Karzai

Deadlines concentrate the mind. Without a little extra incentive and pressure, sometimes nothing gets done. It is a deadline that lies at the heart of one of the most controversial foreign policy decisions that President Obama has made. His announced timeline for withdrawal from Afghanistan has drawn fire from many quarters. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and others have argued that by making U.S. plans clear, the president is sending the wrong message to the Taliban and complicating efforts to defeat it. Announcing "dates certain" for withdrawal, according to this view, is political, not strategic.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The Taliban and U.S. military were both at fault in a NATO airstrike in eastern Afghanistan this month that killed 17 civilians, including 12 children, according to an Afghan government investigation. The inquiry raised the number of civilian deaths from an earlier total of 11. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has completed an investigation of the same incident in Kunar province, but its report is still under review, a coalition spokesman said. The deaths of civilians in the Afghanistan war have been a highly sensitive political issue.

The speaker of Afghanistan's lower house of parliament, Younis Qanooni, on Saturday denounced a speech by President Hamid Karzai in which the Afghan leader blamed the West for last summer's fraud-ridden election. The parliament has been embroiled in a heated dispute with Karzai over conditions for parliamentary elections, sparring with him over his authority to appoint members of a fraud-auditing panel for the vote scheduled in September. In trying to downplay Karzai's angry speech Thursday, his aides contended that it was misconstrued.

KABUL - Secretary of State John Kerry joined Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday for a public show of unity, declaring that the two allies “are on the same page” despite weeks of unprecedented friction. Kerry, who has played a special role in soothing U.S. tensions with the Afghan leader, said the United States respected Afghanistan's sovereignty and remained committed to its security, even as it prepares final decisions about scaling back the U.S. commitment following the departure of all combat troops by the end of next year.

In an unexpected show of defiance, Afghan lawmakers Saturday rejected 17 of President Hamid Karzai's 24 nominees for Cabinet posts, including a powerful warlord. Afghanistan's political scene has been in a state of shambles for months, as the Obama administration prepares for one of the biggest and fastest troop buildups of the conflict, which is in its ninth year. About 30,000 more U.S. troops are to be deployed in Afghanistan this year, and senior commanders have said the buildup will be crucial in 2010 to halt the growing momentum of the Taliban-led insurgency.

The Afghan parliament Saturday once again rejected the majority of President Hamid Karzai's choices for his Cabinet, a rebuke likely to unnerve an international community that desperately wants the Afghan leader to forge ahead with reform plans. The rejection of 10 of the 17 nominees means that Karzai will have to go back to parliament a third time to gain approval for his Cabinet choices, and raises questions about his political strength. After he presented his initial slate of 24 nominees Jan. 2, lawmakers rejected 17 of them.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai told world leaders Thursday that he intends to reach out to the top echelons of the Taliban within a few weeks, accelerating a peace initiative that has troubled U.S. and many other Western leaders. Karzai told officials of nearly 70 countries and of international aid groups at a gathering in London that he is seeking the mediation of Saudi Arabia and the blessing of Pakistan to try to negotiate peace with the leaders of the militant movement that was driven from power a little more than eight years ago. The initiative is delicate for the Obama administration, which wants peace in Afghanistan but is sensitive to concerns about making peace with an opponent that has killed well over 1,000 Western troops and been blamed for aiding in the 9/11 attacks.

The Cabinet nominees announced by President Hamid Karzai on Saturday underscore the competing demands the Afghan leader confronts as he embarks on a troubled second term in office. Karzai, inaugurated last month after a fraud-tainted election, is trying to simultaneously placate restive Western backers, woo his disillusioned public and pacify powerful warlords who have helped keep him in power. The Cabinet list, leaked by presidential aides a day before being presented to lawmakers Saturday, retained some well-regarded ministers in posts considered crucial to rebuilding Afghanistan and fighting the Taliban.

President Obama flew to Afghanistan's capital Sunday evening and offered a tough message to President Hamid Karzai, urging that stronger action be taken to crack down on government corruption and to build respect for the rule of law. Later in his six-hour unannounced visit, his first to the war-battered country since becoming president, Obama received a rousing welcome from American troops at the sprawling Bagram air base outside Kabul. As midnight approached, camouflage-clad service members whooped and snapped pictures of the president, who dispensed hugs and handshakes before taking to the podium.

The senior envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan sought Friday to dispel suggestions that he had been sidelined during dramatic diplomacy in Afghanistan because of his stormy relationship with the Afghan president. Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke acknowledged that he had been in Washington, rather than Kabul, last weekend as Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) and other senior U.S. officials pressured a reluctant Karzai to agree to a runoff election, which has been scheduled for Nov. 7. Holbrooke, in a State Department news conference, said he had remained in Washington to take part in deliberations on whether to overhaul the U.S. strategy and send thousands more troops to Afghanistan.

