12:10 PM
speedtenk
Obama, Karzai meet at NATO summit
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Obama: "There will be hard days, but we are confident we are on the right track"
- "There will be no rush for the exits" in Afghanistan, NATO's chief says
- Two more suspects face charges in connection with an alleged terror plot in Chicago
- NATO leaders will agree to purchase shared surveillance drones, officials say
Chicago (CNN) -- More work must be done before NATO troops pull out of Afghanistan, U.S. President Barack Obama said as he met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai Sunday.
"There will be great challenges ahead. The loss of life continues in Afghanistan. There will be hard days," Obama said at the NATO summit in Chicago. "But we are confident we are on the right track and (what) this NATO summit reflects is that the world is behind the strategy we've laid out. Now it's our task to implement it effectively and I believe we can do so in part because of the tremendous strength and resilience of the Afghan people."
Obama and other world leaders were expected to draw up a road map out of the war in Afghanistan at the summit, which opened against a backdrop of protests -- including the foiled, homegrown terror plot that allegedly targeted Obama and others.
The summit comes at a key time for NATO countries, who are trying to figure out how to meet a 2014 deadline to withdraw from an unpopular war in Afghanistan while shoring up that nation's security forces.
"There will be no rush for the exits. We will stay committed to our operations in Afghanistan and see it through to a successful end. Our goal, our strategy, our timetable remains unchanged," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Sunday.
Security was tight at the summit following Saturday's arrest of three men, described by authorities as anarchists who plotted to attack Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters and lob Molotov cocktails at police during the summit. Two other men were charged in connection with the alleged terror plot Sunday, but prosecutors did not detail accusations against them.
Police insist there were no imminent threats to the leaders of more than 50 nations gathering at the summit.
The leaders are expected to formally adopt a timetable to transition security from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force to Afghan forces, senior administration officials told CNN.
Why ordinary Afghans worry about NATO summit
There is heightened security for the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago, Illinois. Officials estimated over 500 demonstrators came out to protest on Saturday.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity as a matter of practice, said the plan will also lay out NATO's training and advisory role after 2014.
A small contingent of British forces could remain after NATO forces leave in 2014, a senior British official said. A senior U.S. official said the United Kingdom may keep some troops in Afghanistan post-2014 for counter-terrorism purposes. Both officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
One of the key issues to be considered by the NATO leaders is who will pay for the buildup of Afghan forces as ISAF draws down its troops. Afghan security forces are expected to total 350,000 by 2015, according to CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is attending the summit along with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, can only afford to cover a fraction of the cost of building up his country's forces. The cost of building up forces is expected to total roughly $ 4 billion annually by 2014, Bergen said.
Rasmussen said Sunday that he was optimistic that other countries will contribute.
"At the end of the day, it is less expensive to finance the Afghan security forces to do the combat than to deploy our own troops," he told CNN's "State of the Union."
A user's guide to the Chicago NATO summit
France's new president, Francois Hollande, is widely expected to announce the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan by year's end.
A Taliban spokesman said Sunday that Hollande's declaration "is a decision based on realities and a reflection of the opinion of (his) nation."
"We call upon all the other NATO member countries to avoid working for the political interests of American officials and answer the call of your own people by immediately removing all your troops from Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement, describing what he said was the "savagery" of troops in Afghanistan.
"The invasion of Afghanistan by America and its allies under the banner of 'war of terror' was an unjustified and tyrannical action which was only carried out for political and economical gains," he said.
Two senior U.S. officials said NATO leaders would agree Sunday to purchase shared surveillance drones as part of "smart defense," a term used to describe efforts to do more with less at a time when many nations' defense budgets are being slashed. Thirteen countries will buy the drones, while other NATO members will help with logistics and data analysis, the officials said.
U.S. Republican presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney was not at the summit, but he weighed in Sunday with an op-ed piece in the Chicago Tribune, arguing that many NATO countries have not contributed enough to the alliance. The Obama administration's defense budget cuts have further fueled the problem, he said.
"The administration's irresponsible defense cuts are clearing the way for our partners to do even less," Romney wrote. "An alliance not undergirded by military strength and U.S. leadership may soon become an alliance in name only."
Outside the summit, there were reports of hacking at two city websites, including a police page.
"We are aware of the potential issue with city's website and are working with the appropriate federal authorities to address the situation," said Pete Scales, a spokesman for Chicago's mayor.
Largely peaceful crowds of demonstrators chanted, waved signs and banged drums in the city Sunday, where a large protest march was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. (3 p.m. ET). One group dressed as clowns to show what they said was "the absurdity of how ridiculous NATO is."
Temperatures in the high 80s sent many demonstrators under the shade of trees in Chicago's Grant Park.
Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said Sunday afternoon that most protests had been peaceful, and police were facilitating them.
On Saturday, the eve of the summit, Occupy Chicago protesters accused police of running down one of their own with a patrol van. A video, posted online by a protester and picked up by a news organization, appeared to show the van bumping a protestor.
But a spokesman for Chicago Mayor Rahm Emmanuel said the driver of the van was responding to an attack by the protester.
"The individual was attacking the van and trying to slash tires on it with a knife as the van was moving slowly through a crowd," spokesman Bill McCaffrey told CNN.
He said the person successfully slashed the tires, and then fled. McCarthy told reporters that the police driver of the van had a concussion after being hit through the window.
CNN's Jim Spellman, Ted Rowlands, Paul Vercammon, Bill Kirkos, Katherine Wojtecki, Greg Morrison and Chelsea J. Carter contributed to this report.
CNN.com Recently Published/Updated
0 comments:
Post a Comment