We reported earlier this week that as many as 56,000 new contractors will be hired as Obama escalates the war. Most of the 104,100 DOD contractors currently working in Afghanistan are local nationals providing logistical, transportation, security, and other support.

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War In Afghanistan

DOD: Obama's Afghan Surge Will Rely Heavily On Private Contractors

Justin Elliott | December 15, 2009, 9:29AM

DynCorp instructor with police recruits in Lashkar Gah, Afghanistan, June 2008.

Private contractors will make up at least half of the total military workforce in Afghanistan going forward, according to Defense Department officials cited in a new congressional study.

As President Obama's escalation of the war in Afghanistan unfolds, the number of contractors will likely jump by between 16,000 and 56,000, adding up to a total of 120,000-160,000, according to an updated study from the Congressional Research Service.

DOD officials who spoke with the study's author said contractors would make up 50-55 percent of the total workforce -- troops plus contractors -- in the future. This would actually be a significant reduction from the last two years, when contractors have averaged 62 percent of the total.

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War In Afghanistan

How Many Private Contractors Are There In Afghanistan? Military Gives Us A Number

Justin Elliott | December 2, 2009, 2:37PM

Private contractors employed by the Defense Department in Afghanistan will continue to outnumber the size of the American troop presence, even after President Obama sends 30,000 more soldiers to fight in the war, according to the military's most recent contractor count.

The latest figure on DOD contractors in the country is a whopping 104,100, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command tells TPM. That number, which is expected to grow, is already greater than the 98,000 U.S. troops that will be in the country after the new deployments.

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War In Afghanistan

As Obama Sends More Troops, Giant Shadow Army Of Contractors Set To Grow In Afghanistan

Justin Elliott | December 1, 2009, 3:09PM

Contractors watch for threats on plane departing from Forward Operating Base Sharana in Eastern Afghanistan in May of 2009.

With President Obama addressing the nation tonight about a new escalation in Afghanistan, a perennially underexamined topic is once again receiving short shrift: the huge force of contractors, which as of June outnumbered the size of the U.S. troop presence itself, is likely to swell.

The Administration seemingly hasn't addressed the issue, and the word "contractor" doesn't appear much in media coverage -- for example, in the Times and Post stories on the escalation today.

But David Berteau, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, tells TPM that as Obama increases troop levels to at least 100,000, "there will definitely be an increase in the number of contractors."

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War In Afghanistan

The (Coming) Surge In Afghanistan: Brought To You By Kim And Fred Kagan?

Justin Elliott | September 28, 2009, 11:39AM

AEI's Frederick Kagan and Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal

Frederick Kagan, the neoconservative think-tanker best known as the architect of the surge in Iraq, continues to have access to Gen. Stanley McChrystal as an adviser after serving as part of a team producing the recent assessment of the Afghan war, a spokesman for the general tells us.

It had been reported that Kagan and his wife, military historian Kimberly Kagan, were part of the group that advised McChrystal on the high-profile assessment that warns of "mission failure" if more troops are not sent. But it wasn't previously known that Kagan's work with McChrystal extended beyond the review.

It's striking that Kagan, who writes for the Weekly Standard, guest blogs at National Review, and advised the Bush Administration on Iraq, is now advising President Obama's top commander in Afghanistan.

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FBI

The NYC Terror Plot: What Do We Know?

Zachary Roth | September 17, 2009, 2:19PM

Najibullah Zazi

Over on the main blog, Josh wrote the other day about the alleged terror plot which led police to raid an apartment building in Queens on Monday, and then a suburban Denver home yesterday. Josh noted that the Feds seem to being playing this one a lot closer to the vest than in other cases of recent years -- which could be a sign that it's more serious.

So let's take stock of what we know...

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War In Afghanistan

Study: More Contractors In Afghanistan Than Military Personnel -- Highest Ratio Ever

Justin Elliott | September 1, 2009, 11:44AM

Private contractors depart from airfield in Sharana, Afghanistan

Private Defense Department contractors outnumber the ranks of uniformed U.S. military in Afghanistan, according to a Congressional Research Service study obtained by the invaluable Secrecy News.

As of March, there were over 68,000 contractors in Afghanistan and over 52,000 military personnel (Read the report in .pdf format here.)

At 57% of total Defense Department workforce, the number of contractors represents "the highest recorded percentage of contractors used by DOD in any conflict in the history of the United States," the study concludes.

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