Afghanistan in flux as U.S. surge troops exit
The U.S. military says it has now
fully withdrawn the last of the 33,000 "surge troops" sent to pacify
Afghanistan two years ago, but they are leaving behind an uncertain landscape
of rising violence and political instability that threaten to undo considerable
gains in security, particularly in the former Taliban strongholds in the south and southwest.As the troops head for
home, a good week ahead of schedule, the U.S. coalition and its Afghan partners are bedeviled by a host of problems.The
tempo and audacity of Taliban attacks have increased. Insider killings of
Americans by Afghan troops have raised tensions between the allies, forcing
severe cutbacks in strategically vital training programs. Both governments are
arguing publicly over whether to keep battlefield prisoners locked up without
trial, while nervous officials on all sides are worrying that riots over an
inflammatory anti-Muslim video, which have killed dozens in other countries,
will break out in Afghanistan.Friday's milestone, which still leaves
68,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, was announced on the other side of the
planet by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, during a trip to New Zealand, while both U.S. and Afghan officials in
Kabul studiously ignored the moment, at least in public.Some
pro-government Afghans boasted it showed their own forces were ready to take
over, while pro-Taliban forces exulted that they were not, but most Afghans
just worried about what it would really mean for the final two years of the
U.S. presence in the country."What did the surge give us?" a
senior U.S. official reflected Friday, speaking anonymously as a matter of military
policy. "We're going to hit a point where, I won't say that's as good as
it gets, but now it's up to them to hold what we gave them. Now, really, it's
Karzai's turn."No one claimed there was not a great deal yet to be
done against an insurgency that its foes describe as tenacious and determined.
"They're not going to go away for years," the senior official said.
"Every fighting season the Taliban, or some number of them, come out of
the corner and they're ready to fight again."Both U.S. and Afghan
officials have acknowledged the seriousness of the green on blue attacks, which
this year have seen the killings of more than 50 U.S. soldiers at the hands of
their Afghan allies.
US Navy's new
floating base gets a workout in Gulf
A new, key addition to American-led
naval efforts to ensure Mideast oil keeps flowing has emerged as an unusual mix
of a ship combining decades' worth of wear and tear with state-of-the-art
technology and a largely civilian crew.After winning a reprieve from the
scrapyard, the USS Ponce was reborn through a rush retrofit earlier this year
and turned into a floating base prowling the waters of the Persian Gulf. It is
now getting its biggest workout since refurbishment as the centerpiece for
sweeping naval exercises under way that serve as a very public warning to Iran. The Islamic Republic
has threatened to shut the Gulf's entrance at the Strait of Hormuz, the route
for a fifth of the world's oil supplies, and would likely use mines to do so.Anti-mine
divers on practice drills deployed in small boats off the Ponce's stern gate
early Saturday, and MH-53 minesweeping helicopters launched from the ship
kicked up sea spray as they hauled mine-detecting equipment through the water.
Later in the day, a U.S. destroyer pulled alongside, fighter jets roared past
and gunners fired thunderous rounds from .50 caliber machine guns during a
simulated encounter with a hostile vessel.Senior Navy officials in the
Gulf are quick to downplay talk of conflict with Iran, which is locked in a
dispute with the U.S. and its allies over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.
