President Obama has asked the Pentagon's top generals to provide him with more options for troop levels in Afghanistan, two US officials said late Friday, with one adding that some of the alternatives would allow Obama to send fewer new troops than the roughly 40,000 requested by his top commander. Obama met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the White House on Friday, holding a 90-minute discussion that centered on the strain on the force after eight years of war in two countries. The meeting - the first of its kind with the chiefs of the Navy, Army, Marine Corps and Air Force, who were not part of the president's war council meetings on Afghanistan in recent weeks - prompted Obama to request another such meeting before he announces a decision on sending additional troops, the officials said.
AFGHANISTAN / PAKISTAN
Obama Seeking Options on Forces - Anne E. Kornblut and Greg Jaffe, Washington Post. President Obama has asked the Pentagon's top generals to provide him with more options for troop levels in Afghanistan, two US officials said late Friday, with one adding that some of the alternatives would allow Obama to send fewer new troops than the roughly 40,000 requested by his top commander. Obama met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the White House on Friday, holding a 90-minute discussion that centered on the strain on the force after eight years of war in two countries. The meeting - the first of its kind with the chiefs of the Navy, Army, Marine Corps and Air Force, who were not part of the president's war council meetings on Afghanistan in recent weeks - prompted Obama to request another such meeting before he announces a decision on sending additional troops, the officials said. The military chiefs have been largely supportive of a resource request by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, that would by one Pentagon estimate require the deployment of 44,000 additional troops. But opinion among members of Obama's national security team is divided, and he now appears to be seeking a compromise solution that would satisfy both his military and civilian advisers. Obama is expected to receive several options from the Pentagon about troop levels next week, according to the two officials, who discussed the deliberations on the condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly.
Obama Meets Joint Chiefs to Review Afghanistan Strategy - Thom Shanker and Helene Cooper, New York Times. President Obama met Friday with the Joint Chiefs of Staff to discuss the way ahead in Afghanistan - in particular how sending more forces might affect the health of the military, already strained by eight years of war. Administration and military officials said the top officers from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force briefed the president on the long-term consequences for personnel and equipment under various options being considered. The central question is whether the scope of reinforcements would require the military either to cut time at home between deployments or to extend tours in the combat zone. No decisions were made Friday. With Mr. Obama scheduled to leave Washington for a weeklong trip to Asia on Nov. 11, one administration official said the likelihood of announcing his decision before then was fading. The meeting came as administration officials are starting to grapple with how Mr. Obama will make the case for his Afghanistan strategy, whatever his decision. Mr. Obama has come under fire from critics who say he has yet to explain clearly to the country or the international community what he is trying to do in Afghanistan, and why it is worth risking more American troops. The issue of deployments is of particular concern to the ground forces, which are carrying the burden in Afghanistan and in Iraq. An important variable is the current timetable for Iraq, which envisions almost all Marines out by next spring, with overall troop levels scheduled to drop to about 50,000 by the end of next summer.
US Combat Injuries Rise Sharply - Ann Scott Tyson, Washington Post. More than 1,000 American troops have been wounded in battle over the past three months in Afghanistan, accounting for one-fourth of those injured in combat since the US-led invasion in 2001. The dramatic increase in amputees and other seriously injured service members comes as October marks the deadliest month for US troops in Afghanistan. Expanded military operations, a near-doubling of the number of troops since the beginning of the year and a Taliban offensive that has included a proliferation of roadside bombings have led to the great increase in casualties. US troops in Afghanistan are suffering wounds at a higher rate than those who were serving in Iraq when violence spiraled during the military "surge" two years ago. In mid-2007, 600 US troops were wounded in Iraq each month out of about 150,000 troops deployed there. In Afghanistan, about 68,000 troops are currently installed, with about 350 wounded each month recently. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell acknowledged that the casualties in Afghanistan have surpassed Iraq surge proportions and noted that the violence in Afghanistan is directed more against US and other coalition forces, whereas it was heavily sectarian in Iraq. "It shows you how we are the targets and how effectively they are targeting us," Morrell said.
