� S T A R S A N D S T R I P E S �Sunday, November 22, 2009 F3HIJKLM K PAGE 5
BY ANNE GEARAN
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary
Robert Gates said any new U.S. forces that
President Barack Obama might send to
Afghanistan could move into the country
swiftly, despite logistical hassles that force
almost all major deliveries of troops and
supplies to go by air.
His wording suggested that, as expect-
ed, Obama soon will approve an increase
in the already record U.S. force of 68,000
in Afghanistan. Months of deliberations
over the flagging war are ending, with an
announcement of a substantial troop in-
crease expected in the next two weeks.
"I anticipate that as soon as the presi-
dent makes his decision, we can probably
begin flowing some forces pretty quickly
after that," Gates said Thursday.
Gates and Vice Adm. Mike Mullen,
chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, said at a
Pentagon news confer-
ence that the coming
troop infusion is a big-
ger logistical challenge
than the Iraq "surge,"
which added forces at
the rate of roughly one
brigade a month.
Afghanistan's for-
bidding terrain, lack
of roads and other in-
frastructure and that
forces and equipment are still tied up in
Iraq are all complicating factors.
"It's not going to be a brigade a month
because of the infrastructure piece, the
ability to receive it, literally, in Afghani-
stan, as well as all the other moving parts,"
Mullen said.
Gates did not give a direct answer to a
question whether the
United States could
hold out more troops
as leverage toward an
overhaul of Afghani-
stan's shaky, corrupt
government. Afghan
President Hamid
Karzai, inaugurated
Thursday for a sec-
ond five-year term,
wants more U.S. help
to secure his country
against the Taliban-
led insurgency.
"My personal view is that you do have
to exercise what leverage you have," Gates
said.
Earlier Thursday, Germany's visiting
defense chief told Gates that Germany will
maintain its military commitment in Af-
ghanistan but did not promise to increase
it for now. Germany's force of more than
4,000 is among the largest from any nation
apart from the United States.
Germany will hold off on any decision
about adding troops to Afghanistan at least
until the United States makes a move, Ger-
man Minister of Defense Karl-Theodor
zu Guttenberg said after meetings at the
Pentagon.
"We are, eagerly probably as you all are,
waiting for the president's speech and ...
waiting for the new concept, the new stra-
tegic ideas from our American friends,"
Guttenberg said.
Gates replied that the United States "can
use all the help we can get" from Europe-
an nations and others in Afghanistan. He
said also that asking for anything specific
is premature until Obama announces his
plans.
The Associated Press
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- In-
creasing numbers of English-lan-
guage Web sites are spreading
al-Qaida's message to Muslims in
the West.
Theytranslatewritingsandser-
mons once largely out of reach of
English readers and often feature
charismatic clerics like Anwar al-
Awlaki, who exchanged dozens of
e-mails with the U.S. Army psy-
chiatrist accused of the shootings
at the Fort Hood military base in
Texas.
The U.S.-born al-Awlaki has
been an inspiration to several
militants arrested in the United
States and Canada in recent
years, with his Web-based ser-
mons often turning up on their
computers.
"The point is you don't have
to be an official part of al-Qaida
to spread hatred and sectarian
views," said Evan Kohlmann, a se-
nior investigator for the New York-
based NEFA Foundation, which
researches Islamic militants.
"If you look at the most influ-
ential documents in terms of
homegrown terrorism cases, it's
not training manuals on building
bombs," Kohlmann said. "The
most influential documents are
the ones that are written by theo-
logical advisers, some of whom
are not even official al-Qaida
members."
Most of the radical Islamic
sites are not run or directed by
al-Qaida, but they provide a pow-
erful tool for recruiting sympa-
thizers to its cause, experts who
track the activity said.
The number of English-lan-
guage sites sympathetic to al-
Qaida has risen from about 30
seven years ago to more than
200 recently, said Abdulmanam
Almushawah, head of a Saudi
government program called As-
sakeena, which works to combat
militant Islamic Web sites.
In contrast, Arabic-language
radical sites have dropped to
around 50, downfrom 1,000 seven
years ago, because of efforts by
governments around the world to
shut them down, he said.
