Georgetown Security Law Brief

Questions raised in Afghan detainee’s case

02/10/12: The New York Times reports that the case against one of the eighteen remaining Afghans at Guantanamo started gaining new attention after a military defense team began investigating it last year. The team talked to village elders, neighbors and family members who corroborated crucial aspects of the benign explanations offered by Obaydullah, and they concluded that certain intelligence about him had been “mischaracterized.” “With new evidence that brings into question the allegations against him, we hope we will be able to obtain a fair hearing, or that he will be sent home,” said Maj. Derek A. Poteet of the Marines, a military lawyer representing Obaydullah.

Pakistan's spy agency faces court over disappearances

02/10/12: The Guardian reports that Pakistan's all-powerful military will this week face a rare challenge by the courts over the case of 11 men who were allegedly abducted and tortured by the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency. The case, due to be heard on Friday, will offer a window into the workings of the ISI and its sister agency, Military Intelligence, and charges that they have made hundreds of Pakistanis disappear. Four of the 11 men kidnapped from the high security Adiala jail in Rawalpindi in May 2010 have turned up dead in recent months. The families of the rest are petitioning the court for their return.

Afghan president postpones handover of US prison

02/09/12: The Miami Herald reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday claimed that an airstrike carried out by the international coalition killed eight children in eastern Afghanistan. The Afghan leader said in a statement that he has assigned a delegation of high-ranking officials and lawmakers to launch a comprehensive probe into the affair. Also Thursday, Karzai's office said it has extended by one month the deadline for the transfer of the main American military prison in the country. It said the United States had until March 9 to transfer authority of the prison to the Afghan government.

Special Ops commander pledges to fulfill commitments

02/08/12: The Washington Times reports that American Green Berets, SEALS and other commandos will continue to meet their commitments around the world, as the Pentagon imposes budget cuts, the commander of US Special Operations said Tuesday. One of the top priorities will be helping regular combat forces withdraw from Afghanistan, where the US will draw down its conventional troop numbers down to 68,000 by October, Admiral Bill McRaven told a Washington audience. The Pentagon will rely more heavily on its special operation forces there to stabilize the region before the total US withdrawal by 2014, he said.

CIA digs in as Americans withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan

02/08/12: The Washington Post reports that the CIA is expected to maintain a large clandestine presence in Iraq and Afghanistan long after the departure of conventional US troops as part of a plan by the Obama administration to rely on a combination of spies and Special Operations forces to protect US interests in the two longtime war zones, US officials said. US officials said that the CIA’s stations in Kabul and Baghdad will probably remain the agency’s largest overseas outposts for years, even if they shrink from record staffing levels set at the height of American efforts in those nations to fend off insurgencies and install capable governments.

US sending Commander to repair ties with Pakistan

02/07/12: The New York Times reports that a senior American military commander is expected to travel to Pakistan this month in what Obama administration officials say is the first step toward thawing a strategic relationship that has been in effect frozen for more than two months. General James N. Mattis, the head of the military’s Central Command, will meet General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani Army chief of staff, to discuss the investigations of an exchange of fire at the Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, as well as new border coordination procedures to prevent a recurrence of the episode.

Obama administration’s Afghanistan endgame gets off to bumpy start

02/06/12: The Washington Post reports that with war fatigue growing and an election looming, the Obama administration has bumpily embarked on its endgame in Afghanistan. In recent weeks, closed-door strategizing over Taliban peace talks, the pace of NATO’s combat handover and withdrawal, and the future of US relations with Afghanistan and Pakistan have suddenly become part of the public and political debate. But revelations about plans already in motion have emerged sooner than the administration has been prepared to explain them, complicating efforts to turn them into a coherent whole and build support.

US said to target rescuers at drone strike sites

02/06/12: The New York Times reports that British and Pakistani journalists said Sunday that the CIA's drone strikes on suspected militants in Pakistan have repeatedly targeted rescuers who responded to the scene of a strike, as well as mourners at subsequent funerals. The report, by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, found that at least 50 civilians had been killed in follow-up strikes after they rushed to help those hit by a drone-fired missile. The bureau counted more than 20 other civilians killed in strikes on funerals. The findings were published on the bureau’s Web site and in The Sunday Times of London.

