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November 14, 2009

Obama Chooses an Inner-Circle Man

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/us/politics/14bauer.html
November 14, 2009
Obama Chooses an Inner-Circle Man
By JOHN M. BRODER [Obama’s White House counsel] [Mr. Craig just announced he’s leaving] [fell on sword over gimto?] [replacement, friend of president] [*]
WASHINGTON — In being named White House counsel less than a year into President Obama’s tenure, Robert F. Bauer is reversing a longstanding trend.
Many presidents initially name a close friend and ally to the post, and then turn to a well-known Washington legal fixture when they run into legal or political trouble. In this case, Mr. Bauer, a trusted back-room counselor who was one of the first people Mr. Obama hired

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November 12, 2009

U.S. envoy resists increase in troops

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111118432.html
Correction to This Article
Earlier versions of this article, including in the print edition of Thursday's Washington Post, misstated the rank of Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry when he retired from the U.S. Army. He was a three-star general.
U.S. envoy resists increase in troops
CONCERNS VOICED ABOUT KARZAI
Cables sent as Obama weighs deployment options
By Greg Jaffe, Scott Wilson and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 12, 2009 [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [gsave] [Obama’s president-NSC-policymaking model and early info on process, operations] [for few weeks now leaks-‘o’-plenty on looming AfPak decisions and McChrystul’s recommendation] [so yesterday, united front reported in NYTs of Gates-Clinton-Mullen in favor of McChrystul’s recommendation or some version] [then last night, I heard on CNN that Eikenberry had sent President Obama 2 cables with blunt stuff about Karzai and warnings not to send the troops???] [use psci355, 455] [followup] [serious leaking here!] [sabotage?] [potentially explosive!] [ditto] [*]
The U.S. ambassador in Kabul sent two classified cables to Washington in the past week expressing deep concerns about sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan until President Hamid Karzai's government demonstrates that it is willing to tackle the

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U.S. Envoy Urges Caution on Forces for Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/us/politics/12policy.html
November 12, 2009
U.S. Envoy Urges Caution on Forces for Afghanistan
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and MARK LANDLER [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [gsave] [Obama’s president-NSC-policymaking model and early info on process, operations] [for few weeks now leaks-‘o’-plenty on looming AfPak decisions and McChrystul’s recommendation] [so yesterday, united front reported in NYTs of Gates-Clinton-Mullen in favor of McChrystul’s recommendation or some version] [then last night, I heard on CNN that Eikenberry had sent President Obama 2 cables with blunt stuff about Karzai and warnings not to send the troops???] [use psci355, 455] [followup] [serious leaking here!] [sabotage?] [potentially explosive!] [*]
WASHINGTON — The United States ambassador to Afghanistan, who once served as the top American military commander there, has expressed in writing his reservations about deploying additional troops to the country, [*]three senior American officials said Wednesday.

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Feeling the weight of war

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111127507.html
Feeling the weight of war
From Fort Hood to Afghanistan, trying times for the commander in chief
By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 12, 2009 [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [gsave] [Obama’s president-NSC-policymaking model and early info on process, operations] [for few weeks now leaks-‘o’-plenty on looming AfPak decisions and McChrystul’s recommendation] [so yesterday, united front reported in NYTs of Gates-Clinton-Mullen in favor of McChrystul’s recommendation or some version] [then last night, I heard on CNN that Eikenberry had sent President Obama 2 cables with blunt stuff about Karzai and warnings not to send the troops???] [use psci355, 455] [followup] [serious leaking here!] [sabotage?] [cross in individual-role] [*]
War and tragedy are putting President Obama through the most wrenching period of his young administration. Visibly thinner, admittedly skipping meals, he is learning every day

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Feeling the weight of war

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111127507.html
Feeling the weight of war
From Fort Hood to Afghanistan, trying times for the commander in chief
By Joel Achenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 12, 2009 [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [gsave] [Obama’s president-NSC-policymaking model and early info on process, operations] [for few weeks now leaks-‘o’-plenty on looming AfPak decisions and McChrystul’s recommendation] [so yesterday, united front reported in NYTs of Gates-Clinton-Mullen in favor of McChrystul’s recommendation or some version] [then last night, I heard on CNN that Eikenberry had sent President Obama 2 cables with blunt stuff about Karzai and warnings not to send the troops???] [use psci355, 455] [followup] [serious leaking here!] [sabotage?] [cross in individual-role] [*]
War and tragedy are putting President Obama through the most wrenching period of his young administration. Visibly thinner, admittedly skipping meals, he is learning every day

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Obama Purposely Taking Time on Troop Decision

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/us/politics/13zeleny.html
November 13, 2009
On the White House
Obama Purposely Taking Time on Troop Decision
By JEFF ZELENY [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [gsave] [Obama’s president-NSC-policymaking model and early info on process, operations] [for few weeks now leaks-‘o’-plenty on looming AfPak decisions and McChrystul’s recommendation] [so yesterday, united front reported in NYTs of Gates-Clinton-Mullen in favor of McChrystul’s recommendation or some version] [then last night, I heard on CNN that Eikenberry had sent President Obama 2 cables with blunt stuff about Karzai and warnings not to send the troops???] [use psci355, 455] [followup] [serious leaking here!] [sabotage?] [cross in individual-role] [*]
WASHINGTON — President Obama has not made a decision about his new military strategy for Afghanistan. And the White House is happy to say so.

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November 11, 2009

TSA nominee questioned over FBI censure

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR2009111017808.html
TSA nominee questioned over FBI censure
Erroll Southers had background check run on ex-wife's boyfriend
By Ed O'Keefe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 11, 2009 [Obama White House] [residual from Presidents Bush and predecessors] [bureaucratic] [TSA, DHS, others] [Obama’s nominee to lead TSA] [senate hearings] [*]
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) questioned President Obama's nominee to lead the nation's airport security agency Tuesday about a censure he received from the FBI in 1988.
Erroll Southers, who was serving as an FBI special agent at the time of the censure, asked a co-worker's husband who worked for the San Diego Police Department to run a background check on his ex-wife's boyfriend. [*]
Under questioning by Collins, Southers said that he has not misused government databases to receive personal information on anyone since the incident and that he would not do so in

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'She is the face of the new generation'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/10/AR2009111018995.html
Correction to This Article
Earlier versions of this story misstated events that caused Tammy Duckworth's Iraq war injuries. It also misstated the injuries suffered by Joe Dan Worley. This version has been corrected.
'She is the face of the new generation'
At VA and among vets, Duckworth is trying to reshape perceptions
By Ed O'Keefe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Five years ago this week, an insurgent shot down the Army Black Hawk helicopter that Tammy Duckworth was co-piloting in Iraq. Now an assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Duckworth lost her legs in the attack.
On Thursday, her Black Hawk crewmates who pulled her from the wreckage will be in Washington to celebrate her "alive day" -- what some veterans call their "second birthday"

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November 03, 2009

Dick Cheney and the use of classified information

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/02/AR2009110203525.html
Dick Cheney and the use of classified information
By WALTER PINCUS
Tuesday, November 3, 2009 [former bush white house] [the 2003 imbroglio that became the Plame case] [veep’s office and staff] [Veep Cheney, his role as veep, his habits, and the NSC process accommodated for him?] [*]
Then-Vice President Richard B. Cheney gave a surprisingly honest description of how top administration officials treat classified information when he was questioned more than five years ago by Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel investigating the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, [*]who was then a covert CIA employee.
According to the FBI report on the May 8, 2004, session, released last week, the vice president was asked about testimony by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, his chief of staff. Libby

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October 22, 2009

Mending Fences, Biden Assures Poland That U.S. Is Watching Over It

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/world/europe/22biden.html
October 22, 2009
Mending Fences, Biden Assures Poland That U.S. Is Watching Over It
By PETER BAKER [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [veep’s trip to Euro] [missile defense] [veep Biden] [special care of Poland and Czech Republic] [followup] [*]
WARSAW — Standing next to Poland’s prime minister, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. wanted to make sure no one missed his point.
The United States guarantees Poland’s security, he said. “This strategic assurance is absolute, absolute, Mr. Prime Minister,” Mr. Biden declared. It is “a solemn obligation,” he went on. Then he added, “Make no mistake about it: Our commitment to Poland is

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Clinton Says Iran and North Korea Must Curb Nuclear Ambitions

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/world/22clinton.html
October 22, 2009
Clinton Says Iran and North Korea Must Curb Nuclear Ambitions
By BRIAN KNOWLTON [Obama white house] [president Obama and national-security team][111th congress, 1st session] [DPRK, US-DPRK relations, US-DPRK negotations over latter’s WMD?] [bureaucracy] [SecState Clinton] [followup] [cross in individual-role] [*]
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton took a tough approach on Wednesday on several proliferation issues, saying that Iran and North Korea must take decisive action to curb their nuclear programs, and not just talk about doing so, if they expected to enjoy an easing of global pressures.

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Clinton urges support for U.S.-Russian arms-control treaty

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/21/AR2009102103858.html
Clinton urges support for U.S.-Russian arms-control treaty
Secretary also backs global pact banning nuclear testing
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 22, 2009 [Obama white house] [president Obama and national-security team][111th congress, 1st session] [Russia, US-Russia relations, US-Russia arms control agreements] [bureaucracy] [SecState Clinton] [followup] [role?] [*]
With a congressional battle looming, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday defended the administration's broad arms-control agenda and said that reducing U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles would be a critical first step in preventing the spread of the deadly weapons to other countries.

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Massachusetts man arrested on terror charges

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/21/AR2009102101088.html
Massachusetts man arrested on terror charges
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 22, 2009 [Obama White House] [residual from Presidents Bush and predecessors] [NSC to lowly bureaucracy] [from kinetic military force to diplomacy to economic suasion and everything along the continuum] [recruitment and attraction of American jihadis] [global-jihadis hydra in American and abroad] [watch to see if this pans out or whether it’s an overreaction?] [followup] [*]
A Massachusetts man has been arrested on a charge of conspiring to support terrorists by seeking training from Islamic extremist fighters overseas, federal authorities said Wednesday.

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October 11, 2009

Obama Wanted a Petraeus. Buyer Beware.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/09/AR2009100902568.html
Obama Wanted a Petraeus. Buyer Beware.
By Greg Jaffe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 11, 2009 [oped] [on McChrystul’s similarites to Patraeus] [cross in individual-role] [use psci355] [*]
It is hard not to look at Stanley McChrystal without seeing David Petraeus.
Both generals are fitness freaks, capable of running soldiers half their age into the ground. Within hours of taking command of faltering wars, both were vowing to remake their forces. "We must change the way we think, act and operate," McChrystal wrote in September instructions to his troops in Afghanistan. He was practically channeling Petraeus, circa 2007, who challenged his troops in Iraq to adopt a new "warrior-builder-diplomat" mind-set.

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October 10, 2009

Obama Selects U.S. General to Oversee Efforts to Train Afghan Forces

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/09/AR2009100904578.html
Obama Selects U.S. General to Oversee Efforts to Train Afghan Forces
By John Milburn
Associated Press
Saturday, October 10, 2009 [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [gsave] [Obama’s NSC announced “counterinsurgency” strategy in late March-early April] [protect population centers; incoporate local police and security into the daily effort (it’s counterproductive to do it for them when they can do it themselves), stablize financial incentives for participating with insurgents; lead with your powerful ideas such as freedom to choose the sort of state they build)] [Gen William Caldwell IV, Obama’s choice to train Afghan forces] [*]
TOPEKA, Kan., Oct. 9 -- President Obama has nominated the commander of Fort Leavenworth to lead U.S. and NATO efforts to train Afghan forces.
Lt. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV would join the war's top U.S. commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, if confirmed by the Senate this fall. McChrystal is pushing for more help in

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October 09, 2009

Obama Says He’s ‘Surprised and Humbled’ by Nobel Prize

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html
October 10, 2009
Obama Says He’s ‘Surprised and Humbled’ by Nobel Prize
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG and WALTER GIBBS [individual] [obama nominated, surprisingly, for nobel peace prize] [we visited the building (in 2008) where they do it and hold the dinner] [close to where Bjorn Borg and other celbrities lived, in bueatiful luxury condo building, on waterfront] [lovely area] [why Obama? Apparently his desire for peace?] [hey, I desire peace, what about me?] [*]
WASHINGTON — President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” a stunning honor that came less than nine months after he made United States history by becoming the country’s first African-American president.

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October 06, 2009

General Petraeus Has Prostate Cancer

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/world/middleeast/06petraeus.html
October 6, 2009
General Petraeus Has Prostate Cancer
By ERIC SCHMITT [General Patraeus] [personal health issues] [*]
WASHINGTON — Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of American military forces in the Middle East, received a diagnosis of early-stage prostate cancer in February but has undergone “successful” radiation treatment to deal with the illness, according to a statement issued late Monday.
General Petraeus, 56, who as head of the United States Central Command oversees operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, underwent two months of radiation treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, which had “minimal impact on his work schedule,” according to the statement.

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Voice of Bush’s Favored General Is Now Harder to Hear

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/world/05military.html
October 5, 2009
Military Memo
Voice of Bush’s Favored General Is Now Harder to Hear
By ELISABETH BUMILLER 4,339 [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [gsave, -iraq, elsewhere in CENTCOM’s area] [CENTCINC, General David Patraeus] [was popular with Pres Bush, and largely responsible for “surge”] [new president, different structure and process] [potentially, explanation for his notable absence in recent debate][*]
WASHINGTON — Gen. David H. Petraeus, the face of the Iraq troop surge and a favorite of former President George W. Bush, spoke up or was called upon by President Obama “several times” during the big Afghanistan strategy session in the Situation Room last week, one participant says, [but impression that overshadowed] [*] and will be back for two more

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October 03, 2009

Obama Meets Top Afghan Commander as He Mulls Change in War Strategy

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/world/asia/03mcchrystal.html
October 3, 2009
Obama Meets Top Afghan Commander as He Mulls Change in War Strategy
By PETER BAKER [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [gsave] [AfPak and elsewhere] [Obama’s NSC announced counterinsurgency strategy in spring, early April as I recall] [the latest kurfufel in Pentagon (probably manufactured on Capitol Hill rather than in Pentagon but we’ll see soon) over AfPak and President Obama’s decision—which has yet to be made!] [the politics of president-NSC-policymaking model] [use psci355, 455] [followup] [cross in individual-role] [*]
COPENHAGEN — President Obama held an unannounced meeting here on Friday with Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, his Afghanistan commander, to discuss a possible change in strategy and a proposed troop buildup in the eight-year-old war.

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September 22, 2009

What's the News? Just Ask Secretary Gates.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/21/AR2009092103431.html
What's the News? Just Ask Secretary Gates.
By Walter Pincus
Tuesday, September 22, 2009 [SecDef Gates] [holdover from Bush administration where he replaced Rummy in November 2006 (just after the election)] [interesting stuff about his pragmatism] [cross in govt] [ditto] [*]
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is someone whose words, whether in a speech or a news conference, should always be examined. Held over from the Bush administration, he has become the senior government official who most speaks his mind and as a result provides a great deal of news, especially if you look closely at what he says.

