Pakistan/Afghanistan: On Ground Updates - June 09, 2012

Pakistan/Afghanistan: On Ground Updates

“We are reaching the limits of our patience, and for that reason it is extremely important that Pakistan take action to prevent this kind of safe haven.”

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta

Kabul, Afghanistan, June o7, 2012

READ the story HERE

.U.S. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta walks with Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony in New Delhi, June 06, 2012. Panetta and Antony discussed the stable and well-developed defense relationship between the two countries and the possibility of India taking a larger role in Afghanistan.

DoD photo by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo

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* NYDailyNews.com had this report up Friday afternoon and it starts off like this… Expressing both public and private frustration with Pakistan, the Obama administration has unleashed the CIA to resume an aggressive campaign of drone strikes in Pakistani territory over the last few weeks, approving strikes that might have been vetoed in the past for fear of angering Islamabad… Now, said a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity in discussing sensitive issues, the administration's attitude is, "What do we have to lose?"… Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta made clear the deteriorating relations with Islamabad on Thursday, saying the United States is "reaching the limits of our patience" because Pakistan has not cracked down on local insurgents who carry out deadly attacks on U.S. troops and others in neighboring Afghanistan… "It is difficult to achieve peace in Afghanistan as long as there is safe haven for terrorists in Pakistan," Panetta told reporters…

Read the rest at link below…

CIA gets nod to step up drone strikes in Pakistan

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* FOXNews.com also had a great report posted up on their website Friday and it starts off like this… Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has not visited Pakistan since taking over as defense secretary a year ago… In a visit to India and Afghanistan this week, he skipped Islamabad again and expressed outright frustration with the Pakistani leadership and the safe havens they provide the Taliban in the Northwest Frontier province, especially the so-called Haqqani network… Admiral Mike Mullen in a parting shot at the Pakistanis did not mince his words when he said Pakistan's intelligence service provides direct support of the Haqqani network, whose fighters are killing US troops in Afghanistan….

Read this report in full/watch the News Video at link below…

US will do whatever necessary to protect forces in Pakistan, Panetta says
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* DAWN.com has the following report posted Saturday and it starts off like this… So it was a bad sign this week when the US defense secretary joshed in front of an audience of Indians about how Washington kept Pakistan in the dark about the raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden a year ago… “They didn’t know about our operation. That was the whole idea,” Leon Panetta said with a chuckle at a Q&A session after a speech in New Delhi, raising laughs from the audience… The Bin Laden raid by US commandos in a Pakistani town infuriated Islamabad because it had no advance notice, and it was seen by Pakistan’s powerful military as a humiliation… The US and Pakistan are starting to look more like enemies than allies, threatening the US fight against Taliban and al-Qaida militants based in the country and efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan before American troops withdraw…

Read the full report at link below…

US, Pakistan beginning to look more like enemies.

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* HindustanTimes.com has this interesting Book Review that goes in part like this. … Pakistani Journalist Ahmed Rashid, an astute chronicler of the troubled region, believes that talk about a peaceful transition to a workable Afghan State in 2014 is delusional, and smacks of tired spin. In ‘Pakistan On The Brink’, a collection of essays on the future of Pakistan, Afghanistan and the West, Rashid’s vision of the region is unrelentingly bleak. Nuclear-armed Pakistan, he writes, is on the verge of State collapse and becoming an international pariah, Afghanistan is far from ready for competent self-rule, and the US has no strategic vision for stabilising the region. So it is hurtling towards “greater conflict and contradiction rather than peaceful resolution and reconciliation”…

Read this review in full at link below…

Review: Pakistan On The Brink

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AubreyJ………

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Donald Rumsfeld’s 2004 Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries

NYTimes.com brings us another one of their ‘Paper first -- Country last, reports’ and it starts off like this... The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials... These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States...
Read the full report at link below...
Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda in Many Countries

Gates Urges Congress to Approve Defense Budget

Defense Secretary Robert Gates Urges Congress to Approve Defense Budget, Wartime Spending Request

Delays in getting an emergency supplemental war-funding bill approved are causing disruption within the Defense Department, particularly among programs at home, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today.

The Army has slowed spending in numerous areas to free up money to fully fund wartime costs since President Bush vetoed war-spending legislation because it set a date for the return of combat forces from Iraq, Gates told the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense subcommittee.

The bill included $93.4 billion to help fund U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the global war on terror, but stipulated that U.S. combat troops be out of Iraq by Aug. 31, 2008. It also included costs unrelated to the war.

Bush vetoed the bill because he rejects establishing a deadline for troop withdrawals, insisting that such decisions must be based on conditions in the war zone.

Gates told Congress today that delays in getting a spending bill approved are having "a growing impact here at home."

"The Army is already trying to cope with this," he said. Spending in various programs has slowed or stopped altogether, he said. Defense contracts are being withheld; hiring of civilian employees has slowed; and bases have begun resorting to month-to-month service contracts for services and supplies.

Gates noted several stopgap measures taken to close the funding gap: The Senate committee approved a $1.6 billion reprogramming from the Air Force and Navy to the Army yesterday, he said, and the Defense Department expects to make another reprogramming request within the next several days.

"That kind of a reprogramming will extend us about a week," Gates said.

Ultimately, this type of effort will stretch the Defense Department's capabilities only so far, he said.

"If we pulled out all the stops (and) used everything possible available to us, we could probably fund the war into July," Gates said. "But I would tell you, the impact on the Department of Defense in terms of disruption and cancelled contracts and programs would be huge if we had to do that."

Gates told committee members the costs of defending the country are high, but not as high as the cost of not doing so. "The only thing costlier, ultimately, would be to fail to commit the resources necessary to defend our homeland interests around the world and to fail to prepare for the inevitable threats of the future," he said.

He urged committee members to move quickly to approve the fiscal 2008 defense budget request, which includes the base budget requests as well as wartime operating costs.

Gates said the budget requests would accomplish several important objectives. Approving them would allow:

* Modernizing and recapitalizing key capabilities, to include funding increases for the next generation of ships, strike aircraft and ground combat systems.

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* Sustaining the all-volunteer military by reducing stress on the force and improving the quality of life for troops and their families.
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* Improving readiness through additional training and maintenance, and by resetting forces following their overseas deployment.

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* Building capabilities of partner nations to combat extremists within their own borders by using new train-and-equip authorities to ultimately reduce the potential demand for U.S. troops.
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* Funding U.S. military operations for fiscal 2008 in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the ongoing campaign against violence jihadist networks around the world.
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Gates acknowledged the combined price tag of these efforts -- more than $700 billion -- gives new meaning to "sticker shock." But funding these operations is critical, he said, in light of current threats and those the country will face in the future.

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(Taken from a news article by DoD’s American Forces Press Service and was written by Donna Miles)
File Photo Courtesy of CIA

Defense Secretary Robert Gates Urges Vigilance in Terror War

Defense Secretary Robert Gates Urges Vigilance in Terror War
Read more HERE
Video courtesy of DoD