Karzai removes Amrullah Saleh and Hanif Atmar from government

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Afghan Leader Forces Out Top 2 Security Officials​

By ALISSA J. RUBIN

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai forced two of his top three security officials to resign Sunday over their failure to prevent attacks on last week’s peace council in the capital, Afghan and American officials said, creating shock and concern among Western officials about such serious changes in crucial ministries even as the American war effort here reaches a critical phase.

After a two-and-a-half-hour conversation with Mr. Karzai on Sunday afternoon, Amrullah Saleh, the head of Afghanistan’s intelligence agency, known as the National Directorate of Security, and Hanif Atmar, the interior minister, submitted their resignations.

The announcement took the NATO leadership and diplomats by surprise. “We had a very good working relationship with both, a relationship developed over a long time,” said a NATO official close to Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the senior military commander in Afghanistan.

“It’s really not helpful to what we’re trying to do right now,” added the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In a statement, General McChrystal emphasized that Mr. Karzai had his full backing. “This is clearly a matter between President Karzai and his leadership,” he said in a statement. “I respect the president’s authority to make this difficult political decision.”

Both men had served Mr. Karzai since he became president in 2002. Mr. Atmar has held three cabinet posts, and Mr. Saleh has been intelligence chief since 2004. Both were trusted by senior NATO officials; the United States ambassador, Karl W. Eikenberry, included Mr. Atmar on a list of Afghan cabinet members he described as “world class” in Congressional hearings.

Mr. Karzai’s office announced the resignations in a brief statement that listed the security lapses at the peace council, known as a jirga, as the cause.

But even in the months before the peace jirga, Mr. Karzai had been wrangling with both men, according to several people close to Mr. Karzai. Mr. Atmar and Mr. Karzai had argued about the appointment of police chiefs as well as other positions, according to security officials close to Mr. Karzai.

The officials also said that Mr. Saleh was uncomfortable with Mr. Karzai’s insistence that some Taliban members should be released from detention as a signal of the government’s intent to negotiate and reach out to the insurgents. Mr. Karzai issued a decree to release those for whom there was not enough evidence for trials, as one of the first steps toward carrying out the agreements reached at the peace jirga.

“I’m sure the disagreement between the two men and the president have been going on for awhile,” said Daoud Sultanzoi, a member of Parliament from Ghazni who is a businessman and is viewed as independent. “The president issued a decree to start looking at the release of some Taliban, and I’m sure Amrullah Saleh would not see eye to eye on this and he indicated that it would not be good for security.”

Mr. Saleh is also an outspoken critic of Pakistan and has publicly blamed the government for its support of the Taliban and other extremists. As Mr. Karzai positions himself to reach out to the Taliban, he is likely to have to turn to Pakistan for help, and that could have been more difficult if Mr. Saleh remained in a central role.

The president’s spokesman, Waheed Omar, insisted that disagreements over policy were not a factor. “The resignation is only due to the failure to prevent the attack; nothing of the past was in consideration,” he said, referring to the rocket and mortar attack on the first day of the peace jirga in Kabul, when about 1,600 people were in attendance.

“We have to consider how major the event in question was. In the tent, all prominent leaders from around the country, members of the Parliament, the entire cabinet, as well as international diplomats were present,” Mr. Omar said. “But despite the repeated assurance that our security officials had provided the president, such an attack still took place.”

One of the president’s bodyguards was seriously wounded when a rocket exploded near the tent, Mr. Omar said.

Caretakers were appointed to lead the Interior Ministry and the intelligence service. Although described as interim choices, they are likely to remain at the head of both agencies for some months since Mr. Karzai is unlikely to be able to persuade the cabinet to approve nominees for two such important positions in the three months remaining before parliamentary elections.

The Interior Ministry will be led by the deputy minister, Gen. Munir Mangal, who is viewed by Westerners as steady, but unlikely to be as innovative as Mr. Atmar. The powerful intelligence job will be filled by Ibrahim Speenzada, a confidant of Mr. Karzai, who has been serving as a first deputy in the intelligence agency.