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A Pragmatist, Gates Reshapes Past Policies He Backed

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/us/politics/22gates.html
September 22, 2009
A Pragmatist, Gates Reshapes Past Policies He Backed
By PETER BAKER and THOM SHANKER [SecDef Gates] [holdover from Bush administration where he replaced Rummy in November 2006 (just after the election)] [interesting stuff about his pragmatism] [cross in govt] [*]
WASHINGTON — On his tenth day on the job, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates signed off on an ambitious if politically charged plan to build a new missile shield in Europe. Just two weeks later, he supported an even more wrenching decision to send additional American

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September 15, 2009

Obama Rejects Afghanistan-Vietnam Comparison

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/world/asia/15policy.html
September 15, 2009
Obama Rejects Afghanistan-Vietnam Comparison
By JOHN HARWOOD [obama white house] [a spate of Vietnam-Afghanistan comparisons made during 2009] [mostly, that Obama undertook review of America’s gsave activities in Afghanistan] [President Obama rebuts some of them and makes argument in favor of AfPak’s uniqueness] [clearly, the McChrystul study and process are weighing on Obama] [cross in individual-role] [*]
WASHINGTON — President Obama rejected comparisons on Monday between the war in Afghanistan and the conflict in Vietnam a generation ago, but he expressed concern about

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Study Faults Bush's Emphasis On Daily Intelligence Brief

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/14/AR2009091403358.html
Study Faults Bush's Emphasis On Daily Intelligence Brief
By Walter Pincus
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 [bush white house] [SIGs; in this case the brookings insitution (solid reputation) has released study on Bush’s president-NSC-policymkaing model (in my NSC book’s model) machinery] [principal conclusion: President Bush relied too much on PDB] [important potential debate and the lessons potentially “learned” by President Obama could be important] [use psci355, 455] [use nsc] [*]
Under President George W. Bush, the President's Daily Brief -- the highly classified intelligence paper delivered each morning to the White House -- rose to "an unprecedented level of importance," with negative consequences [*]for the intelligence community, according to a new study by the Brookings Institution.
These included "skewing intelligence production away from deeper research and arms-length

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September 12, 2009

Attacks Were Defining Moment for Obama

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/11/AR2009091104134.html
Attacks Were Defining Moment for Obama
Many Decisions Now Rooted in Threat of That Day, but Critics Question Focus
By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 12, 2009 [individual-role] [President Obama] [I don’t remember reading much on how he was affected by 9/11] [I find this interesting, insofar as it’s accurate] [he’s just like anybody else] [*]
In marking his first Sept. 11 anniversary as commander in chief, President Obama told a solemn audience at the Pentagon on Friday, including relatives of those who died there eight years ago, that "no passage of time and no dark skies can ever dull the meaning of this moment." [let’s not put too much in a speech that’s been written by speechwriters] [*]
It was not hollow rhetoric. The attacks and the steps that the Bush administration took to prevent another one have defined the way Obama views the world and have influenced, more than any other event, his understanding of national security. [*]

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August 30, 2009

Supreme Court to Revisit ‘Hillary’ Documentary

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/us/30scotus.html
August 30, 2009
Supreme Court to Revisit ‘Hillary’ Documentary
By ADAM LIPTAK [Obama white house] [SecState Clinton] [during campaign when she was candidate] [a hit “documentary” came out] [it was campaign thing in guies of documentary] [not directly related to USFP but just enough stuff to be worth archiving] [cross in individual-role] [*]
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will cut short its summer break in early September to hear a new argument in a momentous case that could transform the way political campaigns are conducted.

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August 23, 2009

It's 3 a.m. Do You Know Where Hillary Clinton Is?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082101772.html
It's 3 a.m. Do You Know Where Hillary Clinton Is?
She's not answering those crisis calls at the White House. But she's quietly revolutionizing American foreign policy.
By David Rothkopf
Sunday, August 23, 2009 [oped] [Rothkopf—on SecState Clinton] [he was minor official in Clinton’s NSC (treasury)] [wrote a very good book on the NSC] [now he’s taking an interest in SecState Clinton] [cross in individual-role] [*]
When it comes to Hillary Rodham Clinton, we're missing the forest for the pantsuits.

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Leadership 101

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082102311.html
Leadership 101
By David Ignatius
Sunday, August 23, 2009 [oped] [columnist] [Obama’s presidency] [cross in individual-role] [*]
It's crunch time for the Obama administration on two of its toughest foreign policy challenges -- the Arab-Israeli peace process and the war in Afghanistan. Unfortunately, these tests are coming at a moment when Obama is weakened by the health-care debate and has less political capital to spend. [*] [perhaps; on the other hand, I’ve seen this guy written off several times, each of which was premature] [*]
Obama and his aides understood long ago that they would have only a limited window of opportunity. Way back in the summer of 2007, when few people gave him much chance of

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'Is He Weak?'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/21/AR2009082102309.html
'Is He Weak?'
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, August 23, 2009 [oped] [columnist] [Obama’s presidency] [cross in individual-role] [*]
Shortly after the Group of 20 summit concluded in London in April, Nicolas Sarkozy blurted out to a small group of advisers a question that weighed on him as he watched President Obama glad-hand his way through the gathering: "Est-il faible?" (Is he weak?)
The French president did not answer his own blunt query, which faded as the American leader commanded a hectic round of domestic economic intervention and agenda-setting abroad in the weeks that followed. Initial doubts about Obama's toughness went on the shelf at the Elysee Palace and elsewhere.

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August 18, 2009

Clinton Puts Spotlight On Women's Issues

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/17/AR2009081702379.html
Clinton Puts Spotlight On Women's Issues
Elevating Rights Is a Focus of Secretary [Obama White House] [SecState Clinton, apparently tired form the whirlwind trip] [cross individual-role] [followup] [SecState Clinton making clear she will make women’s issues one of her signature ones] [I don’t think this makes it the only or the most important—that remains to be seen] [she’s quite capbable so let’s wait to see what she emphasizes] [*]
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
She talked chickens with female farmers in Kenya. She listened to the excruciating stories of rape victims in war-torn eastern Congo. And in South Africa, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited a housing project built by poor women, where she danced with a choir singing "Heel-a-ree! Heel-a-ree!"

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August 16, 2009

Emanuel Wields Power Freely, and Faces the Risks

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/us/politics/16emanuel.html
August 16, 2009
Emanuel Wields Power Freely, and Faces the Risks
By PETER BAKER and JEFF ZELENY [Rahm Emanuel] [President Obama’s chief of staff] [Chicago style] [cross in govt] [*]
WASHINGTON — As White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel was the one to bring the hammer down on Sidney Blumenthal.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wanted to hire Mr. Blumenthal, a loyal confidant who had helped her promote the idea of a “vast right-wing conspiracy” more than a decade ago. But President Obama’s campaign veterans still blamed him for spreading harsh attacks against their candidate in the primary showdown with Mrs. Clinton last year. [seems pretty petty given how well Clinton has functioned on team concept] [*]

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Hillary Clinton’s Folksy Diplomacy

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/weekinreview/16gettleman.html
August 16, 2009
Hillary Clinton’s Folksy Diplomacy
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN 2009 [Obama white house] [president Obama and national-security team][111th congress, 1st session] [complex world or traditional state threats coupled with ubiquitous transnational threats] [bureaucracy: mostly department of state along with IC and DoD even when latter’s mission is nearly opposite as they compliment one another] [SecState Clinton just returned from her Africa whirlwind] [followup] [cross in individual-role] [*]
SANTA MARIA, Cape Verde — Think of it as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s informational interview of Africa. Eleven days, seven countries of friendly, engaging, edifying talk — but with no urgent American interest on the line. [*]There were no nukes to stop; no peace deal to start; no young American women to free (Bill Clinton’s shadow loomed large

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August 14, 2009

Hagel Climbing the Ladder in Obama White House

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/13/AR2009081303773.html
Hagel Climbing the Ladder in Obama White House
By Al Kamen
Friday, August 14, 2009 [Obama White House] [Bush White House residuals] [NSC level] [Obama’s national-security team] [Senator (former) Chuck Hagle, Republican, Nebraska] [bureaucracy too] [cross in individual-role] [use psci355] [watch] [*]
Former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel (R), a senior administration official-in-waiting either later this term or in President Obama's second term (if there is one), is taking another step into Obama's national security team. We're hearing Hagel is in line to co-chair the important President's Intelligence Advisory Board (formerly known as the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board).

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August 13, 2009

Cheney Uncloaks His Frustration With Bush

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/12/AR2009081203306.html
Cheney Uncloaks His Frustration With Bush
'Statute of Limitations Has Expired' on Many Secrets, Former Vice President Says
By Barton Gellman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 13, 2009 bush white house] [veep cheney] [how Cheney gamed the system before Bush knew what Cheney was up to] [stunning in Cheney’s usurpation of presidential powers] [stunning arrogance and hubris] [TSPs] [the legality of NSC programs that came to light in late 2005, early 2006] [use psci355, 455] [Cheney’s congnitive dissonance that was serious and costly for US [followup] [107th congress 2nd session?] [*]
In his first few months after leaving office, former vice president Richard B. Cheney threw himself into public combat against the "far left" agenda of the new commander in chief. More private reflections, as his memoir takes shape in slashing longhand on legal

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August 05, 2009

Court in North Carolina Hears Tapes in Terror Case

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/us/05terror.html
August 5, 2009
Court in North Carolina Hears Tapes in Terror Case
By VICTORIA CHERRIE [Obama White House] [residual from Presidents Bush and predecessors] [NSC to lowly bureaucracy] [from kinetic military force to diplomacy to economic suasion and everything along the continuum] [recruitment and attraction of American jihadis] [in the deep south!?] [use psci355, 469b] [global-jihadis hydra in American and abroad] [followup] [*]
RALEIGH, N.C. — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday bolstered their case against Daniel P. Boyd, the man accused of being the ringleader of a group of Islamic terrorists, playing recordings in court in which he advocated violent jihad against the West. [*]

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In Release of Journalists, Both Clintons Had Key Roles

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/world/asia/05korea.html
August 5, 2009
In Release of Journalists, Both Clintons Had Key Roles
By MARK LANDLER and PETER BAKER [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [Bush administration] residual [Obama’s diplomatic and national-security teams] [Dennis Blair as DNI] [Panetta as CIA director] [Gen (retired) James Jones as NSC adviser] [Sec Def Robert Gates held over from Bush] [and SecState Clinton of the state department] [bureaucracy] [the impressive job done all the way around with DPRK] [carefully and patiently (some 5 months during which time economic meltdown and AfPak and –ir all concomitantly) separated DPRK’s unacceptable bombastic behavior in terms of missile and nuclear proliferation (and any number of other tantrums) from humanitarian and other issues that had to be decoupled: the journalists grabbed in March] [followup] [cross in external and indivual-role] [case for psci355] [*]
WASHINGTON — Former President Bill Clinton left North Korea on Wednesday morning after a dramatic 20-hour visit, in which he won the freedom of two American journalists, opened a diplomatic channel to North Korea’s reclusive government and

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August 03, 2009

'High Risk, High Reward'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/02/AR2009080202046.html
'High Risk, High Reward'
John McCain Was Looking for a Way to Shake Up His Campaign. He Took a Surprising Gamble on a Relative Unknown.
By Dan Balz and Haynes Johnson
Monday, August 3, 2009 [individual-role] [had McCain become president?] [*]
Adapted from the book "The Battle for America 2008: The Story of an Extraordinary Election"
A black car pulled up next to the stairs of a Learjet parked at the executive terminal at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport. Inside was Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, driven by her husband, Todd. It was shortly before 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008, and Palin had just finished an appearance in town. She told Todd goodbye and, along with aide Kris Perry, boarded the plane quickly, lest anyone notice her leaving. In

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July 30, 2009

Amid Scrutiny, Yoo Pushes Back

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/26/AR2009072602348.html
Amid Scrutiny, Yoo Pushes Back
Quietly but Forcefully, Author of Detainee Memos Rebuts Critics
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 27, 2009 [attorney John Yoo] [we now know that his direct supervisors, Comey and others, say they were not told when the White House (especially the vice president’s office and David Addington and others) reached down for specific memos from this guy it was not due to his broad-based intelligence or brilliance seen by his cohort] [rather, he was a known wingnut with ideas that were out there: his reading of the Consitution comes down to all the stuff about the legislative and judicial branches is embellishment] [once the commander in chief is activiated—and Yoo seems to think it’s virtally always activated—he has power that no other branch can mitigate or constrain] [it defies the most basic understanding of rule of law!] [it belies an otherwise literal reading (that’s what he does, though quite selectively) of say article I that comes before the executive’s article II and could reasonably be read literally as only when congress declares a war does the president’s war power authority kick in] [he was ideological enough to suit the wingnut contingent that ran amok during the Bush presidency] [the irony of it all is we have President Bush to thank that it didn’t go futher] [e.g., the Lackawanna NY example where President Bush shouted down the Cheney wing on sending in the military contrary to posse comitatus and others] [*]
Some public figures, if their judgment and ethics come under fire, retreat into solitude.

