Posts by Spencer Ackerman

It was once the case that the American and Afghan Presidents shared a certain bond. It was a cordial relationship, even warm, begun by contingency and entrenched by videoconference. But the two men’s ties did not translate into similarly deep U.S.-Afghanistan relationship, and so governance, prosperity and security all deteriorated, and Afghans and Americans died [...]

It’s still not a definitive rejection of the deal reached in Vienna to reprocess Iran’s uranium abroad into a matter unsuitable for a nuclear weapon, but it’s not nothing, either:
Iran’s foreign minister said in remarks reported Wednesday that he opposes sending the country’s enriched uranium abroad under a tentative deal negotiated with the United States [...]

Laura Rozen reports a few post-Asia trip scheduling conflicts:
Hillary Clinton is hosting an all-day retreat for her senior staff Friday at Blair House. Deputy secretaries, undersecretaries, and assistant secretaries are due to attend. On the agenda: briefings on policy & budget, an urgent challenges panel on Iran, the Middle East, Afghanistan/Pakistan, and North Korea; around the world priorities, [...]

Buried at the end of a New York Times piece is this rather significant declaration from Gen. Raymond Odierno, commander of U.S. troops in Iraq:
Gen. Ray Odierno, the commanding general of United States forces, said Wednesday that he was still hopeful elections would be held on time, but he added that the military could adapt [...]

Well-known Israel expert Sarah Palin criticizes President Obama’s criticism of Israeli settlement expansion (most recently over Gilo):
“I disagree with the Obama administration on that,” Palin told Walters. “I believe that the Jewish settlements should be allowed to be expanded upon, because that population of Israel is, is going to grow. More and more Jewish people [...]

As long as I’m praising Marc “I Won The Morning” Ambinder, check out this rather significant data point he mines from a Washington Post story on the final dispensation of Guantanamo detainees:
Administration officials say they expect that as many as 40 of the 215 detainees at Guantanamo will be tried in federal court or military [...]

Marc Ambinder has a seriously detailed curtain-raiser on a turf war that’s roiled the intelligence community for months. Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, and Leon Panetta, the director of the CIA, have clashed over who controls the top U.S. intelligence officer in various foreign countries. But Ambinder goes way deeper to provide a [...]

From Beijing, President Obama says that his imminent announcement of refined Afghanistan strategy will contain some very important details:
“I am very confident that when I announce the decision, the American people will have a lot of clarity about what we’re doing, how we’re going to succeed, how much this thing is going to cost,” Mr. [...]

If President Obama orders an additional 30,000 to 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, he will be deploying practically every available U.S. Army brigade to war, leaving few units in reserve in case of an unforeseen emergency and further stressing a force that has seen repeated combat deployments since 2002.

New numbers from The Washington Post as President Obama is expected to announce a decision on prospective troop increases within days:
He has a formidable sales job ahead to accomplish this: 52 percent in this poll see the war in Afghanistan as not worth its costs and nearly as many trust the Republicans in Congress to [...]