Report: Abdullah May Pull Out of Afghan Presidential Runoff - Voice of America. Talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his main challenger Abdullah Abdullah have reportedly broken down, and sources say the former foreign minister may pull out of next week's presidential run-off. News outlets on Friday quoted a Western source (who did not want to be identified) who said Abdullah's announcement withdrawing from the race could come as early as Saturday. The November 7 runoff was triggered by a United Nations-led investigation that found widespread fraud in the August 20 vote. The White House says US President Barack Obama is waiting until after next week's runoff to make a decision on whether to send more US forces to Afghanistan. On Friday, President Obama met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff - military leaders from the Air Force, Army, Navy and Marines - at the White House to discuss the troop request and the way forward in Afghanistan. A Defense Department official (who did not want to be identified) called the meeting productive and said the military commanders had ample time to share their views on troops and strategy. Officials say no decisions were made during Friday's session. President Obama has been considering a request from the top US commander in Afghanistan (General Stanley McChrystal) for 40,000 more US forces to battle a growing Taliban insurgency. Earlier on Friday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president's review process was nearing an end and that no future strategy meetings were planned.
Afghan Challenger Won't Participate in Runoff if His Conditions Aren't Met - Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times. Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah will not participate in next week's presidential election runoff unless incumbent Hamid Karzai meets his demands for a credible vote, a senior campaign official said today. Abdullah had given Karzai until today to meet certain conditions to avoid the rampant fraud that marred the first round of voting in August. They included removing the head of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission along with two deputies, suspending three Cabinet ministers and closing about 500 polling centers. But Abdullah had remained coy about what he would do if those demands weren't met. "If President Karzai does not respond to his conditions for a transparent and free election, then definitely he is not going to run," said the senior campaign official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Karzai has rejected most of Abdullah's demands as either illegal or impractical, according to the president's aids. The standoff comes as President Obama is finalizing a strategy for Aghanistan, including whether to send thousands of additional troops to take on Taliban insurgents. If Abdullah boycotts, it would undermine the credibility of a vote that US officials deem critical to establish a legitimate government after the tainted Aug. 20 election.
Colonel Issued Alert on Shortages Weeks Before He Was Killed - Chris Smyth, The Times. The British commanding officer who was killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb in July had only weeks previously warned that troops would die because helicopter shortages were forcing them to travel by road, it was reported last night. In an e-mail sent to military commanders, Lieutenant-Colonel Rupert Thorneloe said that helicopter operations in Afghanistan were “not fit for purpose”. Colonel Thorneloe, 39, Commander of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards, died with Trooper Joshua Hammond on July 1 when their convoy was blown up by an improvised explosive device (IED) during a patrol north of Lashkar Gah in Helmand Province. The colonel was the most senior officer to have been killed in the Afghanistan campaign. On June 5, in his “Battle Group Weekly Update” to the Ministry of Defence, he wrote: “I have tried to avoid griping about helicopters - we all know we don’t have enough. “We cannot not move people, so this month we have conducted a great deal of administrative movement by road. This increases the IED threat and our exposure to it.” Colonel Thorneloe wrote that he had “virtually no” helicopters of the type needed to move troops by air rather than road. He wrote: “The current level of SH [support helicopter] support is therefore unsustainable.” In an assessment of NATO operations in Afghanistan, he concluded that the system for managing helicopter movements in the country “is very clearly not fit for purpose”. He added that helicopter operations in Iraq “were managed in a more flexible, efficient manner”.
South Korea Plans an Afghanistan Deployment - Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times. The South Korean government announced plans on Friday to send troops and police officers to Afghanistan to help protect its aid workers. The plans, if approved by Parliament, will reinstate a South Korean military presence in Afghanistan two years after the country withdrew its 200 troops from there. The 2007 pullout followed a hostage crisis in which the Taliban killed two of 23 kidnapped Christian aid volunteers from South Korea while demanding a troop withdrawal. A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Moon Tae-young, did not say how many troops and police South Korea wanted to dispatch. But a mass-circulation daily, Chosun Ilbo, quoting unnamed government sources, said the plans called for deploying 300 soldiers and police officers early next year. South Korea also plans to expand a reconstruction team now helping to rebuild Afghanistan to 130 to 150 workers, the report said. Currently there are 25 government-dispatched aid workers in hospitals and job-training centers in Afghanistan. “Our troops will not engage in battles except for the security of our workers and for self-defense,” Mr. Moon said.
Pakistani Military Pushes Deeper in Militant Territory - Sean Maroney, Voice of America. Pakistani troops fighting militants along the Afghan border have seized passports that may be linked to suspects involved in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. The discovery came as visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chided the Pakistani government for failing to vigorously pursue al-Qaida inside Pakistan. In the latest fighting in the South Waziristan region, government troops reportedly killed two dozen militants while losing two of their own soldiers. Pakistani military officials say troops continued to advance deep inside the South Waziristan tribal region Friday. The reported advances near the Afghan border come a day after army officials took journalists into the region for the first time since the operation started in mid-October. Major-General Khalid Rabbani said troops faced days of fierce battles with foreign fighters and, in the end, captured several large caches of weapons and supplies. "We have killed many of them. And they are of all types: Chechens, Uzbeks, Turkmen and others. Some of the passports which we have captured without a word would say a lot." Soldiers displayed the passports, which included a German one reportedly belonging to a man named Said Bahaji. The name matches that of a German man of Moroccan origin thought to be a member of the Hamburg, Germany cell of al-Qaida. Bahaji is believed to have provided support for the hijackings of American airplanes on September 11, 2001.
