Steve Quayle News Alerts

June 4, 2002

KABUL, Afghanistan, — U.S.-led forces have moved into a “manhunt phase” in the fight against al-Qaida but remain concerned that scattered elements could sow enough chaos to undermine Afghanistan’s tentative stability, the American envoy said Tuesday. Meantime, about 200 Turkish troops arrived in Kabul Tuesday as Turkey prepares to take command of the international force later this month.

“THEY’RE A threat. I suspect they’re not happy about what’s happening in Afghanistan,” said Zalmay Khalilzad, President Bush’s special representative. “We have al-Qaida on the run, but the movement remains dangerous. And the risk of future attacks cannot be excluded.”
In a wide-ranging, hour-long news conference that offered a snapshot of U.S. policy in the region on the eve of change, Khalilzad said Washington was optimistic that the upcoming loya jirga, the grand council convening next week to pick a transitional government, will be fair and representative.

Invoking the U.S. role in overthrowing the Taliban and helping Afghanistan get back on its feet, Khalilzad stood in blistering sun at the foot of the heavily guarded U.S. Embassy’s front steps, an American flag at his side.

He called on the next administration, which will govern for 18 months under a U.N. blueprint for Afghanistan’s immediate future, to offer a “stable equilibrium” between central government and regional concerns.

Such a balance, he said, can help prevent warlords from running the show and shoving Afghanistan back into the factional chaos that has plagued it for two decades.

“This country’s fragmented. What’s needed is for a state to be built that is a balance between the powers of the center, the new government that’s being built, and the regions,” he said. “What that exact balance will be is for the Afghans to decide.”

KARZAI FAVORITE
Khalilzad underscored several times the U.S. view that while the international community must continue to help Afghanistan militarily and economically, Afghans must chart their future. Such an outlook dovetails with the Bush administration’s wariness of involving American troops in so-called “nation-building.”

He emphasized that loya jirga delegates must choose a transitional administration that retains some continuity but also reflects the popular will for change. He made clear that the United States was eager to work with any leader chosen by the loya jirga — whether it is current interim chairman Hamid Karzai, the odds-on favorite, or another figure who has yet to emerge.

“We’re interested in people who can do their job and who have the confidence of their own people,” Khalilzad said. “The particular individuals are not an issue of strategic value to the United States.”

The Afghan-born Khalilzad, a naturalized American citizen, has played roles in Republican administrations since the early 1980s and headed the Bush-Cheney transition team for the U.S. Department of Defense.

He said efforts to root out al-Qaida have been successful in breaking it up.
“We are in a manhunt phase of this conflict. There are no large formations to the best of our knowledge,” Khalilzad said. “There are small pockets. ... And that’s what we are focused on.”

But he warned that Pakistan must hunt down al-Qaida members fleeing U.S.-led forces in eastern Afghanistan. “Pakistan cannot be a refuge for al-Qaida, whether it’s members or leaders,” he said.

Khalilzad acknowledged security problems and charges of fraud and intimidation surrounding the loya jirga process. But he said he was encouraged that the land of his birth is on the right track.

“Afghanistan has turned a new page. And what ultimately will happen in this country is an Afghan responsibility, not an American responsibility,” Khalilzad said. “But I think it can be said that the United States gave the Afghan people another chance.”

5,000 INTERNATIONAL SOLDIERS
The 200 Turkish soldiers who arrived Tuesday were greeted by some of their compatriots already stationed in Kabul as part of the International Security Assistance Forces.
The 18-nation ISAF contingent, which now numbers 5,000, has been charged with keeping order in Kabul since January. Though it is part of a U.N. mandate, it does not consist of blue-helmeted U.N. peacekeepers. Instead, forces from the different nations work together under an umbrella command.

That command has been held by Britain, but later this month, British ISAF commander Gen. John McColl is to hand the reins to Turkey. Turkish forces and advisers have been arriving piecemeal in recent weeks, but the group that arrived Tuesday was the largest to date.

In addition to guarding the capital, ISAF forces will help a new, specially trained Afghan National Guard unit protect the city next week during the loya jirga, the grand council meeting to pick a transitional government for Afghanistan.

Last month, the United Nations extended ISAF’s mandate in Kabul until the end of the year but refused repeated requests from the interim government of Prime Minister Hamid Karzai to expand the force to other Afghan cities.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/627086.asp?0cb=-21924124