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July 28, 2009

No Burqa For Clinton

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/27/AR2009072701903.html
No Burqa For Clinton
By Anne Applebaum
Tuesday, July 28, 2009 [oped] [columnist] [SecSTate Clinton] [use psci355] [use nsc] [cross individual-role] [*]
"It's time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa." It's a line that brilliantly managed to belittle our female secretary of state under the guise of supporting her, to offend her and "defend" her at the same time: No wonder the insult that Tina Brown lobbed at the White House two weeks ago continues to echo around

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July 27, 2009

Clinton Says Nuclear Aim of Iran Is Fruitless

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/us/politics/27clinton.html
July 27, 2009
Clinton Says Nuclear Aim of Iran Is Fruitless
By DAVID E. SANGER [Obama White House] [111th congress, 1st session] [Obama’s diplomatic team, state department bureaucracy and so forth] [SecState Clinton] [after an impressive start, a broken arm (contre temps) has slowed her down and created drag where there was once movement] [use psci355] [she is the sort of person who will compete so long as she’s the boss of state; and I respect her stamina and determination] [she keeps flicking Ahmadinejad’s nose] [it’s like a pair of siblings: she’s the big sister sitting astride Ahmadinejad, with the latter shoulders pinned to the floor, ans she’s flicking his ears and nose painfully!] [she’s actually a master at this sort of thing; cross in individual-role] [*]
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned Iran’s leaders on Sunday that if they were seeking nuclear weapons, “your pursuit is futile,” and ruled out explicitly the

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July 25, 2009

Asia Trip Propels Clinton Back Into Limelight

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/world/asia/25diplo.html
July 25, 2009
News Analysis
Asia Trip Propels Clinton Back Into Limelight
By MARK LANDLER [Obama White House] [111th congress, 1st session] [Obama’s diplomatic team, state department bureaucracy and so forth] [SecState Clinton] [after an impressive start, a broken arm (contre temps) has slowed her down and created drag where there was once movement] [use psci355] [she is the sort of person who will compete so long as she’s the boss of state; and I respect her stamina and determination] [on DPRK and a raft of bilateral and multilateral issues, not least of, nukes] [SecState Clinton is the sort who makes her own luck] [cross in individual-role] [*]
PHUKET, Thailand — At every stop during her visit to Southeast Asia this week, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered the same message: “The United States is back.” She was talking about America’s role in a region where its visibility had dimmed during the Bush years, but she might as well have been talking about herself. [don’t kid yourself, she was] [it was no mistake that she used the pronoun we; she used

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July 24, 2009

Clinton Trades Jibes With North Korea

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/world/asia/24diplo.html
July 24, 2009
Clinton Trades Jibes With North Korea
By MARK LANDLER [Obama White House] [111th congress, 1st session] [Obama’s diplomatic team, state department bureaucracy and so forth] [SecState Clinton] [after an impressive start, a broken arm (contre temps) has slowed her down and created drag where there was once movement] [use psci355] [she is the sort of person who will compete so long as she’s the boss of state; and I respect her stamina and determination] [on DPRK and a raft of bilateral and multilateral issues, not least of, nukes] [SecState Clinton is the sort who makes her own luck] [cross in individual-role] [*]
PHUKET, Thailand — The United States and North Korea fell into an acrimonious exchange on Thursday, with the North Korean government ridiculing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as a “schoolgirl” and a “pensioner,” two days after she

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Biden Offers Georgia Solidarity

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/23/AR2009072301541.html
Biden Offers Georgia Solidarity
Russian Invasion In 2008 Decried
By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 24, 2009 [Georgia] [Russia] [former USSR] [Russia’s military exercises (likely planned long ago) and the propinquity to last year’s similar activities and the latter’s connection to August war] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [in new assertive Russia] [Russia ethos] [use psci350] [use ir text] [Saakashvili’s mischief and the personal battle between Saakashvili and Putin] [Russia’s “Near Abroad” such as Georgia, Ukraine,] [Grandap Joe dabbling in Russia’s “Near Abroad”] [followup] [cross in govt] [*]
TBILISI, Georgia, July 23 -- Breaking with the cautious tone the Obama administration has adopted toward the Kremlin, Vice President Biden told a room of Georgian children Thursday that Russia "used a pretext to invade your country" in the hope of wrecking its economy and persuading its people that "democracy doesn't work." [well, in the NYTs version I didn’t see where Grandpa Joe’s medicines were wearing off] [he appeared fully

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Biden Pledges Support for Georgia, but Warns Against Militarism

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/world/europe/24georgia.html
July 24, 2009
Biden Pledges Support for Georgia, but Warns Against Militarism
By ELLEN BARRY [Georgia] [Russia] [former USSR] [Russia’s military exercises (likely planned long ago) and the propinquity to last year’s similar activities and the latter’s connection to August war] [Vlad and his proclivities represent a lot of Russians who don’t care for the way the world has changed since 1991] [in new assertive Russia] [Russia ethos] [use psci350] [use ir text] [Saakashvili’s mischief and the personal battle between Saakashvili and Putin] [Russia’s “Near Abroad” such as Georgia, Ukraine,] [Grandap Joe dabbling in Russia’s “Near Abroad”] [followup] [cross in govt] [*]
TBILISI, Georgia — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. gave a rousing speech at Georgia’s Parliament building on Tuesday, raising his voice to a shout in denunciation of Russia’s “19th-century notion of spheres of influence,” [*] and urging the world not to formally recognize the separatist territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. He received

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July 16, 2009

Clinton: U.S. Urges 'Multi-Partner World'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/15/AR2009071503163.html
Clinton: U.S. Urges 'Multi-Partner World'
Secretary Seeks to Define Approach
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 16, 2009 [Obama White House] [111th congress, 1st session] [Obama’s diplomatic team, state department bureaucracy and so forth] [SecState Clinton] [after an impressive start, a broken arm (contre temps) has slowed her down and created drag where there was once movement] [use psci355] [she is the sort of person who will compete so long as she’s the boss of state; and I respect her stamina and determination] [in early administration while things fall into place partly in response to external stimuli, partly in response to domestic ones, SecState Clinton makes her own luck] [cross in individual-role] [*]
The Obama administration is attempting to build a "multi-partner world" in which governments and private groups work collectively on common global problems and in

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For Clinton, ’09 Campaign Is for Her Turf

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/16/us/politics/16clinton.html
July 16, 2009
For Clinton, ’09 Campaign Is for Her Turf
By MARK LANDLER [Obama White House] [111th congress, 1st session] [Obama’s diplomatic team, state department bureaucracy and so forth] [SecState Clinton] [after an impressive start, a broken arm (contre temps) has slowed her down and created drag where there was once movement] [use psci355] [she is the sort of person who will compete so long as she’s the boss of state; and I respect her stamina and determination] [in early administration while things fall into place partly in response to external stimuli, partly in response to domestic ones, SecState Clinton makes her own luck] [cross in individual-role] [*]
WASHINGTON — When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stepped back to center stage here on Wednesday to present an ambitious blueprint for America’s role in

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July 14, 2009

Holder Faces Avalanche Of Work, and Scrutiny

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/13/AR2009071302787.html
Holder Faces Avalanche Of Work, and Scrutiny
Attorney General Blasted From Left, Right
By Carrie Johnson and Krissah Thompson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 14, 2009 [Obama White House] [111th congress, 1st session] [inherited President W. Bush TSPs and illegal enemy combatants and “enhanced-interrogation techniques”] [Obama’s national-security team] [IC, ODNI, DNI, NCTC, and other post-IRTPA changes] [the Obama administration has done little to reverse the trend begun under the Bush administration] [followup] [use psci355] [enhanced-interrogation techniques, attributed to military and CIA] [but caveats: military within timeframe out of which it appears rougues and malconents (or an occasional overreaction) and with CIA mostly “contractors” who were not in-house CIA guys?] [followup] [*]
July cannot be counted as the warmest of months for Eric H. Holder Jr. The attorney general clashed with Congress over national security policy, fielded complaints from

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July 12, 2009

Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/us/politics/12intel.html
July 12, 2009
Cheney Is Linked to Concealment of C.I.A. Project
By SCOTT SHANE [Obama White House] [111th congress, 1st session] [inherited President W. Bush TSPs and illegal enemy combatants and “enhanced-interrogation techniques”] [Obama’s national-security team] [IC, ODNI, DNI, NCTC, and other post-IRTPA changes] [the Obama administration has done little to reverse the trend begun under the Bush administration] [followup] [use psci355] [was it political appointees near top or rank and file who bought into the Bush disasters?] [first broke yesterday; I have the 43-page report (PDF) but will read it this weekend] [use psci355] [*] [note: I read the 43-page report yesterday and concluded that Cheney was neck deep] [W. Bush did not have the gumption to order some of the tough actions with administration DOJ officials attributed to him AND Addington was nearly always in the key meetings; hence it must have been Cheney!] [*]
The Central Intelligence Agency withheld information about a secret counterterrorism program from Congress for eight years on direct orders from former Vice President Dick Cheney, [parsing the language: counterterrorism program sounds much more like paramilitary than it does like clandestine intelligence collection] [*] the

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Democrats May Investigate Secret Program

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/11/AR2009071103011.html
Democrats May Investigate Secret Program
By Paul Kane and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 12, 2009 [Obama White House] [111th congress, 1st session] [inherited President W. Bush TSPs and illegal enemy combatants and “enhanced-interrogation techniques”] [Obama’s national-security team] [IC, ODNI, DNI, NCTC, and other post-IRTPA changes] [the Obama administration has done little to reverse the trend begun under the Bush administration] [followup] [since Panetta became director of CIA he’s become understandably protective (parochialism)] [but he also comes from congress and understands how critical oversight it] [he’s now discovered that during Bush administration somebody directed CIA to shed its risk aversion and accept all sort of new risks, against CIA’s better interests?] [use psci355] [was it political appointees near top or rank and file who bought into the Bush disasters?] [first broke yesterday; I have the 43-page report (PDF) but will read it this weekend] [use psci355] [*]
House Democrats said yesterday that they expect to launch a formal investigation into a secret CIA program that was not disclosed to Congress for almost eight years, a probe

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July 07, 2009

Remembering McNamara's Hope for Peace

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/06/AR2009070603771.html
Remembering McNamara's Hope for Peace
By Walter Pincus
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 [Robert Strange McNamara] [his middle name said most of it] [he died early yesterday—see OBIT yesterday] [use psci358] [perhaps the man most responsible for chaning the perception of the secretary of defense to the cabinent slot with the most] [until sometime after McNamara, secretary of state was the most important cabinent post] [that began changing after McN and has remained since] [state and defense are pretty much seen as equal these days with one or the other outshining depending on whom the occupant is] [personal aspects of the man] [use psci355] [*]
Robert S. McNamara's last message to his wife, Diana, was typical, no nonsense. "No funeral/memorial service" was the way it began. [he loved to talk about how important he was in indirect ways so it looked like he was being humble when he wasn’t] [*]

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July 06, 2009

Ex-Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara Dies at 93

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/us/07mcnamara.html
July 7, 2009
Ex-Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara Dies at 93
By TIM WEINER [OBIT] [Robert Strange McNamara] [his middle name said most of it] [he died early today] [use psci358] [perhaps the man most responsible for chaning the perception of the secretary of defense to the cabinent slot with the most] [until sometime after McNamara, secretary of state was the most important cabinent post] [that began changing after McN and has remained since] [state and defense are pretty much seen as equal these days with one or the other outshining depending on whom the occupant is] [Clinton probably outweighs Gates simply because who she is] [use nsc] [use psci355] [*]
Robert S. McNamara, perhaps the most influential defense secretary of the 20th century, who helped lead the nation into the maelstrom of Vietnam and spent the rest of

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July 05, 2009

Obama’s Youthful Ideals Shaped the Long Arc of His Nuclear-Free Vision

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/world/05nuclear.html
July 5, 2009
Obama’s Youthful Ideals Shaped the Long Arc of His Nuclear-Free Vision
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER [Obama administration] [President Obama] [in formative years his impressions on nukes and Mutually Assured Destruction, MAD] [cross govt] [**]
In the depths of the cold war, in 1983, a senior at Columbia University wrote in a campus newsmagazine, Sundial, about the vision of “a nuclear free world.” [not long after Reagan, of all people, also began calling for nuclear free world] [see Rekajavik summit] [*] He railed against discussions of “first- versus second-strike capabilities” that “suit the military-industrial interests” with their “billion-dollar erector sets,” and agitated

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July 04, 2009

A Pentagon Trailblazer, Rethinking U.S. Defense

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/04/us/04flournoy.html
July 4, 2009
The Saturday Profile
A Pentagon Trailblazer, Rethinking U.S. Defense
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
WASHINGTON [Obama administration] [DoD] [Michele Flournoy, from the Center for a New American Security?] [really interesting thinktank from which the Obama administration has drawn some impressive talent] [she was heading or co heading it before joining] [“one of the highest-ranking” women in the history of the Pentagon] [under secretary of defense for policy] [cross govt] [**]
MICHÈLE A. FLOURNOY, one of the highest-ranking women in the history of the Pentagon, did not have a childhood that would immediately suggest a future as a

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July 03, 2009

New Evidence Cheney Swayed Reaction to Leak

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070203608.html
New Evidence Cheney Swayed Reaction to Leak
Discussions of CIA Agent Listed in Filing
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 3, 2009 [bush white house] [veep cheney] [it gets weirder and weider] [his was so role busting and personal that one does not even know where to begin] [more pretty convincing evidence, if pieced together with other threads, that Libby lied to cover up for Cheney] [that would certainly explain why Cheney was angry at Bush for refusalb to pardon] [I suspect Bush was angry at Cheney for going behind Bush’s back so much] [strange] [use role theory] [cross in govt too] [use psci355] [cross in govt] [*]
A document filed in federal court this week by the Justice Department offers new evidence that former vice president Richard B. Cheney helped steer the Bush administration's public response to the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson's

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July 01, 2009

Some Graphic Language at This Intelligence Agency

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/30/AR2009063004026.html
Some Graphic Language at This Intelligence Agency
By Al Kamen
Wednesday, July 1, 2009 [obama white house] [intelligence community: IC] [NSC generally and NSC bureaucratically, and its large, parochial IC] [bureaucracy] [the forced marriage of Leon Panetta (director of CIA or what used to be called DCI before IRPTAA) and the director of national security (DNI Blair)] [somewhat surprisingly, they can’t seen to get along] [Panetta has been captured, so it would appear, by elements within the CIA that are set on fighting turf battles and refighting battles that were apparently settled already] [cross in individual-role] [*]
Seems Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair and CIA Director Leon Panetta

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June 30, 2009

For a Post in Europe, a Renaissance Admiral

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/world/30nato.html
June 30, 2009
For a Post in Europe, a Renaissance Admiral
By THOM SHANKER [obama white house] [general bureaucracy at most] [DoD and Pentagon, Navy] [SOUTCOM] [since GNA (1986?), the regional commands each have a commander in chief (statutory not constitutional!) know as CINC] [so former SOUTHCINC (and CENTCINC) from 2006-recent, moving on to NATO?] [note: will partner with AfPak’s commander (theater) General McChrystyk about whom much ink has been used in past month or two] [Obama administration looks to be quietly enlisting additional NATO help in AfPak (once had but lost after –Iraq invasion)] [*]
WASHINGTON — When Adm. James G. Stavridis [*]took over the military’s Southern

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June 28, 2009

I Led Two Wars

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/books/review/Wheatcroft-t.html
June 28, 2009
I Led Two Wars
By GEOFFREY WHEATCROFT
Skip to next paragraph
WAR OF NECESSITY, WAR OF CHOICE
A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars
By Richard N. Haass
336 pp. Simon & Schuster. $27 [Bush white house] [president-NSC-policymaking model] [NSC principals; NSC deputies; interagency process; IC; virtually all the vast foreign-policy and national-security bureaucracy] [a tale of two wars: Afghanistan where the US had little choice but to respond to attack (and recall the genuine concern that much more was on the way) and Iraq where President Bush and his neoconservative coterie were absolutely certain that Saddam lay at the crossroads of jihadis and WMD] [so certain were they that they circumvented the IC by creating a parallel DoD entity (Feith’s Little Shop of Horrors, or in bureaucratese, the office of special operations)] [a process bereft of checks and balances and which ultimately hurt the president] [veep cheney’s office and its steroid-induced behavior] [role cockup] [use psci355, 455] [use nsc] [cross in societa] [**]
“All wars are fought three times,” Richard N. Haass writes. “There is the political

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June 24, 2009

Tapes on G.O.P. Women and Anti-Semitism

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/us/politics/24nixonside.html
June 24, 2009
Tapes on G.O.P. Women and Anti-Semitism
ON GOOD-LOOKING REPUBLICAN WOMEN [Nixon administration] [historical interest] [politicization of policy, domestic and foreign] [use psci358, 355] [**]
When I spoke to the South Carolina Legislature, I noticed a couple of very attractive women, both of them Republicans, in the Legislature. ... I don’t want to go through with a Lenore Romney thing, but I want you to be sure to emphasize to our people: God, let’s look for some. Understand, I don’t do it because I’m for women; I do it because I think

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On Nixon Tapes, Ambivalence Over Abortion, Not Watergate

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/us/politics/24nixon.html
June 24, 2009
On Nixon Tapes, Ambivalence Over Abortion, Not Watergate
By CHARLIE SAVAGE [Nixon administration] [historical interest] [politicization of policy, domestic and foreign] [use psci358, 355] [**]
WASHINGTON — On Jan. 23, 1973, when the Supreme Court struck down laws criminalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade, President Richard M. Nixon made no public statement. But privately, newly released tapes reveal, he expressed ambivalence.