Al-Qaida has long tried to reach
a Western audience. Videotaped
messages from its leader, Osama
bin Laden, and his deputy Ayman
al-Zawahri usually have English
subtitles.
But translations of writings and
sermons that form the theological
grounding for al-Qaida's ideology,
along with preachers like al-Aw-
laki, mostly eliminate the lan-
guage barrier.The proliferation
of sites in English means "poten-
tial jihadists can know only their
native language and still be radi-
calized," said Rita Katz, head of
the U.S. based SITE Intelligence
Group, which follows on line mili-
tant traffic.
BY KATHY GANNON
The Associated Press
KABUL -- A suicide bomber
killed 16 people and wounded at
least 23 others Friday in a busy
city square in western Afghani-
stan, while near Kabul a powerful
former warlord narrowly escaped
an assassination attempt, officials
said.
The attacks came a day after
Afghan President Hamid Karzai
took the oath of office for a sec-
ond term. Karzai said he has put
national reconciliation with Tal-
iban insurgents at the top of his
agenda.
LawmakerAbdulRasulSayyaf,
aformerNorthernAllianceleader
who has been accused by Human
Rights Watch of war crimes, was
in a convoy with his bodyguards
when a remote-controlled bomb
hidden in an irrigation canal
beside the road exploded in the
Paghman district north of the Af-
ghan capital, said district chief of
police Abdul Razaq.
One car in the convoy was de-
stroyed, and Razaq said five of
Sayyaf's bodyguards were killed.
Sayyaf was not injured.
In the suicide bombing ear-
lier Friday in western Afghani-
stan, a man on a motorcycle blew
himself up in a crowded square
yards from the Farah provincial
governor's compound, said Gov.
Rohul Amin. The dead included
two children and a police officer,
he said.
Afghan police shouted "Stop!
Stop!" at the motorcyclist be-
fore he detonated the explosives,
provincial police chief Gen. Mo-
hammad Faqir Askar said. It was
unclear what the bomber was
targeting.
Dr. Shir Agh Asas at the hos-
pital in Farah city said several
children also were among the
wounded.
"These days Taliban are caus-
ing high casualties because the
foreign forces and Afghan forces
have been conducting operations
against the insurgency in the re-
gion," Askar said.
An operation three days ago
in another part of the province
killed five insurgents, including a
Taliban commander and a bomb-
maker, Askar said.
Separately, NATO said Afghan
and international forces killed a
man in Takhar province in north-
ern Afghanistan on Friday be-
lieved to be an operative with the
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
who was responsible for financ-
ing militant activities and trans-
porting foreign fighters into the
region. The man was killed dur-
ing a search of a compound in
rural Bangi district, it said.
According to NATO, there has
been an increase in the number of
Uzbek fighters in the ranks of the
Taliban in northern Afghanistan
from the Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan.
Gates: Afghan surge could happen swiftly
Despite logistics, Gates confident new troops could deploy soon after Obama order
Gates Mullen
Suicide bomber kills 16 in Afghanistan
Scores of Web sites spread
al-Qaida message in English Afghan
soldiers secure
a street in Kabul
on Thursday. A
suicide bomber
killed 16 people
and wounded at
least 23 others
Friday in a busy
city square
in western
Afghanistan.
RAHMAT GUL/AP
U.S. to probe own
role in Afghan graft
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia
-- Defense Secretary Rob-
ert Gates the United States
has a role to play in reduc-
ing corruption in Afghani-
stan, along with the efforts
the U.S. is demanding from
the Afghan government.
Gates, in Canada for a
security conference heav-
ily focused on Afghanistan,
said the U.S. will examine
its own contracts and proj-
ects in Afghanistan.
He said the place where
the U.S. has the most lever-
age is where it is signing
the checks.
Afghan President Hamid
Karzai has promised more
effort to head off corrup-
tion that outside analysts
say is rampant.
But the newly re-elect-
ed leader has also chafed
under international criti-
cism of corruption in his
government, and pointed
out that the flood of de-
velopment cash into his
country over the past eight
years has promoted some
of the graft.
From The Associated Press
Abdulmanam Almushawah
is the head of a Saudi
government program
aimed at combating Islamic
militant Web sites.
HASSAN AMMAR/AP

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