Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
New York Times
April 30, 2008 By Abdul Waheed Wafa and Carlotta Gall
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai was warned that an attack was being planned on a military parade on Sunday, when he escaped an assassination attempt, Afghanistan’s intelligence chief told Parliament on Tuesday. He said two groups of attackers were thwarted the same day, though a third succeeded in opening fire on the ceremony.
The intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh, director of the National Security Directorate, bowed his head before Parliament and said there had been negligence by some in the presidential guard, his own intelligence service and possible complicity by some police officers, making it possible for the gunmen to fire from a hotel room, killing three people and wounding 11.
The attack sent government officials, diplomats and legislators scrambling for cover and caused a stampede of soldiers from the parade ground, embarrassing the government just as it was seeking to take over security of the capital from international forces.
During the session, reports came in of another coordinated suicide bomb and gun attack in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday morning, in which 19 people were killed and 41 wounded. Among the dead were 12 police officers and 7 civilians, including the district administrator and police chief of Khogiani District in Nangarhar Province, officials said.
Mr. Saleh was called before Parliament, along with the defense and interior ministers, to explain the security failings. They hung onto their jobs when Parliament moved a no-confidence vote on each of them in a daylong session in which lawmakers criticized their performance, that of the government and even the president.
The men blamed differences among the various security forces and gaps in communication for the failures. Mr. Saleh and some lawmakers complained that reforms of the army, the police, intelligence services and the presidential guard left the forces uncoordinated.
Mr. Saleh gave the most detailed account of the events and appeared to lay the blame with the American-trained presidential guard. The force, which is independent of the three security ministries and answers directly to the president, was responsible for the security of one square kilometer, or less than half a square mile, around the parade ground, assisted by the intelligence service, he said.
One of his intelligence officers warned the presidential guard that three men were acting suspiciously in the hotel room that was ultimately used in the attack, Mr. Saleh said. The president’s men kept a close guard on the room while Mr. Karzai was inspecting the troops on the parade ground in an open-topped vehicle, but when he drove off to the spectator stands, they dropped their guard. It was then, as the artillery fired a salute, that the attackers opened fire, he said.
The three attackers, who were all killed, have been identified, he said. He said that the plot was hatched on March 10 and that the attackers had rented the room overlooking the parade ground 45 days before the event. The room was searched two days before the parade, and nothing suspicious was found, police and intelligence officials have confirmed.
There may have been a fourth plotter, who locked them into their room from the outside for the last 36 hours before the attack. The three did not leave the room after that.
Text messages on their cellphones, in the Pashtu language, suggested they were preparing to die, Mr. Saleh said. “They asked for prayers and forgiveness, and from the other side they were messaged: ‘You are close to God. Don’t speak a lot, and endure the hunger,’” he said.
Two of the gunmen may have killed themselves before security forces reached them. The third was shot dead, Mr. Saleh said. In the room were found assault rifles capable of launching grenades and a heavy machine gun, the defense minister, Rahim Wardak, said. It is not clear how they brought the weapons into the room, but he said officials had also found a rope in the room.
Intelligence officials had learned that a three-pronged attack was being planned, with a mortar team, a suicide bomber and a third team, Mr. Saleh said. Security forces arrested men with mortars on one of Kabul’s mountainsides, and also caught a suicide bombing group, he said.
Lawmakers were scathing in their criticism of the lapses. “The heart is weak in this country, the heart is sick, and unless we treat the heart I don’t think we can have the other organs with a sick heart,” said one lawmaker, Maulavi Sheikh Ahmad. “This weakness and failure and insecurity all over the country is due to the president we have,” he said.
Mr. Saleh said that Afghanistan had suffered over 4,000 attacks last year and that with the current security system he could not guarantee there would not be 8,000 this year. “If there is not a change in plans, methods and way of working, for all this questioning the issue will not be solved,” he said.
Mr. Wardak, who had overall responsibility for the parade and whose troops provided a ring of security around the capital, also admitted that the security forces had failed. “What happened was really shameful,” he said. “Clearly it was a blow to our national and international prestige.”
The interior minister, Zarar Ahmad Muqbil, whose police officers are generally seen as the weakest of the law enforcement forces, said little, but admitted to gaps in security.
The United States ambassador in Kabul, William B. Wood, issued a statement of condolence, and support and appreciation for the security forces.
“Tragically, the attackers succeeded in getting close enough to fire some shots,” the statement said. “The security institutions of Afghanistan defeated the attack within 120 seconds of the first shot and performed in a skilled, professional, and disciplined way during the attack.”
Abdul Waheed Wafa reported from Kabul, and Carlotta Gall from Kandahar, Afghanistan. Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting from Kabul.
