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FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012 CHAR DARAH: Fahima had just arrived home from school when members of the Afghan Local Police (ALP), a UStrained militia charged with making Afghans in Taleban strongholds feel more secure, started hammering on the front door searching for her father. They elbowed it open and, frustrated at not finding him, started beating her younger brother, prompting 17-yearold Fahima to intervene. One of the men turned and shot her dead. “She was in her first days as an eleventh grade student,” said Fahima’s father, Khuja, who believes the killing was score settling over an old land dispute. “Offenders are still serving as local policemen and they are free. Police say the killer has escaped but he’s walking in public with his gun and no one is able to catch him.” The ALP was set up in 2010 in villages where the national force is weak, a flagship project of U.S. General David Petraeus, who stepped down as commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan in 2011. The government began recruiting everyone from farmers to shopkeepers for the militia, hoping to take the edge away from the Taleban in their rural bastions. American officials have hailed the ALP as an effective homegrown force which has restricted the ability of the Taleban to move in the countryside. In northern Kunduz province’s Char Darah district, a Taleban stronghold until recently, people credit the ALP for making it safer to travel and send children to school against frequent insurgent opposition to education, especially for girls. “The Taleban here were demanding money from local people, beating them if they refused. Now we don’t let them do it,” said Gul Ahmad, an ALP commander in Sarak Bala village. But security gains made by the now 20,000-strong militia are often overshadowed by mounting accusations of abuses, including rape and murder. Human rights groups say ALP members sometimes act like warlords, demanding bribes, skimming contracts and committing the kind of atrocities that rattled Afghanistan in a civil war that killed 50,000 people before the Taleban took over in 1996. Afghans already have enough to worry about. Many fear the United States and other Western allies will abandon Afghanistan after 2014, when most NATO combat troops will have gone, leaving them at the mercy of the Taleban. There is widespread talk of another civil war. The ALP was supposed to ease public anxiety, not fuel it. Uniforms, a salary, but little discipline Duties range from manning checkpoints and running patrols to providing security forces with intelligence on insurgents. Each member gets a monthly salary and food worth about $180 and are issued brown uniforms and an AK-47 rifle. Some acquire heavier weapons like machineguns or rock- et-propelled grenades on their own and prefer the traditional flowing shirt and baggy trousers to mix in with the population in farming villages with mudbrick homes. Many complain they are underpaid and have to borrow or steal from the poor locals they are meant to protect. “My father works as a farmer and I have to help him live. If I don’t get enough money then I’ll have an eye on other local people’s pockets,” said Lutfullah, 28. Their pasts often don’t inspire confidence either. Rights groups say some were former Taleban fighters or members of militias that wreaked havoc in Afghanistan for decades. There are reports of the ALP joining the Taleban. “Some of them are guilty of repeated killings,” said Hussain Ali Moin, coordinator for the Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission. More than 100 ALP members have been jailed for crimes including murder, bombings, rapes, beatings and robbery, according to chief military prosecutor Mohammad Rahim Hanifi. In one of the most high-profile cases, an ALP commander and four of his men entered a house in Kunduz province, assaulted a family and abducted their 18-year-old daughter, Lal Bibi, in May. She told her family she was chained to a wall and repeatedly raped before being brought home a week later. “She says if she does not get justice International Abuse allegations mount against Afghan police force JAMNAGAR, India: Indian Air Force (IAF) personnel and volunteers pull the wreckage to look for survivors after two air force helicopters collided and crashed at a field in Sarmat village yesterday. — AP 9 killed as Indian helicopters collide NEW DELHI: Nine Indian air force personnel were killed yesterday when two Russiandesigned military helicopters apparently collided in mid-air, the military and police said. Air force spokesman Wing Commander Gerard Galway said the two Mi-17 helicopters were “flying in close formation” over a firing range in the western state of Gujarat when they crashed. “It is likely it was a midair collision,” Galway told AFP, confirming that all nine on board the two aircraft had died. Galway said an inquiry would establish exactly how the accident occurred. An air