Afghans Face Deadly Threats as Vote Nears
The governor had good news for the Afghans who met him here Sunday: Residents in this southern village can finally register to vote in the upcoming election.
The local Taliban's message was less cheery: They were busy firing mortar shells at U.S. Marines trying to secure the district ahead of Thursday's ballots for president and provincial councils.
Afghanistan's intelligence service chief, meanwhile, said authorities were making progress in convincing some Taliban to leave voters alone Thursday, when Afghans will select a president and members of provincial councils.
Militants have promised to disrupt the poll, in which President Hamid Karzai hopes to win another five-year term.
Lee Hamilton, co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, told CBS anchor Harry Smith on "Face the Nation" Sunday that he was concerned about the direction of the embattled nation's leadership.
"I don't know much about the alternatives to Karzai," Hamilton said. "I have been disappointed in Karzai's leadership. But if our goal is to create a legitimate, reasonable, accountable, capable Afghan government, we are going to be there a long, long time, I believe."
Some have warned people to stay away from voting centers, close businesses and not travel on election day.
CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan told Smith Sunday than an atmosphere of fear hangs over the election in the country.
"What people were telling us here is that they were telling the Marines who were out on patrol yesterday, 'We can't go and vote because your finger is stained with indelible ink and if the Taliban see that they say they will chop off our head and kill us,'" Logan said.
Thus, the picture was decidedly mixed for the 150 residents who showed up for a meeting in Khawja Jamal, a village about a mile from Taliban lines in the Now Zad district of southern Helmand province, a longtime Taliban stronghold.
Simply attending the meeting meant risking Taliban retaliation. On Saturday a suicide car bomb killed seven people and wounded 91 outside NATO's military headquarters in Kabul. The Taliban said it was responsible.
"This for Afghans is a demonstration that the Taliban are trying to show they can strike any time they want to, anywhere they want to and they have threatened to disrupt the election at all costs," Logan said.
In leaflets pinned on mosque walls in the key southern province of Kandahar late Saturday, the militants warned they will use "new tactics" as they try to undermine the vote.
"You should not participate in the elections and should not go to the polling centers because officials might be there and there might be attacks against them," said the letter signed by Ghulam Haidar, the Taliban's operational Kandahar commander.
"You should not participate in the elections because you might be the victims of our operations," continued the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
The Taliban also warned people not to allow the voting to take place on their property or rent their houses to election officials.
Now Zad, in Helmand province, has witnessed intense fighting between insurgents and Marines, who are trying to cut militant supply lines, establish an Afghan government presence and establish enough security for people to vote safely in the Thursday balloting.
Helmand Gov. Gullab Mangal said he was the first Afghan government official to enter the district in three years.
He flew in on a helicopter and was accompanied at the meeting by the top U.S. Marine in Afghanistan, Brig Gen. Lawrence Nicholson. Mangal said a polling center would be established in the village - likely to be the first in the district.
"The registration people are here today, already trying to get the voters' identities" ahead of the election, Mangal told villagers amid tight Afghan and U.S. military security measures as Cobra helicopters circled overhead.
Nicholson, who commands the 2nd Marines Expeditionary Brigade, described the meeting as "helicopter diplomacy:" ferrying in the governor so he could try to win support for operations by NATO and U.S. forces.
Nicholson also hailed the progress made by a joint Marine-Afghan army offensive on Dahaneh, a nearby village that had been occupied by militants who are gradually being forced out.
"It demonstrates for the larger campaign of the coalition forces and the Marines that the enemy is not safe anywhere," Nicholson told The Associated Press.
Still, insurgents managed to fire six mortar shells directly at the Marines' main Forward Operation Base in Now Zad on Sunday, the AP saw. Troops responded with over a dozen mortar shots aimed at the part of the valley under Taliban control.
The head of Afghanistan's intelligence service, Amrullah Saleh, indicated talks were under way with local Taliban leaders to avoid attacking voting centers, but he gave few details.
"When we started this, we found out that there is no cohesion of command" within the Taliban, he said.
