Clearing out Islamic hard-liners is tough enough on the battlefield. Yet even as Pakistan's Army wraps up operations to clear the Taliban from Swat Valley, religious groups with militant ties or sympathies have set up shop among the war's refugees – and are winning popular support with their truckloads of aid.
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN
A New Afghanistan Commander Rethinks How to Measure Success - Thom Shanker, New York Times. The new American commander in Afghanistan has ordered a 60-day review of the entire military mission to identify better ways to separate the population from insurgents, an assessment that is expected to lead to new economic and military steps to carve fighters off from the Taliban. Over the next week, the commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, is scheduled to crisscross Afghanistan to meet provincial leaders, villagers and American and allied officials, while counterinsurgency experts from inside and outside the government assist in the top-to-bottom review. Although the review is in its preliminary stages, General McChrystal is already pledging to expand the fight beyond the purely military campaign to defeat the insurgents. “The measure of effectiveness will not be enemy killed,” General McChrystal told a Senate committee at his confirmation hearing on June 2. “It will be the number of Afghans shielded from violence.”
Next 18 Months Critical in Afghanistan, McChrystal Says - Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service. The next 18 months will be crucial in Afghanistan, the new commander of NATO and US forces there said today. “I think that the next 18 months are probably a period in which this effort will be decided,” Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal told Tom Bowman in a National Public Radio interview. “I don't think it will be over. But I think that not only the American people, I think the Afghan people are looking and deciding which way this will go.” McChrystal took command of coalition and US efforts in Afghanistan on June 15. His job is to carry out the new strategy for the region. The general said the conflict should not be viewed solely as a military struggle. It is not a question of whether the United States is winning, he said, but whether the Afghan people are winning. The Afghan government is the ultimate deciding factor, and while the government is not winning the war on extremists, “I don't say they’re losing,” McChrystal said. “That’s an old axiom in counterinsurgency: If you’re not winning, you’re losing,” he said. “And the danger there is that that is true. So we see it as very, very important, probably over about the next 12 to 24 months, that we absolutely get a trend where we are clearly winning.”
US and China Work Together to Rebuild Afghanistan - Michael M. Phillips and Shai Oster, Wall Street Journal. The US and China have formed an uneasy alliance in the effort to build stability in Afghanistan. In a valley long known as a Taliban haven, American troops live alongside Chinese road workers. The troops put their lives on the line protecting the workers. The workers put their lives on the line building a road the US military desperately wants completed. "Asphalt is ammunition," says Lt. Col. Kimo Gallahue, commander of the 2nd Battalion of the 87th Infantry Regiment, quoting a phrase popular in the military. "Roads are one of the biggest needs in this province." The Chinese are in Afghanistan mostly to make deals. "This is business - we can work in Afghanistan or any other country," says Wang Shangkuei, an engineer for China Railway Shisiju Group Corp., a state-owned company with a $50 million contract funded by Italian aid money to grade and pave 33 miles of two-lane road past Momaki village in Wardak province. But, he says, "if there's fighting, we can't do the work."
Pentagon Shares Account of Controversial Airstrike - Yochi Dreazen, Wall Street Journal. A long-awaited Pentagon report on a deadly airstrike in Afghanistan acknowledges some American culpability in civilian deaths and reveals new details from a US investigation into the incident. The Pentagon said the incident began when Afghan security personnel launched a poorly planned assault on a large Taliban force and were immediately overwhelmed by the militants. The report estimated that at least 26 civilians and 78 militants were killed in the May 4 incident when US F-18 fighters and B-1 bombers bombed the village of Granai, in Farah province, to help Afghan and US ground personnel under attack by the Taliban. The death toll estimate means the Pentagon is officially rejecting Kabul's claim that more than 140 civilians were killed that day. Washington and Kabul have feuded publicly over the airstrike, which has intensified resentment in Afghanistan toward the US-led war effort.
US Report on Afghan Civilian Deaths Urges Caution - Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times. A newly released report says that the US military in Afghanistan must give higher priority to avoiding civilian casualties when calling for airstrikes, but that the practice of using warplanes to support units engaged in battle should continue. The US military investigation examined a battle May 4 in western Farah province that resulted in at least two dozen civilian deaths and prompted outrage among Afghans. The report concluded that at least two airstrikes on buildings should not have been ordered. "We made mistakes that led to civilian deaths," said Air Force Maj. Kristine Beckman, a spokeswoman for the US military's Central Command. Afghan authorities said the attack killed more than 100 civilians. The US investigation estimated that 26 civilians were killed, but played down that disparity in an apparent attempt to minimize friction with the Afghan government.
US Troops Erred in Airstrikes On Civilians - Greg Jaffe, Washington Post. US pilots and ground commanders failed to follow proper procedures during a major battle in early May in western Afghanistan, resulting in airstrikes that killed at least 26 Afghan civilians, according to a new report issued by the American military. The long-awaited document also calls for changes in the instruction and training of pilots and ground commanders. The military report concedes that it is impossible "conclusively to determine the number of civilian casualties that occurred on May 4, 2009," and says the number could be far higher. A report on the same incident by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission concluded that there were as many as 86 civilian casualties. Local Afghan officials put the civilian death toll at 140. Civilian casualties from US airstrikes has provoked widespread anger in Afghanistan in recent years and led to increased tension between the American and Afghan governments.