The West suspects Iran aims to develop a
nuclear weapon; Tehran denies the charges.U.S. military officials in the region insist
the exercises, which include forces from more than 30 countries, are defensive
and not directed at any country. They prefer to focus instead on the Ponce's
role as an innovative new tool to help ensure security in the region, and on
the need to train with allies to keep sea lanes open.Still, the message
is clear."Any extremist group, any country that puts mines in the
water would be cautioned" by the exercises, said Marine Gen. James R. Mattis, the U.S. Central Command chief, during his first visit onboard the Ponce since it deployed June
1. "We do have the means to take mines out of the water if they go in. We
will open the waterways to freedom of navigation."Military leaders
believe the Norfolk, Va.-based Ponce is central to that mission.More than
half the length of most U.S. aircraft carriers, the Ponce can accommodate
multiple helicopters on deck and small boats in a well deck below.The ship
was originally an amphibious transport dock built at the height of the Vietnam
War. Those types of vessels are typically used to carry landing forces
of Marines.It's now known as the Navy's first "afloat forward staging
base-interim," a name given because the Ponce is meant to be a stopgap
until a similar base built from scratch is delivered. That won't happen until
at least 2015."This will more or less act as a test for using
floating platforms in the sea for military operations," Riad Kahwaji, chief executive of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf
Military Analysis, said of the reconfigured Ponce. "There'll be a lot of
defense industry officials observing the performance of this."Much of
the original ship remains, including the tight Marine-style bunks stacked four
high from floor to ceiling in some parts of the ship. But there are plenty of
21st Century additions too.Berths for around 100 people were removed and
replaced with a high-tech joint operations center, where streaming video and
data feeds can be shown on flat-screen displays.Powerful MK-38 guns
installed during conversion include remotely controlled digital cameras that
let operators zoom in on far-off targets of interest. And a ScanEagle
surveillance drone launched from and recovered by the ship keeps an eye on the
sea for miles around all day long.In its new role, the Ponce is initially
intended to be a close-to-the-action support hub for mine-clearing ships,
coastal patrol vessels and helicopters. Ships can take on fuel and supplies
without having to return to port, and a wide range of repairs can be handled by
machinists onboard. That means far less downtime for minesweepers and other
vessels using the Ponce as a stopping-off point, according to analysts and
Navy officials.The Ponce's Spartan accommodation can also handle hundreds
of additional personnel, such as the French anti-mine divers in distinctive
camouflage shorts currently onboard. In theory, special operations forces could
also fill bunks aboard the Ponce, which is able to launch the small boats and
helicopters they often use.There is also the benefit of not needing to
secure approval from allied countries where U.S. troops are based before
conducting operations from an offshore staging base such as
the Ponce."A country that's believed to be friendly to the U.S. could
overnight become hostile to the U.S., and this could pose a threat to U.S.
operations," Kahwaji said, citing recent violence directed at American
embassies in response to an anti-Islam film.Although it is under the
command of a Navy captain, most of the Ponce's crew are civilians. It has more
than 155 civilian crew members from the Military Sealift Command and 55 Navy
sailors, according to the ship's commanding officer, Capt. Jon Rodgers. The number of civilian crew can fluctuate depending on who
is onboard.The MSC is normally responsible for running about 110 supply
ships and other non-combat vessels for the Navy, but the Ponce's hybrid crew
is unusual.Visitors arriving by helicopter are met on the flight deck by
some crew in uniform and others in civilian coveralls. Civilian employees keep
the floors and toilets clean, and dish out corned beef hash and French toast on
the mess deck. Some of the MSC crew members have dreadlocks a no-no for enlisted sailors and many are in
their 40s or beyond. A handful are older than 60.It's not just the
civilian crew that's showing its age. The Ponce is among the Navy's
oldest ships. Construction began in 1966, and it was commissioned during the
Nixon administration in 1971.Rust is prevalent throughout the ship, and
many of the fittings retain a Cold War feel."Just walk around and you
can see," said Kevin Chavis, 45, a retired Navy electronics specialist from Brooklyn who is now part of the Ponce's civilian crew.
"Yeah, it's old. But just like a car, if you change the filters and the
oil, it'll keep running."
Chavez's record: an oil bonanza squandered?