After 2 Years, a Sign of a 9/11 Suspect - Souad Mekhennet and Sabrina Tavernese, New York Times. A suspect in the 9/11 plot whose German passport was found in a mud hut in western Pakistan this week has not been in touch with his family for two years, his mother said in a telephone interview on Friday. The suspect, Said Bahaji, a German citizen whose father is Moroccan, was the main logistics supporter of the 9/11 attackers, paying their rent and telephone bills, according to the authorities. The Pakistani military said it found his German passport five days ago in the village of Sherwangai in South Waziristan, during a search operation. Mr. Bahaji was part of the Hamburg cell of Al Qaeda, a tightly knit group of young Arab men who met in Germany in the mid- to late 1990s under the leadership of Mohamed Atta, who eventually became the central planner of the 9/11 attacks. A Pakistani military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said that Mr. Bahaji was not in custody, and that the military did not know whether he was dead or alive. He said the passport stamp for Mr. Bahaji’s entry into Pakistan - Sept. 4, 2001 - was too old to shed any light on his current whereabouts.
Clinton Justifies US Policy to Pakistani Tribal Leaders - Voice of America. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has again defended US policy to Pakistanis who are growing frustrated with growing violence in the region. Clinton spoke in Islamabad Friday to a group of tribal leaders from the troubled northwest region. One lawmaker urged Clinton to seek to negotiate an end to the conflict in Afghanistan and then to extend the effort to Pakistan. Clinton welcomed the idea of negotiations. But she noted that the US had to take action after the Taliban had refused to hand over al-Qaida leaders responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks. A day earlier, in Lahore, Clinton told a group of university students that she found it hard to believe that the Pakistani government could not capture al-Qaida leaders if it really wanted to. In another remnant of September 11, Pakistani forces targeting Taliban strongholds near the Afghan border, found a passport linked to a member of an al-Qaida cell that planned the attack. The name on the German passport was Said Bahaji, which matches the name of a man believed to be a member of al-Qaida's Hamburg. He is also a close associate of Mohammed Atta, the leader of the September 11 hijackers. The document indicated that Bahaji had arrived in Karachi on September 4, 2001. Secretary of State Clinton is ending is wrapping up her three-day diplomatic mission to Pakistan Friday.
Clinton Suffers Barbs and Returns Jabs in Pakistan - Mark Landler, New York Times. For Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has had her ups and downs with the news media, the prospect of spending three days under the remorseless glare of the Pakistani news media might have felt like an unwelcome return to a time right before the New Hampshire primary. Yet Mrs. Clinton, whose press clippings since she became secretary of state have been kinder than when she was a presidential candidate, rolled with the punches this week in a media-saturated tour of Pakistan. She submitted to four round-table interviews over three days in which Pakistan’s leading journalists took their best shots at her, and she even counterpunched once or twice. By the time she left Islamabad on Friday, she appeared to have fought Pakistan’s fourth estate to a draw. “On the whole, Ms. Clinton made a very deliberate effort to bridge the divide that has recently grown and talked of constructing a special relationship,” said an editorial in The News, one of Pakistan’s main English-language daily newspapers. It did, however, chide her for snarling traffic in Lahore, the country’s second-largest city, which she visited on Thursday under elaborate security. Engaging Pakistan’s unruly media was perhaps Mrs. Clinton’s most important job on this visit. Newspapers and television drive public opinion more here than in many countries, and the coverage is sharply critical of the United States, tapping into deep Pakistani resentment.
IRAQ
More Iraqis Trying to Move Beyond Sectarian Divide - Liz Sly, Los Angeles Times. On the podium of a sweltering hotel ballroom recently, Sunni tribal leader Ahmed abu Risha stood alongside Interior Minister Jawad Bolani, a Shiite. Next to Bolani was a prominent Sunni religious leader, who stood beside a well-known Shiite human rights campaigner. So it went, as Sunni and Shiite Muslims lined up together to announce the birth of a new political movement, the Iraqi Unity Alliance, which will run in elections planned for January on a platform of, yes, unity. Periodically, a tribesman in the audience stood up and shouted slogans in support of the alliance's theme. "Salute Iraq!" he cried, to murmurs of approval from the crowd. "God protect Iraq!" As the election season gets underway, a new sense of nationalism is emerging to challenge the raw sectarianism that plunged Iraq into conflict a few years ago. Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, a Shiite, has led the way by recasting himself as a secularist and launching his State of Law coalition, which has reached out to Sunnis. But he will face tough competition for the votes of those who want to move past identity politics. Another coalition is due to be launched, by Shiite secularist former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and Sunni leader Saleh Mutlak.