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Democrat Endorsed Cambodia Invasion

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/23/AR2009062303508.html
Democrat Endorsed Cambodia Invasion
Nixon Papers Cite 1970 Conversation
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 [Nixon administration] [historical interest] [politicization of policy, domestic and foreign] [use psci358, 355] [**]
Five days before U.S. and South Vietnamese troops made their surprise move into Cambodia on April 29, 1970, then-President Richard M. Nixon got the approval of the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee for that action, according for documents released yesterday by the Nixon library.

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Cheney to Publish His Memoir

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/books/24cheney.html
June 24, 2009
Cheney to Publish His Memoir
By MOTOKO RICH [former Bush White House] [former Veep Cheney] [in some ways this is what President Bush gets for letting this guy pick himself as veep] [in other ways, he’s really trashed President Bush’s reputation in some ways] [and Cheney is always quick ot put Cheney’s needs and what’s best for Cheney ahead of President Bush’s needs (or America’s) and what’s best for the US] [so here’s Cheney kicking dirt in President Bush’s face again—this time over Cheney’s memoirs versus Bush’s] [that’s pretty awful when the veep’s memoirs fetch more and are far-mopre anticipated than are the president’s] [use psci355] [**]
As widely expected, Vice President Dick Cheney has signed a deal with an imprint of

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June 19, 2009

Bush Hopes Closing Won’t Harm Security

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/19/us/19bush.html
June 19, 2009
Bush Hopes Closing Won’t Harm Security
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [former Bush administration] [Obama’s national-security team] [bureaucracy] [former President W. Bush] [in month 6th month of news Obama presidency] [former President Bush gave speech to raise some coin] [I didn’t think is was particularly savage or fire breathing] [I also don’t thin he really violated his pledge to keep his yap closed and let the new guy do his job without a lot of commentary from the peanut gallery] [**]
ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Former President George W. Bush said he hoped his successor’s plans to close the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, would not compromise

Continue reading "Bush Hopes Closing Won’t Harm Security" »

June 16, 2009

New Afghanistan Commander Will Review Troop Placements

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/15/AR2009061502884.html
New Afghanistan Commander Will Review Troop Placements
By Greg Jaffe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 16, 2009 [Afghanistan] [hydra] [Pakistan as central hub in AfPak wheel] [AfPak] [thus far the “spring offensive” has been relatively mild] [it feels as though US-West are all waiting for some big event] [Pakistan’s robust role in transnational war, villany, complications?] [followup] [Afghanistan (read Karzai) limps toward another round of elections?] [President Obama’s selection of McChrystul receives the batton] [counterinsurgency is underway?] [now that he’s in command, he needs to shape the forces for the mission—the counterinsurgency mission now be undertaken] [cross in govt and individual-tole?] [**]
KABUL, June 15 -- Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who took over Monday as the top

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June 13, 2009

Can National Security Adviser James Jones Survive a Second Round of Attacks and "Longer Knives"?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemons/can-national-security-adv_b_214672.html
[6/13/09 3:06 PM]
The Huffington Post
June 13, 2009
Steve Clemons
Can National Security Adviser James Jones Survive a Second Round of Attacks and "Longer Knives"?
[individual-role] [Obama white house] [NSC level: principals and deputies] [president-NSC-policymaking model] [NSC advisor General (retired) James Jones] [use nsc] [use psci355, 455] [**]
I am here in London where I'm participating in an interesting forum sponsored by the Princeton Project on National Security and the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Transatlantic Program, I've received not just one email -- but three -- from prominent insider journalists and policy hands that Jim Jones' tenure as National Security Adviser

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How's Biden Doing These Days?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/12/AR2009061203322.html
How's Biden Doing These Days?
Sunday, June 14, 2009 [individual-role] [veep Biden] [nearly 5 months deep] [and it’s first post-1—day measurement time?] [punditocracy, regular media, political hacks that are not necessarily part of the government] [suss out Veep Biden ROLE in this administration] [probably wouldn’t be so important except for fact that Veep (former) Cheney was so influential and his role still poorly understood overall] [cross in societal] [use role theory] [does this tell us anything about Veep Biden’s role in president-NSC-policymaking model?] [use nsc] [use psci355, 455] [**]

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Obama's Friends, Aides Help Shape Stance on Settlements

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/12/AR2009061204044.html
Obama's Friends, Aides Help Shape Stance on Settlements
President Sees Expansion as Blocking Mideast Peace Deal
By Glenn Kessler and Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, June 13, 2009 [cross in govt] [use nsc] [some president-NSC-policymaking model: process] [also, invidual idiosyncratic stuff] [use psci355] [**]
President Obama's close friends and key advisers have helped him shape the toughest line against the continued expansion of Israeli settlements since the administration of President Jimmy Carter.

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June 12, 2009

Petraeus: 'Tough Months' Lie Ahead in Afghan War

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061101767.html
Petraeus: 'Tough Months' Lie Ahead in Afghan War
Counterinsurgency Strategy Outlined
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 12, 2009 [Obama white house] [president Obama and national-security team][111th congress, 1st session] [Obama’s national-security team] [Dennis Blair as DNI] [Panetta as CIA director] [Gen (retired) James Jones as NSC adviser] [Sec Def Robert Gates held over from Bush] [and SecState Clinton] [bureaucracy and some NSC levels] [CENTCOM, DoD, Pentagon, NSC] [AfPak and gsave; counterinsurgency] [use psci355] [each week this becomes increasingly President Obama’s baby!] [cross in govt] [***]
Violence in Afghanistan last week reached its highest levels since the U.S.-led

Continue reading "Petraeus: 'Tough Months' Lie Ahead in Afghan War" »

June 11, 2009

U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Is Given More Leeway

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/11/world/asia/11command.html
June 11, 2009
U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Is Given More Leeway
By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT [Obama white house] [president Obama and national-security team][111th congress, 1st session] [Obama’s national-security team] [Dennis Blair as DNI] [Panetta as CIA director] [Gen (retired) James Jones as NSC adviser] [Sec Def Robert Gates held over from Bush] [and SecState Clinton] [bureaucracy and some NSC levels] [CENTCOM, DoD, Pentagon, NSC] [AfPak and gsave; counterinsurgency] [use psci355] [each week this becomes increasingly President Obama’s baby!] [cross in individual-role] [***]
WASHINGTON — The new American commander in Afghanistan has been given carte blanche to handpick a dream team of subordinates, including many Special Operations veterans, as he moves to carry out an ambitious new strategy that envisions stepped-up

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Can The One Have Fun?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/opinion/10dowd.html
June 10, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Can The One Have Fun?
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON [oped] [columnist] [President Obama] [ostensibly about Pres Obama’s trip to Europe and Middle east] [his wife and kids met him in Europe] [and the GOP went nuts about him using tax payer money to fly his wife and children] [wtf?] [what about W. Bush’s million special trips to Crawford and Camp David?] [cross in individual-role] [**]
The fun police are patrolling Pennsylvania Avenue.

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U.S. Envoy Reassures and Presses a Wary Israel

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/world/middleeast/10mideast.html
June 10, 2009
U.S. Envoy Reassures and Presses a Wary Israel
By ISABEL KERSHNER [Israel] [domestic politics intersects foreign policy] [US-Israeli relations] [followup] [President Obama’s Cairo speech nearly 2 weeks ago now] [former Senator Mitchell back to the region when the rubber meets the road] [a lot of hand holding and probably a lot of winks and nodds ever since the speech continue in earnest] [cross in govt and individual-role] [**]
JERUSALEM — President Obama’s Middle East envoy sought Tuesday to allay fears

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June 10, 2009

Turf Battles on Intelligence Pose Test for Spy Chiefs

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/us/politics/09intel.html
June 9, 2009
Turf Battles on Intelligence Pose Test for Spy Chiefs
By MARK MAZZETTI [Obama white house] [president Obama and national-security team][111th congress, 1st session] [Obama’s national-security team] [Dennis Blair as DNI] [Panetta as CIA director] [Gen (retired) James Jones as NSC adviser] [Sec Def Robert Gates held over from Bush] [and SecState Clinton] [bureaucracy] [IC and other bureaucracies] [turf wars continue] [post-IRTPA reorganizations and America’s imperative for accurate intelligence] [use psci355] [this series entirely on the Obama watch!] [cross in individual-role] [***]
WASHINGTON — On May 19, Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, sent a classified memorandum announcing that his office would use its authority to select the

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June 06, 2009

Jim Jones's Team

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/05/AR2009060502832.html
Jim Jones's Team
By David Ignatius
Sunday, June 7, 2009 [oped] [columnist] [Ignatius’ sources on how the Obama-president-NSC-policymaking model functions] [use nsc] [use psci355, 455] [cross in govt and individual-role] [****]
Defense Secretary Robert Gates doesn't give interviews all that often. So it was interesting that Gates reached out last week to talk about Gen. Jim Jones, the national security adviser, and how he is managing the foreign policy process in the Obama

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June 05, 2009

Pakistan Says Tide Has Turned in Swat; Refugees Not So Sure

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/04/AR2009060404541.html
Pakistan Says Tide Has Turned in Swat; Refugees Not So Sure
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 5, 2009 [Pakistan] [hydra] [Pakistan became the clear staging area for operations into Afghanistan during 2007] [AfPak] [additional indications that offensive is on: Taliban getting bolder in their stronghold] [hard to know where the insurgency ends and common criminality begins] [Swat and other accomodations] [followup] [use psci469b] [Taliban and jihadis move closer to Islamabad] [general populace has fled Talibanization] [use psci469b] [cross in govt and individual] [***]
SWABI, Pakistan, June 4 -- Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, declared

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June 04, 2009

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON A NEW BEGINNING

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-at-Cairo-University-6-04-09/
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Cairo,Egypt)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 4, 2009
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON A NEW BEGINNING
Cairo University
Cairo, Egypt
1:10 P.M. (Local) [obama white house] [originated in campaign last year] [proably mostly bureaucracy for weeks into the administration] [slowly but surely NSC levels (including principals and deputies) growing involvement] [NSC level and possibly political shop likely behind the careful threading of the needle represented in the speech] [cross in individual: Obama apparently loves incredible challenges] [my training makes me cynical about prospects] [but the environment is such that who knows what might happen?] [for certain: historic speech] [111th congress, ast session] [use psci350, 355, 469b] [****]
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I am honored to be in

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June 03, 2009

Cheney Led Briefings of Lawmakers To Defend Interrogation Techniques

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/02/AR2009060203999.html
Cheney Led Briefings of Lawmakers To Defend Interrogation Techniques
By Paul Kane and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 [bush white house] [veep cheney] [it gets weirder and weider] [his was so role busting and persona that one does not even know where to begin] [use role theory] [cross in govt too] [use psci355] [*****]
Former vice president Richard B. Cheney personally oversaw at least four briefings with senior members of Congress about the controversial interrogation program, part of a

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In Air and on the Ground, Trials Marked Gates’s Trip

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/03/world/asia/03gates.html
June 3, 2009
In Air and on the Ground, Trials Marked Gates’s Trip
By ELISABETH BUMILLER [obama white house] [SecDef Robert Gates] [just returning from important trip abroad including Asia] [one cockup after another] [while this is mostly amusing info] [some texture on his idosyncracies and personal pecadillos] [****]
ANCHORAGE — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates runs the most powerful military in the world, but his six-day trip to Asia and Alaska this past week proved how much

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June 02, 2009

Obama to Name N.Y. Congressman the Army Secretary

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/obama-to-name-ny-congressman-the-army-secretary
The Caucus - The Politics and Government blog of The New York Times
June 2, 2009, 9:00 am
Obama to Name N.Y. Congressman the Army Secretary
By Carl Hulse [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [nominee for secretary of the Army] [another Republican] [I cannot imagine him having much trouble passing muster] [archive individual-role also] [****]
Representative John M. McHugh, a Republican congressman from New York, will be nominated by President Obama to be secretary of the Army, according to officials, as

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McChrystal to Face Questions on Plans for Afghanistan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/01/AR2009060103732.html
McChrystal to Face Questions on Plans for Afghanistan
By Karen DeYoung and Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 [Obama white house] [111th congress, 1st session] [its advice and consent prerogatives] [national-security team] [NSC princiaps and bureaucracy] [gsave and Patraeus counterinsurgency strategy in AfPak] [obama has apparently bought in all the way] [now comes the house cleaning to put the right parts in place] [my gut tells me Patraeus was principally responsible for McChrystal’s supplantation of McKeirnan] [McChrustal has special ops and those special military units (SMUs) all over him] [he appears to thrive as square peg in round hole] [archive in individual-role] [****]
Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal will appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee today to answer questions about the future -- including his plans for

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May 27, 2009

Colin Powell's Truths

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/26/AR2009052602787.html
Colin Powell's Truths
By Michael Gerson
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 [oped] [columnist] [former Bush speech writer on Powell-Cheney dichotomy] [****]
Last week's explosive Cheney-Obama rhetorical showdown ended in a damp fizzle of substantive agreement about the continuation of military commissions, about the need for indefinite detention of some terrorists and about the three-ring foolishness of a "truth commission." The sharpest dispute, it turned out, concerned interrogation practices discontinued six years ago. Meanwhile, President Obama continues the targeted killings of terrorists by drones in Pakistan and the rendition of terrorists to friends less punctilious in their application of the Geneva Conventions. It is hypocrisy -- but

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May 26, 2009

Nomination of U.S. Afghan Commander Revives Questions in Tillman Case

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/world/asia/26command.html
May 26, 2009
Nomination of U.S. Afghan Commander Revives Questions in Tillman Case
By THOM SHANKER [Obama white house] [national-security team] [NSC princiaps and bureaucracy] [gsave and Patraeus counterinsurgency strategy in AfPak] [obama has apparently bought in all the way] [now comes the house cleaning to put the right parts in place] [my gut tells me Patraeus was principally responsible for McChrystal’s supplantation of McKeirnan] [McChrystal has special ops and those special military units (SMUs) all over him] [he appears to thrive as square peg in round hole] [archive in individual-role] [****]
WASHINGTON — One was a football hero who roused the nation when he quit a high-

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May 25, 2009

Powell, Answering Critics, Urges GOP to 'Reach Out'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/24/AR2009052400863.html
Powell, Answering Critics, Urges GOP to 'Reach Out'
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 25, 2009 [former SecState Powell] [first W. Bush term] [apparently getting bugged by Cheney and others shoting mouths off about who constitutes a rebpuclican and who doesn’t] [most Americans have no idea how far back the bad blood between them is] [See Woodward’s The General for HW Bush’s second choice for secdef, Cheney who tangled with Powell and diliked the access and influence Powell had as CJCS] [use psci355] [****]
Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell yesterday reaffirmed his allegiance to the Republican Party and called for a "no-holds-barred, candid" debate about the party's

Continue reading "Powell, Answering Critics, Urges GOP to 'Reach Out'" »

Powell, Answering Critics, Urges GOP to 'Reach Out'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/24/AR2009052400863.html
Powell, Answering Critics, Urges GOP to 'Reach Out'
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 25, 2009 [former SecState Powell] [first W. Bush term] [apparently getting bugged by Cheney and others shoting mouths off about who constitutes a rebpuclican and who doesn’t] [most Americans have no idea how far back the bad blood between them is] [See Woodward’s The General for HW Bush’s second choice for secdef, Cheney who tangled with Powell and diliked the access and influence Powell had as CJCS] [use psci355] [****]
Former secretary of state Colin L. Powell yesterday reaffirmed his allegiance to the Republican Party and called for a "no-holds-barred, candid" debate about the party's future.

