MADDOW: "We are about to break some serious news on this show." Actually, as she explains it was broken a bit earlier on Brian William's Nightly News-but Maddow's interview goes into greater detail (of course).
On the Nightly News with Brian Williams, NBC's chief correspondent Richard Engel broke his exclusive that NBC titled as: Afghan Army flunks Pentagon report card.
WILLIAMS: This is a copy of that report. It was prepared for a briefing for CENTCOM commander, General David Petraeus. It was also copied to his commanding general in Afghanistan. And the military says that it is still a preliminary report, that it's not final, but that does not change what this says about the Afghan national army, or the ANA
ENGEL: This report was not to be distributed, but it has been now." So far, there's been no explanation how Engel got hold of the report.
Maddow calls it "narrative changing-course changing."
If you missed the segment on the Rachel Maddow show you can watch it here (or read partial transcript here.)
This report, it's 25-pages long, was provided for a briefing for the top commander, CENTCOM commander, David Patraeus. Also CCed on this report was the senior commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, and it talks about the readiness of the Afghan security forces, primarily, the Afghan National Army
Btw, the ANA openly admits on their own website that "The problems of desertion and difficult recruitment are recurring problems." The ANA claims to have been active since the 1880s, but the earliest date listed for any activity is, not surprisingly, 2001.
-Back to the report
ENGEL: The ANA (which is the Afghan National Army) above company level is not at war. Now, company level means the small units, so the soldiers on the ground, they're fighting. Above, say 150 soldiers, anything, colonel, general, anyone at that level, doesn't believe he's at war. They talk about corruption. This is a quote: 'Nepotism, corruption, and absenteeism among ANA leaders makes success impossible. Change must come quickly.' Another line: 'If Afghan political leaders do not place competent people in charge, no amount of coalition support will suffice in the long term.'
"Above company level" means that ANA foot soldiers that find themselves on patrol with NATO forces are actually fighting-to some degree (when not deserting). The ANA leaders, on the other hand, are pursuing their own agenda-corruption.
ENGEL: Another key finding in this report says that the numbers of Afghan troops and police that on the ground are inaccurate, that some battalions will over-report by 40-50 percent, inflate their numbers.
The inflation of actual personnel by 40-50 is most likely tied in with the pervasive corruption noted above. Either the leaders receive their "pay" based on how many soldiers are theoretically under them, or the inflation is related to the amount of supplies the ANA leaders receive from the generous NATO forces-which can then be converted into cash (or opium, or whatever).
Engel says the plan came out December 15, 2009. Was the schedule announced by the president in part based on fictitious numbers as a result of ANA leaders' habit of "over-report by 40-50 percent?"
'Many ANA leaders work short days, are often absent, and place personal gain above national survival.'
Absence of ANA leaders might be explained by the need to meet with their Taliban counterparts for the purposes of information-sharing (selling), the payment of tribute, or future employ. Hopefully, when (if) Engel releases the full 25 pages we'll see some explanation of where the ANA leaders go when they are AWOL.
ENGEL: It goes on to say that rehabilitating the Afghan security forces will not take one year, it will take a long time.
Looooong time.
MADDOW: "Do they give a time frame about how long it would take if it was going to happen?"
ENGEL: "No. I've heard that, independently from this report, that they're thinking about four years.
"Four years?" That sounds pretty optimistic at this point.
ENGEL: Obama...he said he wants to start dialing back the surge in roughly 18 months-the summer of 2011, 18 months from when he announced it. That is impossible according to this study-to get the Afghan security forces up and running and in place-even with some sort of semblance.
So, if the report says that the announced 18 months date for "beginning" to draw down is impossible-what does the president do?
Does he...
-ignore the report?
-criticize the report?
-change the timetable?
-castigate whoever is responsible for leaking the report?
-go in a different direction?
ENGEL: General Petraeus wants realistic, not optimistic, assessments. That's a quote from a spokesman tonight about this.
Having not seen the full 25 pages yet, this report does seem to meet Petraeus' requirement of "realistic, not optimistic."
(As an end note-AP via Reports from Afghan & Italian sources, states that an Afgan soldier killed a U.S. service member & wounded 2 Italians. An Italian corp commander told AP that the soldier got angry when being kept back from a landing helicopter. Maddow covered that story as the lead-in for the Engel interview.)