News Report: Taliban Letter to Trump Is Tactic to Counter Pressure

Afghan Taliban Terrorist's

Nazrana Ghaffar

The Afghan Taliban's "open letter" to President Donald Trump calling for a total withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, is aimed at taking pressure off the group as Washington presses Pakistan to crack down on the allied Haqqani terror network, analysts say.

The letter, which was made public Tuesday, comes as Trump continues to cobble together his Afghan policy. There had been strong speculation the policy would be released at the NATO summit in late May, but it has yet to be finalized. U.S. commanders have said the military situation has ground to a "stalemate."

The White House says Trump plans to meet Friday with his security team and Vice President Mike Pence at Camp David to examine the options, which range from a troop surge, as requested by General John Nicholson, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, to a complete pullout. Other options include turning over the mission to private contractors.

Forced out of power by the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the Taliban has remained a destabilizing force in the international effort to foster reconstruction in a country plagued by extremism. The group is an important player that can't be overlooked, but it has failed to come to the negotiating table, instead pursuing attacks and intimidation, while increasing the territory that it holds over the past year.

News Story: Trump to Meet National Security Team Over Afghanistan on Friday

US President Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump will meet Friday with his national security team at Camp David, as he mulls whether or not to send more American troops to Afghanistan, AFP reported. 

The administration is split over what stance to adopt on the longest-running war in US history.

Possible plans include sending thousands more troops into the nearly 16-year conflict, or taking the opposite tack and pulling out, leaving private military contractors to help the Afghans oversee the fragile security situation, AFP reported. 

"The president along with the vice president will meet with the national security team on Friday at Camp David to discuss the South Asia strategy," the White House said.

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Report: Taliban Flatters Trump, Urges US to Pull Troops from Afghanistan

Ayaz Gul

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — The Taliban has called on U.S. President Donald Trump to pull out all forces from Afghanistan as a “responsible” leader of the United States and stop listening to “stooges” in Kabul.

In a so-called “open letter” to the American president Tuesday, the Islamist insurgent group asserted that “a number of war mongering congressmen and generals” are pressing Trump to prolong the Afghan conflict “because they seek to preserve their military privileges.”

About 8,400 U.S. troops are in Afghanistan, training, advising and assisting local forces under a NATO-led military coalition, in addition to conducting counterterrorism operations.

“If you failed to win the Afghan war with disciplined U.S. and NATO troops, advanced technology, experienced military generals, consecutive strategies and mighty economy, you shall never be able to win it with mercenaries, notorious contractor firms and immoral stooges,” said the Taliban letter.

The insurgency's main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, released the letter to media outlets, including VOA.

News Story: Full Withdrawal From Afghanistan Is An Option - Mattis

The US Defense Secretary James Mattis said at a press conference on Monday that President Donald Trump's administration was "very, very close" to finalising its new strategy for Afghanistan but warned it had not been settled yet.

"The strategic decisions have not been made," Mattis said adding that "all options" remained on the table for how to approach Afghanistan, and said those options included a full withdrawal as well as a proposal for the use of more contractors to manage the US effort there.

Mattis added that all options for a new strategy in Afghanistan, including the use of private security contractors, remain under consideration by Trump.

The plans could lead to sending an additional 3,000-4,000 US troops to Afghanistan, but the president reportedly has been frustrated by his options in the nearly 16-year-old conflict and has considered firing the US commander in Afghanistan.

"We're sharpening each one of the options," Mattis said. "You can see the pluses and minuses of each one so that there's no longer any new data you are going to get. Now, just make the decision. There's the options."

In response to a question on whether Trump had confidence in Gen. John Nicholson, the US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, he said: “He is our commander in the field. He has the confidence of NATO.”

“He has the confidence of Afghanistan. He has the confidence of the United States, and the President again is looking at all aspects of our effort over there as he must in his responsibilities as the commander-in-chief,” he said.

Read the full story at TOLOnews

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PacificSentinel: I hope these idiots in Washington realize that a complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan would be a betrayal of the soldiers that died and their families, it would also give other nations reason to think twice about supporting US operations in the future.

News Story: More US Troops to Afghanistan as White House Talks Continue

Additional US Marines are being sent to Afghanistan as the White House continues to mull over its strategy in the country, NBC reported Monday.

The news report cited three defense officials saying dozens of Marines already based in the region will redeploy to southeastern part of Afghanistan and will be stationed in the violent Helmand province.