Continue reading "Powell, Answering Critics, Urges GOP to 'Reach Out'" »

Powell Jousts With Cheney on Path of Republican Party

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/25/us/25talkshows.html
May 25, 2009
Powell Jousts With Cheney on Path of Republican Party
By ADAM NAGOURNEY [former SecState Powell] [first W. Bush term] [apparently getting bugged by Cheney and others shoting mouths off about who constitutes a rebpuclican and who doesn’t] [most Americans have no idea how far back the bad blood between them is] [See Woodward’s The General for HW Bush’s second choice for secdef, Cheney who tangled with Powell and diliked the access and influence Powell had as CJCS] [use psci355] [****]
WASHINGTON — Colin L. Powell challenged Dick Cheney on the legacy of the Bush administration and the future of the Republican Party on Sunday, declaring that

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May 24, 2009

STATEMENTS OF U.S. PRESIDENTS

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/23/AR2009052301871.html
STATEMENTS OF U.S. PRESIDENTS
Sunday, May 24, 2009 [Obama administration] [US presidential administrations since 1967 if not before] [continuity in USFP] [archive in role too] [US-Israeli relations] [Israeli-Arab conflicts] [*****]
"Our position on the settlements is very clear. We do not think they are legal, and they

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May 23, 2009

Cheney Seeks Book Deal on Bush Years and More

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/23/us/politics/23cheney.html
May 23, 2009
Cheney Seeks Book Deal on Bush Years and More
By JIM RUTENBERG and MOTOKO RICH [former veep cheney] [AEI] [one-man crew set on defending much that is indefensible] [in fariness, I think it’s important to be honest about it] [most of us were so scared after 9/11 that we wanted dramatic action] [but even inside the bush administration people came to realize lines had been crossed] [see Brooks oped today] [here Cheney comes off as Cheney: arrogance and hubris supreme] [sort of stunning really] [illustrative example][he was clearly miffed that he had to wait for Obama before his speech could get max media coverage] [use psci355] [****]
WASHINGTON — With his sustained blitz of television appearances and speeches,

Continue reading "Cheney Seeks Book Deal on Bush Years and More" »

In TV Appearance, Powell Plans To Answer Right-Wing Critics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/22/AR2009052203555.html
In TV Appearance, Powell Plans To Answer Right-Wing Critics
By Michael D. Shear and Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, May 23, 2009 [former SecState Powell] [first W. Bush term] [apparently getting bugged by Cheney and others shoting mouths off about who constitutes a rebpuclican and who doesn’t] [most Americans have no idea how far back the bad blood between them is] [See Woodward’s The General for HW Bush’s second choice for secdef, Cheney who tangled with Powell and diliked the access and influence Powell had as CJCS] [use psci355] [****]
Under intense fire from the right, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell is preparing to

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May 22, 2009

Cheney Says Current Policies Put More Americans at Risk

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/21/AR2009052104427.html
Cheney Says Current Policies Put More Americans at Risk
By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 22, 2009
Unrepentant and newly unbridled, former vice president Richard B. Cheney has embraced two missions in his political retirement: to forcefully defend the Bush

Continue reading "Cheney Says Current Policies Put More Americans at Risk" »

A ‘Freer’ Cheney Makes Case (With Dual Focus)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/22/us/politics/22cheney.html
May 22, 2009
POLITICAL MEMO
A ‘Freer’ Cheney Makes Case (With Dual Focus)
By JIM RUTENBERG [former veep cheney] [AEI] [one-man crew set on defending much that is indefensible] [in fariness, I think it’s important to be honest about it] [most of us were so scared after 9/11 that we wanted dramatic action] [but even inside the bush administration people came to realize lines had been crossed] [see Brooks oped today] [here Cheney comes off as Cheney: arrogance and hubris supreme] [sort of stunning really] [illustrative example][he was clearly miffed that he had to wait for Obama before his speech could get max media coverage] [use psci355] [****]
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney made clear on Thursday his disdain

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A Week of Meetings Shaped Address

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/21/AR2009052104353.html
A Week of Meetings Shaped Address
Friday, May 22, 2009 [obama white house] [president obama] [on US security and US values and principles] [the rewrite bush43’s 1st term revisionists have been pushing hard on the new administration, particularly and uncharacteristically, veep cheney] [veeps like presidents are supposed to fade away] [cheney has intentionally gone after early and often on 9/11 national security] [war of SIGs involved] [ineed just after obama gave this scheduled speech] [former veep cheney gave a rebuttal-type speech at (shocker!) AE!] [use psci355, 455] [use individual] [*****]
President Obama paced the Oval Office, the debate about torture and detainees clearly

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May 21, 2009

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON NATIONAL SECURITY

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-On-National-Security-5-21-09/
[accessed 5/21/09 3:18 PM]
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________
For Immediate Release May 21, 2009
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON NATIONAL SECURITY
National Archives
Washington, D.C.
10:28 A.M. EDT [obama white house] [president obama] [on US security and US values and principles] [the rewrite bush43’s 1st term revisionists have been pushing hard on the new administration, particularly and uncharacteristically, veep cheney] [veeps like presidents are supposed to fade away] [cheney has intentionally gone after early and often on 9/11 national security] [war of SIGs involved] [ineed just after obama gave this scheduled speech] [former veep cheney gave a rebuttal-type speech at (shocker!) AE!] [use psci355, 455] [use role theory] [archive in govt too] [*****]
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, everybody. Please be seated. Thank you all for being

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Little New in Obama's Immigration Policy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/19/AR2009051903404.html
Little New in Obama's Immigration Policy
While Embracing Bush's Programs, President Says Nuance Makes the Difference
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 [role] [Obama white house] [versus Bush white house] immigration policy] [continuity in USFP] [use psci355] [arcive govt too] [****]
Although President Obama has spent much of his time in office moving away from the policies of his predecessor, on immigration enforcement, he has embraced several

Continue reading "Little New in Obama's Immigration Policy" »

Little New in Obama's Immigration Policy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/19/AR2009051903404.html
Little New in Obama's Immigration Policy
While Embracing Bush's Programs, President Says Nuance Makes the Difference
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 [role] [Obama white house] [versus Bush white house] immigration policy] [continuity in USFP] [use psci355] [arcive govt too] [****]
Although President Obama has spent much of his time in office moving away from the policies of his predecessor, on immigration enforcement, he has embraced several

Continue reading "Little New in Obama's Immigration Policy" »

May 20, 2009

Cheney Grabs a Third Term

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/opinion/20dowd.html
May 20, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Cheney Grabs a Third Term
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON [oped] [columnist] [on Cheney-Rummy cabal and odd relationship during the Bush presidency (almost exclusively 1st term as we have learned that Bush and Cheney had row over Ashcroft-Comey-resignations/mutiny-over TSPs that DoJ said were illegal] [Dowd apparently among the liberals-progressives who are “disappointed” with Obama] [you’d think she might know better having watched a few transitions] [use role theory] [****]
Dick and Rummy are at Cafe Milano in Georgetown, holding court. The maître d’ fawns.

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May 18, 2009

AND HE SHALL BE JUDGED

http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?id=content_9217
[accessed 5/17/09 11:04 AM]
AND HE SHALL BE JUDGED
Former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld has always answered his detractors by claiming that history will one day judge him kindly. But as he waits for that day, a new group of critics—his administration peers—are suddenly speaking out for the first time. What they’re saying? It isn’t pretty
By Robert Draper [individual] [Draper who’s usually pretty good] [but this doesn’t even pass smell test] [it has a Rummsfeld who was so interested in kissing Bush’s ass that

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Gen. Jones and the Anonymous Long Knives

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/17/AR2009051701729.html
Gen. Jones and the Anonymous Long Knives
By Sally Quinn
Monday, May 18, 2009 [oped] [columnist] [another on NSC advisor Jones] [this one asserts the long knives are out for his scalp] use nsc] [archive in individual-role too] [use psci355, 455] [****]
The knives are out. The tom-toms are beating. And by Washington standards it's soon. Usually the trashing of the national security adviser takes longer.

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May 17, 2009

As President, Obama Is Unafraid to Disappoint His Allies

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/16/AR2009051601162.html
As President, Obama Is Unafraid to Disappoint His Allies
By Dan Balz
Sunday, May 17, 2009 [mostly individual] [Obama as a personality type] [confident] [like most everyone else he loves to be loved] [but he’s also surpremly confident—or gives that appearance—and seems comfortable in pissing off his supporters over issues on which he thinks he’s right or where the practical consequence matters] [he’s surely more interesting that Bush was] [use role theory] [****]
Through much of last year's campaign, Barack Obama enjoyed the acclaim of a politician who seemed adept at making himself all things to almost all people. Liberals,

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May 16, 2009

Obama After Bush: Leading by Second Thought

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/us/politics/16obama.html
May 16, 2009
News Analysis
Obama After Bush: Leading by Second Thought
By DAVID E. SANGER [Role] [interesting comparison of Bush administration with its successor Obama administration] [mostly role though some idiosyncratic (individual) stuff too] [useful for psci355, 455] [use role theory] [archive in govt too] [****]
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s decisions this week to retain important elements

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Chastise Cheney

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/opinion/16blow.htm
May 16, 2009
Op-Ed Columnist
Chastise Cheney
By CHARLES M. BLOW [oped] [columnist] [on Cheney’s rather peculiar loquaciousness recently] [archive in individual] [*****]
This week saw some notable apologies and makings of amends.

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May 15, 2009

A Single-Minded Focus on Dual Wars

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/14/AR2009051404450.html
A Single-Minded Focus on Dual Wars
Defense Secretary Is Reorienting the Military to Meet U.S. Troops' Needs Now
By Greg Jaffe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 15, 2009 [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [SecDef Gates as war-time consigliere] [use psci469] [use psci355, 455] [a little bit of individual, a bit of role] [govt too] [****]
On a rainy night in March, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to witness the military's ritual for welcoming home its war dead.

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Pelosi Says She Knew of Waterboarding by 2003

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/politics/15cong.html
May 15, 2009
Pelosi Says She Knew of Waterboarding by 2003
By CARL HULSE [now Obama white house’s] [Bush white house] [gsave] [NSC principals and subgroupings thereof] [NSC, other venue] [the debates—and many of the critical ones occurred around 9/11—about whether this enemy actually constituted something the US had never seen] [while I recall how scared and worried many were] [a little thoughtfulness suggests that a) basic law enforcement had been successful in past prosecutions and b) in most ways the enemy was not that unique] [shocked, shocked that enhanced-interrogation techniques may have been used] [***]
WASHINGTON — The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, acknowledged for the first time

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May 14, 2009

As Cheney Seizes Spotlight, Many Republicans Wince

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/13/AR2009051303789.html
As Cheney Seizes Spotlight, Many Republicans Wince
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 14, 2009 [Obama white house] [former Bush white house] [former veep Cheney] [shoots off his mouth on as Senate Armed Service Committee report on detainee treatment released—not coincidental!] [enhanced-interrogation techniques] [it’s counterproductive as we can never—no court will allow testimony—prosecute the SOBs for what they did] [almost certainly info has come from “torture”] [but that’s quite different than saying it works] [Cheney strikes me as tough-kid wannabe who ducked military service but still wants to show how tough] [it just rings hollow] [use psci355, 455, 362, 469b] [among the truly scary civilians who wanted military muscle for every challenge] [followup from yesterday] [use this as the two other Veep Cheney pieces in this month’s role-individual for psci355, 455] [use role theory] [archive in societal too] [****]
As vice president, Richard B. Cheney famously spent much of the past eight years in undisclosed locations and offering private advice to President George W. Bush. But past

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May 13, 2009

A General Steps From the Shadows

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/world/asia/13commander.html
May 13, 2009
Man in the News
A General Steps From the Shadows
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and MARK MAZZETTI [Obama white house] [national-security team] [NSC princiaps and bureaucracy] [gsave and Patraeus counterinsurgency strategy in AfPak] [obama has apparently bought in all the way] [now comes the house cleaning to put the right parts in place] [my gut tells me Patraeus was principally responsible for McChrystal’s supplantation of McKeirnan] [McChrustal has special ops and those special military units (SMUs) all over him] [he appears to thrive as square peg in round hole] [archive in individual-role] [****]
WASHINGTON — Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the ascetic who is set to become the

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At Hill Hearing, Details Sought On Afghanistan-Pakistan Policy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/12/AR2009051203669.html
At Hill Hearing, Details Sought On Afghanistan-Pakistan Policy
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 [Obama white house] [gsave] [NSC and sub-NSC levels] [in matter of months, AfPak as deteriorated] [during transition and while Obama’s team underaking review] [now the counterinsurgency outlines is beginning to take shape] [expect increased bloodshed during 2009 into 2010] [then expect military to attempt t peel off reconcilables] [apparently, Patraeus wanted McKeirnan replaced by a new guy who knows counterinsurgency or at least Patraeus’s mo] [new guy: Stanley McChrystal and my guess on Patraeus as impetus looks vindicated] [****]
Some Democratic senators joined Republicans yesterday in questioning whether the