Charges dropped against soldier in Afghan deaths

02/04/12: The Miami Herald reports that the Army on Friday dropped all charges against the fifth soldier it had accused of killing Afghan civilians for sport during a 2010 deployment. Specialist Michael Wagnon, 31, of Las Vegas, had been charged with the unlawful killing of one Afghan civilian in February 2010. He was expected to go on trial in March. In a statement, Joint Base Lewis-McChord said the charges were dismissed "in the interest of justice." According to Wagnon's attorney, preparations for the impending trial "just kept developing the evidence of Michael's innocence until it just became overwhelming."

Afghan Taliban deny Mullah Omar wrote to White House

02/04/12: Reuters reports that the Afghan Taliban denied on Saturday that the group's leader Mullah Omar wrote to the White House last year. The White House received a letter in 2011 which purported to come directly from Mullah Omar, asking the United States to deliver prisoners whose transfer is now central to American efforts to broker peace in Afghanistan, an Obama administration official said Friday. "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan rejects this baseless rumor with the strongest of words," a statement on the Islamist group's website said, using the name by which the Taliban often calls itself.

Lawmakers warn of outcry against Taliban transfer

02/02/12: Reuters reports that US lawmakers are steeling for a public battle against the possible transfer of Taliban detainees out of Guantanamo Bay prison, a key step in the Obama administration's bid to broker a peace deal ending the war in Afghanistan. Congressional opposition is gaining steam, especially among Republicans but also among some senior Democrats, to the potential transfer to Qatar of five senior Taliban prisoners, a good-faith move that could set the stage for eventual political talks between the Taliban and Afghan government.

Taliban captives dispute US view on Afghanistan war

02/02/12:  The New York Times reports that more Taliban insurgents are being killed or captured than ever before, yet when the captives are interrogated by the American military, they remain convinced that they are winning the war. The Taliban captives tell their interrogators that their hearts-and-minds campaign is converting a growing number of Afghan government officials and soldiers. This is one of the findings of a NATO report, “State of the Taliban 2012,” based on 27,000 interrogations of 4,000 Taliban and other captives that portrays a Taliban insurgency that is far from vanquished or demoralized even as the United States and its allies enter what they hope will be the final phase of the war.

US report says Pakistan still backs Taliban

02/01/12: The Financial Times reports that a leaked US military report that says Pakistan still supports the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan has overshadowed a high-level visit by Pakistani officials seeking to repair ties with Kabul. The secret document, based on interrogations of thousands of captured fighters, says Pakistan’s intelligence agencies continue to help direct Taliban attacks, according to the BBC and The Times, which obtained copies.

Obama opens up about drone strikes in Pakistan

01/31/12: The Los Angeles Times reports that President Obama offered a vigorous defense of using unmanned aircraft to kill Al Qaeda operatives and other militants in Pakistan's tribal areas and, in the process, officially acknowledged the highly classified CIA drone program that US officials had refused to discuss in public until now. "I think that we have to be judicious in how we use drones," Obama said, adding that they have been used for "very precise, precision strikes against Al Qaeda and their affiliates."

Afghan officials, Taliban may hold talks in Saudi Arabia

01/30/12: CNN reports that the Afghan government plans to hold talks with Taliban representatives in Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks, in a move that threatens to cloud already delicate and fragile steps to negotiate an end to the United States' longest war. An anonymous senior official said the plans were at such an early stage that it was not clear who -- including American officials -- would attend or when any talks would be held. The US has acknowledged that it has held discussions about opening a Taliban office in Doha, Qatar, as well as the possibility of transferring some Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay as part of American support for Afghan reconciliation efforts.

Pakistan yet to decide on charges against doctor in bin Laden raid

01/30/12: CNN reports that Pakistan has not yet decided whether to try a Pakistani doctor for high treason for assisting the US in gathering intelligence ahead of the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, a senior Pakistani government official said Monday. "It's the federal government who will decide whether to try the doctor for high treason or not." "At this stage, the decision hasn't been taken to try the doctor." After the raid, Pakistani officials took into custody several people who are suspected of helping the CIA. The doctor was one of them. Since then, the US has asked for the doctor's release and did so again Sunday.

