Thursday, December 20, 2012
A Special Project with the New America Foundation
Afghan officials meet with insurgents in France
Editor's note: The New America Foundation is
pleased to announce the participants in the South Asia 2020 Conference,
to be held in Dubai from January 18-20, 2013 (NAF).
Let's talk it out
Afghan officials are meeting on Thursday and Friday with Taliban
leaders and representatives of the militant Hezb-e-Islami group in a
secretive meeting on the outskirts of Paris to discuss Afghanistan's
future (
AP).
French officials familiar with the meeting says it's aim is to foster a
discussion, and it is not expected to result in a possible peace or
reconciliation agreement.
British Prime
Minister David Cameron confirmed Wednesday that the United Kingdom
would bring 3,800 troops home from Afghanistan by the end of 2013, and
said senior British officers on the ground believe Afghan forces will
be able to hold Helmand, where most British troops are concentrated (
Guardian,
BBC,
AP,
Tel,
Reuters).
After Cameron's announcement, though, Defense Minister Philip Hammond
conceded that NATO's withdrawal will have "messy compromises" and that
"some parts of Afghanistan will not be under central government
control."
The U.S. Army said Wednesday
that it will seek the death penalty in the court martial of Sgt. Robert
Bales, who is accused of murdering 16 Afghan civilians in a nighttime
rampage in March (
AP,
NYT,
LAT,
WSJ,
Reuters).
Bales' lawyer has condemned the decision, saying "The Army is not
taking responsibility for Sgt. Bales and other soldiers that the Army
knowingly sends into combat situations with diagnosed PTSD, concussive
head injuries and other injuries."
Toll climbs
Pakistani officials reported the ninth death in four days after a
string of militant attacks on health workers targeted polio vaccinators
during an anti-polio drive (
AP).
Officials said 20-year-old HIlal Khan died Thursday from a gunshot
wound to the head sustained on Wednesday in the northwestern city of
Peshawar. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday
called the killing of polio workers "cruel, senseless, and inexcusable"
(
AP). The UN vaccination drive remains suspended in two of Pakistan's four provinces.
Senior senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Carl Levin (D-MI), and John
McCain (R-AZ) wrote a harsh letter to the CEO of Sony Picture Michael
Lynton on Wednesday decrying the portrayal of torture in the newly
released movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden,
Zero Dark Thirty (
Post).
The senators wrote, "The movie clearly implies that the CIA's coercive
interrogation techniques were effective in eliciting important
information related to a courier for Usama Bin Laden...this is
incorrect."
Under the radar
Ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali does not
travel with an entourage, even though he has the right to request upon
arrival in a different city the ?VIP protocol,' which includes "four
police vans, an ambulance, a pilot, and a squad jeep" (
ET).
But Jamali says, "I prefer travelling alone without disrupting peace
of the city," and he is dismayed by the closing of roads and displays
of pomp that accompany every Pakistani high official's visit to a
different city.
-- Jennifer Rowland
Aref Karimi/AFP/GettyImages
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