Iowa Independent » Afghanistan

Loebsack returns to Iowa after spending Thanksgiving with troops

Lynda Waddington — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 21:33:55 +0000

U. S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, a Democrat representing Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District, returned home Friday after sharing Thanksgiving Day dinner with service men and women in Afghanistan.

“I have visited the troops in Afghanistan twice before, and on this trip had the special opportunity to give thanks and celebrate our country’s values as embodied in the Thanksgiving holiday with our troops,” Loebsack said in a prepared statement upon his return. “It was inspiring to be a part of this celebration, and I felt honored to have the opportunity to personally thank the brave and selfless men and women serving in our armed services for their service and sacrifice during this holiday season.”

Loebsack hand delivered letters from Iowa school children, as well as pre-paid telephone cards provided by the United Service Organizations (USO). He also met with military and civilian leaders on the ground to receive an update on operations and readiness needs.

Other members of Congress to make the trip were House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton (D-MO) and U.S. Reps. Solomon Ortiz (D-TX), Rick Larsen (D-WA), Tim Murphy (R-PA) and Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam).

Iowa National Guard soldiers mobilize for Afghanistan deployment

T.M. Lindsey — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 12:16:03 +0000

Members of the Iowa National Guard have been ordered to active duty to combat the Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan.

The Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Guard Bureau, Washington, D.C., have ordered to federal active duty approximately 20 selected Soldiers from various Iowa Army National Guard units. The alert and mobilization is part of Operation Enduring Freedom and the Global War on Terrorism.

To honor the guardsmen, nearly 300 people attended a send-off ceremony Monday at Camp Dodge in Johnston.

The soldiers will report immediately to their mobilization station at Fort Riley, Kan. for additional training and preparation before departing for the Afghanistan theater of operations. In Afghanistan, these soldiers will operate as a Regional Corps Advisory Group Embedded Training Team to provide mentorship and advanced training to the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police.

Inside Guantanamo: Des Moines Attorney Advocates for Client’s Rights

T.M. Lindsey — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:29:31 +0000

In late 2002, 18-year-old Muhibullah of rural Afghanistan allegedly heard intruders trying to break into his family’s compound in the village of Uruzgan. Having assumed the role of head of household after his father, Haji Yar Mohammed, had lost a leg and eye fighting against the Soviets in the late `70s during a U.S. backed effort, Muhibullah grabbed an AK-47 assault rifle, left the compound perimeter and fired warning shots in the air to ward off intruders.

Moments later, an air strike of unknown origin exploded outside the complex, rendering Muhibullah unconscious, temporarily blinded and with one of his knees shattered. Because there were no hospitals in the area, his father found a U.S. convoy and asked for help, showing them his outdated U.S government-issued identification card, which he received during the Soviet invasion.The soldiers took Muhibullah away on a stretcher and told his father they would take him to a hospital. The next time Mohammed heard news about his son’s welfare was one year later, when the Red Cross sent him news that his son was being held in Guantanamo Bay.

Over five years have passed since Muhibullah was taken into U.S. custody, and despite legal representation from Des Moines attorney Angela Campbell (pictured), he remains jailed, now in Afghanistan, and has yet to face charges. Campbell told her client’s story, including the journey she had to undergo, at an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) conference April 12 at the Iowa Memorial Union in Iowa City. Campbell first heard this story leading up to Muhibullah’s detainment from his father, and later corroborated the event’s details through interviews with Muhibullah in Guantamo Bay.

Having recently returned from her second visit to Afghanistan, Campbell’s new wait-and-see strategy is to step back and see if the Afghanistan government can sort out her client’s case. “If the United States can screw this up so badly, maybe Afghanistan can work this out on their own,” Campbell told the 50 attendees at her session, “Guantanamo Bay: An Insider’s Look.”

Campbell’s journey began just after the 2004 Supreme Court decision in Rasul v. Bush, which first allowed detainees in the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to have lawyers. Campbell, a federal public defender at the time, volunteered to represent four Afghanistan nationals who were arrested and detained as part of Pres. George W. Bush’s War on Terror.

Before Campbell could represent any of her clients, she had to go through a government approval process, which took nearly a month. Moreover, she had to apply for a security clearance and eventually had to procure a “protective order” that says she could not release any information obtained without prior approval for the government. The process took nearly eight months to complete, and in the meantime, three of her four clients had been released, leaving only Muhibullah.

The next part of the process involved a training session with a psychiatrist that prepared her and others for issues regarding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although the training was not for them to better understand their clients, but to prepare themselves. “It was to prepare us for coming back with PTSD,” Campbell said. “The initial lawyers sent down to Guantanamo came back exhibiting PTSD after dealing with torture victims.”

The next part of Campbell’s training involved a strategy session on how to get clients to trust them. “One of the problems the first wave of lawyers who went down to Guantanamo discovered was that the clients did not believe they were lawyers,” Campbell said. “Word started to come out that at least a few of them had been approached by interrogators after they had sent their letters of petition to the courts, and the interrogators pretended to be defense lawyers. Because of this, they had no reason to trust us.”

The plan they devised was to meet with family members prior to going down to Guantanamo as a means of connecting with their clients and building trust. This was the strategy that helped lead Campbell to Muhibullah’s father in Afghanistan. “Our plan was just go to Afghanistan and see if we could find them,” Campbell said. “Just show up and maybe they will come and find us.”

Campbell’s strategy received a boost in Kabul, which is about a two-hour drive north of Uruzgan, when her entourage met a man whose son was recently released from the same Afghan prison as her client. Word began to spread that American lawyers had arrived to help families and they were credited with helping the man’s son get released from prison. “We did not deny this,” Campbell said. “The next piece of luck we received was the first public release of Guantanamo detainees, so again, we were there and benefited from the news that we were there to help.”

In addition to obtaining Mohammed’s story, Campbell learned through interviews with several families how a number of detainees were arrested. “We came across these flyers that said if you turn in a member of al-Qaeda, the government will pay you $5,000,” Campbell said. “In U.S. dollars, that’s a great deal of money. My client’s father makes only $60 a year, so $5000 is a lot of money, especially in rural Afghanistan.”

“We found out after our trip that some of the leaders in Afghanistan had financed their election by capturing innocent Afghans, taking them across the border and selling them for the reward money,” Campbell added.

Campbell said her lawyer instincts telling her that most people aren’t telling all the story led her to Guantamo Bay, where, armed with Mohammed’s picture, she went to gain Muhibullah’s trust in an attempt to corroborate his father’s story. The picture and her firsthand knowledge of her client’s family did prove successful and Muhibullah eventually did open up to Campbell.

“One of the biggest questions I get is whether detainees are actually being tortured,” Campbell said. “I can’t answer that for everybody, but I can only tell you what my client told me.”

When asked about torture and mistreatment, Muhibullah, who is illiterate, didn’t answer Campbell the first day, knowing that her notes were classified and she would have to give a copy to the government. “As soon as you leave, there is not going to be anybody here to keep them from asking me what I told you,” he told Campbell. “There won’t be anyone here to protect me. These people try to turn you into an animal.”

Muhibullah did eventually open up to Campbell and told her that he had not been subject to torture. However, when asked what happened to him when he first got here, he said: “They would give us an orange and seven beans to eat for the day, and if you ate the orange peel, you got punished.”

Campbell asked her client to elaborate what he meant by punishment, which he had endured after getting caught eating an orange peel. He told her that he was put into a freezing room without any clothing, bright lights and loud music so he could not sleep for a few days.

Although he had never been physically beaten, Muhibullah confided in Campbell that he did see another person from his cell beaten for stealing a sugar packet off his tray. When a guard caught him, he sent in a group of guards to beat him up and in doing so, they ripped open his mouth from the jaw all the way across his face. He was unable to eat for a month.

In December 2006, Congress wiped out habeas corpus petitions and Muhibullah was no longer classified as an “enemy combatant.” However, he was not released from Guantanamo until April 2007 due to pending diplomatic negotiations. “What they were really doing was buying time, for the U.S. was building a prison in Afghanistan,” Campbell said. “The prison, Pul E Charki, was finished in April 2007.”

This prompted Campbell’s return to Afghanistan, where she embarked on yet another journey to find her client’s whereabouts and look into the status of his case. “Talking to the Department of Justice is like dealing with junior high kids,” Campbell said. “If they don’t want to tell you something, they won’t. They gave me no answers about my client’s whereabouts, so I called the Afghanistan government, and they said they don’t have control of Pul E Charki, the U.S. government does.”

While in Kabul, Campbell managed to obtain the prison’s phone number from a fellow detainee of her client’s, whose father also lived in Uruzgan. Mohammed wouldn’t come up to see them, saying that the last time he came up to Kabul, somebody stole his wooden leg, so he sent Muhibullah’s cousin, who brought Campbell a letter. “Afghanistan’s way to deal with criminal procedures is by asking community leaders if Muhibullah was a member of al-Qaeda or Taliban,” Campbell said. “The letter, signed by all the officials in the Uruzgan community, basically said `no’ and requested that Muhibullah be released.”

“We are anticipating that this letter will eventually get him out of prison,” Campbell said. “In the meantime, we do as Muhibullah has been doing the past five years: We wait.”

Listening to Winter Soldier Hearings

Adam Burke — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:35:27 +0000

Are you interested in listening to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans share their experiences? Hear what the troops have to say at Winter Soldier 2008.

Eyewitness accounts of the occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan are being broadcast on live Internet audio as part of an event called “Winter Soldier.”

Two Iowa vets, Jason Munford and Andrew Duffy, are giving testimony this weekend. They will return to Iowa to report on the event and share their experiences on Wednesday, March 26, at 7 p.m. at the University of Iowa Memorial Union.

Radio station KPFA has preempted its regular programming to dedicate to air the live hearings in Washington, D.C. Listeners can also access sessions from each day in an archive section at KPFA’s site.

Saturday’s schedule includes several hours on “Racism and War: The Dehumanization of the Enemy” and “The Cost of the War at Home.” Additional information and an intermittent video stream can be accessed at Iraq Veterans Against the War.

“Winter Soldier” is modeled on a similar event held by Vietnam Veterans 37 years ago.

Here is a schedule of the event:

Thursday, March 13

6 pm- 8 pm Winter Soldier and the legacy of GI Resistance

Friday, March 14

8 am – 9:45 am Rules of Engagement: Part One
10 am – 11:30 am The Crisis in Veterans’ Heathcare
1 pm – 2:30 pm Corporate Pillaging and Military Contractors
3 pm – 5 pm Rules of Engagement: Part Two
6 pm – 7:30 pm Aims of the Global War on Terror: the Political, Legal, and Economic Context of Iraq and Afghanistan

Saturday, March 15

8 am – 9:30 am Divide To Conquer: Gender and Sexuality in the Military
10 am – 12 pm Racism and War: the Dehumanization of the Enemy: Part One
1 pm – 2:30 pm Racism and War: the Dehumanization of the Enemy: Part Two
3 pm – 5 pm Civilian Testimony: The Cost of War in Iraq and Afghanistan
6 pm – 7:30 pm The Cost of the War at Home

Sunday, March 16

9 am – 12 pm The Breakdown of the Military
1 pm – 2:15 pm The Future of GI Resistance

Culver Orders Flags Lowered to Honor Soldier Killed in Afghanistan

T.M. Lindsey — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:13:27 +0000

Gov. Chet Culver ordered that all flags in the state be flown at half staff on Monday, February 4, 2008, from 8 a.m. (CST) until sunset in honor of Staff Sgt. Robert Miller, 24, of Iowa City who died on January 25th, 2007, from wounds suffered in Afghanistan.

Miller, a native of Harrisburg, Pa., died from wounds he received during enemy small-arms fire during combat operations for Operation Enduring Freedom in Barikowt, Afghanistan. Miller, a Special Forces weapons sergeant was assigned to Company A, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) based out of Fort Bragg, N.C.

Miller is survived by his parents, Philip and Maureen Miller, brothers Thomas, Martin, and Edward, and sisters Joanna, Mary, Therese, and Patricia, all of Oviedo, Fla.

Miller is the 64th person with ties to Iowa to die from injuries in Iraq or Afghanistan since March 2003.

Loebsack: Afghanistan Needs Recommitment

John Deeth — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:16:57 +0000

Congressman Dave Loebsack, back from his first trip to Afghanistan, told Iowa Independent Friday that Afghanistan is “the forgotten war,” and said efforts to dislodge the Taliban and Al Qaida need a recommitment from the U.S. and the international community.

Loebsack visited Afghanistan last weekend as part of his work on the House Armed Services Committee.

“Clearly the Bush administration took its eye off the ball by invading Iraq, as many of us would agree, and the Taliban has made a real resurgence,” Loebsack said. “And also Al Qaida in Afghanistan in the last couple of years. It’s not a happy situation to have to commit more troops to Afghanistan, but it is time to make a recommitment and in that sense I support sending 3200 Marines, which will happen in the spring.”

More of our conversation with Loebsack below the fold:Deeth: To what extent are we spread too thin? Is Iraq hurting our effort in Afghanistan?

Loebsack: There’s absolutely no doubt that by maintaining 130,000 to 170,00 troops on a regular basis in Iraq, and many of them are on their second or third tour of duty, it really takes our resources away from, in many ways, the most important theater of action. And that’s Afghanistan, given that Osama bin Laden is in all likelihood somewhere on the border there, either in Afghanistan or Pakistan, given the rise of the Taliban and the outside fighters who have come into the country. They’ve actually taken over some areas in southern and central Afghanistan again. That’s just not acceptable for America’s national security.

I want to mention the international nature of this force. There are close to 40 countries that are participating in this, and it’s very different from the so-called `coalition of the willing’ in Iraq. These folks really are participating, militarily and economically as well. I visited a Turkish run ‘provincial reconstruction team,’ they’re called, to the west of Kabul. The Turks are running the show, and they’re doing a great job.

Deeth: What’s the outlook for Pakistani cooperation, with the turbulent political situation there?

Loebsack: That’s going to be problematic, there’s no doubt about it. The Pakistani government’s under tremendous pressure. They have been good allies to us for the most part. But whether it’s Musharraf or anyone else who’s president — or whoever else, I hope they do have free and fair elections soon — that person will be under a lot of domestic pressures. That part of Pakistan to the west, the federally administered tribal areas and further south – those are areas that are very difficult for the Pakistani army to penetrate and to carry out operations in. Even in the Pakistani army, there are elements who are very friendly to Al Qaida and the Taliban, so that presents a tremendous challenge too. So it’s always going to be problematic, I think, dealing with Pakistan. But we have to just keep pressing ahead and doing what we can to convince them to cooperate as much as possible with us in that party of their country.

Deeth: How is the Taliban managing to hang on, are they ever going to fade away? How long is this all going to take?

Loebsack: No one knows for sure obviously. There is a strategic review being undertaken now on the political front as well as the military front in Afghanistan by our leaders. And clearly, so long as there’s a safe haven in western Pakistan, there’s going to be a challenge I think, there’s no doubt about it. We can reduce the challenge, we can commit more resources, we can certainly dislodge the Taliban from the places where they’re now in control in southern and central Afghanistan. How long this will take, I don’t think anyone knows, but I think for our own national security we’ve got to make a recommitment.

Deeth: What about non-military efforts, non-military aid?

Loebsack: It’s huge. We’ve got to have more economic assistance, there’s no doubt about it. This is something that was a big part of the package that I voted for. This isn’t just military; it can’t be just military. It has to be economic as well. Also, it has to be political. Afghanistan is very diverse, ethnically and tribally. That presents a tremendous challenge. It’s in some ways more complicated than Iraq if you can imagine that. But we’ve got to do all we can to assist them in state-building, building the capacity of the government to do what it has to do, not only in terms of the military and police forces, obviously, but economically as well, to make sure that assistance comes in from us or the rest of the international community — and it’s significant from the rest of the international community as well – that it in fact makes its way to the people where it’s supposed to go.

Video: Obama Outlines ‘Surge of Diplomacy’

Adam Burke — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 07:09:36 +0000

Yesterday before a mixed crowd of college students and community members at Ashford University in Clinton, presidential candidate Barack Obama read from a foreign policy speech that calls for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq to be completed by the end of next year.

During his “Comprehensive Plan to Turn the Page in Iraq,” the senator from Illinois mentioned President Bush many times. The speech outlined “a surge in diplomacy with all of the nations of the region” to confront mounting humanitarian disasters in Iraq, something he said Bush was unwilling to do.

He went off-script to repudiate the testimonies of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker before the Senate this week. “We are at the same level of violence now that we were in June 2006. That is the improvement that has been made after an additional 30,000 troops and billion dollars have been spent in Iraq … there may not be immediate, constant warfare on the streets of Baghdad but nobody believes that the dynamics of sectarianism have changed there.”

Another impromptu moment came during his call for more money to aid displaced Iraqis. When one man in the audience demanded attention for global AIDS funding, the senator finished reading his line and then patiently reminded the man, “We’re not talking about global AIDS today, we’re talking about Iraq.”

Near the end of his speech, Obama added “global AIDS” to a list of challenges that could be met, “when we end this war in Iraq.”

In this two-minute video, Obama talks about some of the details of his plan to “Turn the Page” (below the fold).

The Illinois Senator was introduced by Zbigniew Brzezinski, a foreign policy analyst and former U.S. national security adviserr. The event began with a speech from Iraq War veteran John Melvin.

Obama continued his campaign day in Davenport and will speak at Tom Harkin’s Steak Fry Fundraiser on Sunday.

Biden Will Return to Iraq to Gather Info from Troops

Adam Burke — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 21:07:16 +0000

More than three-fourths of U.S. senators have been to Iraq, many in the past 12 months. Leading the pack is Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., with 10 visits as of Aug. 1, 2007.

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden has visited Iraq seven times (plus one visit to Afghanistan) and plans to go back before September. This will be his first visit since finding out that his son, military lawyer Beau Biden, will be sent to Iraq in early 2008.

Last night at a house party for the presidential hopeful, Biden gave me an earful when I asked why he needs to be in Iraq so much. He prefers to gather information directly from the troops, “when you get in their Buffaloes, and their Humvees, and their Hueys, and their Cobras, they tell you the truth. They are not reluctant to level with you…I’m not so smart, I just listen to people.”

He said that the troops he talks to come from all ranks, and “They will tell you that there is no real political solution and the moment we leave, the place is going to spin apart.”

Last week, Biden received notice as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he would not be allowed to question Iraq Ambassador Ryan Crocker or Iraq Commander General David Petreaus.

In the past, Crocker has been held out of Senate questioning by the State Department during a time in which the ambassador has appeared on Fox News, National Public Radio and in several print media interviews.

Instead, Biden would have to rely on a White House report on Iraq, a source he clearly doesn’t trust.

“I have absolutely no confidence, based on seven years of experience, [in] a White House report. I do have confidence in the honesty and integrity of Ambassador Crocker and the honesty and integrity of Petreaus. I disagree with their positions so far, but they will tell the truth if you ask the right question.”

[Iowa Independent reporter Lynda Waddington contributed to this story.]

Video Coverage: Joe Biden House Party in Marion, Iowa 08/20/07

Adam Burke — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 12:39:55 +0000

Delaware Senator Joe Biden spoke and took questions last night at the home of Tom and Nan Riley of Marion, Iowa. He focused much of his talk on Iraq and the Biden-Gelb plan for Iraq.

Video coverage available below the fold.In this 3 minute video, Sarah Riley of Cedar Rapids, who organized the Biden fund-raiser held at her parents’ home, talks about why she supports Senator Biden and some of the things that are important to her.

Her son, Patrick Riley, a first-time caucus voter (”It’s pretty awesome.”) and draft-age high school student, talks about the war in Iraq.

Debate Over the Flag Continues

Ben Weyl — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 23:22:18 +0000

Americans are divided over lowering the flag to honor soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan, the New York Times reported today. T.M. Lindsey covered this issue for Iowa Independent last month when Gov. Chet Culver issued an executive order requiring all U.S. and state flags atop the Capitol and other public buildings to be flown at half-staff in honor of fallen Iowa soldiers.

In some states, flags are not lowered at federal buildings even after the governor issues an order because as Lindsey noted:

"At the federal level, the flag is displayed at half-staff on Memorial Day, in mourning for the death of designated principal government leaders, and the death of the current or former President of the United States, or when directed by the President. There is no directive or code that honors individual American soldiers killed in the line of duty."

Last week, a bill sailed through the Senate that would allow governors to order the lowering of all flags in the state, including those at federal buildings. The bill passed the House in May, and is now on the desk of President George W. Bush–though it could be vetoed.

"Although Congressional staff members involved with the measure say Mr. Bush may want to sign it for patriotic reasons, he may also be reluctant to appear to be ceding power over federal officials to the states," the Times reported.

According to the Times, "Opponents of lowering the flag see it as a subtle antiwar gesture," but this statement seems unfounded; no one in the article ever says such a thing. The bill's sponsor, Congressman Bart Stupak (D-MI), told the Times, "No matter what you think of the war, it really hurts military families when there is a lack of consistency in the show of respect."