The fatal shooting of five British soldiers by an Afghan policeman has dealt a blow to the heart of the UK's exit strategy from the country, a former foreign office minister warned today.
Kim Howells, who now chairs the Intelligence and Security Committee, said the incident in the Nad-e'Ali district of Helmand province yesterday undermined the British and US strategy of building up the Afghan security forces.
"There are many people who have argued that there is only one way out of this for Britain and America and that is to train up the Afghan army and police force so that they can become responsible for their own security," he told the BBC."This is a real blow because it strikes right at the heart of that policy."
which is surely not a coincidence read more @ independent2. "rogue" "Taliban" "cop" (OXYMORONS???) killed the soldiers as they innocently drank tea
The SAS was today part of a huge manhunt for the Taliban assassin who killed five British soldiers as they drank tea inside a military compound.
Soldiers from the elite unit are part of a military operation to track down the killer, a rogue Afghan policeman who gunned down his targets with an AK47.
He had climbed on to a roof before peppering the courtyard of the compound below with bullets.
The British soldiers had laid down weapons and removed their helmets and body armour as proof of their trust in their hosts, local officials in the Nad-e'Ali district.
Gordon Brown confirmed this afternoon that the Taliban had claimed responsibility for the attack, and may have infiltrated the Afghan police.
...The gunman fled the scene on a motorbike. Some sources claimed he could have been high on heroin at the time.
...
'He first fired on the commander of the police and his deputy then on the British soldiers. He escaped on a motorbike,' he said.
...
The gunman had worked in the Nad-e-Ali district for three years after attending a police academy in Kandahar.
There was speculation he was a deliberate plant sent to infiltrate the force or that he had acted under pressure from insurgents.
...
A military spokesman added: 'It's our understanding that one individual Afghan National Policeman, possibly in conjunction with another, went rogue.'
...
sidebar:
Afghanistan's police are poorly trained, plagued by drug addiction and infiltrated by the Taliban 'at every level', a former British soldier said today.
The Afghan National Police (ANP) is actually a militia made up of local men whose allegiances are to their tribes rather than the national or local governments, according to Captain Doug Beattie.
etc. read more @ daily mail
THOUGHT: MAYBE SOMEBODY JUST PAID THE GUY? SOMEBODY WHO WANTED TO DERAIL THE EXIT STRATEGY? - ED.
3. Russian-Israeli ex-KGB gunned down in Moscow
MOSCOW, November 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russian-Israeli businessman Shabtai von Kalmanovich was shot dead in central Moscow on Monday, bringing an end to a colorful life that had seen a flirtation with showbiz and a conviction for spying.
Unidentified assailants armed with a 9mm automatic and a pump-action shotgun opened fire at fifty-nine-year-old Kalmanovich as he sat in his black Mercedes S500 on Moscow's Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment at about 4:50 p.m. Moscow time (1:50 GMT). The shooting took place a short distance away from the spot where Ruslan Yamadayev, a former member of the Russian lower house of parliament, was assassinated in September 2008.
Kalmanovich died instantly and his driver, who initially tried to give chase, was forced to pull over outside the capital's 16th century Novodevichy Convent due to serious injuries.
Investigators have said the attack bears all the hallmarks of a contract killing. They have also not ruled out that the murder was linked to Kalmanovich's business activities.
...He then left Israel and returned to Moscow, via a short stint in Sierra Leone, quickly finding his way in the chaotic dawn of post-Soviet capitalism.
...He was also involved in organizing Moscow concerts by Michael Jackson, Liza Minnelli and Jose Carreras. Media reports even alleged a romantic involvement with Minnelli.
Reports also suggested he was friends with the late notorious crime boss Vyacheslav Ivankov, nicknamed Yaponchik. Ivankov was gunned down in late July after leaving a restaurant in northern Moscow. He died of his injuries in early October.
4. September 2009: Russian prosecutors confirm death of crime boss Yaponchik
MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Prosecutor's Office confirmed on Friday the death of Vyacheslav Ivankov, a notorious crime boss known as Yaponchik (Little Japanese).
It said Vyacheslav Ivankov had died in a Moscow hospital.
...
Ivankov served almost 10 years in the Allenwood high-security prison in Pennsylvania for extorting $3.5 million from two Russian immigrants.
5. April 2009: FBI agents in Moscow on trail of Russian mafia bosses
MOSCOW, April 23 (RIA Novosti) - A group of FBI agents is in Moscow to hold talks on possible cooperation with their Russian colleagues in cases involving two suspected mafia leaders, a government daily said on Thursday.
The Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper reported that the talks would take place at the same time as a meeting of a Russia-U.S. working group on cross-border organized crime.
The paper cited a source in the Interior Ministry as saying that the first man the FSB agents want to locate is one Yevgeny Dvoskin, also known as Yevgeny Slusker, who emigrated to the United States in 1990. During slightly more than 10 years in the country, Dvoskin was arrested 15 times by police and served a number of short prison sentences.
In 1995, Dvoskin found himself in the same cell as Russian crime boss Vyacheslav Ivankov, also known as Yaponchik (Little Japanese), according to the paper.
While there is no information on what influence Ivankov had on his cellmate, the FBI says that after his release, Dvoskin was responsible for illegally bringing about the depreciation of the shares of four large companies, which he then bought up at bargain prices. He was not charged and was eventually deported for breaking immigration regulations in 2001.
Two years later, he was put on a U.S. wanted list for fraud and money-laundering. However, by this time, he was already living in Russia and, according to the paper's Interior Ministry source, operating a "shady banking business." Investigations are currently ongoing into charges of money-laundering and the illegal transfer of several million dollars from Russia.
The paper said that the FBI was also interested in another suspected Russian crime boss, one Konstantin Ginzburg, who also goes by the nickname of Gizya.
U.S. agents believe that 37-year-old Gizya is the current "big boss" of U.S.-based criminal gangs made up of immigrants from former Soviet republics. The FSB suspect that it was Ivankov who handed over control of the gangs to Ginzburg. Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported that the FBI hoped to find out more about Ginzburg and how much of a threat he poses to the United States.
In 2002, Ginzburg was detained in the Moscow Region during a meeting of crime bosses but was released shortly afterwards, along with some 30 other detainees.
The paper said the FBI is also seeking two Russian businessmen. The first, Viktor Vulf, is wanted on charges of creating tens of fictitious construction firms in the United States, and collecting at least $50 million in deposits from immigrants from former Soviet republics. He and his wife then fled with the money and are suspected to be living in Russia.
Alexander Gribov is accused by the FBI of setting up a chain of medical centers that existed only on paper in order to fraudulently claim money from insurance companies. Along with an accomplice, who has since been arrested, Gribov is believed to have stolen some $2.5 million. The FBI has grounds to believe he is also living in Russia.
source: ria novosti
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