Can U.S. forces succeed in a land long known as the “graveyard of empires”? FRONTLINE‘s season premiere, Obama’s War, airing October 13, 2009 on PBS, takes a look at the administration’s new counterinsurgency plan for Afghanistan and its neighbor, Pakistan, where US troops are not allowed. To see the new strategy at work, FRONTLINE embedded with Echo Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment in Afghanistan’s violent Helmand province. Since the Marines’ arrival in July, Helmand has become the most lethal battlefield in Afghanistan. But FRONTLINE found the Marines trying to act as armed diplomats, attempting to build the necessary trust for badly needed economic development. Continue reading »
Oct 092009
Stephen Farrell, a correspondent for The New York Times held hostage by militant for four days, has been freed in a commando raid in northern Afghanistan. His interpreter, Sultan Munadi, and a British commando were reportedly killed during the operation. Continue reading »
REPORT SAYS NEW YORK TIMES JOURNALIST KIDNAPPED – The German Press Agency dpa is reporting that an unidentified New York Times journalist visiting the site of the deadly NATO airstrike has been kidnapped along with his interpreter. ***UPDATE: Bill Roggio of The Long War Journal blog is reporting that the kidnapped reporter is Stephen Farrell. Continue reading »
A professor from the University of California, Los Angeles thinks he has a pretty good idea. UCLA geography Professor Thomas Gillespie uses a technique that tracks endangered species to narrow down the spot where the terrorist is most likely hiding. Here’s the abstract from the MIT International Review PDF:
One of the most important political questions of our time is: Where is Osama bin Laden? We use biogeographic theories associated with the distribution of life and extinction (distance-decay theory, island biogeography theory, and life history characteristics) and remote sensing data (Landsat ETM+, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, Defense Meteorological Satellite, QuickBird) over three spatial scales (global, regional, local) to identify where bin Laden is most probably currently located. We believe that our work involves the first scientific approach to establishing his current location. The methods are repeatable and can be updated with new information obtained from the US intelligence community.
This region of Afghanistan is south of Tora Bora, the mountain fortress where bin Laden’s well-trained fighters made a stand against American forces in 2001. On December 16, 2001, despite a U.S. and Afghan assualt, Osama bin Laden escaped from the hideout across the border into Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
Gillespie’s location is close to the border with Kurram Agency, which is part of the FATA, and not far from a number of U.S. missile strikes on suspected terrorists in North Waziristan. (A good, interactive map the the region is here.)
For anyone interested in trying to collect the reward for bin Laden, Gillespie goes as far as identifying three buildings in Parachinar where bin Laden and his support structure could be hiding. Good luck!
- Scott
The Guardian newspaper’s Jason Burke writes in the Sunday Observer of a secret Afghanistan peace process with the Taliban being brokered by Saudi Arabia and supported by Britian. Burke writes:
“The unprecedented negotiations involve a senior former member of the hardline Islamist movement travelling between Kabul, the bases of the Taliban senior leadership in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and European capitals. Britain has provided logistic and diplomatic support for the talks – despite official statements that negotiations can be held only with Taliban who are ready to renounce, or have renounced, violence.”
Given the level of success the Taliban have had in battling coalition forces this year, it is surprising that the hardline movement would voluntarily come to the negociating table.
- Scott