Ex-Pakistani envoy to US wins court victory

01/30/12: The Miami Herald reports that Pakistan's former ambassador to the US said Monday that a travel ban imposed on him during the investigation of a controversial memo sent to Washington has been lifted. The decision suggests that a scandal that at one point looked as though it could lead to the downfall of Pakistan's government may be losing steam. Husain Haqqani said in a statement that the court commission investigating what the Pakistani media calls "memogate" removed the ban. The commission could not immediately be reached for comment.

France, Karzai want faster NATO Afghanistan exit

01/28/12: The Boston Globe reports that France and Afghanistan agree NATO should speed up by a year its timetable for handing all combat operations to Afghan forces in 2013, President Nicolas Sarkozy said Friday, raising new questions about the unity of the Western military alliance. Sarkozy also announced a faster-track exit for France, the fourth-largest contributor of troops in Afghanistan -- marking a distinct break from previous plans to adhere to the US goal of withdrawing combat forces by the end of 2014.

US transfers security control to Afghans in Jalalabad

01/28/12: The New York Times reports on the latest transfer of power from NATO forces to Afghan authority in the city of Jalalabad and four districts in eastern Afghanistan. As in other areas that have transferred authority, American forces will remain in the region to provide support but, from now on, the Afghan Army is to be in charge. So far, about 20 such ceremonies have taken place across the country, part of the unfolding plan for all NATO combat troops to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Pakistani Senate wants Musharraf tried for treason

01/24/12: CNN reports that Pakistan's upper house of parliament passed a resolution demanding Pervez Musharraf be arrested and tried for treason for unconstitutional acts during his regime, a senator said. The resolution is not binding, but is symbolic and shows the will of the senate, said Muhammad Ibrahim Khan. The resolution, passed Monday, is part of ongoing pressure on Musharraf, who seized power in a 1999 coup and has been living in exile in London and Dubai since resigning in 2008.

Mullahs, militants and military – Pakistan’s shadowy coalition

01/24/12: The Financial Times reports that Hafiz Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, whose commandoes killed 166 people in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is – to outside eyes – the public face of the nexus between spies and jihadists that makes nuclear-armed Pakistan so dangerous. Now, he is back. For years confined to his power base in the eastern Punjab province, Mr. Saeed is on the march – criss-crossing the country with a radical road show starring sectarian hate groups, Islamist parties and hawkish ex-generals. They call themselves the Pakistan Defence Council.

Pakistan rejects US self-defense claim on strikes

01/23/12: The Washington Times reports that Pakistan's army on Monday formally rejected a US claim that American airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops last year were justified as self-defense, a stance that could complicate efforts to repair the troubled but vital relationship between the two countries. In a detailed report, the army said that Pakistani troops did not trigger the November 26 incident at two posts along the Afghan border by firing at American and Afghan forces, as the US has alleged. Pakistan's army said its troops shot at suspected militants who were nowhere near coalition troops.

Norwegian security chief resigns after intel gaffe

01/19/12: The Palm Beach Post reports that the chief of Norway's domestic intelligence service hastily resigned from her post after disclosing classified information in an open hearing in Parliament, apparently about Norway's intelligence activities in Pakistan, officials and media reports said Thursday. Janne Kristiansen, head of Norway's PST security service, "expressed herself in a way that could be interpreted as a breach of confidentiality," Justice Minister Grete Faremo said. Norwegian media reported the classified material was mentioned in her answer to a question from a lawmaker about Norway's contacts with Pakistani security and intelligence agencies.

Analysts say US and Pakistan collaborating again on drone strikes

01/17/12: The Charlotte Observer reports that two apparent US drone attacks last week in Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan very likely signal the resumption of joint counterintelligence operations by the CIA and Pakistan's military spy agency. News reports over the weekend quoted anonymous Pakistani military officials as saying that radio chatter among militants suggested that the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, was among four insurgents who were killed in the second of the drone strikes in the North Waziristan tribal area.

As US-Pakistani relations sink nations try to figure out a new normal

01/17/12: The Washington Post reports that in a call to her Pakistani counterpart this month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated the Obama administration’s counterterrorism “red line”: The United States reserved the right to attack anyone who it determined posed a direct threat to US national security, anywhere in the world. The conversation, recounted by US officials, was one of the few high-level exchanges between the two governments in recent months, and it illustrated the depths to which US-Pakistan relations have fallen after an inadvertent November border clash in which a US air assault killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

A changed way of war in Afghanistan’s skies

01/16/12: The New York Times reports that the use of air power has changed markedly during the long Afghan conflict, reflecting the political costs and sensitivities of civilian casualties caused by errant or indiscriminate strikes and the increasing use of aerial drones, which can watch over potential targets for extended periods with no risk to pilots or more expensive aircraft. Fighter jets with pilots, however, remain an essential component of the war, in part because little else in the allied arsenal is considered as versatile or imposing, and because of improvements in the aircraft’s sensors.