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Switch Signals New Path for Afghan War

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/world/asia/13military.html
May 13, 2009
Switch Signals New Path for Afghan War
By ERIC SCHMITT and MARK MAZZETTI [Obama white house] [gsave] [NSC and sub-NSC levels] [in matter of months, AfPak as deteriorated] [during transition and while Obama’s team underaking review] [now the counterinsurgency outlines is beginning to take shape] [expect increased bloodshed during 2009 into 2010] [then expect military to attempt t peel off reconcilables] [apparently, Patraeus wanted McKeirnan replaced by a new guy who knows counterinsurgency or at least Patraeus’s mo] [new guy: Stanley McChrystal and my guess on Patraeus as impetus looks vindicated] [see today’s individual for more on McChrystal[ [****]
WASHINGTON — Until now, the successive American generals in charge of the war in

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May 11, 2009

Obama Enlists Biden's Expertise About High Court

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/10/AR2009051002129.html
Obama Enlists Biden's Expertise About High Court
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 11, 2009 [individual-role] [veep Biden] [his years on judiciary and his expertise on grilling supreme nominees over the years] [it was something I admit I thought very little about when he was announced as Obama running mate] [overall, most of these factors have augered well for continuation of Vice President Cheney’s role-shattering tenure as veep] [not that Biden will replicate that but I think—and I argued it in my NSC book—we are in for a newly active veep in future NSC principals] [this will eventually affect how candidates select veep picks] [use role theory] [*****]
The person in the White House most knowledgeable about Supreme Court nominations

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May 07, 2009

In Frenetic White House, A Low-Key 'Outsider'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/06/AR2009050604134.html
In Frenetic White House, A Low-Key 'Outsider'
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 7, 2009 [Obama administration] [Obama’s national-security team] [Dennis Blair as DNI] [Panetta as CIA director] [Gen (retired) James Jones as NSC adviser] [individual-role sources of USFP in Obama administration] [finally some info on General Jones] [clearly, qui bono is question in terms of leaks] [use psci355, 455] [***]
President Obama's national security adviser, James L. Jones, looks for rare opportunities to ride his bike from his McLean home to work at the White House. On

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National Security Adviser Tries Quieter Approach

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/us/07jones.html
May 7, 2009
National Security Adviser Tries Quieter Approach
By HELENE COOPER [Obama administration] [Obama’s national-security team] [Dennis Blair as DNI] [Panetta as CIA director] [Gen (retired) James Jones as NSC adviser] [individual-role sources of USFP in Obama administration] [finally some info on General Jones] [clearly, qui bono is question in terms of leaks] [use psci355, 455] [***]
WASHINGTON—On a foreign policy team of supersize egos, Gen. James L. Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, is flying below the radar. Compared with

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April 27, 2009

Holbrooke's Growing Orbit

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/26/AR2009042602360.html
Holbrooke's Growing Orbit
By Al Kamen
Monday, April 27, 2009 [Obama white house in tall weeds on this] [111th congress, 1st session] [carry over from Bush administration] [Obama’s national-security team] [special envoy Holbrooke] [bureaucracy] [mostly state department] [his “orbit” of people] [archive in individual-role too] [***]
Lest anyone think all those new "special envoys" at the State Department come free, the department has submitted a supplemental budget request to the Hill for an extra $8.5

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April 26, 2009

Dick Cheney: The Visible Man

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/weekinreview/26harwood.html
April 26, 2009
Exit Growling
Dick Cheney: The Visible Man
By JOHN HARWOOD [Obama white house] [former Bush white house] [former veep Cheney] [shoots off his mouth on as Senate Armed Service Committee report on detainee treatment released—not coincidental!] [enhanced-interrogation techniques] [it’s counterproductive as we can never—no court will allow testimony—prosecute the SOBs for what they did] [almost certainly info has come from “torture”] [but that’s quite different than saying it works] [Cheney strikes me as tough-kid wannabe who ducked military service but still wants to show how tough] [it just rings hollow] [use psci355, 455, 362, 469b] [among the truly scary civilians who wanted military muscle for every challenge] [followup from yesterday] [use this as the two other Veep Cheney pieces in this month’s role-individual for psci355, 455] [use role theory] [***]
Washington — Dick Cheney became a one-of-a-kind vice president for two reasons: he

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April 25, 2009

Cheney Requests Release of 2 CIA Reports on Interrogations

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/24/AR2009042403645.html
Cheney Requests Release of 2 CIA Reports on Interrogations
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 25, 2009 [Obama white house] [former Bush white house] [former veep Cheney] [shoots off his mouth on as Senate Armed Service Committee report on detainee treatment released—not coincidental!] [enhanced-interrogation techniques] [it’s counterproductive as we can never—no court will allow testimony—prosecute the SOBs for what they did] [almost certainly info has come from “torture”] [but that’s quite different than saying it works] [Cheney strikes me as tough-kid wannabe who ducked military service but still wants to show how tough] [it just rings hollow] [use psci355, 455, 362, 469b] [among the truly scary civilians who wanted military muscle for every challenge] [followup from yesterday] [***]
Former vice president Richard B. Cheney is asking for the release of two CIA reports in his

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Unemployed, Unapologetic and Unrestrained: It’s Cheney Unbound

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/us/24cheney.html
April 24, 2009
Unemployed, Unapologetic and Unrestrained: It’s Cheney Unbound
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG [Obama white house] [former Bush white house] [former veep Cheney] [shoots off his mouth on as Senate Armed Service Committee report on detainee treatment released—not coincidental!] [enhanced-interrogation techniques] [it’s counterproductive as we can never—no court will allow testimony—prosecute the SOBs for what they did] [almost certainly info has come from “torture”] [but that’s quite different than saying it works] [Cheney strikes me as tough-kid wannabe who ducked military service but still wants to show how tough] [it just rings hollow] [use psci355, 455, 362, 469b] [among the truly scary civilians who wanted military muscle for every challenge] [followup] [***]
WASHINGTON — On the mornings he is in town, Dick Cheney wakes up at 6, climbs into his

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April 21, 2009

Obama's Gripping Style Overseas

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042003662.html
Obama's Gripping Style Overseas
By Dan Balz
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [carry over from Bush administration] [Obama’s national-security team] [President Obama] [his style in the Summit of the Americas] [the tempest in a teacup over being polite to tinhat dictators] [was he supposed to scowl to keep the Newts of the world happy that American foreign policy isn’t naïve] [I’m not sure Newt could explain foreign policy if his life depended on it] [but he can demogogue it] [***]
President Obama's weekend of summitry in Latin America will be remembered most for his cordial encounter with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. The images of that handshake

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Counterterrorism Official Urges Broader Approach to Foreign Policy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/20/AR2009042003649.html
Counterterrorism Official Urges Broader Approach to Foreign Policy
By Walter Pincus
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [carry over from Bush administration] [Obama’s national-security team] [Dennis Blair as DNI] [Panetta as CIA director] [Gen (retired) James Jones as NSC adviser] [Sec Def Robert Gates held over from Bush] [and SecState Clinton] [bureaucracy] [National Counterterrorism Center, NCTC] [***]
Michael E. Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, recently presented

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April 09, 2009

President Obama Takes Student Questions in Strasbourg

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0904/03/cnr.01.html
CNN NEWSROOM
President Obama Takes Student Questions in Strasbourg; Employment Numbers Continue to Rise; Mobile Career Counseling
Aired April 3, 2009 - 09:00 ET [Obama White House] [President Obama on al Qaeda] [in response to an American-French student who asked about what President Obama wanted from Europe in terms of gsave] [I think it's an important answer] [I also thinks it shows how concerned he is with al Qaeda and potential for future attacks] [use psci355, 455] [*****]
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

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President Obama Takes Student Questions in Strasbourg

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0904/03/cnr.01.html
CNN NEWSROOM
President Obama Takes Student Questions in Strasbourg; Employment Numbers Continue to Rise; Mobile Career Counseling
Aired April 3, 2009 - 09:00 ET [Obama White House] [President Obama on al Qaeda] [in response to an American-French student who asked about what President Obama wanted from Europe in terms of gsave] [I think it's an important answer] [I also thinks it shows how concerned he is with al Qaeda and potential for future attacks] [use psci355, 455] [*****]
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

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March 29, 2009

Speaking Freely, Biden Finds Influential Role

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/us/politics/29biden.html
March 29, 2009
Speaking Freely, Biden Finds Influential Role
By MARK LEIBOVICH [Obama White House] [111th congress, 1st session] [henceforth, Obama owns AfPak] [Obama’s national-security team] [Dennis Blair as DNI] [Panetta as CIA director] [Gen (retired) James Jones as NSC adviser] [Sec Def Robert Gates held over from Bush] [and SecState Clinton] [bureaucracy] [DOD, IC, NSC, State, others] [gsave in AfPak] [the long-awaited plan] [Veep Biden’s influence] [use psci355, 455] [archive individual-role too] [****]
WASHINGTON — When President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

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March 26, 2009

Envoy Denies Immunity Offer to Leader of Bosnian Serbs

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/world/europe/26hague.html
March 26, 2009
Envoy Denies Immunity Offer to Leader of Bosnian Serbs
By MARLISE SIMONS [Clinton White House] [heldover in Bush and now Obama] [mostly bureaucracy] [but Holbrooke as individual-role] [international criminal tribunal] [ICC] [did Karadic get promises of immunity from the Clinton administration around the Dayton Accords?] [followup] [reportedly, Holbrooke promised him] [did Holbrooke have any such authority?] [archive in external too] [****]
PARIS — A member of the American team negotiating to remove the Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic from power in 1996 said that he was never promised immunity

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March 23, 2009

Leading Military at Time of War, but Not as a ‘War President’

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/us/politics/23chief.html
March 23, 2009
White House Memo
Leading Military at Time of War, but Not as a ‘War President’
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG [Obama white house] [president Obama] [Air Force One interview with NYTs] [the Times’ top reporters involved] [ranges from the economic meltdown to foreign policy] [AfPak, for instance, comes up] [Obama floats the reconcilable idea again] [good news: the commander in chief is thinking in terms of necessary exit strategy] [while I generally agree with counterinsurgency folks (Kilcullen, Nagle, et al., I have yet to hear more than their implicit exist strategy] [namely, when the Afghan forces can control their territory, the US and others may leave] [use psci355, 455] [individual-role] [*****]
WASHINGTON — President Obama rarely, if ever, uses the phrase “war on terror.” Like presidents before him, Mr. Obama has a top-secret intelligence briefing every day, yet it

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Obama Says a Way Out of Afghanistan Is Needed

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/us/politics/23obama.html
March 23, 2009
Obama Says a Way Out of Afghanistan Is Needed
By HELENE COOPER [Obama white house] [president Obama] [Air Force One interview with NYTs] [the Times’ top reporters involved] [ranges from the economic meltdown to foreign policy] [AfPak, for instance, comes up] [Obama floats the reconcilable idea again] [good news: the commander in chief is thinking in terms of necessary exit strategy] [while I generally agree with counterinsurgency folks (Kilcullen, Nagle, et al., I have yet to hear more than their implicit exist strategy] [namely, when the Afghan forces can control their territory, the US and others may leave] [use psci355, 455] [post in individual-role] [*****]
WASHINGTON — The United States must look for a way out of the war in Afghanistan,

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March 22, 2009

Obama Responds to Criticism From Cheney

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/22/us/politics/22obama.html
March 22, 2009
Obama Responds to Criticism From Cheney
By THE NEW YORK TIMES [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [Obama’s national-security team] [President Obama] [in response to former Veep Cheney’s unprecedented? attack on the administration last weekend] [I wonder if it wouldn’t have been smarter to leave it alone?] [why elevate Cheney’s sour grapes to import?] [one reason could be the administration realizes an attack is likely and they need to set the PR infrastructure to counter Cheney’s attempt to do the same from the GOP side] [use psci355, 455, 469b] [individual-role] [****]
WASHINGTON — President Obama has hit back at former Vice President Dick

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March 19, 2009

Bush Book on Decisions Is Set for 2010

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/us/politics/19bush.html
March 19, 2009
Bush Book on Decisions Is Set for 2010
By MOTOKO RICH [former Bush white house] [USFP under Bush] [neoconservative influence in first term that waned in second] [president Bush] [memoirs] [rather than a real memoir he going to write a list of decisions?] [strange but some acquisitions editor is smiling] [***]
As widely expected, former President George W. Bush, like many past occupants of the Oval Office, is writing a book. But rather than delivering a more traditional presidential

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March 16, 2009

Cheney, Bush Strongly Disagreed on Libby

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/15/AR2009031501402.html
Cheney, Bush Strongly Disagreed on Libby
By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 16, 2009; A02 [Obama white house] [former Bush white house] [former veep Cheney] [ironically, he shoots off his mouth on same day a devastating NYTs’ book review and shortened oped on same published] [enhanced-interrogation techniques] [forget whether it’s what the US stands for] [it’s counterproductive as we can never—no court will allow testimony—prosecute the SOBs for what they did] [Cheney completely misunderstands the “law enforcement” versus military approach to gsave] [use psci355, 455, 362, 469b] [Cheney is truly scary] [followup from yesterday’s indivual-role] [Cheney was actually stupid enough to admit that –ir war was for democratization] [belies the administration’s own words and makes Bush and a bunch of others liers] [while I’m big on democracy, the notion that one govt can foist “democracy” on another is absurd] [***]
Former vice president Richard B. Cheney said yesterday that he strongly disagreed with

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March 15, 2009

Cheney says Obama's policies 'raise the risk' of U.S. terror attack

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/15/cheney.interview/index.htmlhttp://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/15/cheney.interview/index.html
Cheney says Obama's policies 'raise the risk' of U.S. terror attack
[Obama white house] [former Bush white house] [former veep Cheney] [ironically, he shoots off his mouth on same day a devastating NYTs’ book review and shortened oped on same published] [enhanced-interrogation techniques] [forget whether it’s what the US stands for] [it’s counterproductive as we can never—no court will allow testimony—prosecute the SOBs for what they did] [Cheney completely misunderstands the “law enforcement” versus military approach to gsave] [use psci355, 455, 362, 469b] [Cheney is truly scary] [this jibes utterly with early insights by Woodward via Pete Williams and others way back in The Commanders] [even then Cheney held grudges] [Cheney believed with nearly religious certainty that his cause was righteous] [and woe be unto those who get in the way of a righteous cause] [***]
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday defended the

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March 09, 2009

President’s Political Protector Is Ever Close at Hand

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/09/us/politics/09axelrod.html
March 9, 2009
President’s Political Protector Is Ever Close at Hand
By JEFF ZELENY [David Axelrod] [what policy segments does he work?] [insofar as he occupies special role in Obama white house] [individual-role is especially critical] [***]
WASHINGTON — The pepperoni and cheese pizzas had been delivered, and a meeting about how to sell President Obama’s economic plan was set to begin — not at the White House, but a few blocks away in the seventh-floor apartment of David Axelrod.

