Xtra News Community 2
March 28, 2024, 10:07:43 pm
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Welcome to Xtra News Community 2 — please also join our XNC2-BACKUP-GROUP.
 
  Home Help Arcade Gallery Links BITEBACK! XNC2-BACKUP-GROUP Staff List Login Register  

“Smile & Wave” goes on a secret junket to Afghanistan

Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: “Smile & Wave” goes on a secret junket to Afghanistan  (Read 137 times)
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« on: May 05, 2010, 12:16:37 am »


Key makes secret visit to war zone

By TRACY WATKINS and MAGGIE TAIT - The Dominion Post | 8:40AM - Tuesday, 04 May 2010

Prime Minister John Key in the cockpit as he flies into Kabul, Afghanistan. — Photo: NZPA.
Prime Minister John Key in the cockpit as he flies into Kabul, Afghanistan. — Photo: NZPA.

Prime Minister John Key arrives to visit troops in Kabul. — Photo: NZPA.
Prime Minister John Key arrives to visit troops in Kabul. — Photo: NZPA.

Prime Minister John Key boards a helicopter on the way to visit SAS troops in Kabul. — Photo: NZPA.
Prime Minister John Key boards a helicopter on the way to visit SAS troops in Kabul. — Photo: NZPA.

Prime Minister John Key has made a secret trip to Afghanistan, visiting Kiwi troops under a news blackout because of security fears.

Details of the weekend trip were revealed last night after bad weather forced Mr Key to fly out early.

While in Afghanistan, he met Afghan President Hamid Karzai and General Stanley McChrystal, commander of the International Security Assistance Force.

On arrival in the capital, Kabul, Mr Key was flown by helicopter to a meeting with New Zealand SAS members and on Sunday went to Bamyan to meet troops in the Provincial Reconstruction Team.

Mr Key said he had to visit. "This is a dangerous place and I am asking New Zealanders to come here and represent New Zealand but, ultimately in doing that, to put their own lives on the line and I am not prepared to send people to a destination I am not prepared to come myself."

But questions will be asked on his return about the extent to which he put Defence Force personnel and others accompanying him at risk — after he appeared to break with Defence Force practice by taking with him reporters from both major TV stations, two other journalists and a press secretary.

The prime minister's office was aware, meanwhile, by the time of his departure that word was leaking out about the trip — planned months ago — but decided to proceed anyway.

When former prime minister Helen Clark went to Afghanistan in 2003, the Defence Force said the mission would not proceed if journalists were tipped off in advance because it was too much of a security risk.

KARZAI ‘ENGAGING’

Mr Key talked of his visit with Harmid Karzai, describing the Afghan president as engaging, and said he had thanked him for New Zealand's help.


RED CARPET TREATMENT: Prime Minister John Key and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. — Photo: NZPA.
RED CARPET TREATMENT: Prime Minister John Key and Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. — Photo: NZPA.

Mr Karzai supported the strategy of strengthening Afghan security and police forces by 300,000 recruits before control of security was handed over.

The aim was to reduce the number of troops and replace them with qualified civilians over time, though there would be a military component in Bamyan for "quite some time" due to safety concerns.

Mr Key described the trip to the "breeding ground of al Qeada" as worthwhile.

"No one is under any illusion as to what is at stake here," he told Radio New Zealand.

Mr Key said the importance of New Zealand's involvement in Afghanistan was "huge" and important to global solidarity.

CALL FOR TROOPS TO STAY

General McChrystal wanted New Zealand troops to remain longer and Mr Key said he would consider this.

General McChrystal did not directly ask for an extension, but in an unusual move told reporters that was what he wanted.

"I try to shy away from dealing with the requirements for any country, I think that's for the wider coalition leadership to do. But what I have found is continuity of commitment to the Afghan people is important."

Mr Key would not commit to allowing the contingent to remain.

"We need to wait and see. We've got a lot of domestic commitments with the Rugby World Cup and all sorts of other things ... I can certainly understand their point, which is they have made strong links. They are doing so in actually a very peaceful way, they are working with the Crisis Response Unit, they are working with the Afghan people and they haven't fired their weapons yet."

Mr Key said it was a difficult situation in Afghanistan as the US-led international contingent and the Afghan Government battle an insurgency, a prolific drug trade and corruption.

"It's a complex situation there and it's littered with failure in the past, when you look at other countries like Russia that have gone in to Afghanistan," he told Radio New Zealand.


Prime Minister John Key in a helicopter on the way to visit SAS troops in Kabul. — Photo: NZPA.  — Photo: NZPA.
LEFT: Prime Minister John Key in a helicopter on the way to visit SAS troops in Kabul. | RIGHT: US General Stanley McChrystal
talks to the New Zealand media during John Key's visit to troops in Kabul. — Photos: NZPA.


Mr Key's trip coincides with plans to dramatically scale back New Zealand's military commitment in Afghanistan after a seven-year deployment to the Bamyan province.

The Government plans to replace Kiwi troops with civilians and the next step of that process was today's announcement of Dick Newlands as the first civilian director of the Bamyan provincial reconstruction team, until now a military operation.