official who did not want to be named said the two helicopters were practising firing over the range near a military airbase in Jamnagar district when the accident happened. Jamnagar police chief Harikrishna Patil told AFP by telephone from the accident site that the aircraft appeared to have collided before they came down in cotton fields near a village. “One of the helicopters also caught fire after hitting a high-tension power cable,” he said. India plans to buy up to 400 helicopters, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, to replace its ageing fleet of Russian- and Britishsupplied aircraft. — AFP ISLAMABAD: Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed yesterday that a US drone strike last week near the Afghan border killed the son of the founder of the powerful Haqqani militant network, a major blow to one of the most feared groups fighting American troops in Afghanistan. Badruddin Haqqani, who has been described as the organization’s day-today operations commander, was killed on Aug. 24 in one of three strikes that hit militant hideouts in the Shawal Valley in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area, said two senior intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. The presence of the mostly Afghan Haqqani network in North Waziristan has been a major source of friction between Pakistan and the US. The Obama administration has repeatedly demanded Pakistan prevent the group from using its territory to launch attacks in Afghanistan, but Islamabad has refused - a stance many analysts believe is driven by the country’s strong historical ties to the Haqqani network’s founder, Jalaluddin Haqqani. The Pakistani intelligence officials didn’t specify which strike on Aug. 24 killed Badruddin, but said he was leaving a hideout when the US missiles hit. The confirmation of his death came from their sources within the Taleban, which is allied with the Haqqani network, and agents on the ground, they said. But neither the officials nor their sources have actually seen Badruddin’s body. Pakistani intelligence officials previously said they were 90 percent sure Badruddin was killed in a drone strike in a different part of North Waziristan on Aug 21. It’s unclear what caused the discrepancy. Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said several days ago that its operatives had confirmed Badruddin’s death, she will set herself on fire,” her 56-yearold father, Hajji Rustam, told Reuters. The trauma was so severe, it made him long for the days when rapists were publicly stoned to death or flogged under Taleban rule. “The Taleban were better than the ALP,” he said. “At least they respected our honour. They opposed only women’s activities in public, but these people assault us in our homes.” Stricter vetting The problems may multiply, with plans to boost the force to 30,000 and make it operational over most of the country. Some of the attacks allegedly committed by the ALP also seem to be motivated by sectarian rivalries, which could complicate efforts to tame the force. In southern Uruzgan province, an ALP commander belonging to the Hazara minority ethnic group in late July gunned down 15 Pashtun civilians in Khas Uruzgan, a day after the Pashtun Taleban killed two of his friends, officials said. “Commander Abdul Hakim Shujahi took nine villagers out of their houses and took them to the Matakzai area of the village and killed them with stones and gunshots,” said Mohammad Waris Faizi, who heads the Independent Human Rights Commission investigation office in the province. “Then he and his people arrested six villagers from the Khak Afghan area and killed them too,” Faizi said. — AFP Pakistani officials confirm death of crucial militant but did not provide any details. A senior Taleban commander has also confirmed the militant’s death. A Taleban spokesman in Afghanistan, Zabiullah Mujahid, has however rejected reports of Badruddin’s death, calling them “propaganda of the enemy.” The US does not often comment publicly on the covert CIA drone program in Pakistan and has not said whether Badruddin was killed. The areas where the American drone strikes generally occur are extremely remote and dangerous, making it difficult for reporters or others to verify a particular person’s death. Badruddin is considered a vital part of the Haqqani structure. He is believed to be the network’s day-to-day operations commander, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War. — AP HYDERABAD: Indian policemen detain activists of various student organizations during a protest yesterday. The students were protesting against the Andhra Pradesh state government’s decision to put a cap of 35,000 rupees ($625)on funds released under the fee reimbursement scheme for engineering and other professional courses. — AFP
FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 2012 New Orleans levees hold as Isaac floods Gulf coast Isaac rainfall lifts US farmers’ spirits NEW ORLEANS: Severe flooding from Tropical Storm Isaac inundated the Gulf Coast early yesterday, but the multi-billion-dollar defenses built after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans seven years ago held firm. The National Hurricane Center said Isaacwhich was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm on Wednesdaywould continue to weaken as it moved north into the US state of Arkansas, but it warned of further flooding. The Miami-based forecasters said at 0900 GMT that Isaac would likely be downgraded to a Tropical Depression later yesterday, but that the slow-moving storm would continue to batter the region with heavy rain and high winds. Officials on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of some 3,000 people in coastal Plaquemines Parish, the area hardest hit by the storm, with top winds still gusting at 45 miles (75 kilometers) per hour, hindering rescue efforts. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said at least one person may have died as a result of Isaac, which made landfall as a hurricane late Tuesday. Dozens of people were forced to huddle on roofs and in attics waiting hours for rescue from their homes after a massive storm surge spilled over levees in low-lying areas outside the stronger defenses built around New Orleans. Isaac was nowhere near as strong as Hurricane Katrina, which struck exactly seven years ago, but has already caused significant damage to about 800 homes in Plaquemines Parish alone, Jindal told reporters. Residents were urged to stay indoors, with officials warning it would be at least a day before winds calmed enough for crews to repair downed power lines. Heavy rains-up to 25 inches (64 centimeters) in some areaswill continue through today, the NHC said. Isaac may wind up causing as much as $2.5 billion in damage in and TRES MARIAS: Mexican federal police shot and wounded two CIA operatives last week, security sources said, in an apparently deliberate attack that could hurt US-Mexico cooperation in their war against drug cartels. The two experienced officers were just south of the capital on their way to a Mexican Marine base on Friday, working with local authorities on a training mission, when federal police riddled their armored van bearing diplomatic plates with bullets. The men, traveling with a Mexican Marine captain, were wounded and taken to a hospital for treatment, though their injuries were not life-threatening. Their vehicle’s tires and rear windshield were shot out. A dozen federal police officers detained and questioned over the attack have been ordered held in custody for 40 days. In initial statements to federal prosecutors, they claimed they confused the Americans for criminals. However, witnesses who saw the shooting at a bend in the road outside the small town of Tres Marias told Reuters the gunmen were dressed in plain clothes and pursued the around Louisiana and in the offshore oil sector in the Gulf of Mexico, according to early estimates from natural disaster modeler Eqecat. More than a half million people were left without power in Louisiana, and tens of thousands more huddled in darkened homes in Alabama, Florida and Mississippi after Isaac snapped utility poles and downed power lines. In New Orleans, Mayor Mitch Landrieu declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew after Isaac made landfall twice as a category one hurricane. ‘Part of my roof is missing’ Plaquemines Parish president Billy Nungesser said damage from Isaac in some areas was worse than that wrought by Katrina, citing his own home as an example. “Part of my roof is missing. The back wall has moved and the water is being pushed through the bricks into the house,” he said Wednesday. Across the state, more than 4,000 people were crammed into shelters. Dozens of nursing home residents, many in wheelchairs, were among those taken to higher ground by the National Guard in high-water trucks. Rescues were also under way in suburbs west of New Orleans late Wednesday after the storm surge swelled Lake Pontchartrain on the city’s north side. Claude Jones, 61, was trying to nap on a cot in the Belle Chasse high school gymnasium without much luck. He had spent two nights there already and with his trailer home likely destroyed-could be there for many more. “I’m worried about my family,” he told AFP. “My cousin’s still down there and they say they can’t rescue him because the weather’s so bad.” Sharon Sylvia said she spent the night trapped on her roof in the LAKE PONTCHARTRAIN: A sherriff’s vehicle sits in flood waters caused by Isaac yesterday. — AP pounding rain, calling for help that did not arrive until morning. “Water’s over the top of the roof,” she told WWL television. “We had to break through the ceiling and out through the attic. It’s very bad down there. Very bad.” US President Barack Obama, who has been regularly briefed on the storm, late Wednesday declared a “major disaster” exists in Louisiana and Mississippi, paving the way for more federal aid to local authorities.