IG Seeks Help in Stamping Out Afghanistan Reconstruction Fraud - Traci Scott, American Forces Press Service. The inspector general who tracks Afghanistan reconstruction has sent out a call for help in stamping out fraud, mismanagement and waste of U.S. appropriated reconstruction funds. Arnold Fields, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, said that without help from people involved in the process, millions of taxpayer dollars could be wasted. “Weak oversight means we are open to wasting valuable taxpayer dollars, as has reportedly happened in Iraq.” Fields said. “We need the help of those on the front lines of US funded reconstruction projects, including US government employees, military servicemembers, contractors and the general public. If they see something they believe is suspicious or illegal, we are asking them to tell us so we can look into it.” Fields made the comments as part of an awareness campaign to inform military members and civilians serving in Afghanistan about how they can report suspicious or illegal reconstruction activity. “Transparency and accountability are key to ensure that taxpayer funds are being spent as they were intended, and projects are being built for the benefit of the Afghan people,” Fields said.
Pakistani Warplanes, Troops Target S. Waziristan - Voice of America. Pakistan is sending troops and warplanes into the volatile South Waziristan region, the first steps in a new offensive targeting Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud. Pakistani officials said warplanes bombed suspected Mehsud strongholds Friday while troops traded fire with militants on the ground. Mehsud is one of Pakistan's most wanted militants and is blamed for scores of attacks against government and civilian targets. He is also believed to be a key facilitator for al-Qaida fighters in the country. The latest Pakistani offensive comes as officials are asking refugees to return to the country's northwestern Buner district.
Pakistan Widens Offensive Against Taliban - Rohan Sullivan, Associated Press. Pakistani ground troops moved into Taliban-controlled areas Friday and engaged in the first gunbattle of a new offensive in the volatile northwest, as an aerial and artillery bombardment pounded other targets. Officials said Friday's action did not represent the start of a full-scale operation in the tribal belt along the border with Afghanistan, but that most troops were now in place awaiting further orders. The coming operation in South Waziristan, along with one winding down in the Swat Valley farther north, could be a turning point in Pakistan's years-long and sometimes halfhearted fight against militancy. It could also help the war effort in Afghanistan, because the tribal belt is believed to house key bases of al Qaeda and Taliban militants accused of launching attacks on Western and government forces in Afghanistan.
Pakistanis Trickling Back to Shattered Towns - Alex Rodriguez, Los Angeles Times. A small number of Pakistanis have begun leaving refugee camps and trickling back to this hamlet tucked away in the verdant ridges south of the Swat Valley. When they arrive in Ambela, once a town of 11,000 people, they find a place made largely unlivable by war. Phones don't work. Electricity has been off for weeks. Wheat and tobacco crops, the town's livelihood, have rotted. There are only about 2,750 people living here now. Near shuttered storefronts pocked with bullet holes, a group of residents scavenge burned-out car frames for scrap metal, piling shards onto a wheelbarrow. For now, it's the only way to make a bit of cash.
Pakistan's Offensive Opens New Forum for Militants: Refugee Camps - Daud Khattak, Christian Science Monitor. Clearing out Islamic hard-liners is tough enough on the battlefield. Yet even as Pakistan's Army wraps up operations to clear the Taliban from Swat Valley, religious groups with militant ties or sympathies have set up shop among the war's refugees – and are winning popular support with their truckloads of aid. Among the organizations providing relief is the Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation (FIF), the charity wing of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned militant group blamed for last November's Mumbai (Bombay) attacks. The militants' focus on aid efforts has raised concerns among some analysts that such groups may find recruits or sympathizers among the 2 million people displaced by the military's offensive - the majority of whom live outside government-run camps.
IRAN
Iran's Supreme Leader Warns Protesters - Edward Yeranian, Voice of America. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has called for an end to street protests, saying there was a "definitive victory" in the disputed presidential election that has triggered the worst unrest in Iran in three decades. In his first public remarks after days of demonstrations, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the outcome must be decided at the ballot box, not on the street and that political leaders would be blamed for any violence. Demonstrations have taken place since the June 12 election after candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi called for annulment of the election. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner with nearly 63 percent of the vote. Thirty-four percent went to Mr. Mousavi.
Iran's Steely Chief Cleric Steps Forward - Karl Vick, Washington Post. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who warned at Friday prayers of continued demonstrations leading to "bloodshed," has held the title of supreme leader of the revolution for 20 years, twice as long as the man for whom the title was created. In laying down an ultimatum to protesters demonstrating against alleged vote fraud, Khamenei showed the steel that got him the job. Thirty years ago, Khamenei's mentor, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, swept to power in Iran when the monarch running the ancient country backed away from a similar challenge. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's decision to flee in the face of a rising revolt left the country to Khomeini, a coal-eyed cleric whose righteous persona and unquestioned religious credentials personified the 1979 Islamic revolution he instigated from exile and dominated upon his triumphant return. But when Khomeini died 10 years later, he left no successor. The grand ayatollah widely expected to follow him, Hossein Ali Montazeri, lost his place by expressing revulsion at violence committed in the name of the revolution.
Ayatollah Orders Halt to Protests - Farnaz Fassihi, Wall Street Journal. Iran's Supreme Leader, in a stern rebuke to protesters, ordered an end to demonstrations, warned of possible violence if they persisted and said organizers would be held responsible for any future bloodshed. "I want to tell everyone these things must finish. These street actions are being done to put pressure on leaders but we will not bow in front of them," said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as part of a rare Friday sermon at Tehran University beamed live across Iran. Following a week of street demonstrations, the biggest in the Islamic Republic's 30 years, the stark warning puts the ball squarely in the court of opposition leaders. They have so far defied official bans on gathering and protested what they say were flawed presidential elections. Now, they must decide if they are willing to continue.
Top Iran Leader Orders Halt to Protests; Tehran on Edge - Ramin Mostaghim and Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times. Iran's tense capital braced for the possibility of violence after supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded Friday that protesters end their mass demonstrations against alleged vote-rigging and suggested that those who defied him would be responsible for the consequences. Khamenei, who is Iran's highest spiritual and political leader, ordered protesters off the streets and rejected charges that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used fraud to win reelection last week. But the opposition was unbowed, and called on its supporters to return to the streets today. Plans for a march at Enghelab (Revolution) Square a day after Khamenei's forceful Friday sermon set the stage for a possible confrontation in the heart of the city.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Raises Stakes as Iran Braces for Violence - Martin Fletcher, The Times. Iran’s Supreme Leader dramatically raised the stakes in his country’s political crisis yesterday by demanding an end to the massive street demonstrations and warning of a violent crackdown if they continued. He also accused "treacherous" Britain of leading a western conspiracy to destablise the Islamic Republic by fomenting the protests. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s uncompromising speech raised fears that he could unleash his formidable security forces on a mass protests as early as today, when tens of thousands of opposition supporters are expected to defy him by joining a Tehran rally organised by reformist clerics. His words caused widespread alarm. European leaders meeting in Brussels demanded the regime “refrain from the use of force against peaceful demonstrations”. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, urged Iran not to go “beyond the point of no return”. Navi Pillay, the UN human rights chief, feared the “illegal use of excessive force”.
Showdown Looms on Iranian Election - Eli Lake, Washington Times. Tehran residents Friday night shouted "God is great" from their buildings, following the instructions of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mosavi and using a slogan popular during the 1979 revolution that created the Islamic Republic now threatened by mass demonstrations. Defying warnings from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that leaders of the demonstrations will be held responsible for any bloodshed, hundreds of thousands of Iranians were expected to take to the streets again Saturday to protest an election tally that gave a purported landslide to incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Web site of Mr. Mousavi - many Iranians believe he defeated Mr. Ahmadinejad on June 12 - gave no instructions to supporters about Saturday's demonstration, which would be the fifth major protest since the election.
Iran's Top Leader Endorses Election - Thomas Erdbrink and William Branigin, Washington Post. Iran's supreme leader on Friday put his full authority behind the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, rejecting allegations of vote fraud and declaring that foreign "enemies," including the United States, were behind a week of massive street demonstrations. By placing his personal seal of approval on the election's official result, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei significantly raised the stakes for Iran's political opposition, which must now either concede the election or be seen as challenging the supreme leader himself. So far, opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and his supporters have questioned the validity of the June 12 election but not the country's theocratic system of governance. In a dramatic speech before thousands of worshipers at a Friday prayer service, Khamenei warned that the leaders of the protests will be held "directly responsible" for any bloodshed that results from continued demonstrations.
US Congress Condemns Violence Against Demonstrators in Iran - Dan Robinson, Voice of America. The US Congress has condemned the Iranian government's crackdown on demonstrators protesting the result of the recent election. The US Senate acted Friday after an earlier nearly unanimous vote by the US House of Representatives. The 405 to 1 vote was the strongest expression of support yet from the US Congress for demonstrators who have been protesting the result of Iran's disputed election that left President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power. It was also the culmination of a week of political maneuvering during which minority Republicans in Congress criticized President Barack Obama for not taking a stronger public stand on events in Iran. The resolution expressed support for "all Iranian citizens who embrace the values of freedom, human rights, civil liberties and rule of law" and affirms "the importance of democratic and fair elections." Lawmakers also condemn what they call "the ongoing violence" by the government and pro-government militias against demonstrators, and the Iranian government's "suppression of independent electronic communications through interference with the Internet and cell phones."
White House Resists Calls for a Tougher Stance on Iran - Mark Landler, New York Times. With Iran on a razor’s edge after a week of swelling protests, the Obama administration has fended off pressure from both parties to respond more forcefully to the disputed election there. But if Iranian authorities carry out their latest threat of a more sweeping crackdown, the White House would reconsider its carefully calibrated tone, officials said Friday. Administration officials said events this weekend in Tehran - when demonstrators plan to rally in defiance of the authorities - would be a telling indicator of whether President Obama would join European leaders and lawmakers on Capitol Hill in more harshly condemning the tactics of the Iranian government. Congressional Republicans and conservative foreign-policy experts stepped up their pressure on the White House to take a firmer stand in support of the demonstrators, even as Mr. Obama worked to keep Democrats from breaking openly with him on Iran.
UNHCR Concerned About Arbitrary Arrests in Iran - Lisa Schlein, Voice of America. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, said she is concerned over the possible illegal use of excessive force and acts of violence by some militia members in the aftermath of the recent disputed presidential election in Iran. Her Spokesman, Rupert Colville, said the High Commissioner does not have an exact number of how many people have been arrested, but it is believed to be in the hundreds. He said those who have been arbitrarily arrested include human rights defenders, political activists and journalists. He said the manner in which the arrests have taken place raises a number of troubling questions.
A Shift in Iran Would Not Change Nuclear Policy - Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times. The widespread protests in Iran, even in the improbable event they deliver presidential challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi to power, are unlikely to dramatically change the country's nuclear ambitions or the strategic complications the West faces in countering Tehran's political gambits across the Middle East. Iran's nuclear program, which Washington alleges is intended to produce atomic weapons, is ingrained in the national psyche. It was begun decades ago and is embraced across the Iranian political spectrum. Its future rests more on the wishes of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the ruling clerics than it does with hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or the more moderate Mousavi.
Iran, Revealed - Washington Post editorial. Inits own obtuse and menacing way, yesterday's speech by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, was actually useful. Mr. Khamenei made it plain that he and the vast security establishment he heads have no intention of permitting anyone but his own favorite, incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, to become president. He issued a threat to the multitudes who have bravely and peacefully denounced alleged electoral fraud: "If there is any bloodshed, leaders of the protests will be held directly responsible." And he rehearsed tired conspiracy theories, blaming the historic unrest on "dirty Zionists," the United States and Britain. In so doing, Mr. Khamenei clarified the true nature of his regime and the true nature of the challenge it poses to the United States and the world.
THE LONG WAR
Delay in Releasing CIA Report Is Sought - Carrie Johnson, Washington Post. The Justice Department needs a week to complete its review of a 2004 CIA inspector general's report before releasing it in redacted form to civil liberties advocates, officials said yesterday. Government lawyers notified the American Civil Liberties Union of the delay yesterday afternoon, citing a longer-than-expected review process at the CIA. Activists requested the report as part of a longstanding Freedom of Information Act lawsuit focusing on the US government's detention and treatment of terrorism suspects after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. CIA officials sought to redact many sensitive and classified elements of the lengthy report, including details about the use of waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other harsh measures against detainees.
US DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Military Needs Flexibility to Handle Spectrum of Future Threats, Gates Says - Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service. The US military has to have flexibility across the spectrum of conflict to handle the threats of the future, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday. There is a need for both counterinsurgency specialists and the conventional weaponry needed to deter nations, Gates said. The upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review will take this into account and look at new ways to size the force, he told reporters at a Pentagon news conference. The US military is not going to let the conventional side wither away, but neither is it going to ignore counterinsurgency to the extent that the force forgets the capability, the secretary said. “Those who believe that is what we are trying to do and that that's what I believe do not understand what we are trying to do or what I believe,” he said.
Commander Calls for More Enablers to Support Special Ops Missions - Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service. With heavy demand on special operations capabilities and limitations on how quickly these forces can grow, it’s critical that the services develop more capabilities to support special operators, the commander of US Special Operations Command told Congress yesterday. Navy Adm. Eric T. Olson told a Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities that it’s impossible to increase special operations forces by more than 3 to 5 percent per year, primarily due to the enormous training requirements involved. “This growth rate will not meet the already-obvious appetite for the effects of [special operations forces] in forward operating areas,” he conceded. Eighty-five percent of special operators have deployed to US Central Command’s area of responsibility during the last several years, he reported. And while special operators continue their missions as trainers, advisors and combat partners around the world - operating in 106 countries during fiscal 2009 alone - Olson said heavy demands within the Centcom region have detracted from efforts elsewhere.
We Don’t Need the F-22 - New York Times editorial. You would think that with all the legitimate and expensive claims on the government pocketbook - including two wars, an economic crisis and desperately needed health care reform - Congress would be extra judicious about how it spends the taxpayers’ money. But no, at least not when it comes to the House Armed Services Committee and lucrative defense contracts. The panel has proved again how the insatiable drive to keep fancy weapons systems alive can trump all good sense. With Representative Rob Bishop of Utah and other Republicans leading the charge, and with the support of six Democrats, the committee this week narrowly voted to keep producing the Air Force’s F-22 stealth fighter jet. We adamantly opposed Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s proposal to buy four more F-22s in next year’s budget. But at least he wanted to cap the fleet at 187 planes. The House committee has voted to approve a $369 million down payment on 12 more. If all of those are bought, the total price tag would be about $2.8 billion.
US INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY
House Bill Expands Oversight Of NSA - Ellen Nakashima, Washington Post. The House intelligence committee late Thursday approved measures to strengthen oversight of the National Security Agency and the overall intelligence community, including by making the jobs of NSA director and general counsel subject to Senate confirmation. The committee also voted to include provisions that would establish independent inspectors general at the NSA and at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who could not be fired by the heads of those agencies. The latter position would have expanded authority to investigate all 16 intelligence agencies under the director's oversight. The panel's intelligence authorization bill, which was approved on a party-line voice vote and now goes to the House floor, would also establish the new position of NSA associate director for compliance and training so that the agency has a senior-level official focusing solely on ensuring that personnel comply with laws and court orders.
Obama Administration Looks to Colleges for Future Spies - Walter Pincus. Washington Post. To the list of collegiate types - nerds, jocks, Greeks - add one more: spies in training. The government is hoping they'll be hard to spot. The Obama administration has proposed the creation of an intelligence officer training program in colleges and universities that would function much like the Reserve Officers' Training Corps run by the military services. The idea is to create a stream "of first- and second-generation Americans, who already have critical language and cultural knowledge, and prepare them for careers in the intelligence agencies," according to a description sent to Congress by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair. In recent years, the CIA and other intelligence agencies have struggled to find qualified recruits who can work the streets of the Middle East and South Asia to penetrate terrorist groups and criminal enterprises. The proposed program is an effort to cultivate and educate a new generation of career intelligence officers from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds.
WORLD
UN Says 1.02 Billion People Going Hungry - Alessandra Rizzo, Associated Press. More than a billion people - a sixth of the world's population - are now hungry, a historic high due largely to the global economic crisis and stubbornly high food prices, a UN agency said Friday. Compared with last year, there are 100 million more people who are hungry, meaning they consume fewer than 1,800 calories a day, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said. Almost all the world's undernourished live in developing countries, where food prices have fallen more slowly than in the richer nations, the report said. Poor countries need more aid and agricultural investment to cope, it said.
AFRICA
Sudan's 'Coordinated' Genocide in Darfur Is Over, US Envoy Says - Colum Lynch. Washington Post. President Obama's special envoy to Sudan, retired Air Force Maj. Gen. J. Scott Gration, said Wednesday that the Sudanese government is no longer engaging in a "coordinated" campaign of mass murder in Darfur, marking a shift in the US characterization of the violence there as an "ongoing genocide." "What we see is the remnants of genocide," Gration told reporters at a briefing in Washington. "The level of violence that we're seeing right now is primarily between rebel groups, the Sudanese government and ... some violence between Chad and Sudan." Gration's remarks come as the Obama administration is finishing a review of its Sudan policy. The comments appeared to expose an emerging rift between Gration and Susan E. Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, who accused the Sudanese leadership of genocide as recently as two days ago.
Nigerian Militants Claim Another Pipeline Strike - Gilbert da Costa, Voice of America. Nigeria's most powerful armed group says it destroyed another pipeline Friday, the latest in its campaign of sabotage against the oil industry. There was no immediate official confirmation of the attack. A statement by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it attacked a major pipeline that delivers crude to Italian oil group's Agip's Brass export terminal. Fighting has flared up in recent weeks, with the militants and the security forces issuing claims and counter claims. On Wednesday, militants announced they destroyed a pipeline owned by Royal Dutch Shell in the same area.
AMERICAS
In Venezuela, Land 'Rescue' Hopes Unmet - Juan Forero, Washington Post. Dreaming of a new life, Ramón Barrera came to El Charcote, a vast farm here in northwestern Venezuela, several years after President Hugo Chávez's populist government had expropriated the property from its longtime owners and begun distributing parcels to small farmers like him to work. Six months after he arrived, Barrera's dream is still just a dream - his 37 acres are fallow, so he spends his time feeding grain to nine scrawny pigs. He and other farmers trying to earn a living on the farm's sunbaked expanse said the technical help they had been promised never materialized. Chávez's so-called back-to-the-land movement calls for the redistribution of land - increasingly properties that the state has taken over in what officials term a "rescue" or "recuperation." The objective is to ensure "food sovereignty," thereby reducing dependence on imports. But nearly five years after the measures were implemented nationwide, farmers and agriculture experts say, Venezuela is not only far from self-sufficient in food, but also more dependent than ever on foreign countries.
The Last TV Station Standing in Venezuela - Los Angeles Times editorial. When the head of Venezuela's state-backed television news station addressed the Organization of American States recently, he likened media outlets critical of President Hugo Chavez to radio stations in Rwanda that encouraged genocide. His country, said Andres Izarra, the head of Telesur, was battling "media terrorism." Likening democratic opposition to Chavez's aggregation of power to calls for the slaughter of more than 800,000 people in Rwanda is nothing but paranoia-induced hyperbole. But the rhetoric is also revealing. It underpins the government's efforts to silence the last television station that airs content critical of the president. With a series of legal, administrative and police actions against Globovision and its executives, the government is maneuvering the station into a position where its license can be either temporarily suspended or permanently revoked. In October, the editor of El Nuevo Pais, an opposition newspaper, said in a Globovision broadcast that Chavez could wind up like Mussolini. The reference was to the president's dictatorial behavior, but Chavez heard an assassination threat. The station was charged with violating the Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, a censorship measure adopted in 2004. Then, in May, after the station was critical of the government's response to an earthquake, another investigation was opened to determine whether it had broken the law by inciting panic with an intent to "destabilize" the public.
Case Appears Closed on 'Cuban Five' - Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times. To anyone passing through Havana's international airport, or by the US Interests Section on the Cuban capital's seaside boulevard, the images of the Five are persistently familiar. On billboards and wall-size posters, they are honored as heroes in Cuba. In the US, they are little-known convicted spies and saboteurs. If one person's freedom fighter is another's terrorist, the case of the Cuban Five illustrates the chasm that remains between Havana and Washington, despite recent overtures that are gradually easing tensions left over from the Cold War. This week, the US Supreme Court refused to hear what may be the final appeal for the five Cuban intelligence agents, who were convicted in 2001 of spying in the United States on behalf of the government of then-President Fidel Castro.
ASIA PACIFIC
Pentagon Delegation to Visit Beijing for Military Talks - Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service. Defense Department officials hope for more military-to-military engagement with China as a result of the 10th US-China Defense Consultative Talks, a senior defense official said today. The official, speaking on background, said Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy will head the US delegation. Her counterpart is Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian, the deputy chief of the Peoples’ Liberation Army’s general staff. The meetings in Beijing are scheduled for June 23 and 24. Flournoy also will visit Tokyo and Seoul, the South Korean capital, during the trip. The talks are the forum for strategic conversations between the nations, and allow the Chinese and US militaries “to build cooperative capacity, foster institutional understanding and develop a shared strategic vision,” the official said. The talks are the first since President Barack Obama met Chinese President Hu Jintao in April and the first in the continuing series since Obama took office.
Aung San Suu Kyi Celebrates Birthday Behind Bars - Daniel Schearf, Voice of America. Campaigners across the globe are honoring the birthday Friday of Burma's detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The Burmese pro-democracy leader spent her 64th birthday at Rangoon's notorious Insein prison, where she is on trial and facing up to five years behind bars. Activists and politicians are marking Aung San Suu Kyi's 64th birthday with gatherings of support from Thailand to Europe and the United States. In addition, a coalition of 23 Burma rights groups has formed "64forsuu.org", a website where supporters can post messages urging her release from detention. Johnny Chatterton is with the Burma Campaign UK and Project Manager for 64forSuu.org. He says they have received over 9,000 messages of support, including from politicians and celebrities.
EUROPE
Russia Plays a Defector as a Trump to Georgia - Michael Schwirtz, New York Times. Just months after it was embarrassed by the defection of a Russian conscript soldier to Georgia, Russia made a countermove on Friday. It brandished its own military defector, a Georgian officer, apparently seeking to score points in the countries’ propaganda war. Though the Russian military quickly defeated Georgia’s smaller forces in the war in August, Georgia has proved more adept on the public relations front. The sides have sparred continually in the news media, at international conferences and even on the dance floor. Georgia paraded around the Russian conscript, Junior Sgt. Aleksandr Glukhov, like a championship trophy. He defected in January, he said, because his commanding officer verbally abused him and because he was denied enough food and a bath.
Russia, Again Evading History - Masha Lipman, Washington Post opinion. The Russian government has intensified its attempts to perfect the nation's past. The Defense Ministry posted an academic article on its Web site arguing that Hitler's territorial claims on Poland were "moderate" and "can hardly be referred to as unsubstantiated." After Poland rejected these claims, seeking "to gain a great power status," the article went on, it was only natural that Germany would attack -- starting World War II. When the article became the subject of news coverage, sparking discussion at home and abroad, it was removed from the site. Even if the Defense Ministry, or the government at large, would balk at supporting the theory of Poland's "guilt" in provoking World War II, the publication of this article - "Fabrications and falsifications in evaluating the role of the USSR on the eve and at early stages of WW2" - on an official site cannot be ignored. The article's title echoes the goal of a government commission established last month by President Dmitry Medvedev's decree: to oppose attempts to falsify history that damage Russia's interests. This mission shows the potential for interpretation - and abuse: It implies that genuine historical fact cannot be damaging to Russia's world stature, but also that there's nothing wrong with the distortion of facts if it embellishes the country's image.
Bosnia Serbs and Envoy Are at Odds on Powers - Dan Bilefsky, New York Times. The international community’s envoy in Bosnia moved Friday to invoke extraordinary legal powers over the country after Bosnian Serb leaders passed legislation that he said undermined the Dayton peace accords, which ended Bosnia’s brutal war in 1995. Aides to the envoy, Valentin Inzko, said the decision to assert special legal authority was necessary to hold the fragile multiethnic country together. Mr. Inzko invoked the special authority, which will take effect on Saturday, to rescind the legislation approved by the Bosnian Serbs’ National Assembly, the aides said. The European Union and the United States are determined to maintain the Dayton agreement, which divided Bosnia and Herzegovina into the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serbian Republic, with a decentralized political system that appears to have reinforced rather than healed ethnic divisions.
MIDDLE EAST
Tussle with Israel Puts Obama Credibility on the Line, Observers Say - Paul Richter and Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times. President Obama's public quarrel with Israel over the growth of Jewish settlements in the West Bank is developing into a test of the US leader's international credibility, say foreign diplomats and other observers. Obama and his senior aides have insisted for weeks that the Jewish state completely halt the expansion of its settlements. But now, with US and Israeli officials apparently close to an agreement on the issue, it is widely expected in Israel and the Arab world that the administration will give ground and support at least some growth in the 120 communities. Opponents of such a move say the concessions will not only disappoint the Arabs whom the president has courted, but also will be read by adversaries around the globe as a signal that the president can be forced to back down.
BOOK REVIEWS
The Battlefield Can Be an Unforgiving Teacher - Janet Maslin, New York Times book review of The Unforgiving Minute by Craig M. Mullaney.
Soldiers of Misfortune - James Glanz, New York Times book review of Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage by Donovan Campbell.
A Counterinsurgency Primer - Max Boot, Wall Street Journal book review of The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One by David Kilcullen.
Reluctant Warriors - The Economist book review of both The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 by Thomas Ricks and The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One by David Kilcullen.
BOOKS
Journey into Darkness: Genocide in Rwanda - Thomas P. Odom.
In July 1994, Thomas P. Odom was part of the US Embassy team that responded to the Goma refugee crisis. He witnessed the deaths of 70,000 refugees in a single week. In the previous three months of escalating violence, the Rwandan genocide had claimed 800,000 dead. Now, in this vivid and unsettling new book, Odom offers the first insider look at these devastating events before, during, and after the genocide.
Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage - Donovan Campbell.
Donovan Campbell, first as a Marine and then as a writer, shows us that the dominant emotion in war isn’t hatred or anger or fear. It’s love. His story stands as a poignant tribute to his men–their courage, their dedication, their skill, and their love for one another, even unto death.
The Battle for Peace: A Frontline Vision of America's Power and Purpose - Anthony Zinni and Tony Koltz
The intellectual complement to Zinni and Clancy's bestselling Battle Ready (2004), a narrative memoir salted with specific policy recommendations, this volume provides the former US Central Command chief's analysis of America's current global position. Zinni begins by asserting that America's status as "the most powerful nation in the history of the planet" has created a de facto empire. The US has no choice: if it fails to take the lead, nothing significant happens. At the same time, Americans must recognize that, in a global age, there can be no zero-sum games.
The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education - Craig Mullaney
The Unforgiving Minute is the ultimate's soldier's book - universal in its raw emotion and its understanding of the larger issues of life and death. Mullaney, a master storyteller, plunges the depths of self-doubt, endurance, and courage. The result: a riveting, suspenseful human story, beautifully told. This is a book written under fire - a lyrical, spellbinding tale of war, love, and courage. The Unforgiving Minute is the Three Cups of Tea of soldiering.
Great Powers: America and the World after Bush - Thomas P.M. Barnett
In civilian and military circles alike, The Pentagon’s New Map became one of the most talked about books of 2004. “A combination of Tom Friedman on globalization and Carl von Clausewitz on war, [it is] the red-hot book among the nation’s admirals and generals,” wrote David Ignatius in The Washington Post. Barnett’s second book, Blueprint for Action, demonstrated how to put the first book’s principles to work. Now, in Great Powers, Barnett delivers his most sweeping - and important - book of all.
The Accidental Guerrilla: Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One - David Kilcullen
A remarkably fresh perspective on the War on Terror. Kilcullen takes us "on the ground" to uncover the face of modern warfare, illuminating both the big global war (the "War on Terrorism") and its relation to the associated "small wars" across the globe: Iraq, Afghanistan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Chechnya, Pakistan and North Africa.
The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008 - Thomas Ricks
Thomas E. Ricks uses hundreds of hours of exclusive interviews with top officers in Iraq and extraordinary on-the-ground reportage to document the inside story of the Iraq War since late 2005 as only he can, examining the events that took place as the military was forced to reckon with itself, the surge was launched, and a very different war began.
Why Vietnam Matters: An Eyewitness Account of Lessons Not Learned - Rufus Phillips
Phillips details how the legendary Edward G. Lansdale helped the South Vietnamese gain and consolidate their independence between 1954 and 1956, and how this later changed to a reliance on American conventional warfare with its highly destructive firepower. He reasons that our failure to understand the Communists, our South Vietnamese allies, or even ourselves took us down the wrong road. In summing up US errors in Vietnam, Phillips draws parallels with the American experience in Iraq and Afghanistan and suggests changes in the US approach. Known for his intellectual integrity and firsthand, long-term knowledge of what went on in Vietnam, the author offers lessons for today in this trenchant account.
Baghdad at Sunrise: A Brigade Commander's War in Iraq - Peter Mansoor
This is a unique contribution to the burgeoning literature on the Iraq war, analyzing the day-to-day performance of a US brigade in Baghdad during 2004-2005. Mansoor uses a broad spectrum of sources to address the military, political and cultural aspects of an operation undertaken with almost no relevant preparation, which tested officers and men to their limits and generated mistakes and misjudgments on a daily basis. The critique is balanced, perceptive and merciless - and Mansoor was the brigade commander. Military history is replete with command memoirs. Most are more or less self-exculpatory. Even the honest ones rarely achieve this level of analysis. The effect is like watching a surgeon perform an operation on himself. Mansoor has been simultaneously a soldier and a scholar, able to synergize directly his military and academic experiences.
The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq - Bing West
From a universally respected combat journalist, a gripping history based on five years of front-line reporting about how the war was turned around - and the choice now facing America. We interpret reality through the clouded prism of our own experience, so it is unsurprising that Bing West sees Iraq through the lens of Vietnam. He served as a Marine officer there, and he thinks politicians and the media caused the American public to turn against a war that could have been won. Now a correspondent for the Atlantic, West has made 15 reporting trips to Iraq over the last six years and is almost as personally invested in the current conflict as he was in Vietnam; this book, his third on Iraq, is his attempt to ensure that the "endgame" in Iraq turns out better than in his last war.
Tell Me How This Ends: General David Petraeus and the Search for a Way Out of Iraq - Linda Robinson
After a series of disastrous missteps in its conduct of the war, the White House in 2006 appointed General David Petraeus as the Commanding General of the coalition forces. Tell Me How This Ends is an inside account of his attempt to turn around a failing war. Linda Robinson conducted extensive interviews with Petraeus and his subordinate commanders and spent weeks with key US and Iraqi divisions. The result is the only book that ties together military operations in Iraq and the internecine political drama that is at the heart of the civil war. Replete with dramatic battles, behind-doors confrontations, and astute analysis, the book tells the full story of the Iraq War’s endgame, and lays out the options that will be facing the next president.
The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008 - Bob Woodward
Woodward interviewed key players, obtained dozens of never-before-published documents, and had nearly three hours of exclusive interviews with President Bush. The result is a stunning, firsthand history of the years from mid-2006, when the White House realizes the Iraq strategy is not working, through the decision to surge another 30,000 US troops in 2007, and into mid-2008, when the war becomes a fault line in the presidential election. As violence in Iraq reaches unnerving levels in 2006, a second front in the war rages at the highest levels of the Bush administration. In his fourth book on President George W. Bush, Bob Woodward takes readers deep inside the tensions, secret debates, unofficial backchannels, distrust and determination within the White House, the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence agencies and the US military headquarters in Iraq. With unparalleled intimacy and detail, this gripping account of a president at war describes a period of distress and uncertainty within the US government from 2006 through mid-2008. The White House launches a secret strategy review that excludes the military. General George Casey, the commander in Iraq, believes that President Bush does not understand the war and eventually concludes he has lost the president's confidence. The Joint Chiefs of Staff also conduct a secret strategy review that goes nowhere. On the verge of revolt, they worry that the military will be blamed for a failure in Iraq.
We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam - Harold Moore and Joe Galloway
In their stunning follow-up to the classic bestseller We Were Soldiers Once... and Young, Lt. Gen. Hal Moore and Joe Galloway return to Vietnam and reflect on how the war changed them, their men, their enemies, and both countries - often with surprising results. It would be a monumental task for Moore and Galloway to top their classic 1992 memoir. But they come close in this sterling sequel, which tells the backstory of two of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles (in which Moore participated as a lieutenant colonel), their first book and a 1993 ABC-TV documentary that brought them back to the battlefield. Moore's strong first-person voice reviews the basics of the November 1965 battles, part of the 34-day Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. Among other things, Moore and Galloway (who covered the battle for UPI) offer portraits of two former enemy commanders, generals Nguyen Huu An and Chu Huy Man, whom the authors met - and bonded with - nearly three decades after the battle. This book proves again that Moore is an exceptionally thoughtful, compassionate and courageous leader (he was one of a handful of army officers who studied the history of the Vietnam wars before he arrived) and a strong voice for reconciliation and for honoring the men with whom he served.
In a Time of War: The Proud and Perilous Journey of West Point' Class of 2002 - Bill Murphy
The West Point cadets Murphy follows through their baptism by fire are an admirable sample of young American men and women: intelligent, ambitious and intensely patriotic. Most come from career military families and hold conservative opinions. Murphy describes their four years at West Point with respect even when discussing their love lives and marriages. All yearn for battle, and most get their wish. The book's best passages describe the confusion of moving to Iraq or Afghanistan and fighting insurgents, for which they lack both training and equipment. All feel something is not right but concentrate on the job at hand; some inevitably die or are grievously wounded.
Iraq and the Evolution of American Strategy - Steven Metz
Today the US military is more nimble, mobile, and focused on rapid responses against smaller powers than ever before. One could argue that the Gulf War and the postwar standoff with Saddam Hussein hastened needed military transformation and strategic reassessments in the post–Cold War era. But the preoccupation with Iraq also mired the United States in the Middle East and led to a bloody occupation. What will American strategy look like after US troops leave Iraq? Metz concludes that the United States has a long-standing, continuing problem “developing sound assumptions when the opponent operates within a different psychological and cultural framework.” He sees a pattern of misjudgments about Saddam and Iraq based on Western cultural and historical bias and a pervasive faith in the superiority of America’s worldview and institutions. This myopia contributed to America being caught off guard by Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, then underestimating his longevity, and finally miscalculating the likelihood of a stable and democratic Iraq after he was toppled. With lessons for all readers concerned about America’s role in the world, Dr. Metz’s important new work will especially appeal to scholars and students of strategy and international security studies, as well as to military professionals and DOD civilians. With a foreword by Colin S. Gray.