US Marine video not likely to derail Afghan talks

01/15/12: The Denver Post reports that initially there were concerns that outrage over the video showing Marines desecrating the bodies of three men would spiral into a scandal like the one in 2004 over photos showing a group of US military police abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. But Afghan officials said the quick responses by all sides had helped contain the damage. "As all three sides — the US, the Afghan government and the Taliban — have all condemned this act, I'm hopeful that this will not have any effect on the peace process," a member of the peace council and the Taliban's former envoy to the UN said Saturday. The Taliban agreed.

Four dead after US fires first drone in Pakistan in six weeks

01/11/12: The Washington Times reports that the US carried out its first drone strike into Pakistan since errant November airstrikes by US forces killed two dozen Pakistani troops along the Afghan border. The latest missile attack killed four militants, three of them Arabs, according to Pakistani intelligence officials.The drone strike took place Tuesday near Miran Shah in North Waziristan, an al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold that has been pounded by the US since the drone program began in earnest in 2009. American officials say there had been no promise by Washington that drone operations would be avoided since the deadly airstrikes.

Afghanistan to open embassy in Greece to help with illegal immigrants

01/08/12: The Chicago Tribune reports that Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry says it will open an embassy in Greece within a few months to assist tens of thousands of Afghan illegal migrants there. Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Musazai says the new embassy in Athens should be open by the end of March. He says that Kabul will close its embassy in Bulgaria at the same time. Musazai said Sunday that about 50,000 Afghans illegally enter Greece each year, seeking a better life in the European Union. Most choose the country because of its porous land border with Turkey.

3 Iranian guards face murder charges in Pakistan

01/04/12: CBS News reports that a Pakistani official says three Iranian border guards held here face murder charges after fatally shooting a man inside Pakistan's territory while chasing smugglers. Deputy commissioner Saeed Jamali said on Wednesday that the case against the three was registered at a police station the day before. This means the Iranians will have to go on trial, though no date for it has been set. Iran has said the three crossed the border unintentionally while chasing smugglers and has asked Pakistan to release them quickly. The incident occurred Sunday in Baluchistan province, a desolate, sparsely populated region where the border is not clearly marked.

Militant groups in Pakistan form united front

01/03/12: The Washington Post reports that at the urging of the Afghan Taliban, four major Pakistani insurgent factions have joined the Afghan guerrilla group known as the Haqqani network in a council aimed at resolving infighting and ending militant violence against civilians in Pakistan. The Shura-i-Muraqba said it had formed in consultation with the Afghan Taliban and called on “all holy warriors” to avoid criminal activities or face punishment under Islamic law.

Pakistan judicial commission to probe memo scandal

12/30/11: The Seattle Times reports that police say a car bomb has exploded outside the home of a local politician in southwest Pakistan, killing at least nine people. Police officer Nazir Ahmed Kurd says Friday's blast in an upscale neighborhood in Quetta also wounded 21 people. It was unclear if the politician, Shafique Mengal, was home at the time. Mengal is the son of Naseer Mengal, a prominent politician who had served as oil minister during the tenure of former President Pervez Musharraf.

Pakistani death squads go after informants to US drone program

12/29/11: The Los Angeles Times reports that Militant groups lack the ability to bring down the drones, which have killed senior Al Qaeda and Taliban commanders as well as many foot soldiers. Instead, a collection of them have banded together to form Khorasan Mujahedin in the North Waziristan tribal region to hunt for those who sell information about the location of militants and their safe houses. Pakistani officials and tribal elders maintain that most of those who are abducted this way are innocent, but after being beaten, burned with irons or scalded with boiling water, almost all eventually "confess." And few ever come back.