Also today, retired brigadier Neville Reilly was named New Zealand's first resident ambassador in Kabul. Mr Reilly was the first commander of the Bamyan team.

SAS MISSION REVEALED

New Zealand Special Air Service troops were involved in an operation in Kabul that saw a terror cell busted and a quarter tonne of explosives seized — foiling plans for suicide bombings and other attacks.

Mr Key revealed the mission when talking to media in Kabul yesterday.

He said the unit had recently had a big success uncovering a massive cache of weapons in Kabul, including missiles and hand grenades.

"In the course of the discussions with the SAS it's been possible to get an understanding of what they are doing and the kind of operations that they've been undertaking..."

"What is absolutely the case in talking to the SAS is they have been doing some tremendous work. They were very recently involved in a mission which saw them basically break and destroy a major insurgent effort, they recovered one of the largest caches that we've seen recovered here in downtown Kabul... it was a tremendous cache."

An article in US Army newspaper Stars and Stripes details the operation without naming the Kiwi involvement but Mr Key confirmed it was the same incident.

The SAS last year returned to Afghanistan for an 18-month stint training an elite group of Afghan commandos known as the Crisis Response Unit.

Stars and Stripes said Afghan security forces arrested nine members of a terrorist cell. Intelligence service spokesman Saeed Ansari told the newspaper four of the suspects were arrested while travelling in a vehicle in eastern Kabul while the other five were found at an Islamic school in the city.

Confiscated were a small number of rifles and machines guns, two rocket-propelled grenades, 200kg of explosives, suicide bomb vests and a vehicle.

The suspects ranged in age from 16 to 55 and each had specific jobs within the group. Three were apparently preparing for suicide bombing attacks but the spokesman said there were enough explosives for double the number.

He said the group was acting on orders from a Pakistan-based Taliban faction. It had rented a house in eastern Kabul, shipped weapons across the border and funded the vehicle purchase.


• with MICHAEL FOX, Stuff.co.nz, and NZPA

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/politics/3652824/Key-makes-secret-visit-to-war-zone



So secret that every man and his dog in the loop

By TRACY WATKINS - The Dominion Post | 8:14AM - Tuesday, 04 May 2010

Willie Apiata's PR Consultant!

Forget the confidentiality agreements and "need to know" rules of engagement, John Key's trip to Afghanistan was the worst kept secret in town. In fact, rarely has a prime ministerial trip been surrounded by such farce.

Details of the trip had leaked out so widely in advance that Mr Key's office had to fob off demands from an Auckland-based public relations professional and National Party insider that room be made available for him in the prime minister's light armoured vehicle. The apparent justification was a weekly radio slot and column.

The prime minister's office was terrified of the story breaking early and threatened media that any advance publication would result in his trip being cancelled because of security concerns.

But even the Labour Party knew days in advance from loose talk — although it decided in the absence of any contact from the prime minister's office to treat the information as confidential.


Oddly, the prime minister took off with a full entourage of television reporters and cameras in tow despite knowing by then that there was a good chance of his cover being blown at any time.

Equally troubling was the control exerted by the prime minister's office over access — Mr Key refused to make room for journalists from the country's two biggest media companies, Fairfax and APN. Even state broadcaster Radio New Zealand was left out in the cold. But the two television channels had three people accompanying the prime minister between them, while Mr Key also had a press secretary along for the ride. Journalists from Newstalk ZB and the New Zealand Press Association completed the media party.

When former prime minister Helen Clark made a secret visit to Afghanistan, it was without a media entourage — though her claims that a TVNZ Close Up team was in the region by coincidence were always treated with suspicion.

Miss Clark also copped flak for the secrecy.

But like the secret trip to New York by Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples — when only Maori TV knew in advance — the use of handpicked journalists always raises troubling questions about whether governments think that will allow them to control the way information is presented.


http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/opinion/3653357/So-secret-that-every-man-and-his-dog-in-the-loop
Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Magoo
Guest
« Reply #1 on: May 05, 2010, 07:07:07 am »

Good for you Mr Key.   I bet the troops  were glad of a morale boost.    As for "smile and wave".   I think a cheerful face as the helm is a good thing.
Report Spam   Logged
Crusader
Guest
« Reply #2 on: May 05, 2010, 09:31:03 am »

Good on him. May the deployment there continue as well as that sort of thing is why people join the millitary. Forget what that R-Tard Kieth Locke said. He is so far out of touch with reality.
Report Spam   Logged
AnFaolchudubh
Incredibly Shit-Hot Member
*
Posts: 3828


Faugh a ballagh!


« Reply #3 on: May 05, 2010, 10:54:24 am »

Dear god no!, The bastard how could he, how dare he, and to walk around with a smile instead of a face that looked like a well spanked arse, oooh the swine, the mongeral who did he think he was.... Peter Frazer?!
Report Spam   Logged

Stupid people are not an endangered species so why are we protecting them
R. S. OhAllmurain
Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
*
Posts: 32232


Having fun in the hills!


« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2010, 10:23:09 pm »


Report Spam   Logged

If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space! 

Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Open XNC2 Smileys
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
SMF For Free - Create your own Forum


Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy
Page created in 0.058 seconds with 15 queries.