Feral Jundi

     So now reality sets in.  Crybaby Karzai is now going to set up a state-run trucking protection system to take control of NATO convoy security?  Just one problem–they don’t have a clue on how to do it or where to get the manpower. Because if you take troops from essential war duties, and shuffle them around to fill those jobs that PSCs filled, then now we are negatively impacting strategies that depended on those troops.

     Also, who says that these Afghan soldiers won’t steal from the convoys or get into firefights with insurgents in local populations?  Because these forces will probably react the same way that Afghan PSC’s reacted doing the same job.  They will probably be worse, because they will have to do some serious OJT to catch up to the capability of PSC’s.

     My guess is that we will continue to see PSCs operate on the road to some degree, just because there is another issue here that trumps the politics of Crybaby Karzai.  NATO is highly dependent on these supplies coming in from Pakistan and elswhere, and if Karzai cannot quickly raise this 5,000 man trucking brigade, then I don’t see any other choice but to continue to rely on contractors.

     The other area to look at is the impact that events in Pakistan have on supplies being brought over those mountains.  NATO helicopters killed several Pakistani soldiers in a friendly fire accident during a cross border assault on a fleeing Taliban group, and that event has caused some serious secondary effects.  Specifically, it has caused an uproar in Pakistan and the government there has decided to shut down trucking as pay back. The insurgents are getting into the action as well, and ramping up attacks on these trucks.

    Which brings up the next point and story.  Supposedly, Pakistan is not protecting these trucks.  The trucking companies have been screaming for protection by the government, or the right to self protection with armed security, and the Pakistani government has done neither. Amazing.

     Now take a lack of security and put that together with the government’s blocking of trucks at the border, and you have an opportunity for the enemy. The insurgents are taking advantage of the riff between the US and Pakistan over this latest incident by attacking the symbols of the US–which is these trucks with fuel and supplies on them. These attacks make the insurgents look like the good guys so these attacks have twice the impact on the war effort. It wins over the support of the population, and it disrupts and destroys NATO logistics. –Matt

Afghan wrestles with protecting NATO supply routes

Little security for Nato supply convoys

——————————————————————-

Pakistani fire fighters try to extinguish burning NATO supply trucks carrying military vehicles and oil following militants attack on the outskirts of Islamabad on June 9, 2010.

Afghan wrestles with protecting NATO supply routes

October 3, 2010

By DION NISSENBAUM

Afghanistan’s top security officials are urging President Hamid Karzai to establish a military-run trucking system to take control of critical NATO supply routes now protected by a ragtag network of unsavory private security firms that is scheduled to be disbanded by year-end.

With the Karzai-imposed deadline looming to close the private convoy-protection companies, Afghanistan officials told McClatchy Newspapers on Sunday that they want to create a state-run military brigade equipped with its own trucks and thousands of soldiers to carry essential NATO supplies around the country.

But Afghan leaders have yet to figure out how to confront the most vexing issue facing Afghan supply routes: how to co-opt powerful local highway barons who alternatively protect and attack NATO convoys, depending on whether or not they are paid to look after the supply routes.

Creation of a state-controlled trucking system could be the next step in Afghanistan’s efforts to adequately protect NATO supply routes from constant attacks that threaten convoys that supply such essentials as ammunition and food for the 150,000 U.S.-led troops battling Taliban-led insurgents.

If Karzai approves the proposal, Afghanistan could create a military brigade with as many as 5,000 troops to protect the NATO convoys, said Gen. Abdul Razak Amiri, the Afghanistan Interior Ministry’s deputy director of counterterrorism.

Protecting NATO supply routes has re-emerged as a central issue in recent days because of new attempts by anti-Western forces to sabotage the convoy network, which runs from Karachi, Pakistan, through the Khyber Pass and into Afghanistan.

