Obama's 'Concealment Strategy' in Afghanistan: Insider attacks

As I've noted previously, on a number of occasions, Afghan culpability in the killings of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan has been routinely omitted from the Pentagon's casualty announcements.

The reason for this omission is due to the fact that Obama's [politically riddled] 2014 withdrawal deadline [Exit Strategy] is premised on the notion that the U.S. military can successfully hand over the security and control of Afghanistan to the Afghan forces, many of whom are Taliban sympathizers, who possess utter contempt for the U.S. and the U.S military.

Hence, the Obama administration has tried to conceal the facts so as not to raise any red flags with regards to the President's exit strategy.

Here's the latest from the AP on Obama's 'Concealment Strategy':

It was a sneak attack, but not by the enemy they feared.

U.S. Army Capts. Joshua Lawrence and Drew Russell were inside a small command post on an Afghan army base, wrapping up a long day of coordinating the safe arrival of nearly 100 Afghan religious and tribal leaders for a peace conference at a nearby palace.

Darkness had fallen...

All seemed well.

But as several soldiers sprawled on nearby cots, playing cards, the calm collapsed catastrophically at 9:27 p.m.

An exploding grenade shattered the stillness, followed in seconds by bursts of gunfire. Before any of the Americans could raise a hand to defend themselves, Lawrence was dead from a bullet to the head, and Russell was dying, shot three times in the back.

They were not killed by the Taliban, as the U.S.-led military coalition indicated the day after the Oct. 8, 2011, assault. Lawrence, 29, of Nashville, Tenn., and Russell, 25, of Scotts, Mich., were killed in what U.S. investigators later called a “calculated and coordinated” attack by Afghan soldiers entrusted to work alongside their U.S. partners.

This is the first published account of the attack and is based on internal Army records and interviews in the U.S. and Afghanistan...

The Associated Press learned details of the attack from formerly secret Army investigation records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act...

The investigation — a standard process in a war zone — found that security at the U.S.-Afghan command post was so relaxed that guards were not told to check anyone entering... Thus the killers had unfettered access and moved about without arousing suspicion.

Only 10 designated Afghan security personnel were supposed to be in the compound, but U.S. guards were given no access roster. Unknown numbers “freely entered and exited the compound unchecked,” an Army investigator found.

The Americans had been told to treat the Afghans as if they were mingling in Iron Horse Park, a recreation area on their home base, Fort Carson, Colo., according to a staff sergeant who was present...

As the attacks mounted this year, U.S. officials in Kabul and Washington insisted these were “isolated incidents.” They routinely withheld details and, until pressed by the AP, did not publicly disclose attacks in which coalition troops were wounded but not killed.

At least 63 coalition troops — mostly Americans — have been killed, by the AP’s count, and more than 85 wounded in at least 46 insider attacks so far this year. That’s an average of nearly one attack a week. In 2011, 21 insider attacks killed 35...

The attack that killed Lawrence and Russell in the southern city of Kandahar was the 17th of 2011... The two officers and five other U.S. soldiers were inside a soft-skinned, tan-colored tent that served as a temporary “tactical command post” on an Afghan army base... Their partners that day included liaison officers from Afghan security services, including the national intelligence agency and the army. The four liaisons excused themselves for the night and left the compound shortly before the attack. They had been working inside the tent and would have been in the line of fire had they stayed.

The Army investigator called this circumstance “worth noting,” but he established no proof of complicity by the Afghan security officers...

The killers escaped — apparently with inside help. They remain at large...

In a two-sentence statement the next day, the U.S.-led military command in Kabul said two service members had been killed in an “insurgent attack.” A day later, in identifying Lawrence and Russell as the casualties, the Pentagon reported that “enemy forces” killed them.

The Army’s investigation records show that U.S. officials in Afghanistan were told immediately after the assault that it was perpetrated by one or more Afghan soldiers — not insurgents...

In April the AP was alerted to the attack’s true circumstances by an American soldier who knew the real story...

The story of the killing of Lawrence and Russell raises hard questions about the insider attack problem, starting with this: How can it happen to arguably the world’s best-trained, best-equipped army?

I've already given the correct answer to this question in a September post in which I noted the following:

"U.S. and NATO officials have acknowledged that, in the rush to implement the President's politically calculated troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, Afghan troops were not properly vetted, which resulted in the deaths of 45 coalition members since the beginning of the year [as of today, the casualty number has risen to at least 63] - most of them Americans - at the hands of their supposed Afghan allies...

"One U.S. official said that there was a lot of pressure to increase the size of the Afghan forces. Consequently, the vetting process "was cast aside" because it was viewed as an impediment to accomplishing this goal...

"Hence, in an extremely belated response, the senior commander of U.S. special forces in Afghanistan has finally decided to suspend training for all new Afghan recruits until they can be re-vetted, the Washington Post reported."

In October I noted, sadly, "that the suspension was short-lived, for ultimately the President's politically calculated timetable takes precedence over the lives and well-being of our armed forces. Hence, on September 27, the administration announced the resumption of training of Afghan forces. And, a few days later, an Afghan solider turned his gun on two U.S. soldiers... And, on Thursday, two U.S. soldiers were killed by a man wearing an Afghan police uniform."

As of today, at least 63 coalition troops have been killed by their supposed Afghan allies.