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March 08, 2009

On Clinton's Travels, a Duality in Style

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/07/AR2009030701765.html
On Clinton's Travels, a Duality in Style
Unlike Straight Talk in Asia Trip, Caution Rules Mideast and Europe Visits
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 8, 2009; A10 [Turkey] [broader middle east] [SecState Clinton] [after Sharm el Sheik] [several stopovers] [here she demonstrates the importance the US puts in Turkey as a moderate leader of Islamic world—former Caliphate] [archive in govt too] [see role-individual today for more on Clinton] [Turkey hosted, among other things, “secret” talks between Syria and Israel] [followup] [use psci355, 455] [see today’s external for more] [archive external too] [****]
ANKARA, Turkey, March 7 -- When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with foreign officials, the initial welcome is formal, as in "Greetings, Madame Secretary."

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Reassurance on the Economy, and Addressing Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/us/politics/08excerpts.html
March 8, 2009
Transcript
Reassurance on the Economy, and Addressing Afghanistan
[Obama white house] [president Obama] [Air Force One interview with NYTs] [the Times’ top reporters involved] [ranges from the economic meltdown to foreign policy] [AfPak, for instance, comes up] [Obama floats the reconcilable idea again] [archive in individual-role too] [use psci355, 455] [*****]
President Obama spoke in a 35-minute interview aboard Air Force One on Friday afternoon as he traveled from Columbus, Ohio, to Andrews Air Force Base. Following

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February 25, 2009

Remarks of President Barack Obama -- Address to Joint Session of Congress

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-President-Barack-Obama-Address-to-Joint-Session-of-Congress/
[2/25/09 6:58 AM]
THE BRIEFING ROOM
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Remarks of President Barack Obama -- Address to Joint Session of Congress
Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery
Address to Joint Session of Congress
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009 [Obama administration] [president Obama] [sort of a State of the Union speech] [this has become common] [even during inaugural year] [presidents give semi States of the Union speeched] [Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Obama] [exeptionaly small foreign-policy sections] [the times dictated that he focused on the globalized economy from an American perspective] [hailed as great speech already] [my own thoughts: it was good but beyond role constraints insome ways] [use psci355, 455, 469b] [****]
Madame Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, and the First Lady of the United States: . . . .

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February 24, 2009

Negotiator Picked for Post at State Dept.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/washington/24ross.html
February 24, 2009
Negotiator Picked for Post at State Dept.
By MARK LANDLER [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [bureaucracy] [state department] [surely White House hence NSC vetted] [now comes Dennis Ross again for special work on Iran] [competent negotiator, in my opinion] [nevertheless, the narrow gene pool in Washington] [Obama’s continuity] [archive in individual-role] [use psci355, 455] [followup] [*****]
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday appointed Dennis B. Ross, a seasoned Middle East negotiator under Republican and Democratic presidents, as her special adviser for the gulf and Southwest Asia, a portfolio that will include Iran.

Mr. Ross, whose appointment had been rumored for weeks, will provide Mrs. Clinton with “strategic advice and perspective on the region, offer assessments and also act to ensure effective policy integration throughout the region,” said the acting State Department spokesman, Robert A. Wood.

Mr. Ross’s appointment adds another prominent name to the ranks of special envoys, emissaries and advisers in the State Department. Former Senator George J. Mitchell, the special envoy for the Middle East, and Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, have both returned from their first visits to their regions. [***]

Unlike Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Holbrooke, who are presidential envoys, Mr. Ross will report exclusively to Mrs. Clinton. [***]

Mr. Ross, who advised President Obama during the campaign, has worked in the State Department and the Pentagon. But he is best known for his lengthy negotiations to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Mr. Ross had advocated a tough approach toward Iran that included persuading Europe to increase economic pressure on the government in Tehran. He is a co-founder of United Against Nuclear Iran, a group dedicated to stopping the country from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

(govt)**
(individual-role)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/politics/05cheney.html
February 5, 2009
Cheney Predicts ‘Probability’ of Attack
By MICHAEL FALCONE [former Bush administration] [individual: Cheney] [wholly against role expectations] [Cheney trashes new administration just a couple weeks after they took office] [incredibly, this guy is like the little teapot that cannot keep on its lid] [he cannot wait to lecture America and Obama administration on why they and we will all learn how right he and the Bush team were] [incredibly, some of the dire predictions indict Cheney-Bush: they are the only ones to date who have let gitmo folk leave and insofar as some of them have returned to the battle field—and to be clear the DoD’s figures are clearly problematic—it was Bush-Cheney who released them] [he has some brass to warn Obama about hasty reactions to TSPs] [use psci355, 455, 469b] [***]
WASHINGTON — In an interview two weeks after leaving office, former Vice President

Continue reading "Negotiator Picked for Post at State Dept." »

February 21, 2009

Clinton Reshapes Diplomacy by Tossing the Script

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/world/asia/21diplo.html
February 21, 2009
Clinton Reshapes Diplomacy by Tossing the Script
By MARK LANDLER [see today’s external for more details] [Clinton] [individual] [a strong SecState and president] [but president distracted by other things] [thus, Clinton expanding role that atrophied in past years] [****]
BEIJING — On Friday morning, Hillary Rodham Clinton was the picture of a stern superpower diplomat, warning North Korea not to test a long-range ballistic missile. A few hours later, she was asked by a giggly Korean student how she knew she had fallen

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February 20, 2009

Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/19/AR2009021903332.html
Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence
By Dana Milbank
Friday, February 20, 2009; A03 [societal too as Milibank’s column] [on Richard Perl who is still trying to disavow himself from Vulcan leader] [or even that there was such things as Vulcan philosophy] [he might want to check out PNAC’s website] [it’s pretty clear] [***]
Listening to neoconservative mastermind Richard Perle at the Nixon Center yesterday,

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February 18, 2009

Aides Say No Pardon for Libby Irked Cheney

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/us/politics/18cheney.html
February 18, 2009
Aides Say No Pardon for Libby Irked Cheney
By JIM RUTENBERG and JO BECKER [former veep Cheney] [vice president dick cheney] [on his former national-security adviser, veep chief of statt, and special assistant to the president] [estrangement between Bush and Cheney] [rumors confirmed with this] [rumors had Cheney loosing influence in 2nd term with –ir rapid plunge south, all the neocon philosophy in disrepair, and Rice-Gates axis scoring against the pretorians from first term] [explains why Cheney has criticized Bush and Obama so soon after leaving office: his marker that he still stands his ground] [use psci355, 455] [first reported yesterday by Tom DeFrank—should have noted it for courses] [*****]
WASHINGTON — Dick Cheney spent his final days as vice president making a furious

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February 17, 2009

Ex-VP Dick Cheney outraged President Bush didn't grant 'Scooter' Libby full pardon

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/02/16/2009-02-16_exvp_dick_cheney_outraged_president_bush.html
Exclusive
Ex-VP Dick Cheney outraged President Bush didn't grant 'Scooter' Libby full pardon
BY Thomas M. Defrank
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF
Updated Tuesday, February 17th 2009, 11:00 AM
Wilson/Getty [former veep Cheney] [vice president dick cheney] [on his former national-security adviser, veep chief of statt, and special assistant to the president] [estrangement between Bush and Cheney] [rumors confirmed with this] [rumors had Cheney loosing influence in 2nd term with –ir rapid plunge south, all the neocon philosophy in disrepair, and Rice-Gates axis scoring against the pretorians from first term] [explains why Cheney has criticized Bush and Obama so soon after leaving office: his marker that he still stands his ground] [*****]
WASHINGTON - In the waning days of the Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney launched a last-ditch campaign to persuade his boss to pardon Lewis (Scooter)

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Justice Dept. to Critique Interrogation Methods Backed by Bush Team

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/us/17justice.html
February 17, 2009
Justice Dept. to Critique Interrogation Methods Backed by Bush Team
By SCOTT SHANE [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [former Bush administration’s liberties with the Bill of Rights] [federal judiciary] [another blow against Bush administration’s detention policies and designation as illegal enemy combatants] [Bush TSPs] [how radically will such approaches change under Obama?] [his rhetoric suggests radically] [my experience suggest incrementally] [use psci355, 455] [****]
The Justice Department’s ethics office is in the final stages of a report that sharply criticizes Bush administration lawyers who wrote legal opinions justifying waterboarding

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February 14, 2009

Wrestling With History

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/08/AR2005110801072.html
Wrestling With History
Sometimes you have to fight the war you have, not the war you wish you had
By David Von Drehle
Sunday, November 13, 2005; W12
If only he could show us the memo.

"It's still classified, I suppose?" says Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, looking toward his assistant.

Continue reading "Wrestling With History" »

February 12, 2009

U.S. Offers Europe Goodwill, and Expects Something in Return

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/us/politics/13webcooper.html
February 13, 2009
On the White House
U.S. Offers Europe Goodwill, and Expects Something in Return
By HELENE COOPER [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [fomer Bush administration] [NSC level and below] [restoring links with NATO allies, particularly Western Europe, with whom Bush administration created strains] [use psci355, 455] [individual too] [****]
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s national security team went to Munich last weekend to unveil the new administration’s approach to America’s relations with the rest

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Obama Weighs Adding Troops in Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/world/asia/12prexy.html
February 12, 2009
Obama Weighs Adding Troops in Afghanistan
By HELENE COOPER [Obama administration] [president and NSC advisors have openly grappled with Afghanistan for a week or more] [followup] [additional indications that offensive is on: Taliban getting bolder in their stronghold] [hard to know where the insurgency ends and common criminality begins] [more bad news about civilian deaths by NATO] [Afghanistan going from bad to worse] [awaiting Patraeus’ counterinsurgency program?] [use psci469b] [*****]
WASHINGTON — President Obama is facing a choice on whether to grant commanders’ requests for additional troops in Afghanistan before he has decided on his

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February 11, 2009

U.S. Sought to Expand Asia Base

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/10/AR2009021003273.html
U.S. Sought to Expand Asia Base
Before Closure Threat, Military Planned to Add Capabilities
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 11, 2009; A03 [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [fomer Bush administration] [Central Asia] [again becoming important for US goals in AfPak as insurgents continue to attack the logistics tail form Pakistan to Afghanistan over khyber pass] [recently, bidding war orchestrated by Kyrystan in news] [now more detail] [use psci469] [use psci355, 455] [individual too] [****]
The United States had plans to spend up to $100 million to enlarge loading areas at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan to support Afghanistan operations before the Kyrgyz

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February 09, 2009

‘Mom in Chief’ Touches on Policy, and Tongues Wag

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/us/politics/08michelle.html
February 8, 2009
White House Memo
‘Mom in Chief’ Touches on Policy, and Tongues Wag
By RACHEL L. SWARNS [Obama administration] [use for demonstrating breaking role expectations] [use psci355, 455] [******]
WASHINGTON — The government workers greeted Michelle Obama like a Hollywood celebrity, whooping and cheering and oohing and aahing over her slate gray power suit.

Continue reading "‘Mom in Chief’ Touches on Policy, and Tongues Wag" »

A Military Tactician's Political Strategy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/08/AR2009020802321.html
A Military Tactician's Political Strategy
In Defending the Troop Increase, Commander Paved Way for a 'Long War'
By Thomas E. Ricks
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, February 9, 2009; A01[Bush administration] [Obama administration inherits them] [Patraeus was theater commander in –ir and Odierno was his deputy] [now Patraeus is CENTCINC and Odierno is –ir theater commander] [in any case, they are deeply vested in –ir success] [use psci355, 455] [archive in individual-role] [****]
As Gen. David H. Petraeus flew into Baghdad in February 2007, preparing to take command of U.S. forces in Iraq, Col. Peter R. Mansoor, his executive officer, knelt alongside his seat. "You know, sir," he said, "the hardest thing for you, if it comes to it, will be to tell the American people and the president that this isn't working."

Continue reading "A Military Tactician's Political Strategy" »

Holbrooke Says Afghan War ‘Tougher Than Iraq’

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/world/europe/09munich.html
February 9, 2009
Holbrooke Says Afghan War ‘Tougher Than Iraq’
By NICHOLAS KULISH and HELENE COOPER [archive in external too—abroad] [***]
MUNICH — The war in Afghanistan will be “much tougher than Iraq,” President Obama’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan said at a security conference here on Sunday.

Continue reading "Holbrooke Says Afghan War ‘Tougher Than Iraq’" »

Obama Confidant Plans To Meet Azerbaijani Leader

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/08/AR2009020802333.html
Obama Confidant Plans To Meet Azerbaijani Leader
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 9, 2009; A04 [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [Obama’s national-security team?] [campaign manager David Plouffe chose not to take job inside the administraiton] [instead, he decided to use the huge database of potential donors for special ad hoc support of policy] [how’s it the case that Plouffe is involved with USFP vis-à-vis Azerbijan, source of region oil] [use psci355, 455] [****]
David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama's presidential campaign and was cited by Obama as the "unsung hero" in his ascendancy to the White House, is expected to

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February 08, 2009

White House Memo

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/us/politics/08michelle.html
February 8, 2009
White House Memo
‘Mom in Chief’ Touches on Policy, and Tongues Wag
By RACHEL L. SWARNS [Obama administration] [use for demonstrating breaking role expectations] [use psci355, 455] [******]
WASHINGTON — The government workers greeted Michelle Obama like a Hollywood celebrity, whooping and cheering and oohing and aahing over her slate gray power suit.