The deployment is not part of a new broader strategy by the Trump administration and was based on a request from the Marine commander in the region.

The White House has continued to review what it will do in the conflict that is nearing its 16th anniversary.

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Story: Blackwater Founder Questions US Strategy on Afghanistan

Erik Prince (Image: Wiki Commons)

Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince is publicly touting a proposal to shake up the US military strategy in Afghanistan, CNN reported.

"There are a lot of people that say: ‘just pull out of Afghanistan’. I disagree with that because I think the Taliban or ISIS (Daesh) would raise their battle flag over the US Embassy in six months or a year," Prince said in an interview that aired on CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" on Monday night.

"That's bad. But continuing the same way -- I would say insanity -- that we've been doing for the last 16 years, that has to change."

Instead, the former Navy SEAL and founder of the controversial defense contracting firm Academi, has proposed implementing a US viceroy in Afghanistan and increasing the number of government contractors on the ground.

"They'd be military employees of the Afghan government," Prince explained. "Imagine them as a skeletal structure that provides leadership, intelligence, medical, communications and logistics support to all those Afghan battalions so it works reliably."

Prince has penned op-eds for USA Today and the Wall Street Journal on the plan, in which he compared the proposal for restructuring of the war to” a bankruptcy reorganization."

Prince said some in the White House, including one of President Donald Trump's top advisers, Steve Bannon, and members of the National Security Council, are open to the strategy, along with others in Congress.

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Story: Nicholson Refuses Private Offer to Boost Afghan Air Force

Erik Prince, the former CEO of the private military company, Blackwater, has offered to step up the Afghan air war with a private air force capable of intelligence collection and close-air support, the Military Times reported.

According to a recent proposal submitted to the Afghan government, a senior Afghan military official said that Prince has submitted a business proposal offering a “turn-key composite air wing” to help the fledgling Afghan air force in its fight against the Taliban and other militant groups. 

The development comes as the White House is considering a plan to draw down the US involvement in Afghanistan and replace the ensuing power vacuum with contractors.

But the Pentagon officials are sceptical of that plan.

The Afghan official said that Gen. John Nicholson, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, has refused to meet with Prince regarding the contractor plan.

Military Times has reached out to US military officials in Afghanistan for a comment on Nicholson’s meeting or lack thereof with Prince and have yet to receive a reply.

The proposal submitted to the Afghan government in March boasts an impressive array of combat aircraft for a private company.

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Story: Piracy, armed robbery off Somalia coast falls drastically

Australian Frigate HMAS Melbourne escorting an intercepted
Drug Dhow while on Counter-Piracy patrol in the Indian Ocean

NAIROBI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- A global maritime agency said on Monday that piracy and armed robbery at sea has fallen to its lowest levels off the coast of Somalia since 1995 with only one incident recorded in the past six months.

A report released by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) of the International Chamber Commerce (ICC) attributed the fall in piracy attacks to preventive measures deployed by the foreign warships to thwart such attacks.

"The combined efforts of the Navies in the region, along with the increased hardening of vessels and best management practices compliance, employment of privately contracted armed security personnel, and the stabilizing factor of the central government within Somalia have resulted in this positive sign," it said.

It however cautioned ship owners and Masters against complacency, warning that Somali pirates still have the capability and capacity to carry out attacks.

"The IMB believes that a single successful hijacking of a merchant vessel, will rekindle the Somali pirates' passion to resume its piracy efforts," says the report which was compiled between January-June.

Read the full story at Xinhua

Think Tank: Sea, air and land updates (24-May-2016)

Image: Flickr User - Official U.S. Navy Page

Dione Hodgson, Ashleigh Sharp and Lachlan Wilson

Sea State

USS Zumwalt, the lead ship of the US Navy’s next-generation guided missile destroyers, was formally delivered by shipbuilder General Dynamics Bath Iron Works last Friday. The eagerly awaited 610-foot ship features a tumblehome hull form and is designed for surface warfare, anti-aircraft warfare and naval gunfire support. Its due to be commissioned in Baltimore on 15 October—after which point it will be up to the US Navy and Raytheon to complete the ship’s combat systems. After the successful conclusion of combat system operational testing, expected by 2018, the ship will be available for deployment. Two additional Zumwalt-class ships are currently under construction in Bath. To mark the occasion, The Guardian features an informative video of the impressive destroyer. However, not everyone is impressed with the ship, with a Russian military analyst calling it a ‘giant washtub’.

