http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/oef/ en-us Sat, 2 Jan 2010 23:51:06 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419728/posts KABUL -- A senior commander connected to the Afghan Taliban and involved with the attack against the CIA that left eight people dead said Saturday that the bombing was retaliation for U.S. drone strikes in the Afghan-Pakistan border region. "We attacked this base because the team there was organizing drone strikes in Loya Paktia and surrounding area," the commander said, referring to the area around Khost, the city where the U.S. facility was attacked. The commander, a prominent member of the Afghan insurgency, spoke on the condition of anonymity. The suicide attack, which dealt the biggest loss to the agency... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419728/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 23:51:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419756/posts WASHINGTON -- The attack that killed seven Central Intelligence Agency officers on a U.S. base in Afghanistan appears to stem from a strategy of calculated risk in running the spy agency's informant network, posing a sharp challenge as operations ramp up for the Obama troop surge. U.S. intelligence and military officials said Friday that Wednesday's attacker had been recruited as a possible informant and brought onto Forward Operating Base Chapman, passing through at least one checkpoint. He detonated his charge shortly before being searched, blowing himself up, killing seven and wounding six. It was a "high-level asset meeting gone bad,"... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419756/posts#comment Sun, 3 Jan 2010 00:49:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2419651/posts I have no grand insights to offer but this is too awful and too … astounding, really, to be relegated to Headlines. These people were the tip of the American spear against jihadist kingpins in the Afghan/Pakistani border region, the innermost circle in a big Venn diagram that starts with the CIA, proceeds to the units tasked with finding intel on AQ, and ends with the elite charged with building the target list for drone operators. In one split second, that last circle was practically erased. If you thought the biggest security breach of the past week was Flight 253,... Hotair http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2419651/posts#comment Sat, 2 Jan 2010 20:09:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419173/posts U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan “are not winning yet, but we are going to win,” Gen. Stanley McChrystal, commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, told Stars and Stripes in an interview Friday. But the general said it was not possible to say how long it will take to achieve victory, which he defined as a situation where “the insurgency is not an existential threat to the government or the people” of Afghanistan. He added that protecting civilians remains the goal of the allied counterinsurgency strategy. “There’s no way to put an exact timeline on it, because as... Stars and Stripes http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2419173/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 22:11:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418771/posts Bombing in Afghanistan Devastates Critical Hub for CIA Activities By SIOBHAN GORMAN WASHINGTON—Wednesday's attack on a U.S. compound in Afghanistan devastated what has been a hub of counterterrorism and intelligence operations for the spy agency. Seven Central Intelligence Agency officers and contractors were killed and six more wounded in the suicide bomb attack at Forward Operating Base Chapman, CIA Director Leon Panetta said Thursday, the second-largest single-day loss for the spy agency in its history. Among the casualties was the agency's base chief, former intelligence officials said. There had been only four publicly acknowledged CIA fatalities in Afghanistan prior to... Wall St. Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418771/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jan 2010 03:04:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418573/posts WASHINGTON (AP) - The Associated Press has learned that the suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a remote outpost in southeastern Afghanistan had been invited onto the base and was not searched. A former senior intelligence official says the man was being courted as an informant and that it was the first time he had been brought inside the camp. Associated Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2418573/posts#comment Thu, 31 Dec 2009 20:18:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417835/posts US Citizens Killed In Afghanistan Eight Americans have been killed in a suicide bomb attack in south-eastern Afghanistan, US officials say. The suicide bomber was wearing an explosive vest as he carried out the attack at a forward operating base in Khost province, CNN reported. Details about the attack are still emerging and it was not clear how many people had been injured. One unnamed US official was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying that all of those killed were civilians. BBCNews http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417835/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:42:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417787/posts Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A suicide bomber struck a forward operating base in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, causing an unknown number of American casualties, a U.S. military official said. CNN.COM http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2417787/posts#comment Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:32:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414915/posts The Taliban released a video Friday showing a U.S. soldier who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan. Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl is the only known American serviceman in captivity. The U.S. airborne infantryman was taken by the Afghan Taliban in Paktika province on June 30. AP/YahooNews http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414915/posts#comment Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:00:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414861/posts KABUL (AP) - The Taliban released Friday a video purporting to show a U.S. soldier who was captured more than five months ago in eastern Afghanistan. Associated Press / Breitbart http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414861/posts#comment Fri, 25 Dec 2009 07:51:06 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414179/posts NOW ZAD, Afghanistan I Signs of rebirth are growing in this former Taliban stronghold in Helmand province just days after U.S. Marines stormed it in a ground-and-airborne assault that caught its Taliban occupiers by surprise. In the once deserted bazaar area in the western portion of town, hundreds of men from nearby villages defy Taliban threats and clear debris from fighting in exchange for pay from U.S. troops. In the district center next to the main U.S. military base, more than 100 children attend ad hoc classes in reading and writing. The classes, initially started by Afghan-American interpreters working with... The Washington Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2414179/posts#comment Thu, 24 Dec 2009 01:35:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411958/posts KABUL - The Taliban have announced they will release a new video of a U.S. soldier captured in Afghanistan, a U.S.-based terrorism monitoring group said Wednesday. MSNBC http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411958/posts#comment Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:37:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2406897/posts New military rules of engagement ostensibly to protect Afghan civilians are putting the lives of U.S. forces in jeopardy, claim Army and Marine sources, as the Taliban learns to game plan based the rules' imposed limits. The rules of engagement, or ROEs, apply to all coalition forces of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Their enactment is in response to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's complaints over mounting civilian deaths apparently occurring in firefights. Despite the fact that the newly arrived U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, imposed the more restrictive ROEs to minimize the killing of... WorldNetDaily.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2406897/posts#comment Mon, 14 Dec 2009 02:49:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2406061/posts Gen. Stanley McChrystal's long-awaited testimony before Congress on the Afghanistan "surge" was, according to one account, "uneventful." The general himself, another story noted, was "a study in circumspection." And questioning from lawmakers was, said a third, "gentle." That's a nice word for it. "Ineffectual" is more like it. Throw in "callous," too, given House members' obligations to constituents in the war zone, operating under what are surely the most restrictive rules of engagement (ROE) in U.S. history. But not a single lawmaker appears to have ventured one question about these dangerously disarming ROEs, which, in Gen. McChrystal's controversial view, are... Townhall.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2406061/posts#comment Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:22:26 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402654/posts FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky — The highest-ranking military officer in the United States on Monday told soldiers, including many bound for Afghanistan, that he expects casualties to rise next year as additional U.S. troops pour into the war. Washington Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2402654/posts#comment Tue, 8 Dec 2009 06:54:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401908/posts Washington (CNN) – A leading Republican strategist and one-time aide to former Vice President Cheney said Sunday that President Obama’s recently announced decision to send an additional 30, 000 troops to Afghanistan is “a reassertion of the Bush doctrine.” “The [Bush] doctrine is no safe havens [for terrorists intent on harming the United States] and we go after those that provide a harbor [for such terrorists]. That’s the doctrine,” Republican strategist Mary Matalin explained Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. Obama’s decision to surge additional troops into Afghanistan is “solid policy,’ in Matalin’s view and “a reassertion of the... CNN - Political Ticker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401908/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 10:43:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401746/posts Some parishioners in the Church of Obama discovered last week that their spiritual leader is a false prophet Consider the blow suffered by the liberal filmmaker Michael Moore, who issued a plaintive plea to the president on the eve of his announcement that he was sending 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan. By escalating the war, Moore wrote: "[Y]ou will do the worst possible thing you could do -- destroy the hopes and dreams so many millions have placed in you. With just one speech tomorrow night you will turn a multitude of young people who were the backbone of your... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401746/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 00:49:02 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401737/posts Obama told us throughout the 2008 campaign that Afghanistan was the war we should be fighting. The conflict where we supposedly took our eyes off the ball (even though Bush handed control over to NATO long ago, as the left wanted) and the conflict where most of our resources should go to. So he becomes President and nominated McChrystal to head it up and sent over 21,000 more troops. He then told McChrystal that his mission was to destroy the Taliban. Then he forgot all about Afghanistan as he pursued his Socialist utopian dreams onto this country. Well, McChrystal took... Flopping Aces http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401737/posts#comment Mon, 7 Dec 2009 00:30:52 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401638/posts President Barack Obama's attempt to clarify his July 2011 deadline for a US departure from Afghanistan has resulted in more confusion and will dilute Pakistan's commitment to fighting the Taliban, Senator John McCain has told The Daily Telegraph. Sen McCain, who has led criticism in Washington over the President's most controversial element said that senior administration officials had only contradicted each other when trying to explain how the timeline for the beginning of a US troop withdrawal would work in practice. "Since the President made his speech we have not had further clarification, in fact we have had further contradiction,"... Telegraph (U.K.) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2401638/posts#comment Sun, 6 Dec 2009 20:23:20 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2401601/posts In June, McChrystal noted, he had arrived in Afghanistan and set about fulfilling his assignment. His lean face, hovering on the screen at the end of the table, was replaced by a mission statement on a slide: "Defeat the Taliban. Secure the Population." "Is that really what you think your mission is?" one of those in the Situation Room asked. On the face of it, it was impossible -- the Taliban were part of the fabric of the Pashtun belt of southern Afghanistan, culturally if not ideologically supported by a significant part of the population. "We don't need to do... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2401601/posts#comment Sun, 6 Dec 2009 18:37:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400464/posts Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato Secretary General, said he had received commitments from 25 countries and details would be announced in the coming weeks. He said he also expected more pledges to follow an international conference on Afghanistan in January. Yesterday's meeting of Nato ministers in Brussels raised an extra 3,200 troops on top of the 3,800 soldiers pledged in the last month, including 500 from Britain and 1,000 from Italy. It came as Hillary Clinton, the United States Secretary of State, called on the alliance to rally behind the American-led surge of troops planned in 2010. "This is our fight,... The Telegraph http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400464/posts#comment Fri, 4 Dec 2009 20:39:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2400596/posts Here is a video report on the progress of Operation "Cobra's Anger," launched by nearly 1,000 U.S. Marines today against the Taliban in the Southern part of the country. This report says a Marine source says the Taliban have been "caught off guard," and are "confused and disorganized." The Marines dropped into the area overnight, an area that has been a Taliban stronghold. . . . (VIDEO) Freedom's Lighthouse http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2400596/posts#comment Fri, 4 Dec 2009 23:31:04 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400568/posts WASHINGTON, Dec. 4, 2009 – More than 1,000 International Security Assistance Force troops are partnering with Afghan forces to begin a large-scale operation in northern Helmand province. About 900 U.S. Marines and sailors and British forces began partnering today with 150 Afghan soldiers and police to start Operation Khareh Cobra, or Cobra’s Anger, to clear insurgent forces in the Now Zad valley. Marines from 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, Regimental Combat Team 7 and 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion are partnered with Afghan army and police. The forces began helicopter and ground operations in the Now Zad valley early this morning. Now... American Forces Press Service http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400568/posts#comment Fri, 4 Dec 2009 23:02:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2400022/posts After a full three months of damaging dither, Obama has finally announced his strategy for Afghanistan. It is nothing less than surrender dressed up in deepest, blood-boltered hypocrisy. The media have reported the headline announcement of an extra 30,000 troops as if he has finally junked his anti-war persona and turned into George W Bush reborn. Even some hawks who should know better are purring that he has finally done the right thing in committing America more fully to fighting and winning the war in Afghanistan. Are they all nuts? This is nothing of the kind. Obama’s speech amounted to... The Spectator (U.K.) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2400022/posts#comment Fri, 4 Dec 2009 10:04:24 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400234/posts WASHINGTON — Two weeks ago in Pakistan, Central Intelligence Agency sharpshooters killed eight people suspected of being militants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and wounded two others in a compound that was said to be used for terrorist training. Then, the job in North Waziristan done, the C.I.A. officers could head home from the agency’s Langley, Va., headquarters, facing only the hazards of the area’s famously snarled suburban traffic. It was only the latest strike by the agency’s covert program to kill operatives of Al Qaeda, the Taliban and their allies using Hellfire missiles fired from Predator aircraft controlled... New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2400234/posts#comment Fri, 4 Dec 2009 16:00:16 GMT