The exchange occurred just as Helmand's governor was raising the Afghan national flag on a nearby Marines' outpost where Afghan police are meant to settle.
Gaining the trust of villagers in the opium-producing Helmand province is crucial because these ethnic Pashtun people represent the bulk of Afghans. Helmand is the Taliban's spiritual heartland and most of the insurgents are Pashtun. The ethnic group is considered a critical voting bloc for candidates running for Afghan president.
Separately, a rocket hit a shop in Kandahar city, wounding two children inside, police official Mohammad Jan said. No group immediately claimed responsibility.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The local Taliban's message was less cheery: They were busy firing mortar shells at U.S. Marines trying to secure the district ahead of Thursday's ballots for president and provincial councils.
Afghanistan's intelligence service chief, meanwhile, said authorities were making progress in convincing some Taliban to leave voters alone Thursday, when Afghans will select a president and members of provincial councils.
Militants have promised to disrupt the poll, in which President Hamid Karzai hopes to win another five-year term.
Lee Hamilton, co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, told CBS anchor Harry Smith on "Face the Nation" Sunday that he was concerned about the direction of the embattled nation's leadership.
"I don't know much about the alternatives to Karzai," Hamilton said. "I have been disappointed in Karzai's leadership. But if our goal is to create a legitimate, reasonable, accountable, capable Afghan government, we are going to be there a long, long time, I believe."
Some have warned people to stay away from voting centers, close businesses and not travel on election day.
CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan told Smith Sunday than an atmosphere of fear hangs over the election in the country.
"What people were telling us here is that they were telling the Marines who were out on patrol yesterday, 'We can't go and vote because your finger is stained with indelible ink and if the Taliban see that they say they will chop off our head and kill us,'" Logan said.
Thus, the picture was decidedly mixed for the 150 residents who showed up for a meeting in Khawja Jamal, a village about a mile from Taliban lines in the Now Zad district of southern Helmand province, a longtime Taliban stronghold.
Simply attending the meeting meant risking Taliban retaliation. On Saturday a suicide car bomb killed seven people and wounded 91 outside NATO's military headquarters in Kabul. The Taliban said it was responsible.
"This for Afghans is a demonstration that the Taliban are trying to show they can strike any time they want to, anywhere they want to and they have threatened to disrupt the election at all costs," Logan said.
In leaflets pinned on mosque walls in the key southern province of Kandahar late Saturday, the militants warned they will use "new tactics" as they try to undermine the vote.
"You should not participate in the elections and should not go to the polling centers because officials might be there and there might be attacks against them," said the letter signed by Ghulam Haidar, the Taliban's operational Kandahar commander.
"You should not participate in the elections because you might be the victims of our operations," continued the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
The Taliban also warned people not to allow the voting to take place on their property or rent their houses to election officials.
Now Zad, in Helmand province, has witnessed intense fighting between insurgents and Marines, who are trying to cut militant supply lines, establish an Afghan government presence and establish enough security for people to vote safely in the Thursday balloting.
Helmand Gov. Gullab Mangal said he was the first Afghan government official to enter the district in three years.
He flew in on a helicopter and was accompanied at the meeting by the top U.S. Marine in Afghanistan, Brig Gen. Lawrence Nicholson. Mangal said a polling center would be established in the village - likely to be the first in the district.
"The registration people are here today, already trying to get the voters' identities" ahead of the election, Mangal told villagers amid tight Afghan and U.S. military security measures as Cobra helicopters circled overhead.
Nicholson, who commands the 2nd Marines Expeditionary Brigade, described the meeting as "helicopter diplomacy:" ferrying in the governor so he could try to win support for operations by NATO and U.S. forces.
Nicholson also hailed the progress made by a joint Marine-Afghan army offensive on Dahaneh, a nearby village that had been occupied by militants who are gradually being forced out.
"It demonstrates for the larger campaign of the coalition forces and the Marines that the enemy is not safe anywhere," Nicholson told The Associated Press.