In a news conference earlier in the day, the Interior Ministry’s spokesman, Zemary Bashary, acknowledged that the police and intelligence operatives had made mistakes. But NATO officials have repeatedly said that they felt both services had performed well in a difficult situation. They said that in a city of several million people and in a country rife with insurgents it was hard to stop every attack.

“There were two mistakes by security forces,” Mr. Bashary said. He said that intelligence operatives had not detected the group that took up residence in a safe house near the jirga tent and launched rockets at it, and that the police had not searched one of the attackers wearing a burqa.

“First, there was no information, no intelligence about this group,” he said. “And secondly, when the two terrorists walked almost one kilometer to reach the area close to the jirga, our police did not search women.”

In a hastily called news conference, Mr. Saleh, who speaks fluent English, read his resignation letter in an even and resolved tone and answered questions without criticizing the president.

“The president of Afghanistan has lost trust in our ability to protect national events,” he said. “Our briefing and explanation in regards to the preparation that we have done for the peace jirga and later success in killing the two terrorists and capturing the facilitators were not convincing to him. Therefore, morally, that does not leave any space for me to continue as the director general of the National Directorate of Security.”

Reporting was contributed by Carlotta Gall, Sangar Rahimi, Mujib Mashal and Abdul Waheed Wafa.

Afghan Leader Forces Out Top 2 Security Officials - NYTimes.com

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Glad to see Amrullah Saleh's back.

The man was a snake. Under his watch we have seen nothing but unsubstantiated accusations of 'Pakistan supporting the Taliban', with fantastic claims of arresting serving Pakistani Military/ISI officers while fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan, yet not one claim (AFAIK) has been publicly validated.

 

[Ahmad]

Amrallah was good along with Atamr, they were doing good job. but it is not easy in afghanistan to get everything perfect, sad.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Amrallah was good along with Atamr, they were doing good job. but it is not easy in afghanistan to get everything perfect, sad.

Of course I say that as a Pakistani, that I am glad to see Saleh go, because of the reasons I mentioned. Aside form that I agree with you and most of the reporting on the issue, that he appeared to be a very capable Spy Chief, and his term has been marked with plenty of successes in intelligence and security, along with some high profile failures as well (but that has happened to everyone).

Some reporting (quoting people close to Saleh) has suggested that Saleh's removal was a condition from Pakistan in exchange for cooperation on Taliban reconciliation. Given Saleh's close ties to NATO/CIA and India, I doubt Pakistan would have been able to influence his retention of the job unless he was also opposed to Karzai's plans for 'reconciliation', which most of the reports suggest he was.

 

[Ahmad]

Afghanistan's interior minister and the head of the intelligence service have resigned over Wednesday's attack on a peace conference.

Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, accepted the resignations on Sunday.

"President Karzai accepted the resignation letters of the minister of interior [Mohammed] Hanif Atmar and of the chief of the NDS [Afghan secret service] Amrullah Saleh," the president's office said in a statement.

The statement said the explanation they had given for last Wednesday's attack was "not satisfactory".

The intelligence chief told a press conference he had resigned for "moral" reasons after Karzai rejected his explanations, adding that there were also "dozens of other internal and external reasons".

"The president of Afghanistan has lost trust in our capability to protect national events," he said.

Rockets fired

Despite tight security, fighters managed to fire at least five rockets in the direction of the tent where the conference, locally called jirga, was held in the capital, Kabul.

One of the missiles landed about 200 metres away, but none of the 1,500 delegates were injured.

The Taliban, which was not invited to the meeting, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Hours before the resignations, Zemeri Bashary, the Afghan interior ministry spokesman, gave new details of the attack, saying two attackers had eluded police providing security to the conference by dressing up as a couple - one as a man in street clothes and the other dressed in a woman's burqa.

They had hidden a Kalashnikov rifle and a grenade launcher by wrapping them up in cloth like swaddled baby.

Bashary said that two major errors were made that allowed the couple to sneak through: insufficient intelligence reporting about the group they belonged to; and the failure of security forces to stop and search the couple as they walked from a house they rented to the site where they launched their attack.

"It goes against all customs for a man to search a woman, so the enemy took advantage of this," Bashary said.

Authorities said they had shot dead two fighters wearing bomb wests and captured another.

Bashary said security forces had prevented other attacks on the jirga, arresting 15 Taliban fighters and capturing 700 rockets and 250kg of explosives in remote districts of Kabul province.

After his resignation, the interior minister said the president had been pleased with the work done by the security forces.

"He has shown great appreciation for our forces, especially the Afghan police, but he was not satisfied and convinced when it comes to my leadership," Atmar said.

'Most trusted' figures

Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from Kabul, said the officials who have stepped down were seen as two of the four most important figures in the government's war with the Taliban.

"These two men were among the most trusted by the international community, in particular the Americans," he said.

"These two men were among the most trusted by the international community, in particular the Americans."

"Mohammed Atmar ... is widely seen as having done a good job in reforming the [interior ministry], which was in a pretty desperate state when he took over.
"And Amrullah Saleh is praised by the Americans. They believe he has been providing them with good intelligence on the Taliban.

"I think Hamid Karzai believes that [accepting the resignations] will show the public that he's dealing very seriously with those security lapses that took place at the jirga."

Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said both Atmar and Saleh were "people we admire and whose service we appreciate".

But General Stanley McChrystal, commander of US and Nato forces in Afghanistan, said in a statement that he respected Karzai's authority to make this "difficult decision".

"I remain confident in President Karzai's leadership and his ability to appoint credible replacements to lead these critical organisations charged with protecting the Afghan people and ensuring their sovereignty," he said.

 

[Musafar]

Amrullah Saleh was removed because he was keeping more tabs on Karzai than his foes. That's what made him pull the trigger on Saleh.

 

[SparklingCrescent]

Can someone correct me please. Aren't they both corrupt, I think Ive heard one of them was a brutal warlord during Soviet Afghan war, and the other played a role in Drug trade in Afghanistan.

Sorry if am wrong.

 

[Vassnti]

Some reporting (quoting people close to Saleh) has suggested that Saleh's removal was a condition from Pakistan in exchange for cooperation on Taliban reconciliation. .

I would appreciate AM if you could expand a little on this point. Particularly who in Pakistan was doing the negotiation ( as in organisation not particualr names). Also my understanding was that now opperations, military and police against the taliban were under way the ability of Pakistan to control/infulence the taliban was significantly reduced?

 

[Janbaz]

Some reporting (quoting people close to Saleh) has suggested that Saleh's removal was a condition from Pakistan in exchange for cooperation on Taliban reconciliation. Given Saleh's close ties to NATO/CIA and India, I doubt Pakistan would have been able to influence his retention of the job unless he was also opposed to Karzai's plans for 'reconciliation', which most of the reports suggest he was.

I second that, according to a CBC analyst, his ties with the Northern Alliance were reportely making Pashtuns in the south uneasy, hence Karzai seizing the intiative to sack him

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

I would appreciate AM if you could expand a little on this point. Particularly who in Pakistan was doing the negotiation ( as in organisation not particualr names). Also my understanding was that now opperations, military and police against the taliban were under way the ability of Pakistan to control/infulence the taliban was significantly reduced?

Pakistan's role in Saleh's perceived ouster by Karxzai is just rumor and speculation at this point.

Saleh's own comments after the firing in an interview with Reuters indicate that he quit over differences with Karzai's 'reconciliation with the Taliban' strategy, and recent events were just the final straw.

In an interview at his home in the Afghan capital, Saleh described plans to negotiate with insurgents as a "disgrace," and said one of the main reasons he had quit was because Karzai had ordered a review of Taliban prisoners in detention.

He denied being forced out, saying he had contemplated quitting for a "very long time." Last week's attack on the peace "jirga" or tribal council meeting, was just the last straw.

"A number of reasons had accumulated and it needed a tipping point and the jirga was the tipping point," he said. He also spoke out strongly about what he called Pakistani involvement in attacks in Afghanistan, describing Pakistani intelligence as "part of the landscape of destruction."

Afghan ex-intel chief opposed Karzai peace plan | Reuters

As you can see, even now he continues to blame Pakistan/ISI and claims his organization had 'evidence', yet, as in the case of Indian and Pakistani accusations against the other, no evidence was ever made public, despite very strong public statements to that effect that had really poisoned the Afghan-Pakistan relationship ( I mention that last bit to point out that one cannot use the excuse that the claimed evidence was not presented so that the relationship was not damaged, since the relationship was already damaged and continued to be damaged with every statement blaming Pakistan that Afghan authorities made).

 

[Vassnti]

Thanks for clearing that up for me

 

[M8R]

I really hated this Saleh guy.Glad's hes gone.I am sure someone is very happy now..Anyway read this
Elizabeth Rubin: Did Hamid Karzai Allow Pakistan to Order the Firing of Afghanistan?s Intelligence Chief? | Foreign Policy
The Pakistani's second condition (following the closure of the Indian consulates) was the removal of Amrullah Saleh as Intel Chief (whom they saw as anti-Pakistani).
And, with the U.S. talk of pulling out next summer, Karzai is planning for his future, a future that will inevitably depend on good relations with Pakistan and the Taliban.

 

[AgNoStiC MuSliM]

Elizabeth Rubin: Did Hamid Karzai Allow Pakistan to Order the Firing of Afghanistan?s Intelligence Chief? | Foreign Policy
The Pakistani's second condition (following the closure of the Indian consulates) was the removal of Amrullah Saleh as Intel Chief (whom they saw as anti-Pakistani).
And, with the U.S. talk of pulling out next summer, Karzai is planning for his future, a future that will inevitably depend on good relations with Pakistan and the Taliban.

Yes, but that 'talk of pullout' is just talk at this point. Even if the US were to start pulling out, that is all it would be, a start. Over a hundred thousand troops will not leave that quickly, and has been widely speculated, BO will claim fulfilling his promise to start bringing home troops, while leaving enough in Afghanistan to continue with whatever strategy of three or four word phrases they have at that point.

But perhaps Karzai does believe the US is leaving, or perhaps it is as simple as Karzai does not believe a long term peace can be arrived at without reconciliation, and Saleh stood in the way of that, by not just opposing reconciliation, but by also opposing Pakistan.

Merely opposing Pakistan might not have been as big an issue had he not also opposed what his President appears to think is the only viable strategy to peace.

 

[Spring Onion]

I really hated this Saleh guy.Glad's hes gone.I am sure someone is very happy now..Anyway read this
Elizabeth Rubin: Did Hamid Karzai Allow Pakistan to Order the Firing of Afghanistan?s Intelligence Chief? | Foreign Policy
The Pakistani's second condition (following the closure of the Indian consulates) was the removal of Amrullah Saleh as Intel Chief (whom they saw as anti-Pakistani).
And, with the U.S. talk of pulling out next summer, Karzai is planning for his future, a future that will inevitably depend on good relations with Pakistan and the Taliban.

Pakistan has no influence over Karzai hence its just a lie that Pakistan even has a slight role in their removal.

Karzai is working for consolidating his own position in the long term thats why he has initiated talks with Taliban individually by his own undermining Pakistani and US efforts to talk to Taliban.

Apart from freeing prisoners one of the demands of Pashtun delegation was of removing these men.

 

[Mukhtar Niazi]

Afghanistan has became the ground of Intelligence war...
Therefore most of the Intelligence Services have been really became happy Including our neighbors. Iam Sure these two changes will bring good effect, over the other Ministers.