IRAN
Iran Reportedly Rejects UN Nuclear Deal - Voice of America. Iran is reported to have rejected a United Nations-brokered uranium enrichment plan. A Western official close to the negotiations with Tehran says Iran told the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency that it will not accept the plan to ship its uranium abroad for low-level enrichment. Meanwhile, Iran says it has not yet given its response to the IAEA plan. The state-run IRNA, Iranian Republic News Agency, says Tehran had only expressed its "positive" viewpoint on negotiations and is willing to continue to hold talks. The news agency quoted an unidentified official Friday. The IAEA proposal is aimed at preventing Iran from enriching uranium to the point that it can be used for nuclear weapons. It has already been agreed to by the other parties involved in the negotiations - the United States, Russia and France. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says President Barack Obama's time is not "unlimited" when it comes to nuclear talks with Iran. Gibbs said the negotiations are not about "talking for the sake of talking" but about reaching an agreement.
Netanyahu Backs Nuclear Deal That Iran Rejected - Ethan Bronner, New York Times. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Friday cautiously endorsed the American-backed efforts to limit Iran’s nuclear program through shipments abroad of its enriched uranium. He made his remarks as an intensive Middle East diplomatic effort got under way, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton due here on Saturday. George J. Mitchell, the Obama administration’s envoy to the region, met with Mr. Netanyahu here on Friday and will join Mrs. Clinton in Abu Dhabi to meet with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, on Saturday before both go to Jerusalem. Mr. Netanyahu used the occasion of the Mitchell meeting to state for the first time Israel’s acceptance of the proposal for Iran. “I think that the proposal that the president made in Geneva to have Iran withdraw its enriched uranium, or a good portion of it, outside Iran is a positive first step in that direction,” he said, “and I support and appreciate the president’s ongoing effort to unite the international community to address the challenge of Iran’s attempts to become a nuclear military power.” Iran appears not to have accepted the suggestion by the United Nations nuclear watchdog that it ship three-quarters of its current known stockpile of low-enriched uranium to Russia to be processed and returned for use in a reactor that produces medical isotopes. But negotiations on the proposal were continuing.
UNITED STATES
Prayers and Criticism in Wake of Detroit Imam’s Killing by FBI - Susan Saulny, New York Times. Friday prayers were intoned on schedule at the red brick two-story house on the west side that is a makeshift home for the Masjid Al-Haqq mosque. But leading the prayers was a son of the mosque’s imam, Luqman Ameen Abdullah, who was killed by federal agents in a raid on Wednesday. The son, Omar Regan, 36, a comedian and motivational speaker, flew from Los Angeles to mourn and defend his father, who was described in federal court papers as a separatist Muslim intent on overthrowing the United States government. “My father was a sharp-tongued individual,” Mr. Regan said. “He would talk about his dislike of the government, about how law enforcement wasn’t protecting and serving the people. But speaking his emotions and acting on his emotions are two different things.” Mr. Regan’s sentiments were echoed by many Muslims here and across the country on Thursday and Friday, as some leaders portrayed the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s counterterrorism squad of using heavy-handed tactics against Mr. Abdullah, who was not accused of terrorism. Asked why Mr. Abdullah had not been charged with terrorism, the United States attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Terrence Berg, said, “The charges speak for themselves.” Mr. Abdullah, 53, died in a shootout in the raid of a warehouse just outside the city, in Dearborn, where he stored goods. The raid was one of three in which federal agents said were intended to arrest Mr. Abdullah and 10 other men on charges that included conspiracy to sell stolen goods, mail fraud and illegal possession of firearms. But the authorities said Mr. Abdullah, who had a lengthy criminal record and was forbidden to have a firearm, opened fire on the agents.