On the streets of Caracas, vast slums blanket
the hillsides while squatters hang laundry in the windows of abandoned
buildings. Trash-strewn alleys are riddled with potholes and lined with broken
streetlamps. The city's main waterway, the polluted Guaire River, is known more
for sewage than swimming.While oil has ushered in spectacular construction
projects for glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world's tallest
building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi, it's brought relatively meager
changes to Venezuela, which holds the world's largest proven
oil reserves.Nearly 14 years after President Hugo Chavez took office, and despite the biggest oil bonanza in Venezuela's
history, there's little outward sign of the nearly one trillion petrodollars that
have flowed into the country.Venezuela has undoubtedly changed during
Chavez's tenure. The populist president has used the oil wealth to buttress his
support through cash handouts, state-run grocery stores and a gamut of other
social programs. With more money in the economy, incomes are higher and the
number of people living in poverty has fallen.Unemployment has dropped
from more than 13 percent in 1999 to about 8 percent. The country has also
achieved rapid improvement on the U.N. Human Development Index, which measures a range of indicators from
living standards to life expectancy."We're applying a successful
program successful politically, successful socially, successful
economically," Chavez said at a news conference. "With flaws, of
course, but it's successful. We're laying the foundations of a historic project
that will take our entire lifetime."All of which makes him a tough
incumbent to beat in the upcoming Oct. 7 election.Yet some experts say
Chavez could have done much more to improve the country's infrastructure, boost
its economy and invest in the very oil industry that keeps
Venezuela afloat."It's overwhelmingly clear that Venezuela has wasted
the windfall," said Francisco Monaldi, an economist and director of the International Center of Energy and the Environment at Caracas' IESA business school. "You should have had much greater economic growth, much greater
reduction of poverty."Among Latin American countries, the economies
of Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina all have expanded more rapidly than
Venezuela's since Chavez took office in 1999, recording average growth between
3 and 5 percent a year.Venezuela, by contrast, averaged a 2.8 percent
annual increase of gross domestic product between 1999 and 2011, according to International Monetary Fund figures. By that measure, the country was outperformed by every other
member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries except Libya. Even war-torn Iraq posted
higher growth.Some Venezuelans, such as tennis instructor Naybeth Figueroa, say Chavez has simply channeled money toward his "Chavista"
supporters while neglecting deeply ingrained problems such as soaring murder
rates, inflation, crumbling infrastructure and poor government services. Venezuela now ranks among the most violent and corrupt places
on earth."The country is falling to pieces," Figueroa said.
"Where is the oil money going?"On a rutted unpaved road in the
countryside outside Caracas, unemployed housewife Moreli Gonzalez lives in a shack with a dirt floor and walls made of rusting sheets of
zinc. She is thankful to Chavez that she now receives a $280-a-month cash
benefit through a program called "Mothers of the Neighborhood Mission.""Now we
have everything," said Gonzalez, who credits a government education
program with helping her learn to read and a state-run grocery down the road
that has made food more affordable."We eat better," she said,
showing off cupboards filled with bags of rice and pasta. "My children
didn't used to eat snacks. Now they eat well."
Finding Poland's sunken royal treasures
Capitalizing on low water levels in
Warsaw's Vistula River, police are teaming up with archaeologists to recover
gigantic marble and alabaster treasures that apparently were stolen from royals
in Poland by Swedish invaders in the mid-17th century.A police Mi-8 helicopter
hovered over a riverbed on Thursday, lifting ornaments such as the centerpiece
of a fountain with water outlets decorated with satyr-like faces.For
police, it was gratifying to provide the chopper and assist Warsaw University archaeologists in
"this very important mission of retrievingpriceless national treasures,"saidMariusz Mrozek, a spokesman for Warsaw police.Archaeologists have long known that
such well-preserved treasures were located in the riverbed in the Warsaw area,
but not exactly where.The archaeologists and frogmen, led by Hubert Kowalski, have previously retrieved some of the stolen stone ornaments from the
Vistula riverbed in three years of searching for the sunken treasures. Butonly
now, with the river much lower than normal, thanks to recent heat waves and
droughts, their findings have become spectacular."This is a precious
find. These elements were stolen from Warsaw's royal residences and palaces,"
said Marek Wrede, a historian at the Royal Castle.The valuable artistic objects marble floor tiles, parts of archways
and columns were robbed from Warsaw by the Swedes who overran the nation in
mid-17th century and took heavy loads of spoils from across the country.