Training upped for Afghan forces

12/26/11: POLITICO reports that Afghanistan and the US-led coalition have stepped up training of the Afghan special forces unit to fill the vacuum that will be left by foreign troops slated to end their combat mission in 2014. In the future, it will be Afghan special forces countering insurgents in villages across the country. As the force expands, they will also lead more of the controversial house searches - something that could mitigate Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s intense opposition to the nighttime raids by international troops that Afghans have found culturally offensive.

US prepares for a curtailed relationship with Pakistan

12/26/11: The New York Times reports that with the United States facing the reality that its broad security partnership with Pakistan is over, American officials are seeking to salvage a more limited counterterrorism alliance that they acknowledge will complicate their ability to launch attacks against extremists and move supplies into Afghanistan. The United States will be forced to restrict drone strikes, limit the number of its spies and soldiers on the ground and spend more to transport supplies through Pakistan to allied troops in Afghanistan, American and Pakistani officials said. United States aid to Pakistan will also be reduced.

Human rights advocate says Afghan president fired him

12/23/11: The Boston Globe reports that Afghanistan's leading human rights activist said Friday that President Hamid Karzai has fired him and two others from the government's own rights commission. The claim came as the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission was working on a landmark report about abuses in the country. The United States and the European Union are worried that such violations, along with widespread corruption, are undermining their efforts to stabilize the nation and defeat the stubborn Taliban insurgency -- threatening their goal of crafting a strong central government to take over when NATO leaves.

Pakistani prime minister warns of coup plot

12/23/11: The Washington Post reports that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani warned Thursday of a conspiracy to oust the government, signaling that tension between his civilian administration and Pakistan’s powerful army might be close to a breaking point. Gilani’s remarks come amid a widening scandal involving a secret memo that his administration supposedly sent to Washington in the spring asking for help to avert a possible coup. “There can be no state within a state,” Gilani said during an event commemorating the birth of Pakistan’s founder. “People will have to decide whether they want elected people or a dictatorship in the country.”

Ex-Soviet states aid US transit as Pakistan relations deteriorate

12/22/11: The Washington Times reports that the United States is increasingly relying on three transit routes snaking through Central Asia, Russia and the Caucuses to ship nonmilitary supplies and fuel into Afghanistan as the deteriorating relationship between Washington and Pakistan closes off border crossings, according to a Senate report obtained by the Associated Press. Use of the Northern Distribution Network to supply US and coalition forces has been crucial in the war against terrorism, and its role underscores the political and strategic importance of the Central Asian nations on the front lines of the conflict.

Secrecy defines Obama’s drone war

12/20/11: The Washington Post reports that since September, at least 60 people have died in 14 reported CIA drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal regions. The Obama administration has named only one of the dead, hailing the elimination of Janbaz Zadran, a top official in the Haqqani insurgent network, as a counterterrorism victory. The identities of the rest remain classified, as does the existence of the drone program itself. Because the names of the dead and the threat they were believed to pose are secret, it is impossible for anyone without access to US intelligence to assess whether the deaths were justified.

US military, Taliban use Twitter to wage war

12/20/11: The Washington Post reports that the Twitter war began in earnest September 14, in the midst of a sustained attack on the US Embassy in Kabul and the adjacent headquarters of the US-led international military force. Until then, NATO officials had kept close tabs on the messages posted on two accounts linked to the Taliban’s media arm — but had refrained from engaging or acknowledging them. US military officials assigned to the International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, as the coalition is known, took the first shot in what has become a near-daily battle waged with broadsides that must be kept to 140 characters.

NATO report finds abuses by Afghan local police forces

12/16/11: The New York Times reports that some American-trained, Afghan local police officers have engaged in illegal taxation, carried weapons outside their villages and in some cases committed assault, but over all the NATO military leadership thinks they have been “effective,” according to a report issued late Thursday. The report, written by Brigadier General James R. Marrs of the United States Air Force, is a response to a highly critical study by Human Rights Watch released in September that detailed allegations of human rights abuses by the relatively new Afghan local police force and by irregular armed groups across the country.

Lawmakers freeze $700 million to Pakistan, ties strained

12/13/11: The New York Times reports that a Congressional panel has frozen $700 million in aid to Pakistan until it gives assurances it is helping fight the spread of homemade bombs in the region, a move one Pakistani senator called unwise and likely to strain ties further.  Pakistan is one of the largest recipients of US foreign aid and the cutback announced is only a small proportion of the billions in civil and military assistance it gets each year.  But it could presage even greater cuts.