April 30, 2008 By Abdul Waheed Wafa and Carlotta Gall
KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai was warned that an attack was being planned on a military parade on Sunday, when he escaped an assassination attempt, Afghanistan’s intelligence chief told Parliament on Tuesday. He said two groups of attackers were thwarted the same day, though a third succeeded in opening fire on the ceremony.
The intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh, director of the National Security Directorate, bowed his head before Parliament and said there had been negligence by some in the presidential guard, his own intelligence service and possible complicity by some police officers, making it possible for the gunmen to fire from a hotel room, killing three people and wounding 11.
The attack sent government officials, diplomats and legislators scrambling for cover and caused a stampede of soldiers from the parade ground, embarrassing the government just as it was seeking to take over security of the capital from international forces.
During the session, reports came in of another coordinated suicide bomb and gun attack in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday morning, in which 19 people were killed and 41 wounded. Among the dead were 12 police officers and 7 civilians, including the district administrator and police chief of Khogiani District in Nangarhar Province, officials said.
Mr. Saleh was called before Parliament, along with the defense and interior ministers, to explain the security failings. They hung onto their jobs when Parliament moved a no-confidence vote on each of them in a daylong session in which lawmakers criticized their performance, that of the government and even the president.
The men blamed differences among the various security forces and gaps in communication for the failures. Mr. Saleh and some lawmakers complained that reforms of the army, the police, intelligence services and the presidential guard left the forces uncoordinated.
Mr. Saleh gave the most detailed account of the events and appeared to lay the blame with the American-trained presidential guard. The force, which is independent of the three security ministries and answers directly to the president, was responsible for the security of one square kilometer, or less than half a square mile, around the parade ground, assisted by the intelligence service, he said.
One of his intelligence officers warned the presidential guard that three men were acting suspiciously in the hotel room that was ultimately used in the attack, Mr. Saleh said. The president’s men kept a close guard on the room while Mr. Karzai was inspecting the troops on the parade ground in an open-topped vehicle, but when he drove off to the spectator stands, they dropped their guard. It was then, as the artillery fired a salute, that the attackers opened fire, he said.
The three attackers, who were all killed, have been identified, he said. He said that the plot was hatched on March 10 and that the attackers had rented the room overlooking the parade ground 45 days before the event. The room was searched two days before the parade, and nothing suspicious was found, police and intelligence officials have confirmed.
There may have been a fourth plotter, who locked them into their room from the outside for the last 36 hours before the attack. The three did not leave the room after that.
Text messages on their cellphones, in the Pashtu language, suggested they were preparing to die, Mr. Saleh said. “They asked for prayers and forgiveness, and from the other side they were messaged: ‘You are close to God. Don’t speak a lot, and endure the hunger,’” he said.
Two of the gunmen may have killed themselves before security forces reached them. The third was shot dead, Mr. Saleh said. In the room were found assault rifles capable of launching grenades and a heavy machine gun, the defense minister, Rahim Wardak, said. It is not clear how they brought the weapons into the room, but he said officials had also found a rope in the room.
Intelligence officials had learned that a three-pronged attack was being planned, with a mortar team, a suicide bomber and a third team, Mr. Saleh said. Security forces arrested men with mortars on one of Kabul’s mountainsides, and also caught a suicide bombing group, he said.
Lawmakers were scathing in their criticism of the lapses. “The heart is weak in this country, the heart is sick, and unless we treat the heart I don’t think we can have the other organs with a sick heart,” said one lawmaker, Maulavi Sheikh Ahmad. “This weakness and failure and insecurity all over the country is due to the president we have,” he said.
Mr. Saleh said that Afghanistan had suffered over 4,000 attacks last year and that with the current security system he could not guarantee there would not be 8,000 this year. “If there is not a change in plans, methods and way of working, for all this questioning the issue will not be solved,” he said.
Mr. Wardak, who had overall responsibility for the parade and whose troops provided a ring of security around the capital, also admitted that the security forces had failed. “What happened was really shameful,” he said. “Clearly it was a blow to our national and international prestige.”
The interior minister, Zarar Ahmad Muqbil, whose police officers are generally seen as the weakest of the law enforcement forces, said little, but admitted to gaps in security.
The United States ambassador in Kabul, William B. Wood, issued a statement of condolence, and support and appreciation for the security forces.
“Tragically, the attackers succeeded in getting close enough to fire some shots,” the statement said. “The security institutions of Afghanistan defeated the attack within 120 seconds of the first shot and performed in a skilled, professional, and disciplined way during the attack.”
Abdul Waheed Wafa reported from Kabul, and Carlotta Gall from Kandahar, Afghanistan. Sangar Rahimi contributed reporting from Kabul.