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| Afghanistan bomb dead were CIA agents The CIA yesterday vowed to avenge the deaths of seven of its agents who were killed in a suicide bombing on Wednesday in Afghanistan, as it emerged that the bomber may have been invited on to the base as a potential informant according to two former US officials."This attack will be avenged through successful, aggressive counterterrorism operations," a US intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.One former senior intelligence official said the bomber was being courted as an informant and that it was the first time he had been brought inside the camp. An experienced CIA debriefer came from Kabul for the meeting, suggesting the purpose was to gain intelligence, the official said. The former intelligence official and another former official with knowledge of the attack spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.Seven agents died, including the base's female chief, a mother of three, former CIA officials told AP. Six others were injured in the attack on Forward Operating Base Chapman in eastern Afghanistan, near Khost. One of the dead was reported to be Harold Brown Jr, according to his father, Harold Brown Sr. The elder Brown said Thursday that his 37-year-old son, who grew up in Bolton, Massachussetts, served in the army and worked for the state department. He is survived by a wife and three children ages 12, 10 and 2.The CIA would not confirm the details, and said it was still gathering evidence. "It's far too early to draw conclusions about something that happened just yesterday," said spokesman George Little.A separate US official suggested the bomber may have set off the explosives as he was about to be searched.The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, in a strike that illustrates their growing reach and military capability.Former CIA officers said the dead agents were part of a paramilitary unit, probably involved in training Afghans in security roles and carrying out military operations against Taliban and al-Qaida militants along the Pakistan border.The attack took place at a military outpost about 12 miles from the tribal areas of Pakistan, a Taliban stronghold.In a letter to CIA employees, Barack Obama said their fallen colleagues came from a "long line of patriots" who had helped to keep the nation safe despite grave risks. Obama acknowledged that the spy agency has been tested "as never before" since the 9/11 attacks.Larry Johnson, a counter-terrorism consultant and former CIA officer, said the incident was probably the agency's biggest loss of life since a CIA station in Beirut was bombed in 1983. Seventeen agency employees died in the Beirut attack.The attack occured inside the gym at Forward Operating Base Chapman in Khost province, in eastern Afghanistan. The base had been used to house a provincial reconstruction team providing humanitarian aid to the local Afghan population.The Taliban claimed the attacker was a sympathiser in the Afghan army who detonated a vest of explosives at a meeting with CIA workers. "This deadly attack was carried out by a valiant Afghan army member," a Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told Reuters.A spokesman for Nato said Afghan security forces were working at the base, but denied that any Afghan troops were involved in the attack and none were stationed at the site. But Johnson said the Taliban's account was not impossible, noting that North Vietnamese agents infiltrated US intelligence operations during the Vietnam war."I'm surprised we haven't lost more CIA officers over the last eight years. This probably will happen again," he said.If the attacker was indeed an Afghan army member, it illustrates a major risk in Obama's strategy for the country, which relies on training the Afghan police and military to take over security duties from Nato forces. The infiltration would raise questions about the loyalty of Afghan forces, and shows insurgents' ability to strike inside supposedly secure installations.Obama this month announced the swift deployment of an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan, bringing the American force to about 100,000 by the summer. That number does not include the large number of US government civilians and contractors working in economic development and training roles. In addition, a significant number of private security contractors and intelligence agents work in Afghanistan on paramilitary operations, including launching drones into the neighbouring Pakistani tribal areas.In separate incidents on Wednesday, two French journalists working for the public television broadcaster France Télévisions were kidnapped along with their driver and translator, while Calgary Herald reporter Michelle Lang and four Canadian soldiers died when the armoured vehicle in which they were travelling was blown up by a landmine in Kandahar province, southern AfghanistanAfghanistanTalibanCIAUnited StatesGlobal terrorismNatoPakistanBarack ObamaObama administrationUS foreign policyDaniel Nasawguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Christians Riot After Egypt Shooting Over 1,000 Coptic Christians clashed with police in southern Egypt after assailants in a car opened fire on churchgoers as they exited Midnight Mass, killing seven people and wounding nine. online.wsj.com |