A small naval force from the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet left Indian shores on 18 May, setting off on a two-and-a-half month operational deployment to the South China Sea and North Western Pacific. The fleet—which includes two Shivalik-class guided-missile stealth frigates, a Deepak-class fleet tanker and a Kora-class guided-missile corvette—will visit Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Russia and Malaysia, as well as participate in Exercise Malabar off the coast of Okinawa in mid-to-late June. China has voiced its disapproval at India taking part in maritime exercises in the South China Sea, with a senior Chinese official calling it a ‘matter of concern’.

Editorial: Is a Chinese National Fighting Against Islamic State in Syria?

By Benjamin David Baker

A Chinese national is fighting for the YPG. How does this affect Beijing’s role in the conflict?

The war in Syria has dominated the global headlines for the last four years. One of the of the main aspects of this conflict is the large numbers of foreigners who are traveling to join one of the many factions currently involved in the fray. Media attention has mostly focused on young Westerners joining jihadist groups. According to the U.S. State Department, 20,000-30,000 foreigners from more than 100 countries have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join jihadist groups, primarily ISIS (also known as the Islamic State). As the terror attack in Paris this November showed, these fighters sometimes bring the conflict back home.

There has been some attention toward the foreigners who fight for the other side as well. According to an open-source report by Bellingcat, something like 400 foreigners have joined various Kurdish and Christian militias in the region, including over 100 Americans and 70 Britons. Although these numbers pale in comparison to the stream of recruits joining ISIS, it does show that the conflict in Syria is becoming increasingly internationalized.

China has mostly attempted to distance itself from the Syrian conflict. Beijing has in large parts been content to continue to acknowledge and endorse Bashar al-Assad’s regime. While it has some misgivings about Russia’s military intervention in the conflict, it has cautiously supported Moscow’s policies in the country as well.

However, the conflict is increasingly involving China, whether it wants to be involved or not. As Shannon Tiezzi has previously covered for The Diplomat, according to some estimates, something like 300 ethnic Uyghurs from China’s western Xinjiang province had joined ISIS at of this January. One Chinese citizen, Fan Jinghui, has been executed by ISIS.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Editorial: After Deadly Attack in Mali, How Will China Protect Its Citizens Abroad?

By Benjamin David Baker

The al-Qaeda attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital left 3 Chinese citizens dead. How will Beijing react?

As Shannon Tiezzi reported for the Diplomat, seven Chinese citizens were among the 170 hostages taken at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, Mali on November 20. According to Xinhua, a total of 27 hostages were killed, including three Chinese nationals. The three killed were senior executives in the China Railway Construction Corporation, a state-owned firm. The attack was carried out by the jihadist groups al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) and al-Mourabitoun.

These killings are symptomatic of the vulnerability Chinese citizens face abroad. Although the Chinese citizens present at the Radisson were probably not the main target for these attacks, they are as vulnerable to transnational terrorism as anybody else. Secondly, it shows that for all the hype, China’s non-interference policy in Africa is under threat and Beijing is struggling to find an effective way to secure its economic interests there.

Over the last couple of years, the protection of Chinese nationals overseas has become a key priority for Beijing. This is a problem that is not isolated to China’s presence in Africa. For example, as Shannon reported last week, a Chinese hostage was recently killed by ISIS in Syria. Chinese nationals have been kidnapped and killed in Sudan,Ethiopia, the Gulf of Aden, and throughout the Middle East. In fact, in the African context, Chinese nationals are increasingly at risk, not least due to the fact that there are so many of them on the continent. This has generated pressure among the population for the Chinese Communist Party to do more to protect its citizens overseas.

Read the full story at The Diplomat

News Report: Kokang Rebels Recruiting Chinese Nationals as Mercenaries in Yunnan - Sources

Kokang Soldier standing guard (File Photo)

Rebel forces fighting Myanmar government troops in the Kokang border region of Shan state are actively recruiting Chinese nationals as mercenaries to boost their numbers, RFA has learned.

While the Myanmar government has strongly denied the involvement of Chinese mercenaries in the conflict with the rebels, military recruiter Lu Wei said he is currently offering a sign-up package to former soldiers demobilized from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) to join rebel Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) forces.

Chinese mercenaries are being offered 30,000 yuan (U.S. $4,830) to sign up for periods of at least a month with the MNDAA and allied military groups, according to middle man Lu Wei.

It was unclear which faction of MNDAA rebels was doing the recruiting—that of ageing leader Peng Jiasheng, or that of commander Bai Suocheng, who has closer ties with the Myanmar government.