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May 7th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
The compound shared a perimeter wall with local shopkeepers and was surrounded
by tall buildings that could be used for an attack, the memo said. The
distance between the compound’s buildings and the outer wall also was not up
to US standards, it added.
In the event of an emergency, there wasn’t even enough space to land a single
helicopter, so one would have to land on a nearby street, the memo said.
Neighbourhood security also was in question. The compound was near a large
mosque that is often the centre of large protests in the city, and a nearby
truck stop and pickup spot for day labourers provided easy cover for
surveillance or attack, it said.
The memo, which was first reported in the Washington Post, said the “security
vulnerabilities” at the site and increased threats in Mazar-i-Sharif
were overwhelming.
“Consequently, establishing a diplomatic presence at the current
location is no longer believed to be tenable and the search for an
alternative site has been initiated,” it said.
US Embassy spokesman Gavin Sundwall declined to comment on the report, saying
only that “the security situation has evolved in Afghanistan and any
decisions we make are driven by our responsibility to ensure the safety of
our personnel.”
Persistent violence has threatened to undermine President Barack Obama’s
effort to show progress in stabilising Afghanistan at a Nato summit later
this month in Chicago. Obama travelled to Afghanistan on May 1 to sign a
long-term strategic partnership governing the relationship between the two
countries through 2024.
The Afghan soldier opened fire on international troops in the Tarekh Naver in
the Marjah district, a former Taliban stronghold that was the site of a
major offensive by coalition forces in 2010, said a spokesman for the
governor of Helmand province.
A senior US defence official in Washington said Sunday that the victim was a
U.S. Marine in Helmand province, and that one other Marine was wounded. The
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the attack is under
investigation had no other details.
The shooting marks the second recent killing of a US Marine in Helmand by an
Afghan soldier. Lance Cpl Edward Dycus was shot in the head by an Afghan
soldier in Helmand’s Marja district while on guard duty on Jan 31 and died
the next day.
The provincial governor’s spokesman, Daud Ahmadi said the service member was
killed in a gunfight between Nato forces and an Afghan army soldier, with
one service member killed and another wounded.
The insider threat to foreigners trying to mentor and strengthen Afghan
security forces has existed for years but has grown more deadly.
The US-led coalition routinely reports each time an American or other foreign
soldier is killed by an Afghan in uniform, but the military is
under-reporting the number of overall attacks. The Associated Press reported
earlier this month that the coalition does not report attacks in which the
Afghan wounds – or misses – his US or allied target. It also doesn’t report
the wounding of troops who were attacked alongside those who were killed.
The number of such attacks have been on the rise. So far this year there have
been 19 attacks killing 12 soldiers, compared to 21 last year killing 35
coalition service members, according to Nato figures.
That compares with 11 fatal attacks and 20 deaths the previous year. In 2007
and 2008 there were a combined total of four attacks and four deaths.
US officials say that in most cases the Afghans who turn their guns on their
allies are motivated not by sympathy for the Taliban or on orders from
insurgents, but rather act as a result of personal grievances against the
coalition.
Also Sunday, a Nato service member was killed by a bomb in eastern
Afghanistan, the alliance said, raising to 139 the number of foreign troops
deaths so far this year.
The heads of the House and Senate intelligence committees claimed Sunday that
the Taliban has actually grown stronger since 33,000 more U.S. troops were
deployed to Afghanistan in 2010.
Sen Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and Rep Mike Rogers, a Republican, offered
the pessimistic report on CNN’s “State of the Union” after a
fact-finding trip to the region where they met with President Hamid Karzai.
When asked if the Taliban’s capabilities have been degraded, Feinstein said: “I
think we’d both say that what we’ve found is that the Taliban is stronger.”
More than 1,800 US troops have been killed in the decade-long war. About
90,000 service members remain deployed, down from a peak of more than
100,000 last year.
Source: agencies
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