Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
ABC; CNN; FNC
June 16, 2008 World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM
CHARLES GIBSON: In Afghanistan today, hundreds of Taliban fighters stormed into villages on the outskirts of the city of Kandahar, the latest in the fierce push by the resurgent militants. To counter the growing threat, the U.S. has dispatched more than 3,000 Marines into the region.
Tonight, our senior foreign correspondent, Jim Sciutto, is with Bravo Company in Helmand Province.
JIM SCIUTTO: This is how Bravo Company travels today – slowly and cautiously behind a seven ton armored mine roller. After two IEDs hit this stretch of road in the last few days, they’re on high alert.
SGT. DAVID POTTER [U.S. Marine Corps]: A Humvee – you can’t survive it, but the likelihood is pretty slim to none. I mean, if you come out of it, you’re hurt pretty bad.
SCIUTTO: On Saturday, the lead vehicle in our own convoy, a Humvee, was destroyed by a roadside bomb.
There’s just been an IED attack. You can see the medevac helicopters coming now above. It’s about 200 yards ahead of us.
Four Marines were injured. A second IED on the same day killed four coalition soldiers north of here. Today, they’re doing everything they can to prevent another one. This is exactly where the roadside bomb struck our convoy just two days ago. Now, already the Marines have set up a new base here. They’re running patrols down the road as well as keeping an eye out to make sure no more roadside bombs are planted here.
MARINE: I miss home.
SCIUTTO: These Marines are among the more than 3,000 troops sent in recently, a surge in U.S. forces here to take back the province from the Taliban. The fighting was rougher and longer than they expected. For one 30-day stretch, they were locked in close combat with Taliban fighters nearly every day. Beaten in the conventional fighting, the Taliban are resorting to insurgent tactics reminiscent of Iraq. Sniper fire, roadside bombs – it’s familiar ground for this unit. More than half of them served in Iraq before. Though here they’re facing a better trained enemy.
NICHOLAS MARTINEZ [U.S. Marine Corps]: They’re all Pakistani-trained, close to the Pakistani border. So for the most part they know what they’re doing.
SCIUTTO: They’re battling the conditions as well: sandstorms, 125 degree heat. The Marines were told they would be here for ten days. Today is day 50 and no one is talking about going home.
Jim Sciutto, ABC News, with the Marines in Helmand Province.
Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN), 7:00 PM
LOU DOBBS: Meanwhile, the violence in Afghanistan is worsening. Coalition deaths in Afghanistan exceeded those in Iraq for the month of May and so far this month. Britain is sending more troops but they're not expected to help where the fighting is the most intense. Barbara Starr has our report from the Pentagon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BARBARA STARR: In Kandahar up to 900 Taliban fighters and criminals, who made a dramatic prison break, are reported to be taking over several villages, U.S. and Canadian troops now moving into the region.
NORINE MACDONALD, PRESIDENT, SENLIS COUNCIL: We really have seen that there are insufficient troop levels in the south to deal with this to stabilize this situation.
STARR: Across Afghanistan fighting is on the rise. For the first time, last month more coalition troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq. Four Marines killed in Farah province. The worst single day loss for the U.S. this year. In Tarin Kowt 100 militants attacked coalition forces, The largest enemy concentration in months. As the British sent more dead home, Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised to send a few hundred more troops.
GORDON BROWN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Today Britain will announce additional troops for Afghanistan, bringing our numbers in Afghanistan to the highest level.
STARR: But it won't help the major flash point, the border with Pakistan. The U.S. wants Pakistan to crack down, but Washington says it's just not happening.
DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES: There is no question that the area along the Afghan/Pakistan border is a real problem. Al Qaeda is there. The Taliban is there.
STARR: Afghan President Hamid Karzai now threatening to send his forces into Pakistan.
PRES. HAMID KARZAI, AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan has the right of self-defense when they cross the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same.
STARR: On his farewell European tour, President Bush one more time called for cooperation.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: It is in one no one's interest that extremists have a safe haven from which to operate. (END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: Now President Bush has promised to send thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan next year. And that will be a commitment in waiting for the next president. Lou?
DOBBS: Barbara, thank you very much -- Barbara Starr reporting from the Pentagon.
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: NATO forces battling the increasingly aggressive Taliban in Afghanistan will be getting some more help. Great Britain is sending on another 230 military personnel to the country, boosting its presence there to more than 8,000 troops.
National security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports from the Pentagon.
JENNIFER GRIFFIN: More British troops now being sent to Afghanistan, expanding the British presence there to the highest level since the start of the war after 9/11. The announcement came after Gordon Brown met with President Bush.
