It’s been awhile since the last bureaucratic/journalistic freakout over Jim Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, and so Joe Klein fills the gap by talking about the low, low policy stakes involved:
The interesting thing here is that there are no real policy disagreements among the Obama foreign
Use the initials if you don’t understand, but that was what Gen. Jim Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, told commanders in Afghanistan would be the president’s reaction if they asked for more troops on top of the 17,000 extra combat troops and 4,000 extra trainers that Obama already ordered More…
Ben Smith at Politico has a good piece attempting to shed light on one of the most opaque aspects of Obama administration Kremlinology: what in the world the appointment of Dennis Ross as a National Security Council senior director heralds for Obama’s Mideast policy. As a reporter, More…
Just released from Mike Hammer, spokesman for the National Security Council:
“National Security Advisor General James Jones is pleased to announce an addition to our already strong National Security Staff. The addition is in the important Central Region that encompasses the Middle East, the Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Asia.
It seems that the dump-Jim-Jones-rumors wax and wane every few weeks. As April wound to a close, a couple stories went around about the national security adviser’s “problematic tenure,” but then they quieted, only to pick back up in early May before wearing themselves out. Here we are again: More…
It’s been going around the foreign-policy interwebs for weeks: Jim Jones, the national security adviser, has what Laura Rozen called “a problematic tenure” at the National Security Council. Joe Klein was like, “I heard that too.” And if you talk to enough White House staffers, you hear that More…
Whatever you do, don’t miss The New York Times’ epic interview with a Pakistani Taliban tactician about what has become “a seamless conflict” on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The tactician is based out of Wana, in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, but spends much of his time More…
In the guts of this Washington Post tick-tock about President Obama’s decision to release the torture memos comes an account of a meeting at CIA headquarters in December between Obama emissaries and top outgoing CIA officials. The agency officials, including still-Deputy Director Steve Kappes, made a case for Obama More…
Interesting luncheon at the White House today. A host of Afghan cabinet officials dropped by to brief the Obama administration’s Af-Pak strategy review.
Remember all that stuff about taking a “whole of government” approach to national security? The stuff that would get the burden of national security off the backs of soldiers and marines and spread it to diplomats and development workers and legal experts? Good. Then don’t miss Karen More…
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