Last Thursday, the Pakistan government blocked NATO trucks heading into Afghanistan after U.S. helicopters apparently killed three Pakistani paramilitary soldiers during an attack on a Frontier Corps base on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The next day, insurgents in Pakistan attacked a convoy of NATO fuel trucks headed for the Afghan border and set fire to more than two dozen of them.

The new attacks have put increased strains on the U.S-led military coalition, which has been tried – with limited success – to reduce its reliance on the Pakistan supply route. About half of the military supplies run through Pakistan.

On the Afghan side of the border, Karzai has shaken up the supply system by ordering the abolishment of dozens of convoy protection firms, which employ more than 25,000 people.

The network of Afghan firms has been accused of attacking NATO convoys if they are not paid to protect them, of recklessly killing civilians while trying to protect convoys from attack, and of paying insurgents with U.S. money for passage through areas they control.

“It’s difficult,” said Abdel Manan Farahi, a top advisor to the Afghan Interior Ministry. “If they believe they have lost their power, they will attack.”

While Karzai has called for the convoy protection companies to be disbanded by year-end, NATO and Afghan officials privately concede that it will be nearly impossible to meet the president’s timeline.

On Sunday, Afghan officials announced that they have begun dismantling eight companies operating in Afghanistan, including the one formerly known as Blackwater.

Top Afghan security officials are urging Karzai to establish the new military brigade, but have yet to offer details on how the state-run system would operate.

Some leaders are pushing Karzai to absorb the private security companies into the government and allow them to continue protecting convoys under state-control.

Other Afghan officials fear that continued reliance on suspect companies won’t solve the problems.

And there is widespread concern that dispatching thousands of Afghan police to protect NATO convoys would divert an already strained Afghan military from the central task of fighting Taliban-led insurgents throughout the country.

U.S. military officials declined over the weekend to discuss the supply routes.

Story here.

—————————————————————–

Little security for Nato supply convoys

By Our Staff Reporter

Saturday, 02 Oct, 2010

Security remained an unresolved issue between the authorities and those transporting consignments for Nato forces in Afghanistan which leave the city ports and pass through the roads of the metropolis in large numbers everyday.

While a senior government official claimed that the transporters never sought security for their convoys carrying goods for Nato, the latter’s association alleged that despite repeated requests the Sindh government did not take any interest in providing security.“They (convoys carrying Nato consignments) move in a regular way like other trade goods,” Sindh Home Secretary Arif Ahmed Khan told Dawn in his brief response. “The stakeholders, who transport the goods, have never asked for security neither we provided that. So there is no security cover for these particular consignments.”However, those responsible for transporting the goods from the Karachi ports to the landlocked country said that they received frequent threats and despite repeated requests to the police authorities, no security was offered to more than 400 consignments that leave the city everyday.In January, 2010 a convoy of trucks carrying Nato supplies was attacked with guns and grenade on the Northern Bypass. However, fears of another violent attack on trucks carrying Nato supplies in Sindh matched reality in the early hours of Friday when armed men torched more than two dozen trucks and tankers carrying supplies for the Nato forces in Afghanistan at a fuel station in Shikarpur.The latest attack came a day after Pakistan stopped giving passage to the convoys to cross its borders following the killing of three soldiers in a Nato air strike.“We have been demanding security and held meetings with the police authorities, but in vain,” said Mir Yousuf Shehwani of the All Pakistan Oil Tankers Owners Association (APOTOA). “After the January attack, the police in a meeting conveyed us that we should arrange security on our own. However, this could not be materialised in the absence of required approval from the authorities to allow our men to carry arms with the consignments right from Karachi to Afghan border.”At present, the government did not offer security and it was not making required legal arrangements to allow the transporters to take their own security measures.“It’s entirely a wrong impression that we never demand for security. In fact the issue has never been addressed by the security officials,” added the Mr Shehwani.He said after the Shikarpur incident, a delegation of APOTOA was summoned to Islamabad by the federal interior ministry and if the talks with the officials bear no results, the transporters would be compelled to take their own measures.

Story here.