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN: Today, Britain will announce additional troops for Afghanistan.
GRIFFIN: A day earlier, Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued his sternest warning yet to Pakistan and the Taliban who have taken refuge there.
AFGHAN PRESIDENT HAMID KARZAI: This means Afghanistan has the right of self-defense. When they cross the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and to kill the coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same.
GRIFFIN: Outside Kandahar, several villages a few miles north of the Taliban’s former seat of power fell this weekend to Taliban forces riding in on motorcycles and pick-up trucks after the Taliban orchestrated a prison break at this Afghan-run prison in Kandahar Friday, blowing a hole through the front gate with an explosives laden truck, freeing hundreds of Taliban fighters.
The same day, the former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan returned to the Pentagon for meetings.
GEN. DANIEL MCNEILL [Former U.S. Commander in Afghanistan]: I’m not saying the fight is over, that the battle is won. It’s not, but if our aim is – and I think this is what our aim should be – to enable Afghan security forces to take responsibility for their own battlespace, to take responsibility for taking on this insurgency, then I think we’re well on the way of doing that.
GRIFFIN: Additional NATO troops have now been moved south. Karzai threatened Taliban leaders hiding in Pakistan’s tribal areas by name, including the camera-shy Baitullah Meshud, who the CIA says sent assassins to kill Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
KARZAI: Therefore Baitullah Meshud should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house.
GRIFFIN: Last week, NATO forces called in airstrikes, killing 11 Pakistanis, some of them soldiers, as fighting flared along the Pakistan-Afghan border. Pakistan’s new civilian leaders condemned the Afghan leader’s recent swagger.
HUSAIN HAQQANI [Pakistani Ambassador to U.S.]: I think that President Karzai is feeling under pressure and therefore it is important for him to respond to that pressure. I wish he didn’t respond to it by using a harsh tone towards Pakistan.
GRIFFIN: Few think the Afghan leader can follow through on his threat. The Afghan forces aren’t strong enough, despite seven years of training that’s cost the U.S. $3 billion.
At the Pentagon, Jennifer Griffin, Fox News.
June 16, 2008 World News With Charles Gibson (ABC), 6:30 PM
CHARLES GIBSON: In Afghanistan today, hundreds of Taliban fighters stormed into villages on the outskirts of the city of Kandahar, the latest in the fierce push by the resurgent militants. To counter the growing threat, the U.S. has dispatched more than 3,000 Marines into the region.
Tonight, our senior foreign correspondent, Jim Sciutto, is with Bravo Company in Helmand Province.
JIM SCIUTTO: This is how Bravo Company travels today – slowly and cautiously behind a seven ton armored mine roller. After two IEDs hit this stretch of road in the last few days, they’re on high alert.
SGT. DAVID POTTER [U.S. Marine Corps]: A Humvee – you can’t survive it, but the likelihood is pretty slim to none. I mean, if you come out of it, you’re hurt pretty bad.
SCIUTTO: On Saturday, the lead vehicle in our own convoy, a Humvee, was destroyed by a roadside bomb.
There’s just been an IED attack. You can see the medevac helicopters coming now above. It’s about 200 yards ahead of us.
Four Marines were injured. A second IED on the same day killed four coalition soldiers north of here. Today, they’re doing everything they can to prevent another one. This is exactly where the roadside bomb struck our convoy just two days ago. Now, already the Marines have set up a new base here. They’re running patrols down the road as well as keeping an eye out to make sure no more roadside bombs are planted here.
MARINE: I miss home.
SCIUTTO: These Marines are among the more than 3,000 troops sent in recently, a surge in U.S. forces here to take back the province from the Taliban. The fighting was rougher and longer than they expected. For one 30-day stretch, they were locked in close combat with Taliban fighters nearly every day. Beaten in the conventional fighting, the Taliban are resorting to insurgent tactics reminiscent of Iraq. Sniper fire, roadside bombs – it’s familiar ground for this unit. More than half of them served in Iraq before. Though here they’re facing a better trained enemy.
NICHOLAS MARTINEZ [U.S. Marine Corps]: They’re all Pakistani-trained, close to the Pakistani border. So for the most part they know what they’re doing.
SCIUTTO: They’re battling the conditions as well: sandstorms, 125 degree heat. The Marines were told they would be here for ten days. Today is day 50 and no one is talking about going home.
Jim Sciutto, ABC News, with the Marines in Helmand Province.
Lou Dobbs Tonight (CNN), 7:00 PM
LOU DOBBS: Meanwhile, the violence in Afghanistan is worsening. Coalition deaths in Afghanistan exceeded those in Iraq for the month of May and so far this month. Britain is sending more troops but they're not expected to help where the fighting is the most intense. Barbara Starr has our report from the Pentagon.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BARBARA STARR: In Kandahar up to 900 Taliban fighters and criminals, who made a dramatic prison break, are reported to be taking over several villages, U.S. and Canadian troops now moving into the region.
NORINE MACDONALD, PRESIDENT, SENLIS COUNCIL: We really have seen that there are insufficient troop levels in the south to deal with this to stabilize this situation.
STARR: Across Afghanistan fighting is on the rise. For the first time, last month more coalition troops died in Afghanistan than in Iraq. Four Marines killed in Farah province. The worst single day loss for the U.S. this year. In Tarin Kowt 100 militants attacked coalition forces, The largest enemy concentration in months. As the British sent more dead home, Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised to send a few hundred more troops.
GORDON BROWN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Today Britain will announce additional troops for Afghanistan, bringing our numbers in Afghanistan to the highest level.
STARR: But it won't help the major flash point, the border with Pakistan. The U.S. wants Pakistan to crack down, but Washington says it's just not happening.
DEFENSE SECRETARY ROBERT GATES: There is no question that the area along the Afghan/Pakistan border is a real problem. Al Qaeda is there. The Taliban is there.
STARR: Afghan President Hamid Karzai now threatening to send his forces into Pakistan.
PRES. HAMID KARZAI, AFGHANISTAN: Afghanistan has the right of self-defense when they cross the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and kill coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same.
STARR: On his farewell European tour, President Bush one more time called for cooperation.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: It is in one no one's interest that extremists have a safe haven from which to operate. (END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: Now President Bush has promised to send thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan next year. And that will be a commitment in waiting for the next president. Lou?
DOBBS: Barbara, thank you very much -- Barbara Starr reporting from the Pentagon.
Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM
BRIT HUME: NATO forces battling the increasingly aggressive Taliban in Afghanistan will be getting some more help. Great Britain is sending on another 230 military personnel to the country, boosting its presence there to more than 8,000 troops.
National security correspondent Jennifer Griffin reports from the Pentagon.
JENNIFER GRIFFIN: More British troops now being sent to Afghanistan, expanding the British presence there to the highest level since the start of the war after 9/11. The announcement came after Gordon Brown met with President Bush.
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN: Today, Britain will announce additional troops for Afghanistan.
GRIFFIN: A day earlier, Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued his sternest warning yet to Pakistan and the Taliban who have taken refuge there.
AFGHAN PRESIDENT HAMID KARZAI: This means Afghanistan has the right of self-defense. When they cross the territory from Pakistan to come and kill Afghans and to kill the coalition troops, it exactly gives us the right to go back and do the same.
GRIFFIN: Outside Kandahar, several villages a few miles north of the Taliban’s former seat of power fell this weekend to Taliban forces riding in on motorcycles and pick-up trucks after the Taliban orchestrated a prison break at this Afghan-run prison in Kandahar Friday, blowing a hole through the front gate with an explosives laden truck, freeing hundreds of Taliban fighters.
The same day, the former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan returned to the Pentagon for meetings.
GEN. DANIEL MCNEILL [Former U.S. Commander in Afghanistan]: I’m not saying the fight is over, that the battle is won. It’s not, but if our aim is – and I think this is what our aim should be – to enable Afghan security forces to take responsibility for their own battlespace, to take responsibility for taking on this insurgency, then I think we’re well on the way of doing that.
GRIFFIN: Additional NATO troops have now been moved south. Karzai threatened Taliban leaders hiding in Pakistan’s tribal areas by name, including the camera-shy Baitullah Meshud, who the CIA says sent assassins to kill Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
KARZAI: Therefore Baitullah Meshud should know that we will go after him now and hit him in his house.
GRIFFIN: Last week, NATO forces called in airstrikes, killing 11 Pakistanis, some of them soldiers, as fighting flared along the Pakistan-Afghan border. Pakistan’s new civilian leaders condemned the Afghan leader’s recent swagger.
HUSAIN HAQQANI [Pakistani Ambassador to U.S.]: I think that President Karzai is feeling under pressure and therefore it is important for him to respond to that pressure. I wish he didn’t respond to it by using a harsh tone towards Pakistan.
GRIFFIN: Few think the Afghan leader can follow through on his threat. The Afghan forces aren’t strong enough, despite seven years of training that’s cost the U.S. $3 billion.
At the Pentagon, Jennifer Griffin, Fox News.