Today's items probably came from the Royal Castle and from a royal country
residence, the Kazimierz Palace.The artifacts probably were being carried
by a barge that sank, one of the many such vessels that ferried loot down the
river to the Baltic Sea and to Sweden.The find is precious for Poland,
which has been repeatedly plundered by neighboring armies over the centuries,
including Nazi Germany and the Soviet Red Army during World War II.Kowalski said he knew about the hidden
artifacts from 17th century letters that mentioned barges that had sunk in
the area.First word of where the treasures might be came in 1906 when sand
barge operators discovered some items, but could retrieve only
a few.Kowalski said his team is now busy cleaning the newly retrieved
items, which are "very well preserved, given the 350 years
in water."
Iran accuses Siemens of nuclear sabotage
Iran accused Germany's Siemens on
Saturday of implanting tiny explosives inside equipment the Islamic Republic
purchased for its disputed nuclear program, a charge the technology
giant denied.Prominent lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iranian security experts discovered the explosives and removed
them before detonation, adding that authorities believe the booby-trapped
equipment was sold to derail uranium enrichment efforts."The
equipment was supposed to explode after being put to work, in order to
dismantle all our systems," he said. "But the wisdom of our experts
thwarted the enemy conspiracy."Siemens denied the charge and said its
nuclear division has had no business with Iran since the 1979
revolution that led to its current clerical state."Siemens rejects
the allegations and stresses that we have no business ties to the Iranian
nuclear program," spokesman for the Munich-based company Alexander
Machowetz said.Boroujerdi, who heads the parliamentary security committee,
alleged that the explosives were implanted at a Siemens factory and demanded
the company take responsibility.Any sale of nuclear equipment to Iran is
banned under U.N. sanctions, raising the possibility that if it indeed has some, it may
have been acquired through third parties. Boroujerdi did not say when or how Iran obtained Siemens
equipment. Despite a wide array of international sanctions, Germany remains one
of Iran's most important trading partners.The U.S. and its allies suspect
Iran's nuclear work is aimed at producing weapons. Iran says it only wants to
enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, and asserts it has been the target of a
concerted campaign by Israel, the U.S. and their allies to undermine its
nuclear efforts through covert operations.Some Iranian officials have also
suggested in the past that specific European companies may have sold faulty
equipment to Iran with the knowledge of American intelligence agencies and
their own governments, since the sales would have harmed, rather than helped,
the country's nuclear program.According to Iran, the alleged campaign has
included the abduction of scientists, the sale of faulty equipment and the
planting of a destructive computer worm known as Stuxnet, which briefly brought
Iran's uranium enrichment activity to a halt in 2010.Iran's nuclear chief,
Fereidoun Abbasi, said Monday that separate attacks on Iran's centrifuges through tiny
explosives meant to disable key parts of the machines were discovered before
the blasts could go off on timers.Abbasi also told the U.N. nuclear agency
in Vienna that "terrorists and saboteurs" might have infiltrated the International Atomic Energy Agency, after the watchdog's inspectors arrived at the Fordo underground
enrichment facility shortly after power lines were blown up through sabotage on
Aug. 17.Iran has repeatedly accused the IAEA of sending spies in the guise
of inspectors to collect information about its nuclear activities, pointing to
alleged leaks of information by inspectors to U.S. and
other officials.Five nuclear scientists and researchers have been killed
in Iran since 2010. Tehran blames the deaths on Israel's Mossad spy agency
as well as the CIA and Britain's MI-6. Washington and London have denied any roles. Israel has not commented.Boroujerdi
said the alleged leaks of nuclear information to its adversaries by the IAEA
may finally push Tehran to end all cooperation with the agency."Iran has the right to
cut its cooperation with the IAEA should such violations continue," he said.
