Nation & World News
Rebellious warlords threaten Afghan stability
An influx in crime could also
subvert efforts to hold
national elections this fall
By Malcolm Garcia
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
KABUL, Afghanistan — With the
United States preoccupied by the insur
gency in Iraq, Afghan and Western offi
cials here are warning that rebellious
warlords and a rise in crime are threat
ening the security of this country and
could undermine efforts to hold na
tional elections in the fall.
The violence still plaguing
Afghanistan almost three years after
coalition forces toppled the hard-line
Taliban regime illustrates the kinds of
problems that the United State could
face in Iraq even if it subdues the current
insurgency and transfers power in June.
The Afghan capital, Kabul, is con
sidered the most stable city in the
country and a bastion of pro-Westem
democratic reforms. A force of inter
national peacekeepers is in the capital
and will prevent it from descending
into chaos, most officials agree.
But even that control is tenuous;
militias associated with warlords are a
growing presence, particularly in Kab
ul's western suburbs. Soldiers with the
international security force in Kabul
regularly find heavy weapons and am
munition hidden throughout the city.
To date, they have destroyed more than
200,000 anti-tank weapons, guided
missiles, mines and other explosives.
And resistance continues. On Fri
day, two military helicopters belong
ing to the international security forces
were fired upon just 12 miles outside
of the city. No injuries were reported
and no suspects arrested.
Last month, two rocket-propelled
grenades were found pointed toward
downtown targets.
"These incidents must vanish," said
Sharif Fayez, the minister of higher
education. "The government must
show more resolve, more determina
tion and act more decisively." With
out security, Fayez said, it is unlikely
that people will feel motivated to vote
in September.
Most of the international aid for
Afghanistan has gone toward rebuild
ing Kabul. Countless new businesses
have cropped up, including Internet
cafes, pizza restaurants and blue jean
outlets that cater to western journalists,
aid workers and embassy personnel.
Rents have skyrocketed — to as
much as $10,000 a month — in a
country where the average income is
less than $75 a month.
Flush with cash, Kabul has attracted
a growing number of burglars and
robbers. Chicken Street a tourist des
tination for many Westerners, doses as
soon as the sun sets, as do many other
business districts that used to stay
open late.
A poorly paid police force — wages
average about $50 a month — lacks the
motivation to crack down on crime.
Demonstrations by officers for higher
pay are common. Many police remain
employed by warlords. Those who are
assigned to work in the provinces are
often rejected by the regional warlord
and sent back to Kabul.
"You can have no loyalty without
money," said Haron Asefi, director
general of police. "The economy here
is very poor. The people want money
to eat. If the economy improves, the
security issues go down. If not, the
problems will increase."
In west Kabul, residents regularly
report being robbed by troops of the
former fundamentalist Mujahedeen
leader Abdul Rabb al-Rasul Sayyaf,
whose headquarters in Paghman
Province are less than an hour outside
Kabul.
Car mechanic Sayad Zaher, 28, a
resident of west Kabul, said a police
officer occupied his house last month
and refused to leave until he paid
$1,000. They bargained down to
$300.
"Herat is better than Kabul," Zaher
said referring to the western city con
trolled by powerful warlord Ishmael
Khan. "The rule there is strong. The
police can't rob you, beat you. The
shops are open late. There is peace,
real peace. The peace in Kabul city is
not real."
(c) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
Bush: Intelligence operations may need overhaul
The president’s suggestion
comes before testimony
to the Sept. 11 commission
by the former FBI director
By Shannon McCaffrey
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
WASHINGTON — President Bush
passed up an opportunity to throw
his support behind the FBI on Mon
day and instead said that the nation's
intelligence operations may need
overhauling to prevent another terror
ist attack against the United States.
Bush's remarks sent a shudder
through the FBI on the eve of crucial
testimony Tuesday before the com
mission investigating the Sept. 11 at
tacks. Former FBI Director Louis Freeh
and Attorney General John Ashcroft
are expected to face tough questioning
about the bureau's failure to act more
effectively against the al-Qaida terror
ist assault.
The hearing, scheduled to last two
days, will also explore whether the FBI
has done enough to reform itself in the
more than two years since the attacks.
The FBI has been lobbying hard
against proposals to create a separate
domestic intelligence agency, in the
mold of Britain's MI-5. Until now, the
Bush administration has opposed
such a move, saying the FBI needed
time to transform into an agency ded
icated to counterterrorism.
However, Bush administration offi
cials and Republican partisans have
been trying to deflect criticism of the ad
ministration onto the FBI and the CIA,
while Democrats try to highlight defi
ciencies in the president's and his advis
ers' response to the terrorism threat
National Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice did the FBI no fa
vors in her high-profile testimony last
week when she said the only thing
that might have prevented the Sept. 11
attacks would have been better do
mestic threat information and a ma
jor overhaul of intelligence gathering.
Bush echoed her remarks when he
spoke to reporters in Crawford, Texas,
on Monday.
"Now may be the time to revamp
and reform our intelligence services,"
Bush said, adding that he was looking
forward to seeing the commission's
recommendations.
Ashcroft's predecessor at the Justice
Department Janet Reno, is also sched
uled to testify Tuesday. FBI Director
Robert Mueller and CIA Director
George Tenet will testify Wednesday.
"The FBI has more questions to an
swer than Condoleezza Rice or (former
presidential anti-terrorism adviser)
Dick Clarke or anyone we've had testify
before us so far," commission member
Slade Gorton, a former Republican
senator from Washington state, said af
ter Rice's testimony.
The commission is expected to fo
cus on a newly declassified presiden
tial intelligence memo, dated Aug. 6,
2001, that revealed that the FBI had
some 70 active investigations related
to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden
under way in the United States.
Yet the bureau apparently did little
to alert thousands of agents in its 56
field offices nationwide to the bin
Laden threat or to the surge in intelli
gence warnings of possible attacks
that the FBI received in July 2001.
A federal law enforcement official,
speaking on condition of anonymity,
said then-acting FBI Director Thomas
Pickard told the 56 special-agents-in
chaige, who run the FBI's field offices,
to increase their terrorist surveillance in
July 2001. Whether Pickard's urging
reached street-level agents is uncertain.
"We have done thousands of inter
views here at the 9-11 commission.
We've gone through literally millions
of pieces of paper. To date, we have
found nobody, nobody at the FBI,
who knows anything about a tasking
of field offices," Democratic commis
sioner Timothy Roemer, a former con
gressman from Indiana, said during
Rice's hearing last week.
Bush said Monday that when he
read the intelligence memo in August
2001 he was comforted to learn that the
FBI was juggling 70 terrorism probes.
(c) 2004, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services. Knight Ridder
Newspapers correspondent Ron
Hutcheson contributed to this
report from Crawford, Texas.
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