Blurbistan | AfPak Stories That Matter | 21 May 2013 ed.
1. Tortured Afghan found near former US SOF camp in Wardak
The footless corpse of an Afghan man missing since November was found on Tuesday near the former American Special Forces base to which he was last seen being taken, according to Afghan officials and victims’ representatives.
Afghan investigators said that after his disappearance, the man, Sayid Mohammad, was seen in a video being tortured by an Afghan-American named Zakaria Kandahari, whom the officials identified as the chief interpreter for an American Army Special Forces A Team stationed at the base. The American military denies that Mr. Kandahari is an American citizen and said he was no longer working for the A Team when the video was made.
Why This Matters
US and Afghan special operations forces (SOF) will continue to have a large role in the security of Afghanistan well beyond 2014. With the drawdown of a foreign presence, their ability to operate further on the fringes of what’s acceptable behavior should be of concern. That’s not to paint SOF with the “baby killer” broad brush: on the whole they are a professional group that is deserving of a great deal of praise, but by their very nature they’re secretive, and less subject to oversight than other units.
2. A bombing in Baghlan
A suicide bomber has killed at least 14 people in northern Afghanistan’s Baghlan province, including a senior local politician, police say.
Haji Rasool Khan Mohseni was the head of the provincial council.
Police officials told the BBC that an attacker wearing police uniform detonated a suicide vest at the gate of the council’s headquarters in Baghlan’s capital Pul-e Khomri.
Why This Matters
OK, so this actually happened yesterday, but I’m putting it here. While there have been reports that one of those killed was a staunchly anti-Taliban leader, what’s of greater importance is the increasing level of violence against civilians. Whether part of the Taliban’s offensive or not, this kind of spike in 2013 is troubling, and bodes ill for the next several months.
3. Karzai goes back to school
At a stopover in Jalandhar Monday on his way to New Delhi for meetings with Indian officials, Afghan President Hamid Karzai was presented with an honorary doctorate from what claims to be India’s largest private university. Indian President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the degree on Karzai, making him an honorary alumnus of Lovely Professional University — a school that bills itself as “a world-renowned center for the creation and dissemination of knowledge.”
Why This Matters
The degree is ornamental. The stop in India is not. India has a keen interest in expanding their influence in Afghanistan. How that plays with Afghanistan’s nearer neighbors remains to be seen. I’m all for it, honestly, and that can only mean good things for the region, provided, of course, that Pakistan behaves itself.
05/21/13