KABUL, Afghanistan - A man in a police uniform opened fire on U.S. and Afghan soldiers Monday at a base in eastern Afghanistan, killing two Americans in what may be the latest insider attack by Afghans against allied security forces. Afghan officials said three Afghan police officers also were killed in the shooting in Wardak, the strategically crucial province where President Hamid Karzai last month ordered U.S. special forces to cease operations. U.S. military officials said it wasn't immediately clear whether the gunman was an Afghan police officer or impostor.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The often-volatile U.S. relationship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai grew increasingly strained Sunday as Karzai accused the U.S. and Taliban insurgents of having a secret understanding to foment violence as a pretext to keep foreign troops in Afghanistan. The comments were the latest - and perhaps the most baffling - broadside by the mercurial  Afghan leader against one of his nation's closest allies, leaving U.S. officials privately fuming and publicly struggling to limit the fallout.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The often-volatile U.S. relationship with Afghan President Hamid Karzai grew increasingly strained Sunday as Karzai accused the United States and Taliban insurgents of having a secret understanding to foment violence as a pretext to keep foreign troops in Afghanistan. The comments were the latest - and perhaps the most baffling - broadside by the mercurial Afghan leader against one of his nation's closest allies, leaving U.S. officials privately fuming and publicly struggling to limit the fallout.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday ordered U.S. special forces troops to cease operations in a strategic eastern province, accusing the Americans and Afghans working for them of torturing and abducting civilians. Karzai's office charged that a university student who was detained during a U.S. operation in Wardak province, southwest of Kabul, was later found with his head and fingers cut off. In another case, U.S. forces are accused of detaining nine villagers, who are still missing.

KABUL, Afghanistan - The commander of the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan said Sunday that his forces were prepared to comply with President Hamid Karzai's demand that Afghan forces stop requesting international airstrikes in residential areas. Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. downplayed the effects of Karzai's directive, even though Afghanistan's fledgling security forces rely entirely on U.S. and NATO warplanes for air power against Taliban-led insurgents. "We can continue to support the Afghan National Security Forces and meet the president's intent," Dunford said.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Monday sought to reassure an anxious public that security will not be compromised when the bulk of U.S. forces leave next year, saying the country needs American aid, not troops, in order to take over the fight against the Taliban. Karzai said he expected the U.S. to continue training, equipping and paying Afghan national security forces. "Afghanistan will be more secure after the foreigners leave," Karzai said at a news conference in Kabul.

The United States is developing a set of benchmarks to ensure that Afghan President Hamid Karzai keeps a promise delivered at his inauguration to fight corruption and inefficiency, U.S. officials said. Taking the oath of office Thursday, Karzai, whose reputation has been battered by corruption allegations against close associates, pledged to fire any official connected to drug trafficking and "end the culture of impunity and violation of the law." To hold him to his word, the Obama administration is instituting a "monitoring and verification" system to judge whether the central government's ministries and agencies are worthy of receiving direct U.S. aid. If the organizations don't measure up, they won't receive any U.S. money, administration officials said.

Afghanistan's security forces will need U.S. support for another 15 to 20 years, President Hamid Karzai said Tuesday in the latest in a series of indications that U.S. involvement there is likely to last far into the future. Also Tuesday, the top U.S. and allied commander in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, told lawmakers in Washington that the U.S. needed to signal a long-term commitment in Afghanistan in order to reverse the momentum of the Taliban-led insurgency, a commitment that he said must continue even after combat forces begin to draw down in 2011.

WASHINGTON - Battling a potent insurgency and waning support in Washington, Afghan President Hamid Karzai will meet President Obama on Friday amid signs that the White House seeks to transform the ground war in Afghanistan into a conflict similar to the current covert war in Pakistan. The Obama administration has maintained pressure on Islamist militants who operate in Pakistan's lawless border areas through the use of targeted drone strikes against individuals and small gatherings, vast infusions of military and financial aid to the government in Islamabad, and a mostly hidden U.S. military and CIA presence.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Saturday the suicide bombing that seriously wounded his nation's spy chief was planned in Pakistan, an accusation that further strained tensions between the neighboring countries. Karzai did not directly accuse the Pakistani government. He told reporters at the presidential palace that he intended to raise the issue with Pakistan. Afghan officials often accuse Pakistan of meddling in Afghanistan by supporting the Taliban and attempting to undercut the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.