Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday that sending Marines to Afghanistan will keep pressure on the Taliban and doesn’t “reflect dissatisfaction” with NATO countries’ performance. He was trying to smooth over comments a day earlier that sparked an international furor. The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that Gates said U.S. forces in eastern Afghanistan are doing a terrific job but that he is concerned that NATO allies are not well-trained in counterinsurgency operations.
A senior military commander told a House panel on Thursday that Iraq’s security forces are on track to add another 80,000 personnel by the end of the year, putting them well within reach of their goal of more than 600,000. He said the forces are still a long way from becoming self-sufficient. Lt. Gen. James Dubik, head of the Multi-National Security Transition Command, said the Iraqi defense minister has stressed to him that the country probably won’t assume responsibility for internal security until as late as 2012. Also, it would be unable to defend its borders until at least 2018.
The CIA official who gave the command to destroy interrogation videotapes apparently acted against the direction of his superiors, the top Republican House Intelligence Committee member said Wednesday. “It appears he hadn’t gotten authority from anyone,” said Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., speaking to reporters after the first day of closed testimony in the committee’s investigation. “It appears he got direction to make sure the tapes were not destroyed.” Hoekstra said that raises the troubling prospect that there’s a thread of unaccountability in the spy culture.\nIsrael pummeled Gaza Thursday with air and ground fire as Palestinian rockets slammed into southern Israel, endangering recently revived peace negotiations. The Israeli attacks killed a militant leader and one of his female relatives along with three others in Gaza. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed to strike Palestinian militants “without compromise, without concessions and without mercy.” His forces carried out stepped-up attacks, but Olmert gave no hint that a large-scale offensive was near.
Australia offered a solution Thursday to the two-day standoff between Japanese whalers and activists who stormed their ship in frigid Antarctic waters – send a vessel that was meant to spy on the whalers to pick up the protesters. The intervention would pave the way for a resumption of Japan’s whale hunt – and of the edge-of-danger tactics of its staunchest opponents. It underscores the high-stakes nature of the contest fought each year in the remote and dangerous seas at the far south of the world.
