Officials: Attacks show Haqqani's growth

04-17-2012 • http://www.upi.com

While praising Afghan security forces' response and downplaying Sunday's attacks on targets throughout Kabul, Western officials said privately they agreed with President Hamid Karzai's comments that the attacks were an "intelligence failure for us, and especially NATO," The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The officials said the operation raises two key questions: whether militants can now mount such bold assaults more frequently and whether the Afghan government would be able to thwart such plots after 2014 when Western troops withdrawal and access to allied intelligence assistance is limited.

"It certainly seems there's some kind of gap in intelligence collection or in sifting through the volume of what's collected," John Wood, an associate professor at the National Defense University, told the Times. Wood also was senior director for Afghanistan on the National Security Council in the Bush and Obama administrations.

The attacks by the Haqqani network demonstrated the Taliban offshoot can create a system of logistical support and planning necessary to mount actions below the radar of intelligence groups focused on it, officials told the Times.