AFRICA
Mozambique Is Reporting Big Victory for President - Barry Bearak, New York Times. A partial count in Mozambique’s elections on Friday shows President Armando E. Guebuza of the Frelimo Party far ahead of his two opponents and likely to finish with around 75 percent of the votes. If the pattern holds up, and political analysts predict it will, it will be the most decisive victory in the nation’s four presidential elections. Frelimo, with much superior financing and a tightly run organization, is also expected to win overwhelmingly in the race for seats in Parliament and provincial legislatures. Frelimo insiders had predicted a landslide. “We are really just competing with ourselves; our aim is to win by a margin greater than in the past,” a party spokesman, Edson Macuácua, said recently. Mr. Guebuza, 66, is one of the nation’s wealthiest businessmen. Among his main campaign slogans was “With Guebuza we will win the battle against poverty.” The fight has quite a way to go. The country, with 21 million people, has per capita income of only $454, according to the World Bank. Mozambique was once a Portuguese colony, and after independence in 1975 it became the battleground for one of Africa’s most devastating civil wars. Peace finally came in 1992, and the two warring armies - Frelimo and Renamo - were transformed into competing political parties.
Pirates Demand $7m for Paul and Rachel Chandler - Chris Smyth, The Times. Somali pirates demanded a $7 million ransom last night for the kidnapped British couple Paul and Rachel Chandler. It was the first time that a figure had been mentioned since Mr and Mrs Chandler were captured on board their yacht off the Seychelles a week ago. A spokesman for the pirates said that the money was only a “little amount” and would compensate for the seizures made by international anti-piracy patrols. The sum is likely to be far beyond the resources of the family of Mr and Mrs Chandler, retired professionals from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, but may signal the opening of negotiations, which could last many months. Leah Mickleborough, the couple’s niece, said that the family was looking into the demand. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “We are aware of that report. The Government isn’t going to make any substantive concessions to hostage-takers, and that includes the payment of ransom.” Earlier yesterday, Mrs Chandler broke down in tears as she spoke to her brother over the telephone, telling him: “Please don’t worry about us, we’re managing.” In a ransom call to the BBC, a Somali pirate said: “They have been captured by our brothers who patrol the coast. We have been informed about their presence in the area, where bandits operate. If they do not harm us, we will not harm them, we only need a little amount of $7 million dollars.” Challenged on the size of the sum, the pirate replied: “NATO operations have had a lot of negative impact here - they have destroyed a lot of equipment belonging to the poor local fishermen. They arrest fishermen and destroy their equipment, in defiance of our local administrations.
AMERICAS
Honduras Reaches Deal on Political Crisis - Brian Wagner, Voice of America. The de facto Honduran government has agreed to a deal that may allow ousted President Manuel Zelaya to return to power ahead of elections next month. US diplomats have been in the country to mediate an end to the four-month-old crisis. De facto President Roberto Micheletti unveiled the plan late Thursday, nearly four months after he took over for ousted President Manuel Zelaya. Since then, Mr. Micheletti has rejected calls from Mr. Zelaya and many foreign governments to restore the ousted leader to power, saying the Supreme Court had stripped Mr. Zelaya of power for violating the Honduran constitution. Now after several weeks of negotiations, Mr. Micheletti said his government was making a significant concession to open the door to Mr. Zelaya's return. He said the government has been clear that the Supreme Court must decide whether to allow Mr. Zelaya to return to power. He added officials understand that Hondurans want peace and an end to the crisis. Under the deal, the Supreme Court must authorize the Congress to vote on whether to allow Mr. Zelaya to return to power and serve the remaining three months of his term. It also calls for a commission to investigate the events surrounding Mr. Zelaya's removal from office.
Deal May End Honduras Crisis - Mary Beth Sheridan and Karen DeYoung, Washington Post. Honduras's deeply fractured political forces signed an agreement Friday that could reinstate the president ousted in a coup four months ago and end a crisis whose impact has spread far beyond the poor banana-growing country, igniting partisan battles in Washington and threatening to polarize the hemisphere. The accord was reached late Thursday with the assistance of a high-level US diplomatic team sent by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. The agreement calls for a national unity government to lead the Central American country through a previously scheduled presidential election on Nov. 29. But it transfers the most contentious issue to the Honduran National Congress - whether to restore Manuel Zelaya as president. If the deal succeeds, it could be a landmark advance for democracy in Latin America, sending a signal that coups will no longer be tolerated, analysts said. Honduras has come under extraordinary pressure in the hemisphere to reinstate Zelaya, with the United States and other countries slashing aid and threatening not to recognize the election.
