SALON

Thursday, Mar 14, 2013 7:40 PM UTC

U.S. commander: Karzai’s comments threaten troops

The Afghan president backtracked on earlier comments that the U.S. colluded with Taliban to keep country unstable

By

Topics: Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan, Taliban, U.S. Military, Middle East, aol_on,

U.S. commander: Karzai's comments threaten troops (Credit: AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan warned his troops to be ready for increased violence because of a series of anti-American statements by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, NATO said Thursday.

In an email to battlefield commanders, Gen. Joseph Dunford, said the remarks could spur more insider attacks, days after members of Afghan security forces killed two U.S. troops and a U.S. contractor in two separate shootings.

“We’re at a rough point in the relationship,” Dunford said in the email, according to a senior U.S. official, speaking anonymously to discuss the confidential communication.

After news of Dunford’s email broke, Karzai’s office released a new statement Thursday explaining the president’s earlier remarks.

“My recent comments were meant to help reform, not destroy the relationship,” the statement quotes Karzai telling an audience gathered for a televised talk show filmed at the presidential palace Thursday. “We want good relations and friendship with America, but the relationship must be between two independent nations.”

Karzai did not back down or retract his earlier statements, instead saying the relationship “is complicated” by “terrorism, transition of the Bagram detention facility, continued civilian casualties (from NATO operations), and lack of respect for the national sovereignty of Afghanistan.”

Karzai’s statement may do little to soothe U.S. officials’ unease. Over the weekend, the Afghan leader accused the U.S. of colluding with the Taliban on suicide attacks to keep the country unstable and give foreign forces an excuse to stay beyond their 2014 mandate. His remarks followed two suicide attacks that killed at least 19 Afghans on Saturday, coinciding with the first official visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel.

Karzai also cautioned this week that the delay in handing over a U.S.-run detention center to Afghan control “could harm bilateral relations.” He told the audience Thursday that “innocent people are still being held by foreigners” at the Bagram facility, forcing their children to “go begging” without their fathers at home. His remarks came after he and Dunford met Wednesday to discuss the issue but failed to resolve the impasse.

Dunford and other top U.S. officials have rejected Karzai’s allegations of collusion with the Taliban.

Dunford’s warning to his troops, first reported by The New York Times, showed the deep U.S. concern that Karzai’s words could go beyond angry rhetoric and spark violence targeting U.S. forces, a threat that could harm the larger relationship.

NATO released a statement explaining the missive, saying it “routinely conducts assessments and adapts its protection posture to ensure our forces are prepared to meet potential threats.” The statement calls Dunford’s email “prudent given increased coalition casualties in recent days.”

Dunford also said unusually warm weather could mean an early start to the Taliban fighting season because militants can return from now-open high mountain passes from Pakistan.

In the latest insider attack, an Afghan policeman jumped onto the back of a parked police truck on Monday, grabbed a mounted heavy machine gun and opened fire on Afghan and U.S. troops in eastern Wardak province. Four members of the Afghan security forces were killed along with two U.S. troops – one member of the U.S. special operations forces and one conventional U.S. soldier. Earlier, a senior U.S. defense official reported that both were members of the special operations forces.

On the detention center issue, NATO released a statement Wednesday saying both parties pledged to continue constructive dialogue to resolve the remaining issues. The facility has an Afghan administrator but is still U.S.-run.

The prison transfer, originally slated for 2009, has been repeatedly delayed because of disputes between the U.S. and Afghan governments about whether all detainees should have the right to a trial and who will have the ultimate authority over the release of prisoners the U.S. considers a threat.

The Afghan government has maintained that it needs full control over which prisoners are released as a matter of national sovereignty. The issue has threatened to undermine ongoing negotiations for a security agreement that would govern the presence of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after the current combat mission ends in 2014.

 

More Associated Press.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 1 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
40 points41 points | 1 comment
vote
"Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation": long, detailed narrative of legal and historical complications in red-white-black relations
27 points28 points | 1 comment
vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
6 points7 points | comment
vote
Steven Soderbergh's Liberace biopic shows the famously flamboyant entertainer as a person, not a stereotype
6 points7 points | comment
vote
Experts: Fox News spying scandal a game-changer - I think that crackdown is ideologically driven and I think it’s hard to come to a different conclusion given the vigor with which this justice department has gone after people. So I think it is about a method of control that is badly misplaced.
4 points5 points | 6 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations