Pakistan's offensive in the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan has met with significant resistance from insurgents, who have retaken one large town, targeted military vehicles with roadside bombs and held off the army's attack helicopters with antiaircraft fire, US military analysts said Friday. The heavy fighting has slowed the advance of an estimated 36,000 to 40,000 Pakistani troops into the heart of the contested tribal region bordering Afghanistan, according to a detailed briefing on the week-old ground operation by researchers at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a Washington think tank.
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN
Troop-Boost Plan Gains Backing - Peter Spiegel and Yochi J. Dreazen, Wall Street Journal. The Obama administration is moving toward a hybrid strategy in Afghanistan that would combine elements of both the troop-heavy approach sought by its top military commander and a narrower option backed by Vice President Joe Biden, a decision that could pave the way for thousands of new US forces. The emerging strategy would largely rebuff proposals to maintain current troop levels and rely on unmanned drone attacks and elite special-operations troops to hunt individual militants, an idea championed by Mr. Biden. It is opposed by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Kabul, and other military officials. One scenario under consideration, according to an official familiar with the deliberations, calls for deploying 10,000 to 20,000 US reinforcements primarily to ramp up the training of the Afghan security forces. But Gen. McChrystal's request for 40,000 troops also remains on the table. People familiar with the internal debates say Mr. Obama rejected a strictly counter-terror approach during White House deliberations in early October. One official said Pentagon strategists were asked to draft brief written arguments making the best case for each strategy, but the strategists had difficulties writing out a credible case for the counter-terror approach - prompting members of Mr. Biden's staff to step in and write the document themselves.
NATO Ministers Endorse Wider Afghan Effort - Thom Shanker, New York Times. Defense ministers from NATO on Friday endorsed the ambitious counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan proposed by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, giving new impetus to his recommendation to pour more troops into the eight-year-old war. General McChrystal, the senior American and allied commander in Afghanistan, made an unannounced appearance here on Friday to brief the defense ministers on his strategic review of a war in which the American-led campaign has lost momentum to a tenacious Taliban insurgency. “What we did today was to discuss General McChrystal’s overall assessment, his overall approach, and I have noted a broad support from all ministers of this overall counterinsurgency approach,” said NATO’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The acceptance by NATO defense ministers of General McChrystal’s approach did not include a decision on new troops, and it was not clear that their judgment would translate into increased willingness by their governments, many of which have been seeking to reduce their military presence in Afghanistan, to contribute further forces to the war. But it was another in a series of judgments that success there could not be achieved by a narrower effort that did not increase troop levels in Afghanistan substantially and focused more on capturing and killing terrorists linked to Al Qaeda - a counterterrorism strategy identified with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
NATO Members Support US Troop Hike in Afghanistan - Julian E. Barnes, Los Angeles Times. America's NATO allies signaled broad support Friday for an ambitious counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan, adding to the momentum building for a substantial US troop increase. NATO defense ministers meeting in Bratislava, Slovakia, endorsed the strategy put forward by Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the US and allied commander. The alliance rejected competing proposals to narrow the military mission to fighting the remnants of Al Qaeda. They did not discuss specific troop levels, but US Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said a number of allies indicated they were thinking about increasing their own military or civilian contributions. "The only way to ensure that Afghanistan does not become once again a safe haven for terrorism is if it is made strong enough to resist the insurgency as well," said Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the NATO secretary-general. "In Afghanistan, you cannot separate counter-terrorism from counterinsurgency." As the Obama administration reviews US strategy, the NATO endorsement is likely to add impetus to McChrystal's request for a reported 40,000 additional troops to protect the Afghan people, shore up the government and counter Taliban militants.
Afghans Oppose US Hit List of Drug Traffickers - Craig Whitlock, Washington Post. A US military hit list of about 50 suspected drug kingpins is drawing fierce opposition from Afghan officials, who say it could undermine their fragile justice system and trigger a backlash against foreign troops. The US military and NATO officials have authorized their forces to kill or capture individuals on the list, which was drafted within the past year as part of NATO's new strategy to combat drug operations that finance the Taliban. The list is thought to include people with close ties to the Afghan government and others who have served as intelligence assets for the CIA and the US military, according to current and former US and Afghan officials. Afghan counternarcotics officials expressed frustration that US and NATO military leaders have refused to divulge the names on the list, a decision that they said could undercut joint operations to hunt down opium traffickers. Gen. Mohammad Daud Daud, Afghanistan's deputy interior minister for counternarcotics efforts, praised US and British special forces for their help recently in destroying drug labs and stashes of opium.
Biden Dismisses Cheney’s Criticisms Over Afghanistan - Peter Baker, New York Times. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had a blunt response on Friday to the latest broadsides from former Vice President Dick Cheney: “Who cares?” In the latest exchange between old and new administrations, Mr. Biden rebuffed his predecessor’s criticism about President Obama’s handling of Afghanistan as “absolutely wrong.” And Mr. Biden rejected the last review of the war conducted by the White House under former President George W. Bush and Mr. Cheney as “irrelevant.” The dismissive reply, which came at the end of Mr. Biden’s three-day swing through Eastern Europe during an interview with reporters traveling with him, underscored the weariness in the current White House with Mr. Cheney’s periodic assaults. At the same time, advisers to Mr. Obama and Mr. Biden consider the former vice president a useful public foil and have not shied away from escalating the debate by taking him on directly. At the heart of the dispute is a fundamental disagreement on national security, from how to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan to how to protect Americans at home from possible terrorist attacks.
Insurgents Putting Up a Tough Fight in Waziristan Operation, Analysts Say - Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post. Pakistan's offensive in the Taliban stronghold of South Waziristan has met with significant resistance from insurgents, who have retaken one large town, targeted military vehicles with roadside bombs and held off the army's attack helicopters with antiaircraft fire, US military analysts said Friday. The heavy fighting has slowed the advance of an estimated 36,000 to 40,000 Pakistani troops into the heart of the contested tribal region bordering Afghanistan, according to a detailed briefing on the week-old ground operation by researchers at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a Washington think tank. Meanwhile, the report said, insurgents continue to coordinate suicide bombings and assassinations outside Waziristan. But the large government force, aided by US drone strikes and intelligence, outnumbers the insurgents and is expected to maintain its methodical, three-pronged push in an attempt to capture key territory held by the umbrella group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan in the tribal stronghold of slain insurgent leader Baitullah Mehsud. The operation's success remains uncertain, given that government forces have not yet taken key towns such as Makeen and Kotkai, according to Kagan and AEI researchers Reza Jan and Charlie Szrom, who prepared the briefing.
Pakistan Air Force Site Is Bombed - Jane Perlez, New York Times. A suicide bombing at Pakistan’s premier aeronautical manufacturing complex killed seven people on Friday morning. It was one of a string of attacks on major government installations this month. The bomber blew himself up at the checkpoint at the entrance to the complex, 40 miles northwest of Islamabad, as workers arrived for the morning shift, said a district police official, Fakhur Sultan. Two men guarding the checkpoint and five civilians were killed, Mr. Sultan said. The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at Kamra is the country’s main air force maintenance and research hub, where engineers and workers build and overhaul fighter jets and radar systems. The relentless assaults against sensitive and prominent targets in Pakistan come as the army is conducting a major offensive against militants from the Taliban and Al Qaeda in the remote tribal area of South Waziristan. The attacks are seen as reprisals by the militants. On Thursday morning, a senior army officer, Brig. Moinuddin Haider, was assassinated by two gunmen who attacked his jeep during rush-hour traffic in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital. The Taliban had warned before the start of the campaign in South Waziristan that they planned to attack Pakistan’s military assets.
Suicide Bomber Kills 7 at Pakistani Air Force Complex - Haq Nawaz Khan and Shaiq Hussain, Washington Post. A suicide attack at Pakistan's main air force maintenance and research facility Friday killed at least seven people and injured 13, the latest in a string of insurgent assaults on the country's security forces. The attack at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, which was carried out by a bomber riding a bicycle, was one of three blasts that killed at least 23 people and injured at least 28 across the country Friday, police said. It occurred as the Pakistani army completed the first week of an offensive to flush Taliban forces from the tribal region of South Waziristan, where officials say the recent wave of attacks has been planned. "The stakes have become higher, and consequently we are witnessing this surge in acts of terrorism," said a statement from the office of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, who convened a meeting of top military and civilian officials Friday in Islamabad, the capital. The morning attack at the aeronautical complex in Kamra, about 40 miles northwest of Islamabad, took place at an outer checkpost, said Fakhar Sultan, a local police official. That was followed by a car bombing that injured 15 people outside an upscale restaurant in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Later, at least 16 people were killed in the Mohmand tribal region when the bus in which they were traveling to a wedding struck a roadside bomb planted by insurgents, a provincial official said.
24 Killed in Pakistan Militants’ Guerilla Warfare Campaign - Zahid Hussain, The Times. Attacks by Taleban militants killed at least 24 people across Pakistan today in the latest surge of violence sparked by the Army's offensive in the border region of South Waziristan. Eight people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a key air force facility and 17 died when an anti-tank mine ripped through a bus carrying a wedding party. In a third attack a car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in a wealthy Peshawar neigbourhood, wounding at least 15 people and raising fears of more terrorist attacks in public places. The unrelenting Taleban terror campaign has caused panic among residents of the capital, Islamabad, and other major cities. Schools and colleges have closed and roads have emptied. In the first attack this morning a man in his twenties rode a bicycle to a checkpoint near Pakistan’s largest air force maintenance facility in Kamra, 70km (43 miles) from the capital, Islamabad, and blew himself up when he was stopped by guards. More than 15 people were wounded in the attack, which was the second on the complex within a year. Last year more than 80 people were killed when a car bomb exploded in the area.
IRAQ
US Embassy in Baghdad Faces $130 Million Repair Bill After Errors - Oliver August, The Times. It is the world’s most expensive embassy, costing more than $700 million (£427 million) and designed to withstand earthquakes and insurgents. Yet only nine months after being opened, the US Embassy in Iraq is riddled with problems expected to cost more than $130 million to fix. Nobody praised its architecture when it was inaugurated in January — think Milton Keynes on the Moon. The cube-like structure, topped with razor wire, is the size of Vatican City and features a supermarket and swimming pool. But the 2,000 or so Americans moving in believed, at least, that it would keep them safe and comfortable. Not so. A report by a US Government inspector-general yesterday pointed to staggering State Department incompetence. The structure, measuring more than 100 acres, and supposedly self- sufficient, is facing an enormous repair bill. Plumbing mistakes, for example, mean that the deputy ambassador has sewage-scented air blown into his residence. A mixing of drains and air- conditioning ducts, writes the inspector, allows “noxious gases to be drawn back into the residence”. In all, 200 places in the embassy suffer similar problems, costing $1.5 million in repairs. A further $4.6 million will be needed to make the “safe areas” - where diplomats shelter during attacks - actually safe. The strongrooms are, for example, not protected against fire. Another $14 million is needed for “seismic bracing”, specifically requested by engineers but never included in the original building.
IRAN
Barack Obama's Policy on Brink of Collapse as Tehran Does Last-Minute Nuclear Stall - Catherine Philp, The Times. President Obama’s policy of diplomatic engagement with Iran is close to collapse as Tehran backtracks on a crucial deal aimed at cutting its stockpiles of nuclear fuel. Iran agreed a deal “in principle” at talks in Geneva to ship the majority of its low-enriched uranium overseas for reprocessing into nuclear fuel that could be used for a medical research reactor. A deal outlining this was finalised in Vienna this week and a deadline of midnight tonight was set for the agreement to be sealed with Tehran. The framework deal, along with an offer to allow international inspectors into its newly-revealed enrichment plant at Qom, was hailed as evidence that Iran was responding positively to the diplomatic track. Today, however, with just hours until the deadline, Iran has turned the table on its foreign interlocutors with a rival proposal, demanding that it be allowed to buy higher enriched uranium directly from abroad. Later, the Islamic Republic issued a statement saying that it would report to Mohammed El Baradei, the UN's atomic watchdog, next week.
Iranian Site Prompts US to Rethink Assessment - Joby Warrick, Washington Post. Early Sunday, if all goes as planned, UN nuclear inspectors will travel to a military base near Qom, Iran, for a first look at one of the country's most closely guarded nuclear secrets. Inside bunkers dug into the side of a mountain, the visitors will be escorted through a nearly completed uranium plant that Iran's president has termed "very ordinary." But less than a month after its existence was publicly revealed, many US and European intelligence officials say they are increasingly convinced that the site was intended explicitly for making highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons. The Qom site has undermined one of the US intelligence community's key assessments of Iran's nuclear program: the assumption that Tehran had abandoned plans to enrich uranium in secret, according to two former senior US officials involved in high-level discussions about Iran. A landmark US intelligence assessment in 2007 concluded that any secret uranium-processing activities "probably were halted" in 2003 and had not been restarted. Other key judgments of the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, including the view that Iran has suspended research on nuclear-warhead design, are also being reevaluated in light of new evidence, the two former officials said.
Iran Delays Its Decision on Shipping Nuclear Fuel - David E. Sanger, New York Times. Iran missed its deadline on Friday to declare whether it would accept a nuclear deal that would ship much of its uranium to Russia for processing, but said a decision would be announced next week. In a statement, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran had suggested in discussions with the agency’s director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, that “it is considering the proposal in depth and in a favorable light.” But all day Iranian state television beamed the opposite message to its domestic audience, insisting that Iran was waiting for Russia and France to sell it new nuclear fuel for a reactor in Tehran that makes medical isotopes. Iran’s eventual answer may well determine the course of the Obama administration’s effort - first through negotiations, and perhaps ultimately through harsh sanctions - to force the country to give up the material it would need to produce a nuclear weapon. Under a plan put forth this week by the agency, Iran would ship about three-quarters of its known stockpile of nuclear fuel, about 2,600 pounds, to Russia for further processing so that it could refuel the Tehran reactor.
Tehran Delays Decision on Nuclear Deal - Glenn Kessler and Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post. Iran on Friday deferred a decision on accepting an international offer to supply fuel to a nuclear research reactor, saying an answer would come next week on a deal that would greatly reduce the Islamic republic's stockpile of low-enriched uranium. The United States, Russia and France - the other parties in the arrangement - announced that they had accepted a draft agreement negotiated earlier in the week at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. In talks on Oct. 1, Iran tentatively agreed to the arrangement, under which nearly 80 percent of its stockpile would go to Russia and France to be fashioned into fuel for a medical reactor. But Iranian officials have sent conflicting signals about the draft deal, culminating with Iran's announcement that it would not meet Friday's deadline to respond. According to the IAEA, Iran said that "it is considering the proposal in depth and in a favorable light, but it needs time until the middle of next week to provide a response." Iran has enough low-enriched uranium, in theory, to produce one nuclear weapon. If it agrees to the deal, most analysts estimate it would take nine to 12 months for Iran to again have enough uranium to be able to enrich it to weapons grade.
Iran Says It Can't Meet Deadline on Nuclear Proposal - Chip Cummins, Jay Solomon and David Crawford, Wall Street Journal. Iran told the International Atomic Energy Agency it will respond by the middle of next week to a proposal to ship its nuclear fuel abroad for reprocessing, pushing back a deadline and raising concerns about Iranian intentions in the negotiations. The United Nations nuclear watchdog had given all parties until Friday to sign off formally on the deal, which was tentatively agreed to by Iranian negotiators on Wednesday in Vienna, after several days of talks with the US, France, Russia and IAEA representatives. Under the proposed deal hammered out earlier in the week, Iran would ship most of its nuclear fuel to Russia, where it would be processed for use in a medical-research reactor. The amount would be enough to prevent Iran from having the required fuel to make a nuclear weapon, based on estimates of its stockpile. Iran could restock, but Western officials see any deal that would delay Iran's ability to make a bomb as a first step toward reining in Tehran's nuclear ambitions. France, Russia and the US accepted the deal in letters to the United Nations nuclear watchdog early Friday. In a statement late Friday, the IAEA said Iran informed the agency it was considering the proposal in a favorable light, but needed more time to respond.
Iran Delays Response to Nuclear Enrichment Proposal - Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times. Iran said Friday that it would respond next week to a proposal to ship the bulk of its enriched uranium abroad to be turned into fuel for a medical research reactor. The delay plunged into doubt a deal aimed at easing the standoff over Iran's nuclear program. Earlier in the day, the United States, Russia and France formally signed off on the plan, devised by representatives of the world powers, Iranian negotiators and International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei during talks in Vienna this week. But Iran, which faced the same Friday deadline for a response, told the agency that it needed more time. Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, told state television that his government was "reviewing the text of the proposals that were drawn up by Mr. ElBaradei. . . . We are examining their various legal and technical dimensions before presenting a report." In Washington, a State Department spokesman expressed hope that Iran would still back the proposal. The United States "would have preferred to have a response today," said Ian Kelly. "We approach this with a sense of urgency."
Iran Is Said to Arrest Wives of Many Prominent Detainees - Nazila Fathi, New York Times. Iranian authorities arrested the wives and family members of a number of high-profile political detainees at a religious ceremony in Tehran, several reformist Web sites reported Friday. The raid happened Thursday after the family members of one detainee, Shahab Tabatabee, announced on the Web site Norooz News that they were holding a prayer ceremony for his release. Mr. Tabatabee, a member of the reformist party Islamic Iran Participation Front, was sentenced to five years in prison last week. The police raided the ceremony at a private home a few minutes after it began, according to a relative of some of the people who were arrested. Officers arrested nearly all the guests except for several young women who were attending with infants and toddlers. There were conflicting reports on the Web sites as to the number arrested. The relative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said 60 people had been arrested, which would make it the largest mass arrest in recent months.
More Iranian Injustice - New York Times editorial. The journalist Maziar Bahari joined his pregnant wife in London this week after being freed from an Iranian prison where he had been held for five months. That is welcome news, but it would be a mistake to think that the mullahs who run the government had been seized with humanitarian spirit. If anything, they seem more determined to shift the blame for the unrest that followed the fraudulent June 12 election to America and other “foreigners.” The Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planner with a doctorate from Columbia University, was arrested in July. He was prosecuted with more than 100 other defendants in show trials after the election sparked the biggest challenge to the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution. An Iranian court on Sunday convicted him of fomenting unrest against the government and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. His alleged offense? Working with George Soros’s Open Society Institute, which finances democracy-building programs in many countries, and hooking into a Gulf region Web site run by Prof. Gary Sick of Columbia. Experts say that Mr. Tajbakhsh has not been politically active for more than two years and was not involved in postelection unrest. We hope this outrageous verdict is reversed on appeal. Indeed, Tehran may be using him as a pawn for negotiations with the United States on its nuclear program. But the new judiciary chief, Sadeq Larijani, will fail if he cannot direct a judiciary that is fair and consistent.
UNITED STATES
Border Projects Mostly Met Stimulus Goal, DHS Review Finds - Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post. A spokesman for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said a new review by the department's inspector general answers criticism by lawmakers that politics influenced plans to spend $680 million in stimulus funds on border security projects. A report by DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner, required under the $787 billion relief package approved in February, concluded that US Customs and Border Protection "generally developed practical, thorough, and comprehensive expenditure plans." The Associated Press reported in August that DHS allowed low-priority projects - such as a sleepy checkpoint in Whitetail, Mont., that received $15 million but only sees about three travelers a day - to leap-frog more pressing needs. The AP cited statements by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) boasting that he and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) successfully pushed for funds. A border station in Nogales, Ariz., - Napolitano's home state - received $199 million, more than any other site, while one of the nation's highest-priority stations at Laredo, Tex., received none, according to the AP, which said DHS allowed it to review but would not publicize a list of most urgently needed repair programs.
White House Volunteer 'Misled' About Talk Show - Jacqueline L. Salmon, Washington Post. A Muslim member of President Obama's faith council says she was misled about the nature of a British TV talk show on which she was recently interviewed. It was hosted by a representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which the State Department has condemned for an anti-Semitic, anti-Western ideology that officials said might indirectly generate support for terrorism. Dalia Mogahed, senior analyst for the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, did a phone interview on the Oct. 8 show. It was hosted by a member of the group, Ibtihal Bsis Ismail, and featured as another guest the group's women's media representative, Nazreen Nawaz. Mogahed said Friday that she did not know about the affiliation of Nawaz until Nawaz was introduced on air, and only learned later about Ismail's association with Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Emancipation). She said that she would not have agreed to the interview had she known of their affiliation beforehand and that she believed that Ismail "misled us" to score propaganda points for an ideological movement.
AFRICA
Islamists in Somalia Threaten Other Nations - Mohammed Ibrahim, New York Times. A senior leader of the Shabab, the most feared Islamist insurgency in Somalia, said his forces would soon attack the capitals of Uganda and Burundi in retaliation for the alleged shelling by African Union peacekeepers of a Mogadishu market on Thursday. The union’s peacekeeping force of more than 5,000 is comprised mostly of soldiers from Uganda and Burundi. “If our people are killed today, they will see a loud cry over Kampala and Bujumbura,” the Shabab commander, Sheik Ali Mohamed Hussein, told reporters late Thursday, referring to the capitals of Uganda and Burundi. He also threatened to expand his group’s fight against the government of Somalia into a regional conflict, saying the other two countries “will have their share of crying, as our people have cried.” “We will avenge our people,” he said. The Shabab is a radical Islamist militia that has taken over much of southern Somalia, invoking a harsh version of Islamic law, beheading its opponents and stoning adulterers.
AMERICAS
Mexico's Cops Seek Upgrade - John Lyons, Wall Street Journal. When pressed about why Mexico is struggling in its battle with illegal-drug cartels, Genaro García Luna, the nation's top police official, likes to put his inquisitors on the spot with a question: Would you encourage your child to become a Mexican cop? The answer, he says, is often no. The reputation of Mexican police is so poor that even Mr. García Luna, a stocky, frenetic man with close-cropped hair, would have given the same answer not long ago. As a young domestic intelligence officer at Mexico's spy agency in the 1990s, he says, he would have been "offended" if anyone referred to him as a cop. Now, it is his job to change all that. Mexican President Felipe Calderón tapped the 41-year-old to rebuild Mexico's police from scratch amid a drug war that's claimed at least 13,000 lives since Mr. Calderón took power nearly three years ago. The centerpiece of Mr. García Luna's plan: persuading college-educated sons and daughters of the middle class to become part of a new, professional police corps.
Zelaya Pronounces End to Crisis Talks - Jose de Cordoba, Wall Street Journal. Honduras's ousted president, Manuel Zelaya, appeared to pull the plug Friday on negotiations with the country's interim government to end Honduras's four-month political crisis. Mr. Zelaya, who has been holed up in the Brazilian Embassy in the country's capital of Tegucigalpa since sneaking back into Honduras a month ago, issued an ultimatum Thursday to the interim government pulling out of talks if he wasn't restored to the presidential palace by midnight. The interim government led by President Roberto Micheletti ignored the deadline, and Mr. Zelaya pronounced the talks dead. "We can't continue to take part in this mockery," he said in a radio interview. The latest turn could prove to be a fatal blow to diplomatic efforts backed by the Organization of American States, the US and others diplomatic players who have been pressuring the Micheletti government to reinstate Mr. Zelaya as president, which they say is a fundamental requirement to resolving the crisis that began with his exile on Jun. 28. In a news conference Friday, negotiators for Mr. Micheletti's interim government refused to pronounce the negotiations dead, and said they remained ready to continue discussions whenever Mr. Zelaya decided to return to the negotiating table.
Left, Right and Wrong in Honduras - Abraham F. Lowenthal, Los Angeles Times opinion. What brings Honduras, and Central America more generally, back again and again to center stage in Washington debates on Latin America is not the strategic, security or economic importance of the region to the United States. On the contrary, it is precisely the minimal tangible significance of Central America to the United States in economic, political and military terms that allows US policymakers of conflicting tendencies to indulge in grandstanding in framing policies toward that nearby and vulnerable region. In today's circumstances, as in the 1980s, both liberal and conservative interventionists in Washington press their viewpoint with little detailed knowledge, understanding of or apparent interest in the nuances of Honduran politics. Liberal activists inside and outside the Obama administration jumped at the opportunity to align the US government against the forcible overthrow and deportation of President Manuel Zelaya. Many did so without knowing or caring much about Zelaya's erratic qualities, his interest in trying to prolong his term despite the Honduran constitutional ban on reelection or the considerable sentiment against him in the Honduran legislative and judicial branches.
ASIA PACIFIC
Group Says China Has Executed 4 for Roles in Tibet Riots - Andrew Jacobs, New York Times. A Tibetan exile group in India says that the Chinese authorities have executed four people convicted for their roles in the riots that convulsed Tibet last year. According to the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, the four were put to death on Tuesday, more than six months after they were tried and convicted of starting fires in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, that killed seven people. At least 18 people died in March 2008 during violence that was directed at Han Chinese migrants, whose growing presence in the region has angered many native Tibetans. Since then at least 84 people have been convicted during trials that rights groups say are opaque, cursory and unfair. The executions were not announced by the Chinese news media, and a woman who answered the phone at the Lhasa Municipal Intermediate People’s Court hung up when asked to confirm the accounts provided by the exile group. The executions come at a time of deteriorating relations between China and representatives of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader who has been trying to negotiate greater autonomy for Tibetans.
ASEAN Summit Hits Snag on New Rights Panel - Tim Johnston and Kevin Brown, Washington Post. Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations were supposed to celebrate the inauguration of the group's new human rights body as they met Friday, but rifts over human rights, trade and politics marred the first day of the region's annual summit. Five member states - Burma, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and Singapore - refused to meet the five individuals chosen by civil rights groups to represent their countries. "I am very disappointed, and I see this as not only a rejection of me personally and the organization I represent, but as a rejection of the democratic process in the region," said Sister Crescencia Lucero, the Franciscan nun who was to have been the Philippines representative. The association's Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, one of the central elements of the legally binding ASEAN Charter signed last year, disappointed many rights advocates when it was limited to the promotion rather than the protection of human rights.
EUROPE
Lisbon Treaty End in Sight as EU Satisfies Demands of President Klaus - David Charter, The Times. The Czech President, the last person to hold up ratification of the Lisbon treaty, edged towards signing yesterday after welcoming a compromise designed to secure his backing. Vaclav Klaus, who stunned his fellow leaders this month by delaying the treaty with his eleventh-hour demands, said that he was satisfied with a deal that had been made after a week of intensive talks. “President Vaclav Klaus received a proposal from the Swedish EU presidency, in response to his request relating to the ratification of the Lisbon treaty in the Czech Republic,” his office said in a statement. “This proposal corresponds to the President’s expectations and he can continue to work with it.” Although President Klaus did not say when he would sign the treaty his brief statement suggested that EU leaders will be able to satisfy his demands when they meet for a quarterly summit in Brussels next week. The delays caused by President Klaus to the final ratification mean that the summit will not be able to appoint the two main jobs created in the treaty, of President and Foreign Minister. These may have to take place at a meeting in November.
MIDDLE EAST
Palestinians Now Have Voting Date, but No Unity - Isabel Kershner, New York Times. The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, issued a decree on Friday for presidential and parliamentary elections to be held on Jan. 24. The move resolved an immediate constitutional crisis, but created new complications and underscored the depth of the Palestinian political divide. Mr. Abbas, who leads Fatah, the mainstream nationalist party, had been hoping to put off the elections until June, to be held in the framework of an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation agreement with the rival Islamic group Hamas. But Hamas has so far refused to sign the accord. In the absence of an agreement, Mr. Abbas was obliged to call the election three months before the current Parliament ended its four-year term, as required by the Palestinian basic law. The last parliamentary elections were held on Jan. 26, 2006, and were won by Hamas. The Islamic group went on to seize control of Gaza in mid-2007, routing pro-Fatah forces there and confining the power of Mr. Abbas and his Western-backed Palestinian Authority to the West Bank.
Israel Military to Punish Soldiers for Pro-settler Protest - Richard Boudreaux, Los Angeles Times. Embarrassed by what it called "a disgraceful disciplinary aberration," the Israeli military announced Friday that it would punish soldiers who staged a pro-settler demonstration during their swearing-in ceremony at Jerusalem's Western Wall. Thursday's protest reflected fears by right-wing nationalists that the conservative-led government would eventually yield to US pressure to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement and evict Jewish settlers from the West Bank. The young soldiers, who were being sworn in to an elite infantry unit, the Kfir Brigade, held up banners declaring their refusal to obey orders to enforce any such decision. "We didn't enlist in order to evict Jews," one banner read. The demonstrators, who included some soldiers' relatives, were a tiny minority in a crowd of 700 but drew television coverage and wide public attention because of the venue, the iconic wall where for decades Israeli troops have sworn allegiance to the Jewish state. In a written statement Friday, the military said the Kfir Brigade commander would take action against the soldiers, including possible dismissal from the army. The Obama administration is pressing Israel to halt the growth of existing settlements in order to revive peace talks that were halted last year.
'Institution Building' in Palestine - Washington Post interview. Lally Weymouth of The Post and Newsweek interviewed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad this week in Ramallah.
'Just Means Against an Unjust Attack' - Washington Post interview. Lally Weymouth of Newsweek and The Post interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
Egypt's Brotherhood is Knocking - Jeffrey Fleishman, Los Angeles Times. He doesn't seem a radical or a troublemaker, but to the Egyptian government, Abdel Fattah Rizk, a surgeon with a graying mustache and hands pink from scrubbing, is a man to be watched. He belongs to the Muslim Brotherhood, the most potent opposition group in the country. Hundreds of its members are in prison and many more are lying low. But even as security forces scour the nation for dissent, the Brotherhood is everywhere, from the shacks of handymen to the estates of millionaires and the halls of parliament. The government of President Hosni Mubarak paints the Brotherhood as an extremist organization with terrorist ties determined to impose strict Islamic law across Egypt. The group says it renounced violence decades ago, and its real threat to the ruling party is its appeal to the educated and middle class, who view the regime as corrupt and too beholden to the West. Although there are radicals among its members, the Brotherhood espouses a moderate Islam to reshape Middle East politics. That is a challenge for Washington. Egypt is a trusted US ally that has kept peace with Israel for 30 years. A rise in power by the Brotherhood, which supports armed resistance against the Jewish state, would upset that balance. The group also could instigate unrest and damage prospects for a smooth government transition after the 81-year-old Mubarak dies or steps down. But Egypt's repression of the Brotherhood and other opposition groups weakens the Obama administration's credibility in the region. Washington has stressed wider political freedoms in Egypt but, wary of the Brotherhood's intentions, has not harshly criticized Mubarak for his country's poor human rights record.
SOUTH ASIA
Reports Press Sri Lanka on Possible War Atrocities - Lydia Polgreen and Vikas Bajaj, New York Times. International pressure is mounting on Sri Lanka’s government to investigate atrocities that may have been committed during the final stages of its war with the Tamil Tiger insurgency as two new reports from the European Union and the State Department detailing alleged human rights abuses were released this week. The reports come as Sri Lanka also faces intensifying criticism for its decision to keep more than 250,000 Tamils who were displaced by the fighting in closed camps that critics have likened to internment camps. The government says it plans to allow 80 percent of these people to return to their homes by the end of January, but insists that it must first weed out any remaining Tamil Tiger rebels hiding among them. The European Union report could lead to the withdrawal of trade concessions worth tens of millions of dollars to Sri Lankan garment and fisheries industries. It represents the first threat of a serious sanction against the Sri Lankan government as a result of its conduct of the war.
EVENTS
The US Military Academy’s Department of History is pleased to invite you to a West Point Symposium on the History of Irregular Warfare, 18-20 November 2009. The symposium will feature the scholarship of five cadet panel presenters with commentary by distinguished guest scholars, including: Dr. Stephen Biddle as our keynote speaker, Dr. Jeremy Black, Col. Robert Cassidy, Dr. Conrad Crane, Dr. George Herring, Dr. Brian Linn, and Dr. Peter Mansoor. Additionally, Dr. James Le Sueur (Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics, 2005) will present a special lecture on Algerian society since 1963. Col. Gian Gentile, a History faculty member, will participate as part of the “Visiting Scholars Panel” with Dr. Crane, Dr. Mansoor, and Col. Cassidy. (Invitation and POC Information) (History of IW Symposium Agenda)
BOOKS
Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan - Doug Stanton.
Horse Soldiers tells the important story of the Special Forces soldiers who first put American boots on the ground in Afghanistan in 2001. Fighting alongside the Northern Alliance, the troops, often riding on horseback, achieved several important victories against the Taliban.
War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age - Thomas Rid and Marc Hecker.
War 2.0: Irregular Warfare in the Information Age argues that two intimately connected trends are putting modern armies under huge pressure to adapt: the rise of insurgencies and the rise of the Web. Both in cyberspace and in warfare, the grassroots public has assumed increasing importance in recent years. After the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Web 2.0 rose from the ashes. This newly interactive and participatory form of the Web promotes and enables offline action. Similarly, after Rumsfeld's attempt to transform the US military into a lean, lethal, computerized force crashed in Iraq in 2003, counterinsurgency rose from the ashes. Counterinsurgency is a social form of war - indeed, the US Army calls it armed social work - in which the local matrix population becomes the center of strategic gravity and public opinion at home the critical vulnerability.
The New Counterinsurgency Era: Transforming the US Military for Modern Wars - David H. Ucko.
Confronting insurgent violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military has recognized the need to "re-learn" counterinsurgency. But how has the Department of Defense with its mixed efforts responded to this new strategic environment? Has it learned anything from past failures? In The New Counterinsurgency Era, David Ucko examines DoD's institutional obstacles and initially slow response to a changing strategic reality.
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.
