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All-Hands Afghanstan/Pakistan Meeting at the White House Today

Spencer Ackerman — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:05:54 +0000

Whatever’s happening with the Baradar capture, President Obama convenes his national security team today for what I think is the first all-hands meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan since the December West Point speech. The (very long) guest list:

The Vice President

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates

Ambassador Susan Rice, Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations

Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg

Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (via videoconference)

Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan (via videoconference)

Anne Patterson, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan (via videoconference)

Under Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy

Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

General James E. Cartwright, USMC, Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

General David Petraeus, U.S. Central Command

General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Commander in Afghanistan (via videoconference)
Lieutenant General Dave Rodriguez (via videoconference)

Lietenant General William Caldwell (via videoconference)

Vice Admiral Michael LaFever (via videoconference)

Admiral Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence

CIA Director Leon Panetta

Deputy Secretary of Treasury Neal Wolin

General James Jones, National Security Advisor

Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor

John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security

Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, Special Assistant to the President for Afghanistan and Pakistan

Robert Nabors, OMB Deputy Director

Adm. LaFever, if you didn’t recognize the name, is the Pentagon’s man in Pakistan.

White House to Hold Last-Minute Af-Pak Meeting Tonight

Spencer Ackerman — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:08:43 +0000

Chances are President Obama will announce a readjusted Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday. It’s very likely that strategy announcement will come paired with an announcement of a troop escalation. Before that happens, however, Obama will host one last all-hands-on-deck meeting with his national security team. Just added to the White House calendar is this parley, scheduled for 8 p.m. tonight, with the following attendees:

Vice President Biden

Secretary of State Clinton

Secretary of Defense Gates

Ambassador Susan Rice, Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations

Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg

Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan

Under Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy

Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

General James E. Cartwright, USMC, Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

General David Petraeus, U.S. Central Command

General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Commander in Afghanistan (via videoconference)

Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan (via videoconference)

Anne Patterson, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan (via videoconference)

General James Jones, National Security Advisor

Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor

John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security

Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, Special Assistant to the President for Afghanistan and Pakistan

Earlier in the day, Obama will meet separately and privately with Biden and Clinton. Interesting omission in light of questions about how much the increase will cost: Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Obama Meets the Chiefs on Afghanistan

Spencer Ackerman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:44:16 +0000

President Obama will host this morning what’s expected to be his final meeting with his national security team on Afghanistan strategy ahead of a revision of/re-commitment to what the strategy will be and how to resource it. Attendees will include the chairmen of the military services, which means that this meeting will focus on how the military can sustain an escalation of troops. From the White House’s announced list, here’s who’ll be there:

Vice President Biden

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates

General James Jones, National Security Advisor

Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

General James E. Cartwright, USMC, Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff

General George W. Casey, Chief of Staff of the Army

General James T. Conway, Commandant, U.S. Marine Corps

Admiral Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations

General Norton A. Schwartz, Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force

Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor

John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security

Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, Special Assistant to the President for Afghanistan and Pakistan

Now the Nobel Laureate Will Debate One of the Two Wars He Inherited

Spencer Ackerman — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:44:25 +0000

Here’s the guest list for today’s White House meeting to discuss Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy. New additions to the discussion: Amb. Susan Rice, a close Obama adviser turned ambassador to the U.N.; and Lt. Gen. Doug Lute, the “war czar” who will oversee interagency policy coordination. Wait, isn’t that Richard Holbrooke’s job…?

