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Thread: SOFA in Afghanistan?

  1. #21
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default

    An attempt to present clues on what is going on in Kabul over a SOFA:http://www.natowatch.org/node/952
    davidbfpo

  2. #22
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Quagmire for SOFA

    From FP:
    Afghan President Hamid Karzai has called off all talks with the U.S. on the status of U.S. forces there after 2014 until the Taliban agree to meet with him.
    That is finesse Afghan-style and makes any planning fraught.
    davidbfpo

  3. #23
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Back to Wardak: Karzai's turn now

    From a short NYT report:
    Afghan officials confirmed Sunday that they had arrested and were questioning Zakaria Kandahari, whom they have described as an Afghan-American interpreter responsible for torturing and killing civilians while working for an American Special Forces unit.

    The bodies of 10 victims were found near the Special Forces base beginning in April, after the Americans left; the last was discovered on June 4, according to Afghan forensic investigators and relatives of the victims. They had disappeared between November and February.
    Link:http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/08/wo..._20130708&_r=0

    I assume being in the "care" of the NDS, in a suspected torture facility, will mean a full admission will be forthcoming.
    davidbfpo

  4. #24
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    Default "Zero Option"

    The latest source of Obama-Karzai friction: New U.S. peace talks with the Taliban.

    Administration officials have discussed the possibility of the so-called "zero option" in Afghanistan throughout the year.
    http://www.usatoday.com/story/theova...roops/2501165/

    Pat Lang on the SOFA:

    Karzai is not running for another term. He will leave office on a date that roughly coincides with the end of NATOs mandate in his country and Obama's stated intention to withdraw. Karzai clearly holds the US and its "leadership" in amused contampt.
    http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_s...08287html.html

    I'm afraid I've "lost the plot" a bit.

  5. #25
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default

    Our occasional, non-member contributor Hamid Hussain has provided a commentary on the attachment.
    Attached Files Attached Files
    davidbfpo

  6. #26
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default SOFA becomes a Bilateral Security Agreement

    I think the title is correct:
    Both Afghan and United States officials have, until now, been tight-lipped as to what is in the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) – which is to be scrutinised by a consultative loya jirga beginning on 21 November. If signed, it will govern the post-2014 deployment of US soldiers in Afghanistan. On Saturday, 16 November 2013, the President’s national security advisor, Rangin Dadfar Spanta, and the chief of the Afghan National Army, General Sher Mohammad Karimi, briefed Parliament on the draft, giving everyone the first solid information of what the two governments have agreed – including the numbers of troops and bases. As AAN’s Kate Clark and Ehsan Qaane report, the officials got a mixed reception from MPs.
    Link:http://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/...efs-parliament

    I expect this is the key point for Afghans and Americans, especially those who may serve in Afghanistan:
    From January 2015, the US military will conduct no operation on Afghan territory unless the Afghan government requests it.

    US soldiers who commit crimes on Afghan soil will be prosecuted according to US law. Spanta said they had tried hard to convince the US not to insist on their soldiers having, as he put it, “judicial immunity” (masuniyat-e qaza’i) (he later corrected himself under an MP’s questioning, saying soldiers would not be immune, but would fall under sole US legal jurisdiction). Afghan attempts to get American soldiers alleged to have committed crimes tried according to Afghan law, he said, had failed and Afghanistan, therefore, had two options: accept this condition and sign the BSA or reject this condition and not sign it.
    davidbfpo

  7. #27
    Council Member davidbfpo's Avatar
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    Default Taking office and now time for SOFA

    The Obama administration expects that a security agreement allowing U.S. troops to remain in Afghanistan next year will be signed by the country’s incoming president as early as next week, a senior State Department official said Wednesday.....The deal will allow some 10,000 American forces to remain in Afghanistan next year after all combat troops are withdrawn at the end of 2014.
    Link:http://www.airforcetimes.com/article...S05/309250040?
    davidbfpo

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