Deal Set to Restore Ousted Honduran President - Ginnger Thompson and Elisabeth Malkin, New York Times. Less than two days after senior American officials arrived in Honduras, the leader of the nation’s de facto government signed an agreement that would allow the return of the country’s ousted president, paving the way for an end to Latin America’s deepest political crisis in years. The deal, which was reached late Thursday and still faces the hurdle of being approved by the Honduran Congress, followed months of intransigence by leaders of the de facto government. After President Manuel Zelaya’s expulsion from the country on June 28, the new government adamantly refused to accept his restoration to office, despite international condemnation, isolation from its neighbors and multiple rounds of failed negotiations. Roberto Micheletti, the leader of Honduras’s de facto government, relented only after senior Obama administration officials landed in the Honduran capital to take charge of the talks, pressing the point that the United States would not recognize the coming presidential election unless he accepted the deal. Though senior administration officials played down their role, Latin America experts said that the agreement represented a breakthrough for President Obama, whose relations in the hemisphere were tested by the crisis.
Honduras Leader Could be Restored - Tracy Wilkinson and Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times. In the end, it took direct, explicit US pressure to force the de facto government of Honduras to reverse the position it had stubbornly clung to for nearly four months and agree to a deal that could reinstate deposed President Manuel Zelaya. The agreement does not automatically put Zelaya back in office, and given the erratic and sometimes contradictory behavior of the principal players in the Honduran drama, no outcome is certain. But both sides applauded the deal Friday and said it signaled a possible end to the crisis that has isolated and divided the impoverished Central American country since a military-backed coup ousted Zelaya on June 28. Zelaya, a timber tycoon whose turn to the political left alienated Honduras' ultra-conservative elite, was ousted after ignoring a court order to stop efforts to revise the Honduran Constitution. His critics contended that he was attempting to extend his time in power, a charge he has denied. The military grabbed him from his home at dawn and deported him to Costa Rica. He sneaked back into the country Sept. 21 and took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, where he has remained, the compound surrounded by Honduran troops. Zelaya's removal from office has been viewed worldwide as one of the most serious challenges to face Latin America in a decade. The coup was both a throwback to the region's dark past of civil war and military takeover and emblematic of a struggle underway today in Central and South America, where several leftist leaders with authoritarian tendencies have risen to power through elections and tested the bounds of democracy.
A Win in Honduras - Washington Post editorial. The stakes in Honduras's political crisis have always been bigger than the country's tiny size would suggest - and so it follows that the breakthrough engineered this week by the Obama administration is more than a minor diplomatic triumph. t its root, the fight in Honduras has been over whether Latin American nations will remain committed to upholding liberal democracy and the rule of law, not only at home but for their neighbors. The alliance led by Hugo Chávez is promoting a rival model of populist authoritarianism - one that Honduras's deposed president, Manuel Zelaya, was attempting to adopt. When the Honduran army arrested Mr. Zelaya in June and illegally deported him, it, too, violated democratic norms, thus providing Mr. Chávez and his client with a convenient means to rally support. ot just Venezuela's satellites but every other member of the Organization of American States joined in censuring Honduras. The subsequent intransigence of the de facto government of Roberto Micheletti - and the unthinking support it received from some Republicans in Congress - only added fuel to Mr. Chávez's fire.
US and Mexico Agree on Shift in Drug Trials - Randal C. Archibold, New York Times. In a break with a longstanding drug enforcement practice, the authorities in the United States and Mexico have agreed to have some Mexicans caught smuggling drugs into the United States returned to Mexico for prosecution. Last weekend, for the first time, a suspected marijuana smuggler, found at the border with 44 pounds of the drug hidden in his car, was turned over to Mexican prosecutors. He could be prosecuted under Mexican law for felony export violations and other charges. The new approach is a step toward resolving a nettlesome problem at the border: very often, Mexicans caught smuggling drugs do not face prosecution in the United States for that crime. The reasons vary, but federal prosecutors here and across the Southwest have often rejected cases involving relatively small amounts of drugs, usually less than 500 pounds of marijuana, because of the large volume of those cases and limited resources to handle them. In recent years, prosecutions for immigration violations have surged while drug prosecutions have declined. Under the new arrangement, agreed upon several weeks ago, the authorities in the United States said they would closely monitor the cases referred to Mexico.
Colombia Increases US Access to Bases - Associated Press. In a private, low-key ceremony, the US ambassador and three Colombian ministers signed a pact Friday giving American personnel expanded access to military bases in Colombia, a deal that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called a threat to the region's security. Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said the 10-year deal takes effect immediately and restricts US military operations to Colombian territory - alluding to fears expressed in the region that it would make Colombia a base for asserting US power in South America. Details of the pact, which aims to boost drug and counterinsurgency operations, were not immediately released. But Colombia said that it "respects the principles of equal sovereignty, territorial integrity and nonintervention in the internal affairs of other states." The State Department said in a statement that the accord "does not signal, anticipate or authorize an increase in the presence of US military or civilian personnel in Colombia." Officials have said it would expand US access to seven Colombian bases while maintaining at 1,400 the cap on military personnel and contractors specified by US law. Bermudez said that with the pact, Colombia was seeking to improve its communications and intelligence capabilities, for which U.S. cooperation has already been a boon. US counter-narcotics flights that previously operated out of Manta, Ecuador, will now be based at the Palanquero base in the central Magdalena River valley and US Navy port calls will be more frequent.
ASIA PACIFIC
Exiled Uighur Leader Says China Continues Crackdown on Uighur Community - Akiko Fujita, Voice of America. Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer says China continues to crack down on the Uighur community in that country. Kadeer is visiting Japan for the second time since tensions between Uighurs and the dominant Han Chinese group led to violent clashes in China's Xinjiang region a few months ago. Rebiya Kadeer is in Japan at the invitation of academics, to give lectures on human rights and ethnic minorities. On Friday, she said she is not an enemy of China. And China is not her enemy. She says the Chinese government is not her enemy either and she urges them to give the Uighurs a peaceful society. The Chinese government considers Kadeer a separatist and a criminal, blaming her for the violence between Uighurs and the Han Chinese in July. The government says about 200 people were killed and thousands injured in riots in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi. Kadeer, however, has said that thousands of Uighurs have disappeared in Xinjiang in China's crackdown on the protesters. She says the Chinese government has tried to move on by showing the media that "every ethnic group is happier in China," and that the government supports the Uighur population. Kadeer insists the reality is different. She says 1,500 websites run by Uighurs have been shut down since July and people who ran them have been arrested. Kadeer also says that thousands of young Uighur women working in Chinese factories are being exploited daily. Kadeer says she plans to strengthen ties with the Uighur community in Japan. She is hopeful her visits here will increase support for her cause.
China Is Trying a Tibetan Filmmaker for Subversion - Andrew Jacobs, New York Times. A self-taught filmmaker who spent five months interviewing Tibetans about their hopes and frustrations living under Chinese rule is facing charges of state subversion after the footage was smuggled abroad and distributed on the Internet and at film festivals around the world. The filmmaker, Dhondup Wangchen, who has been detained since March 2008, just weeks after deadly rioting broke out in Tibet, managed to sneak a letter out of jail last month saying that his trial had begun. “There is no good news I can share with you,” he wrote in the letter, which was provided by a cousin in Switzerland. “It is unclear what the sentence will be.” As President Obama prepares for his first trip to China next month, rights advocates are clamoring for his attention in hopes that he will raise the plight of individuals like Mr. Wangchen or broach such thorny topics as free speech, democracy and greater religious freedom. With hundreds of lawyers, dissidents and journalists serving time in Chinese prisons, human rights organizations are busy lobbying the White House, members of Congress and the news media. In some ways, the pressure has only intensified since Mr. Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, raising expectations for him to carry the torch of human rights.
EUROPE
Chirac Ordered to Face Trial in France - Alan Cowell, New York Times. An investigating magistrate on Friday ordered the former French president, Jacques Chirac, to stand trial on corruption charges dating from his time years ago as mayor of Paris, reinforcing the whiff of alleged malfeasance swirling around the political elite here and inspiring debate about the pace of judicial processes. If he comes to trial, Mr. Chirac will be the first former French head of state to be prosecuted on corruption charges, offering a humiliating bookend to a political career that spanned more than 30 years. A statement from his office described him as “serene” in face of the accusations. The order by the magistrate, Xavière Simeoni, may still be challenged by public prosecutors who have already requested that the charges against the conservative Mr. Chirac, 76, be dropped, saying that there were no grounds to pursue them and that some were nullified by the statute of limitations. If the prosecutors appeal Friday’s order, it could take months for judges to determine whether he should face trial on charges of diverting public money, which carry a maximum 10-year jail sentence and a $210,000 fine. One of Mr. Chirac’s most prominent aides during his presidency, former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, is in court defending himself against separate charges of planning a smear campaign in 2003 and 2004 to thwart the ambitions of Nicolas Sarkozy, a political rival who is now the president.