— AFP Mexican police attack CIA officers Americans firing from unmarked cars and on foot-a classic style of gangland hits in Mexico. “We had no idea at all they were police. They looked like criminals,” said one woman who witnessed the incident but asked not to be named for fear of repercussions. A Mexican government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the evidence suggested gang members and corrupt police had carried out the attack before other police arrived at the scene and prevented the men being killed. “This was not an accident,” the official said. Witnesses said the CIA driver made impressive evasive maneuvers which likely saved the lives of those inside the car, and they believe they heard hundreds of bullets fired, estimating the incident lasted around six minutes. The Mexican official said the vehicle was chased for about 4 km (2.5 miles) before it was halted, and that shell casings from AK-47s, which are not used by Mexican police and are a weapon of choice for drug cartel members, were found at the scene. — Reuters International Obama still a draw on college campuses CHARLOTTESVILLE: The crowds may be smaller and the candidate grayer, but college towns are still proving to be President Barack Obama’s best shot at enthusiastic audiences. More than 26,000 people combined showed up to hear the president speak during his three-state college town tour this week, which ended Wednesday with a rally near the University of Virginia. The crowds at the outdoor rallies have tilted younger, underscoring the Obama campaign’s efforts to target college students as they return to school and re-energize a constituency that was critical in propelling Obama to the White House. “Change was possible because you made it possible,” Obama told 7,500 people at a pavilion near the University of Virginia. “So you can’t get tired now because we’ve got more work to do.” The school declined the campaign’s request for the president to speak on campus, saying it would disrupt classes on the second day of the semester. By the standards of most presidential campaigns, Obama is speaking to impressively large audiences. But Obama is being held to the standards he set in 2008, when the youthful candidate with the rousing speeches attracted jawdropping crowds. With thousands of young people crammed into the sweltering, standing-room-only open-air pavilion on Wednesday, hundreds more stood outside its fenced perimeter, in some places shoulder-to-shoulder 40 to 50 feet deep. But even some of those who went through heavy security to see Obama speak said their enthusiasm had waned. “It no longer has the distinctiveness that it used to have,” said William Proffitt, a University of Virginia student. “That was amazing, seeing the first African- American president elected, but that died off within a year.” In 2008, more than 100,000 people showed up to hear him speak in Denver. He spoke on the same trip at Colorado State University, where upwards of 50,000 people filled a quad in the center of campus. When Obama returned to Colorado State on Tuesday, the crowd totaled 13,000. Obama’s campaign dismisses the notion that the smaller crowds equal less enthusiasm for the president this time around. Aides suggest the numbers are purposely being kept low, citing the cost of holding larger events and the president’s desire to travel to smaller cities in battleground states. Security restrictions are also tighter around a current president than a candidate. Obama drew his largest crowd in May, during his first re-election rally at Ohio State University. More than 14,000 people showed up to hear the president and first lady Michelle Obama speak, short of the 18,000 people the campaign predicted would fill the campus basketball arena to capacity. Away from the college town circuit, the president has been generated even smaller audiences, often 3,000 people or less. Campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said the president would still have “plenty of time for big rallies between now and Election Day.” The campaign is banking on big numbers next week when Obama accepts the Democratic nomination at an outdoor football stadium in Charlotte, NC. The stadium holds up to 74,000 people. Campaign aides won’t say whether the full stadium will be open for seating during next Thursday’s primetime speech. Tens of thousands of tickets, called “community credentials”, have been distributed, according to the campaign. Obama also accepted his party’s nomination in 2008 at an outdoor football stadium. His campaign had little trouble filling the 84,000 seats. The president’s aides say crowd size is one issue they’re happy to debate with Republicans. Even though Obama’s audience numbers are down compared to his 2008 campaign, he is still drawing larger crowds than GOP rival Mitt Romney. Most of Romney’s events are carefully choreographed in made-for television settings that provide seating for hundreds of people, not thousands. — AP
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