Still, insurgents managed to fire six mortar shells directly at the Marines' main Forward Operation Base in Now Zad on Sunday, the AP saw. Troops responded with over a dozen mortar shots aimed at the part of the valley under Taliban control.
The head of Afghanistan's intelligence service, Amrullah Saleh, indicated talks were under way with local Taliban leaders to avoid attacking voting centers, but he gave few details.
"When we started this, we found out that there is no cohesion of command" within the Taliban, he said.
The exchange occurred just as Helmand's governor was raising the Afghan national flag on a nearby Marines' outpost where Afghan police are meant to settle.
Gaining the trust of villagers in the opium-producing Helmand province is crucial because these ethnic Pashtun people represent the bulk of Afghans. Helmand is the Taliban's spiritual heartland and most of the insurgents are Pashtun. The ethnic group is considered a critical voting bloc for candidates running for Afghan president.
Separately, a rocket hit a shop in Kandahar city, wounding two children inside, police official Mohammad Jan said. No group immediately claimed responsibility.
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Only six out of thirteen F-16's are combat ready. The jets are worn out. They can fly but certain systems needed for combat are not functioning. They will fix some of them but after one flight something else is broke. Also they do not recieve new parts for the F-16's, they only recieve used parts. If a panel is cracked my son sends it in and he gets a used replacement panel that was taken off of another jet and repaired and sent to him. Once the panel he sent in is repaired it will go to some other jet. They do not get any new parts at all for the jets. Even the engines have been rebuilt upteen times. Many times the used parts dont fit so they go to the grinder to be made to fit.
Also morale is down...for the time being they cannot recieve or send mail. I send packages, cards to him through the U.S. Postal Service. From what I got from my son is that the mail is flown in by Fed-Ex and the Iraqi government wants Fed-Ex to pay the Iraqi government for landing in Iraq. Fed-ex told the Iraqi government to shove it. So for the time being there is no mail coming or going for the airmen/soldiers there.
Only six out of thirteen F-16's are combat ready. The jets are worn out.
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Excellent news! That means fewer innocent people will be blown to pieces by American air strikes.
By the way our combat troops in Afghanistan are short of everything from food to bullets to vehicles to other very simple things that I can't say on here without endangering our guys. You name it and they are short of it. And this is the American Army. Our troops are fighting this war without enough supplies and equipment.
I send about 2 packages a week for my son to share with his squad and so do other military family members. As a matter of fact my friend just sent my son 5 packages...2 with food, 3 with military equipment.
I was going to give my son my 9mm Sig/Saur pistol in case he ever gets into a tight spot....but being only 19 he is not allowed to carry a pistol and was not allowed to take it. But he is a machine gunner in the U.S. Army carrying the SAW (M-249 Light Machine Gun). Stupid, in combat he can carry a machine gun and all other sorts of weapons but not a pistol.
Also he spent over $100 to buy his own magazines for his M-4 rifle...the ones he was given are totally worn out. Who wants to risk their rifle jamming because of worn out magazines misfeeding rounds to your rifle. All the soldiers spend hundreds of dollars to buy their own equipment and and so do families in support of them.
This is an exerpt from an email I recieved 2 days ago from the wife of a Staff Sergeant in another platoon of my son's company...
""They are obviously very short on supplies. That is a general complaint heard from all. My husband is in the xxxx platoon. That doesn't mean they dont do a lot together though so just ask him. I know my hubby was suppose to leave within the last xxxx on some big mission. Not sure exactly when they'd be leaving, but he said he wouldn't be able to talk to me for a while so if your son doesn't get to call you back just know it may be a little while.""
Have you also told your sons that unless they quite their occupation as soon as they possibly can, you will never respect their morality? Or can you defend that morality to me right now.................
I bet you don't even reply!
.
The Founding Fathers must be spinning in their graves.
Your constitution also doesn't say "The American people will kill, maim and torture anyone in the world we feel like"............ but you do.
______________________
Send a message from us to your terrorist buddies....Don't mess with the U.S......period, and you won't need to die