MIDDLE EAST
Congress to Weigh In on UN's Gaza Report - Glenn Kessler, Washington Post. The House of Representatives on Tuesday is poised to pass a nonbinding resolution condemning a controversial UN report on alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip that has become a major complication in Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's diplomacy in the Middle East this weekend. Clinton will meet in Abu Dhabi on Saturday with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who has seen his popularity plummet since he initially agreed under pressure from the Obama administration to defer UN consideration of the report. He later shifted course, and now the UN General Assembly will consider it on Wednesday. But Israeli officials have warned that any effort by the United Nations to add further legitimacy to the report will undermine the administration's efforts to relaunch peace talks with the Palestinians. The resolution, co-sponsored by the two senior members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Calif.) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), charges that the report by South African jurist Richard Goldstone for the UN Human Rights Council is "irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy," in part because it was based on "a flawed and biased mandate," and that the militant group Hamas was able to "significantly shape the findings of the investigation." Lawmakers expect it to win easy approval under a fast-track procedure that allows for no amendments. The White House has taken no position on the House resolution, which is supported by many major Jewish organizations. The administration has previously said that the report is flawed but raises "important issues and serious allegations," and it has urged Israel to investigate its conduct in the conflict more closely.
Netanyahu Hopes US Mediation Efforts Will Help Restart Peace Talks Soon - Luis Ramirez, Voice of America. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told visiting US envoy George Mitchell he hopes peace talks with the Palestinians will re-launch as soon as possible. Mitchell is in Israel preparing the ground for a visit Saturday by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is yet another sign of President Barack Obama's urgent drive to restart the talks, which have been stalled since December. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday said he hopes the flurry of visits by high-ranking US officials will help re-launch the peace negotiations as soon as possible. Speaking as he headed into a meeting with US envoy George Mitchell, the Israeli leader brought up the subject of Iran's nuclear activities which Israel believes are for military purposes. Mr. Netanyahu expressed appreciation for what he said are US efforts to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear military capability. He gave a cautious endorsement of US-backed UN plan to handle Iran's enriched uranium. Secretary Clinton is due in Israel for talks with Israeli leaders on Saturday. She is earlier scheduled to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Abu Dhabi. US mediators face huge gaps as they try to broker a return to talks, with neither side showing signs of a willingness to compromise.
Clinton Renews Push for Mid-East Peace - Associated Press. US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is making a new push to get Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table, holding talks Saturday in this Persian Gulf city with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and later in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Ms. Clinton was to make a personal plea for the two sides to resume peace talks even as US officials acknowledged they saw little prospect for an immediate breakthrough. Over the course of the summer, President Barack Obama had hoped for a fast track to renewed peace negotiations, but Ms. Clinton reported to him on Oct. 22 that neither side had taken sufficient steps toward resuming the dialogue. Ms. Clinton arrived in Abu Dhabi in the early hours Saturday after completing a three-day visit to Pakistan. Mr. Obama held a three-way meeting with Netanyahu and Abbas in New York in September, hoping it would prod them to relaunch talks that broke off more than a year ago. But in her report to the president in October, Ms. Clinton indicated that while the Palestinians had strengthened security efforts and reforms of Palestinian institutions, more needed to be done to prevent terror and to stop those who carry out or encourage attacks on Israel. On the Israeli side, Ms. Clinton has indicated that they have eased Palestinians' freedom of movement and expressed a willingness to curtail the building of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian areas. The Obama administration, however, is demanding an end to all new settlement construction, something which the Israelis have refused.
Secret Mission Rescues Yemen's Jews - Miriam Jordan, Wall Street Journal. In his new suburban American home, Shaker Yakub, a Yemeni Jew, folded a large scarf in half, wrapped it around his head and tucked in his spiraling side curls. "This is how I passed for a Muslim," said the 59-year-old father of seven, improvising a turban that hid his black skullcap. The ploy enabled Mr. Yakub and half a dozen members of his family to slip undetected out of their native town of Raida, Yemen, and travel to the capital 50 miles to the south. There, they met US State Department officials conducting a clandestine operation to bring some of Yemen's last remaining Jews to America to escape rising anti-Semitic violence in his country. In all, about 60 Yemeni Jews have resettled in the US since July; officials say another 100 could still come. There were an estimated 350 in Yemen before the operation began. Some of the remainder may go to Israel and some will stay behind, most in a government enclave. The secret evacuation of the Yemeni Jews - considered by historians to be one of the oldest of the Jewish diaspora communities - is a sign of America's growing concern about this Arabian Peninsula land of 23 million. The operation followed a year of mounting harassment, and was plotted with Jewish relief groups while Washington was signaling alarm about Yemen. In July, Gen. David Petraeus was dispatched to Yemen to encourage President Ali Abdullah Saleh to be more aggressive against al-Qaeda terrorists in the country. Last month, President Barack Obama wrote in a letter to President Saleh that Yemen's security is vital to the region and the US.
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.
