Losing The Perception War Over Bagram/Parwan Prison

January 6, 2012

After Karzai proved that his U.S. overlords do not care about the Afghan government as they ignore his repeated calls to stop night raid, the Afghan president seems to want to repeat that by point again asking for Afghan authority over Afghan prisons and prisoners:

President Hamid Karzai abruptly demanded on Thursday that the American-led coalition hand over all Afghan prisoners in its custody and cede control of its main prison in Afghanistan within a month. He said that his government had evidence that Afghan law and prisoners’ human rights were being violated at the prison.

The demand stunned the coalition leaders, who were not consulted before the announcement, according to American and European officials in Kabul.

So Karzai "abruptly demanded" and officials were "stunned". The report is by the New York Times so no one here will be astonished that that is wrong. There is nothing "abruptly" in Karzai's request and therefore no reason to be "stunned".

Consider:

Afghans agree on Bagram prison handover plan

Jan 9, 2010

The Afghan government agreed Saturday on a transition plan to take over responsibility for the U.S.-run prison at the Bagram air base following criticism of human rights abuses at the facility. U.S. and Afghan officials said the handover could occur by the end of the year.
…
The U.S. military welcomed the memorandum of understanding signed by senior Afghan officials on Saturday, saying the facility could be handed over to Afghan control by the end of the year.

DoD Media Roundtable with Gen. McChrystal

June 10, 2010

A year ago we were in the detention business and we really didn't have a plan for transitioning that to the Afghans. Today the deputy commander of our Joint Task Force 435 is an Afghan officer, and we're on track to hand over all detention operations at the defense — or the detention facility in Parwan to Afghans in January 2011. That will constitute all our detention operations.

Petraeus, officials discuss transfer of detainee ops

July 26, 2010

The top commander in Afghanistan met with senior officials from Afghanistan and the United States here July 24 to discuss the transition of detention operations in this country including the Detention Facility in Parwan.
…
“We are all determined to move forward on this effort and continue the important work necessary to enable its transition in accordance with President Karzai’s direction of its transition over to Afghan control,” said Petraeus, who assumed command of ISAF earlier this month.

But despite the Afghan demand and U.S. promises of hand-over nothing happened. Then, in August 2011, the U.S. unilaterally changed its mind: US to delay Afghan prison handover

The US will remain in control of Afghanistan’s highest-profile prison well beyond January 2012, missing a milestone in the plan to transfer judicial and detention operations to Afghans, US military officials say.
…
US officials decided that the Afghan legal system was too weak to permit the handover of the Parwan detention centre, even after the US spent millions attempting to improve the country’s judiciary.

The Afghan's were pissed:

News that the country’s largest prison will remain in American hands until at least 2014 has been bitterly received by some.

“This is our country. We have our own laws. The process at Parwan should be an Afghan process,” said Fareed Ahmad Najeebi, the justice ministry’s spokesman. “We might have some technical problems with our penal code, but we’re ready to take over judicial and detention operations.”

Afghanistan never agreed to the U.S. plan of keeping control and demanded that the original memorandums were followed.

Afghans in U.S. detention is one of the best point the Taliban can make when arguing for their side. What honest Afghan can allow that foreigners, known for prison torture and abuses, imprison his kin?

That Karzai is now coming back with this demand is therefore certainly not abrupt. He is only asking for what has been promised for years.

That U.S. officials play "stunned" over this gives the Taliban another good marketing point. "See, Karzai is just a puppet. No one is even listening to him."

The U.S. military likes to talk about "perception management" and "perception warfare". Here it can't handle the first and loses the second.

Posted by b on January 6, 2012 at 17:13 UTC | Permalink

Comments

“Power always thinks it has a great soul.” – John Adams
Glenn Greenwald’s “Michael Hastings on war journalists”
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/06/michael_hastings_on_war_journalists/singleton/
Some of the most celebrated establishment military reporters in America attacked Hastings’ Rolling Stone profile of General Stanley McChrystal, ‘The Runaway General.”
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-runaway-general-20100622
The MSM war journalists were offended by Hastings’ reporting on McChrystal because they so identify with the powerful officials whom they “cover,” that any harm to those officials is viewed as harm to these journalists themselves.
“In the face of that media-military onslaught, it would have been easy for this young reporter to protect his careerist ambitions and back down. Instead, he doubled down, accusing military officials of ‘lying’ and then unapologetically explaining to these lions of American journalism that the role of a journalist is to scrutinize and expose – not protect and glorify – the nation’s most powerful political and military leaders.”
Michael Hastings has written a new book on the Afghanistan War, “The Outsiders: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan.” “The book provides vital insights about the war, how it has been run, and the propaganda that has been disseminated to sustain it, that are not available anywhere else.”
“There is the moral of all human tales;
‘Tis but the same rehearsal of the past.
First freedom and the Glory –when that fails,
Wealth, vice, corruption, – and barbarism at last.”
– Lord Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage
“This time the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing for quite some time.” – Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue

Posted by: DakotabornKansan | Jan 6 2012 17:35 utc | 1

FM 3-24 Counterinsurgency
(the book that Petraeus famously “wrote”)
from the field manual:
Legitimacy Is the Main Objective
1-113. The primary objective of any COIN operation is to foster development of effective governance by a legitimate government.
1-114. In Western liberal tradition, a government that derives its just powers from the people and responds to their desires while looking out for their welfare is accepted as legitimate.
1-115. Legitimacy makes it easier for a state to carry out its key functions. These include the authority to regulate social relationships, extract resources, and take actions in the public’s name.///
Nevertheless the U.S. has told its puppet Karzai to ‘stick it’ in response to many of his ‘stunning’ requests, including house raids, local police and drones. So much for “western liberal tradition.”

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 6 2012 17:40 utc | 2

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