US ups ante on Haitian assistance, commits $100M WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Thursday that "one of the largest relief efforts in our recent history" is moving toward Haiti as he continued to mobilize the U.S. response to the island's devastating earthquake.... hosted.ap.org |
U.K. Bars Direct Flights From Yemen Direct flights to the U.K. from Yemen were suspended, part of a broad drive to improve airport security following the failed attack of a Detroit-bound airliner. online.wsj.com |
Obama criticised over human rights President has set different tone to Bush, but failed to end abuses, says Human Rights WatchAmerica's leading human rights organisation has said that Barack Obama is falling far short of his rhetoric by continuing some of the abuses of George Bush's war on terror and by shielding foreign allies responsible for an assault on human rights activists not seen since the end of the cold war.The New York-based Human Rights Watch praised Obama for setting a different tone to President Bush, and for ending some of the practices of the previous administration including torture and abduction to secret CIA prisons. But its director, Kenneth Roth, told the Guardian that Obama had failed to end other abuses, such as holding suspected terrorists indefinitely without trial and retaining military commissions.Roth also criticised Obama for undermining human rights by failing to challenge key allies, such as Pakistan and Egypt, who are at the forefront of a renewed crackdown on activists, and for protecting Israel from accountability for war crimes in Gaza.Human rights activists were under renewed siege in many parts of the world, he said."As human rights groups have put more and more pressure on governments, there's been an increase in counterattacks of growing sophistication. The thing we've noticed is an increase in the deniable repression, the repression that has a facade of bureaucratic legality about it. Using the pretext of criminal prosecutions which are really trumped up charges," Roth said. "You can really see that in a place like Pakistan where there is a human rights movement but they are fighting for their lives. You see a lot of countries using criminal libel, including Russia."Roth said that Moscow led the way in using laws and regulations to curb activists and other states had followed its example."Ethiopia is the big new entrant in the field this year with a new law that prohibits any organisation that receives more than 10% of its money from abroad from engaging in any human rights work. Ethiopia has effectively shut down the human rights community. In Rwanda there is a small human rights community that has been largely silenced. These are US allies," he said.The Human Rights Watch director said that the Obama administration was continuing a longstanding US practice of selectively challenging foreign governments over human rights."He has been a huge improvement at the rhetorical level. The issue has been translating that shining rhetoric into policy practice. If you look for example in Accra … he said that Africa doesn't need strong leaders, it needs strong institutions, which is a great line," he said. "But then what have they done about that?"They've defended themselves by saying they're trying to build up goodwill for use on human rights in the future but it is not credible."African leaders have challenged the international criminal court, accusing it of focusing disproportionately on Africa, particularly with its indictment of Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, while ignoring alleged war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Roth dismisses the assertion as self-serving."You could have imagined African leaders saying: Isn't it great that finally an international institution is taking seriously the plight of African victims? But that's not the way they look at it. Instead they've identified with African leaders who have been repressing everybody. They treat themselves as a club of dictators who look after their own."But Roth added that the court's position was undermined by US policy, particularly its protection of Israel."The US wouldn't even put pressure on Israel to pursue serious domestic investigations of its war crimes in Gaza. People see that double standard and they say if the west is going to protect its own why can't we do the same?" he said."If Israel was not going to allow an independent domestic investigation, it warranted international scrutiny and the US wouldn't even allow the first step in the process to be taken. That infuriated people because they did see Washington protecting its own. The Gaddafis of the world had a stronger argument: if this is what the west is going to do, why shouldn't we protect Bashir?"Roth said Obama should be given credit for shutting down secret CIA detention facilities and barring the agency from torturing captives."Where he's still falling short is refusing to investigate and prosecute the people who ordered torture, the people who provided the civil and legal justifications for it. It creates a climate of impunity."Human Rights Watch has also taken Obama to task about the continued use of military trials and the prospect of about 50 Guantánamo inmates being held indefinitely without charge.Barack ObamaHuman rightsGeorge BushGlobal terrorismPakistanChris McGrealguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |