No change in Great Satan US policy on night raids in Afghanistan

US forces have killed a school teacher and arrested five other people during a night raid in a residential area in the northeastern Kunar Province of Afghanistan.

Afghan officials condemned the Friday night raid, saying it violates the security pact signed by Kabul and Washington on Tuesday.

Under the pact, Afghan forces will lead any night operations and any night raids must be coordinated by Afghan forces.

Hundreds of civilians have lost their lives in the US-led operations in various parts of Afghanistan over the past few months, with Afghans becoming increasingly outraged at the seemingly endless number of the deadly assaults.

Afghan people have held mass rallies across the country to condemn such killings and to demand the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

However, the Tuesday pact signed by US President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai paves the way for American presence in the country until 2024.

The US-led invasion of Afghanistan was launched in 2001. The offensives removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues to rise across the country, despite the presence of thousands of foreign troops in the country.

The following is the transcript of Press TV’s interview with investigative journalist Gareth Porter about the issue:

Press TV The popular perception was that there would be no more civilian deaths after the so-called strategic deal signed by Obama and Karzai. What did that deal change regarding the night raids?

Porter Essentially that deal did not change anything with regard to the night raids and the problem with the coverage of that issue is that the news media failed to pick up on some signals that were hidden about what was really transpiring here.

The fact is that the text of the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Afghanistan, that is between the US military and the ministry of defense of Afghanistan on the question of what they call special operations, had a particular paragraph in the beginning of the section with regard to definitions. It defined special operations for the purpose of this agreement as those operations that are brought to the attention of the Afghan entity that is supposed to make the decisions on night raids, which means that only those operations that the US special operations forces decided that they did not need to do themselves would be subject to this agreement.

That means essentially that nothing has changed. Those night raids where the US special operations forces wanted to have and did have … would continue. Those night raids that did not have any Afghans upfront would continue and therefore, I think, we have a situation where there is basically no change in the operations, as they have been carried out for the past several months.

Press TV The Afghan constitution strictly prohibits any intrusion into any Afghan home or violating people’s privacy. How can foreign or Afghan troops enter homes without any judicial permission?

Porter Supposedly, there needs to be a judicial permission for the other operations which are subject to this agreement and of course that means that where the Afghan special operations forces are operating, they will be asking for the special judicial permission to do so and that will not be an issue.

The problem of course as I said is that US special forces will not be subject to this agreement. They will be doing what they have continued to do which is to violate the laws and the constitution of Afghanistan.

Press TV Again from what we understand from the Afghan Constitution, the president has no authority to sign any foreign pact or deal. How did it happen last week between the Afghan and U-S leaders?

Porter Of course the fact that this is an agreement that has been signed between the ministry of defense of Afghanistan and the US military is probably a tribute to the fact that they could not do it as an agreement between Karzai and the United States and indeed this is a way of avoiding the limitation that you are referring to.

The agreement between Karzai and President Obama really does not decide anything. It does not certainly decide on anything having to do with the presence of US military forces in Afghanistan. That is a decision which has been put off explicitly until after the US presidential election.

This is a negotiation that is now supposed to begin, with the US and Afghanistan talking about its subject, but they are not going to agree on anything for a number of months from now and certainly not after the election in the United States.

Press TV With regard to this recent power sharing between the United States and Afghanistan that will allow the US troops to stay in Afghanistan for another decade, what would it mean for both the US forces and the people of Afghanistan in this period of time in the long term?

Porter Of course as I said, there is no agreement on that yet. What has been signed is really only a matter of an agreement that the United States will continue in Afghanistan. There will be economic support and other forms of support and that is about it.

As far as stationing the US troops is concerned, again, that is still to be decided. It is still possible that President Obama will decide not to station US troops past 2014, but in fact, I think that is very improbable.

I think the reality is that what Obama and Karzai have in mind is that US special forces will continue to be maintained in Afghanistan for a number of years in the future and they will continue to carry out these night raids unregulated and uncontrolled by any Afghan entity and I think the meaning of that is that Afghanistan still will not have any meaningful soverntiy because of the continued intervention by the US military in ways that are opposed clearly by majority of the Afghan people.