Vice President Biden

Secretary of State Clinton

Secretary of Defense Gates

Ambassador Susan Rice, Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations (via videoconference)

Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan

Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

General David Petraeus, U.S. Central Command

General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Commander in Afghanistan (via videoconference)

Admiral Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence

CIA Director Leon Panetta

Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan (via videoconference)

Anne Patterson, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan (via videoconference)

General James Jones, National Security Advisor

Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor

John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security

Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, Special Assistant to the President for Afghanistan and Pakistan

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The Next Afghan Strategy Looks Like It’ll Focus on the Counterterrorism Question

Spencer Ackerman — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:45:20 +0000

If it’s true, as reported, that the question of the CIA’s drone strikes against al-Qaeda in Pakistan is bolstering support for the so-called counterterrorism option in the Obama administration’s Afghanistan/Pakistan strategy, then tomorrow’s meeting at the White House looks, from the attendance sheet, like it’ll debate precisely that issue. Here’s the just-released list of scheduled participants:

Vice President Biden

Secretary of State Clinton

Secretary of Defense Gates

Ambassador Susan Rice, Permanent US Representative to the United Nations

Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan

Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

General David Petraeus, U.S. Central Command

General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Commander in Afghanistan (via videoconference)

Admiral Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence

CIA Director Leon Panetta

Karl Eikenberry, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan (via videoconference)

Anne Patterson, U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan (via videoconference)

General James Jones, National Security Advisor

Tom Donilon, Deputy National Security Advisor

John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security

Brennan, one of Obama’s most important advisers, wasn’t in last week’s meeting; neither was Donilon or Rice.

Jim Jones Keeps Getting Kufi Smacked

Spencer Ackerman — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:48:13 +0000

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: both Steve Clemons and Tom Ricks have posts about anti-Jones whispers. And I don’t really understand either of them.

Steve writes that Tom Donilon, Jones’ deputy, “wields far more the hand of power when it comes to day to day management and responding to crises that require presidential attention and response.” But … that’s what a deputy national security adviser is for. Similarly, my understanding is that Mark Lippert, the National Security Council chief of staff, is also a go-to person for the directors’ staffs to deconflict problems. But you know what that tells me? That tells me that Lippert is doing his job, not that he’s doing Jones’s. Steve further places the whisper campaign in an ideological context:

Their motives may not be earnest concern about the tempo or pace of Jones’ management style — but they very well could be his unwillingness to allow the liberal interventionists inside the Obama administration to have more than their fair share of power in the Obama decision-making process.

Jones has structured an all views on the table approach to decision making — quite evident when it comes to Middle East policy — and the hawkish/neocon-friendly/Likudist-hugging part of the Obama administration’s foreign policy operation may be engaged in a coup attempt against Jones.

Who inside the administration does this really describe, though? The only one I can possibly think of here is Dennis Ross, but he’s more of an odd man out in the administration than Jones. I suppose you could also describe Richard Holbrooke as a “liberal interventionist,” but he’s also crazy influential, and could hardly be winning more internal arguments. This doesn’t seem like the right frame to describe what’s happening with Jones. While the administration has its disagreements and its factions, one of the most surprising things about them is that they’re not cohesive ideological factions. The counterinsurgents, for instance, do not neatly mold into one or other ideological label — sometimes they hew progressive, other times they’re more technocratic, etc. This isn’t the Bush administration.

Tom’s post is even more of a head-scratcher. He’s hearing that some Obama aides want Defense Secretary Bob Gates to replace Jones. I have no reason to doubt that that’s what he’s hearing, but Gates would be absolutely insane to take the job. If you have the choice between running the Pentagon and being the national security adviser — where you don’t have a real budget and you’re coordinating a whole bunch of big-ego folk — and you choose the latter, you shouldn’t be in government, period. No surprise that Gates spokesman Geoff Morrell says “There is not a grain of truth” to the rumor. Also: is President Obama really going to cashier his respected national security adviser after six months? Is that the way Obama operates? Does that fit with any other management decision we’ve ever seen from Obama?

None of this is to say there aren’t people out to get Gates like this was “Appetite For Destruction.” Nor is it to say that Steve and Tom aren’t hearing what they’re hearing. But it doesn’t seem like we’re any closer to determining who the culprits are. I’m going to offer my own speculation: Jones isn’t the real problem. It’s that Obama hasn’t yet figured out how he wants his NSC to operate, and how he wants it to be run. Pure speculation, sure, but usually national security advisers function in response to their presidents.