Panetta in Kabul to review progress in Afghan war as relations with Pakistan hit new lows

12/13/11: The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Afghanistan Tuesday to meet with commanders, as the US grapples with an eroding relationship with Pakistan that has complicated supply routes and helped fuel insurgents in the east. While he was upbeat about security progress in Afghanistan, Panetta was also likely to hear some somber news from commanders as they wrestle with the withdrawal of 23,000 more troops in the coming year, the transition of security to Afghan forces and the near collapse of coordination with Islamabad along critical portions of the border.

A counterinsurgency behind the burka

12/12/11: The Los Angeles Times reports that after a US special operations force secured a compound outside Kandahar recently, Army 1st Lieutenant Ashley White was sent in to search and interview Afghan women. Just after she arrived, a homemade bomb exploded, killing her and two Army Rangers. White, 24, was the first female soldier to die in combat while performing a unique new role for the Army. She was part of an elite cultural support team, first sent to Afghanistan in January in an attempt to overcome daunting cultural barriers in the deeply conservative Islamic country. Women like White perform duties that no man can attempt without gravely offending or enraging Afghans.

US commander defends night raids in Afghanistan

12/12/11: ABC News reports that the US Special Operations commander who directed the operation that killed Osama bin Laden defended the unpopular night raids on homes in Afghanistan that have provoked the fury of the country's president and held up a security agreement with the United States. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called for an end to the raids, in which troops borne in by helicopter search homes, because he says the forces conducting them treat too many civilians as if they were insurgents and violate privacy in an intensely conservative society.  McRaven said in a rare interview with journalists late Saturday that the U.S. understands Afghan concerns about night raids and has allowed its partner Afghan forces to take the lead in those and other operations.

US ambassador asserts Afghan attacks will not spur sectarian violence

12/11/11: The Voice of America reports that US ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker said Saturday it was unlikely that this week's deadly attacks on Shi'ites in Afghanistan would spark a cycle of sectarian violence in the country. The veteran diplomat said that, based on the reaction of the Shi'ite leaders who have called for calm, he did not see the attacks turning into a sectarian conflict. Two blasts, one in Kabul and another in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, killed at least 59 people Tuesday on Ashura, the holiest day of the Shi'ite Muslim calendar.

Afghans uneasy despite security gains made by US troop buildup

12/07/11: The Los Angeles Times reports that with this year's fighting season drawing to a close as the harsh Afghan winter sets in, US commanders have declared that the "surge" ordered by President Obama two years ago achieved its aims.  A crucial goal of the troop buildup was breaking the insurgency's hold on Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace and a center of gravity for all of southern Afghanistan. But even as the NATO force reports an overall drop in insurgent attacks against Western troops during the fighting season, many here question the durability of gains against the Taliban, whose roots in this city run too deep to be readily eradicated.

Karzai to confront Pakistan over Kabul attack

12/07/11: CBS News reports that Afghanistan's president vowed Wednesday to confront the government in Islamabad over a devastating suicide bombing against a Shiite shrine in Kabul that he said originated on Pakistani soil. A man claiming to be from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami, a Pakistan-based splinter group of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi that has carried out attacks against Shiite Muslims in Pakistan, has called various media outlets to claim responsibility for the Kabul bombing.

59 dead as blasts across Afghanistan target Shi'ites

12/06/11: The Chicago Tribune reports that a suicide attack killed dozens of Shi'ite Muslims at a crowded Kabul shrine on Tuesday, and four others died in a smaller blast in a key northern city, in the worst sectarian violence Afghanistan has seen since the fall of the Taliban. The Kabul bomb was the deadliest in the capital since 2008, and punctured any lingering sense of optimism from a conference on Monday where Western allies made firm but not specific promises to support Afghanistan after troops leave in 2014.

Afghans say they will need aid until 2030

12/05/11: The New York Times reports that as dozens of nations and organizations met on Monday to plan a transition beyond the withdrawal of American and other international forces from Afghanistan in 2014, the Afghan government had a new deadline in mind: 2024. President Hamid Karzai and other Afghan officials called for political and military support for at least another decade — and for financial assistance until 2030. That would be nearly three decades after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that led to the international intervention in Afghanistan.