Continue reading "White House Memo" »

Back on World Stage, a Larger-Than-Life Holbrooke

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/us/politics/08holbrooke.html
February 8, 2009
Back on World Stage, a Larger-Than-Life Holbrooke
By JODI KANTOR [individual-role] [Holbrooke in limelight again] [seasoned diplomat that stared down Milosevic among others] [his acumen and prowess, notwithstanding, he publicity is his oxygen] [without it he atrophies and dies] [Obama-SecState Clinton’s special envoy for –ir-AfPak] [did he have anything to do with Zinni’s summary replacement by Chris Hill?] [use psci355, 455] [archive in govt too] [*****]
Stashed in a drawer in his Manhattan apartment between snapshots of family vacations, a photograph shows Richard C. Holbrooke on a private visit to Afghanistan in 2006. He is mugging atop an abandoned Russian tank, flashing a sardonic V-for-victory sign and

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The Dissenter Who Changed the War

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/07/AR2009020702153.html
The Dissenter Who Changed the War
As the No. 2 Commander in Iraq, Raymond Odierno Challenged the Military Establishment, Pressing for More Troops and a Long-Term Strategy to Guide Them
By Thomas E. Ricks
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, February 8, 2009; A01 [Bush administration] [Obama administration inherits them] [Patraeus was theater commander in –ir and Odierno was his deputy] [now Patraeus is CENTCINC and Odierno is –ir theater commander] [in any case, they are deeply vested in –ir success] [use psci355, 455] [archive in individual-role] [****]
Army Gen. Raymond T. Odierno was an unlikely dissident, with little in his past to

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About This Series

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/07/AR2009020701739.html
About This Series
Sunday, February 8, 2009; A20 [Bush administration] [Obama administration inherits them] [Patraeus was theater commander in –ir and Odierno was his deputy] [now Patraeus is CENTCINC and Odierno is –ir theater commander] [in any case, they are deeply vested in –ir success] [use psci355, 455] [archive in individual-role] [today’s installment on Odierno mostly] [****]
This two-day series was adapted from "The Gamble: General David Petraeus and the

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February 07, 2009

For Obama, a Trusted Voice Who Knows the Terrain

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/05/AR2009020503817.html
For Obama, a Trusted Voice Who Knows the Terrain
Counsel Craig Takes On an Array of Duties
By Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 6, 2009; Page A01 [individual-role] [Obama’s white house counsel] [old hand in previous govt] [both public and foreign policy experiences] [Gregory B. Craig] [campaigned for Obama] [how influential still to be determine] [might use in psci355, 455] [*****]
After decades moving through the revolving door between the private sector and government service, Gregory B. Craig has landed again at the White House, serving as

Continue reading "For Obama, a Trusted Voice Who Knows the Terrain" »

Biden Rejects Russian Sphere of Influence

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/washington/08biden.html
February 8, 2009
Biden Rejects Russian Sphere of Influence
By HELENE COOPER [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [Veep Biden who may well be an NSC principal, de facto as well as de jure] [under W. Bush Veep Cheney was de jure NSC principal and inarguable the most influential Veep—certainly in terms of USFP but probably many public policies as well—in America’s post WWII history] [archive in individual-role also] [use psci355, 455] [****]
MUNICH—Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. rejected the notion of a Russian sphere of influence, promising that America’s new government under President Obama would

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February 05, 2009

Cheney Predicts ‘Probability’ of Attack

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/politics/05cheney.html
February 5, 2009
Cheney Predicts ‘Probability’ of Attack
By MICHAEL FALCONE [former Bush administration] [individual: Cheney] [wholly against role expectations] [Cheney trashes new administration just a couple weeks after they took office] [incredibly, this guy is like the little teapot that cannot keep on its lid] [he cannot wait to lecture America and Obama administration on why they and we will all learn how right he and the Bush team were] [incredibly, some of the dire predictions indict Cheney-Bush: they are the only ones to date who have let gitmo folk leave and insofar as some of them have returned to the battle field—and to be clear the DoD’s figures are clearly problematic—it was Bush-Cheney who released them] [he has some brass to warn Obama about hasty reactions to TSPs] [use psci355, 455, 469b] [***]
WASHINGTON — In an interview two weeks after leaving office, former Vice President

Continue reading "Cheney Predicts ‘Probability’ of Attack" »

Clinton Tries to Reassure a State Dept. in Transition

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/washington/05diplo.html
February 5, 2009
Clinton Tries to Reassure a State Dept. in Transition
By MARK LANDLER [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [Obama administration and SecState Clinton have wisely selected a seasoned negotiator for special envoy to Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [and envoy has dived in head first] [tough slogging ahead] [use psci355, 455] [followup] [how long before the clash of personalities appears?] [archive in individual-role too] [SecState Clinton breaking China at department of state—necessarily] [****]
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought Wednesday to

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February 04, 2009

Clinton Warns Iran to Comply With Mandates

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/03/AR2009020303465.html
Clinton Warns Iran to Comply With Mandates
Answers Still Sought On Nuclear Program
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 4, 2009; A13 [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [executive order] [Obama’s first sit-down interview was with al Arabiya] [symbolic though perhaps somewhat naïve] [his words should resonate with some Arab intellectuals and others] [as reported here previously, Obama administration and SecState Clinton have wisely selected a seasoned negotiator for special envoy to Israeli-Palestinian conflict] [and envoy has dived in head first] [tough slogging ahead] [use psci355, 455] [followup] [how long before the clash of personalities appears?] [archive in individual-role too] [****]
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton plunged into her first day of intensive

Continue reading "Clinton Warns Iran to Comply With Mandates" »

For Obama’s Iran Plan, Talk and Some Toughness

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/washington/04diplo.html
February 4, 2009
For Obama’s Iran Plan, Talk and Some Toughness
By HELENE COOPER and MARK LANDLER [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [executive order] [Obama’s first sit-down interview was with al Arabiya] [symbolic though perhaps somewhat naïve] [his words should resonate with some Arab intellectuals and others] [the complexities of Iran which we learned yesterday may have orbited a satellite of some sort] [individual too] [****]
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration may take a tough line with Tehran in coming months even as it signals a willingness to move toward direct talks with Iranian

Continue reading "For Obama’s Iran Plan, Talk and Some Toughness" »

Obama Seeks Narrower Focus in Afghan War

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/03/AR2009020302858.html
Obama Seeks Narrower Focus in Afghan War
Situation Is Much Worse Than New Administration Realized and Will Take Time to Address
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 4, 2009; A12 [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [executive order] [Obama’s first sit-down interview was with al Arabiya] [his words should resonate with some Arab intellectuals and others] [administration begins articulating plans for future integration of US soft and hard power and possibly counterinsurgency strategy for AfPak] [use psci469] [use psci355, 455] [individual too] [****]
As President Obama prepares to formally authorize the April deployment of two

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February 03, 2009

Holder Confirmed As the First Black Attorney General

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/02/AR2009020202581.html
Holder Confirmed As the First Black Attorney General
Nominee Overcame Objections in GOP
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 3, 2009; A02 [Obama administration] [DoJ] [AG Holder confirmed] [while not likely to be an NSC principal] [he is likely to be consulted and used in ad hoc ways in NSC settings] [likewise, whoever his deputy is, will likely occasionally interact with NSC deputies] [individual-role] [also govt] [****]
The Senate confirmed Eric H. Holder Jr. as the nation's first African American attorney general by a vote of 75 to 21 yesterday, opening a new chapter for a Justice

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Hill Tapped as Ambassador to Iraq

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/02/AR2009020203055.html
Hill Tapped as Ambassador to Iraq
Assistant Secretary of State Was Top N. Korea Negotiator
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 3, 2009; A07 [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [possibility of Obama administration using C. Hill—special DPRK WMD negotiator under Bush-Rice, as new –ir ambassador] [generally a good guy and a seasoned diplomat] [my guess is he’s Republican else the Bush administration (which wrongly used litmus tests in such matters) wouldn’t have given him such high-profile portfolio] [also archive in individual-role] [use psci355, 455] [****]
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill, a career diplomat who since 2005 was

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January 30, 2009

Obama Taps a General as the Envoy to Kabul

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/washington/30diplo.html
January 30, 2009
Obama Taps a General as the Envoy to Kabul
By ERIC SCHMITT [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [executive order] [Obama’s first sit-down interview was with al Arabiya] [symbolic though perhaps somewhat naïve] [his words should resonate with some Arab intellectuals and others] [federal judiciary] [Obama and NSC principals continue to grapple with AfPak] [Obama selects Gen Eikenberry for ambassador to Afghanistan] [use psci355, 455] [****]
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has picked Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry, a former top military commander in Afghanistan, to be the next United States ambassador

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January 28, 2009

Intelligence Pick Fields Panel's Questions

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/27/AR2009012703321.html
Intelligence Pick Fields Panel's Questions
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 28, 2009; A13 [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [executive order] [Obama’s first sit-down interview was with al Arabiya] [symbolic though perhaps somewhat naïve] [his words should resonate with some Arab intellectuals and others] [DNI Blair answers questions after recent testimony [use psci355, 455] [individual too] [****]
Retired Adm. Dennis C. Blair, whose nomination to be director of national intelligence is scheduled for a vote today before the Senate intelligence committee, dealt with some

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Gates Seeks to Improve Battlefield Trauma Care in Afghanistan

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/washington/28military.html
January 28, 2009
Gates Seeks to Improve Battlefield Trauma Care in Afghanistan
By THOM SHANKER [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [executive order] [Obama’s first sit-down interview was with al Arabiya] [symbolic though perhaps somewhat naïve] [his words should resonate with some Arab intellectuals and others] [SecDef Gates begins articulating plans for AfPak] [use psci469] [use psci355, 455] [individual too] [****]
WASHINGTON — In Iraq, wounded American troops are treated at a well-equipped field hospital within one hour, regardless of where they were fighting or how bad the battle.

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Gates Predicts 'Slog' in Afghanistan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/27/AR2009012700472.html
Gates Predicts 'Slog' in Afghanistan
U.S. Military Can Achieve Limited Goals in Conflict, Defense Secretary Testifies
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 28, 2009; A06 [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [executive order] [Obama’s first sit-down interview was with al Arabiya] [symbolic though perhaps somewhat naïve] [his words should resonate with some Arab intellectuals and others] [SecDef Gates begins articulating plans for AfPak] [use psci469] [use psci355, 455] [individual too] [****]
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday signaled sharply lower expectations for

Continue reading "Gates Predicts 'Slog' in Afghanistan" »

Gates Predicts 'Slog' in Afghanistan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/27/AR2009012700472.html
Gates Predicts 'Slog' in Afghanistan
U.S. Military Can Achieve Limited Goals in Conflict, Defense Secretary Testifies
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 28, 2009; A06 [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [executive order] [Obama’s first sit-down interview was with al Arabiya] [symbolic though perhaps somewhat naïve] [his words should resonate with some Arab intellectuals and others] [SecDef Gates begins articulating plans for AfPak] [use psci469] [use psci355, 455] [individual too] [****]
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday signaled sharply lower expectations for

Continue reading "Gates Predicts 'Slog' in Afghanistan" »

Clinton Sees an Opportunity for Iran to Return to Diplomacy

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/washington/28diplo.html
January 28, 2009
Clinton Sees an Opportunity for Iran to Return to Diplomacy
By MARK LANDLER [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [executive order] [Obama’s first sit-down interview was with al Arabiya] [symbolic though perhaps somewhat naïve] [his words should resonate with some Arab intellectuals and others] [Sec State Clinton on Iran] [see today’s external for Ahmadinejad] [use psci355, 455] [individual-role too] [****]
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday that Iran had a “clear opportunity” to engage with the international community, amplifying the conciliatory tone struck a day earlier by President Obama toward Iran and the rest of the

Continue reading "Clinton Sees an Opportunity for Iran to Return to Diplomacy" »

Aides Say Obama’s Afghan Aims Elevate War

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/us/politics/28policy.html
January 28, 2009
Aides Say Obama’s Afghan Aims Elevate War
By HELENE COOPER and THOM SHANKER [Obama administration] [111th congress, 1st session] [executive order] [Obama’s first sit-down interview was with al Arabiya] [symbolic though perhaps somewhat naïve] [his words should resonate with some Arab intellectuals and others] [Obama and cabinet begin articulating plans for AfPak] [use psci469] [use psci355, 455] [individual too] [****]
WASHINGTON — President Obama intends to adopt a tougher line toward Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, as part of a new American approach to Afghanistan that will put more emphasis on waging war than on development, senior administration

Continue reading "Aides Say Obama’s Afghan Aims Elevate War" »

January 22, 2009

On Day One, Obama Sets a New Tone

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/us/politics/22obama.html
January 22, 2009
On Day One, Obama Sets a New Tone
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG [obama administration] [new president] [his views] [will this translate to changes in USFP?] [my guess is less than many think] [use psci355, 455] [****]
WASHINGTON — President Obama moved swiftly on Wednesday to impose new rules on government transparency and ethics, using his first full day in office to freeze the salaries of his senior aides, mandate new limits on lobbyists and demand that the

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December 20, 2008

Blair Is Steeped in the Ways Intelligence Works

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/19/AR2008121903552.html
Blair Is Steeped in the Ways Intelligence Works
By Dana Priest
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 20, 2008; A04 [individual-role] [president-elect Obama administration] [strange co-existence of transition period] [there’s but 1 president but these extraordinary times may call for more collaboration than before] [and president Bush has carefully set up special briefings] [good for Bush] [with this week’s unemployment numbers] [making the transitions to an AfPak strategy during a transition of epic nature] [concomitantly, global economic meltdown, along with climate catastrophe] [here the latter is the agenda] [in this piece some interesting insight into Dennis Blair, President-elect Obama’s apparent choice for DNI]] [I admit that I have been quite blown away with the thinking and construction—it’s parsimonious in ways theoretical research programs strive to be] [cross in today’s govt] [***]
After Dennis Blair's assignment as military liaison to the CIA 13 years ago, he groused

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December 07, 2008

General Critical of Iraq War Is V.A. Chief Pick

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/us/politics/07shinseki.html
December 7, 2008
General Critical of Iraq War Is V.A. Chief Pick
By JACKIE CALMES [president-elect Obama administration] [strange co-existence of transition period] [there’s but 1 president but these extraordinary times may call for more collaboration than before] [and president Bush has carefully set up special briefings] [good for Bush] [perhaps Gen Eric Shinseki will have the last laugh?] [cross in individual] [******]
CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama has chosen retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to be secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department, elevating the former Army chief of staff, who was vilified by the Bush administration on the eve of the Iraq war for his warning that far more troops would be needed than the Pentagon had committed. [worse than vilified] [he was made the poster child for would-be critics of the Rummy-Cheney machine] [****\

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Facilitator on Board

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/05/AR2008120503193.html
Facilitator on Board
By David Ignatius
Sunday, December 7, 2008; B07 [oped] [columnist] [NSC advisor Jones] [cross in individual-rple] [***]
For a preview of how Gen. Jim Jones will operate as national security adviser in the incoming Obama administration, it's useful to look at his performance as special envoy on Middle East security for the outgoing Bush administration. His effort there has helped yield one of the few recent success stories in the grinding Israeli-Palestinian stalemate. [***]

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December 03, 2008

In Transition Intelligence

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/02/AR2008120203174.html
In Transition Intelligence
Wednesday, December 3, 2008; A02
Dennis C. Blair ][individual] [Dennis Blair] [could be up for n-s position] [possibly CIA?] [***]
Current job: General of the Army Omar N. Bradley Chair in Strategic Leadership at Dickinson College and the Army War College; John M. Shalikashvili Chair in National Security Studies for the National Bureau of Asian Research.

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Gates Vows Active Role in Staying On at Pentagon

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/03/us/politics/03gates.html
December 3, 2008
Gates Vows Active Role in Staying On at Pentagon
By ELISABETH BUMILLER [individual-role] [the really critical thing about Gates is he doesn’t want the job] [he can’t wait to get the hell out of Washington and head back west] [this will make him invaluable to Obama] [it may also make him unpopular with Obamanistas] [stay tuned] [use psci355,455] [****]
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Tuesday that he had no intention of being a “caretaker” at the Pentagon and that he agreed with what he termed President-elect Barack Obama’s “responsible drawdown” plan for American combat troops from Iraq.

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